We stayed after our presentation for a long time, talking to the men, teaching them games, exercise routines and bits of english. I love teaching the game of chess and giving out a chess board (which were donated to us by ChessHouse). When the evening came and the guards called that we had to leave, all the men gathered to gather and shouted, ” Que volte!”, come back. It really touched us. The gang leader who was in charge of the patio and reluctantly gave us permission to enter, ended up asking if he could have a Bible.
We have visited this prison numerous times and it is one of the largest in all of Brazil, around 6,000 men. There are multiply patios where the prisoners are divided up depending on the gang they are in, the crime they committed and other reasons, so to reach them we have to move all our equipment (around 700lbs) in and out of many gates, security points and barred doors, some of which are very narrow. In one case, our bass got stuck in a turn type gate and it took forever to get it out. In some of the narrow channels we have to take one piece through at a time and we have a lot of stuff:)
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