📸 Photo

MARCHING POWDER

with the guards at the gate. I bought merchandise from all the drug dealers. And because I moved about the prison so often with the tourists, every inmate knew who I was.

In the quiet times when no tourists were around, prison life was quite boring, so I made an effort to be friendly with everyone. Sometimes that was hard, because you can't force yourself always to be in a good mood. However, I at least said hello to everyone I passed on my way around the various sections.

One thing I learned from coming into contact with so many people each day was how to make people smile just by always being happy myself, or ready with a quick comment. Despite their poverty, the Bolivians are basically a very happy people, and they like it when you make them laugh. I'd say to the inmates, 'When are you going to introduce me to your sister? You promised.' Once they laughed, it was hard for anyone to get angry with me.

The other thing was to make each person feel important. Many of the inmates were curious about foreigners, and some secretly looked up to them, so they loved it when I introduced them as someone special, especially to the girls.

'This is Chapako,' I'd say. 'He's the champion striker in the Prefectura football team, aren't you?' Chapako would laugh, and then I would take it a step further by making the others around him laugh: 'He used to play for the Bolivian national team, but then he got too fat. That's why they put him in prison.' Once you made people laugh, you could get away with anything.

My influence extended all the way around the prison, but it was especially strong in Alamos, where I lived. One day, Julián and Uruguayo, two of the inmates from the section who were respected by everyone, approached me.

'We need your help,' they said.

They had a proposition: they wanted me to help them get voted in during the next prison elections.

'You know the people, Thomas. We need you to get them on our side.'

Annual election time in the prison was fun, especially when a candidate was trying to get re-elected. This meant there were several