Hello Antoine
One of the benefits, health wise of your ‘gated community’, in fact many areas where people are confined is, after a while your body builds up extra immunity. Because bacteria can travel, mainly through hands and when we touch the lining of our noses or other orifices. After a while our systems start to fight and expect a fight. So a flu germ that might hit you outside would fail because you have spent years double fighting off these things.
Japan has the right idea. In Japan it is illegal to leave your house without wearing a face mask when you have a cold. I avoid touching handles and handrails when I am in London or somewhere people heavy. It’s your hands really that are the problem.
The phone thing, yep definately a problem. Make a home spun sanitiser if you can’t get one in the commissary. Saline, hot water melt salt in it. Let it cool down. Better still anything with some alcohol deodorant or after shave. If you can get into the kitchen, the spice turmeric, it’s orange. Mix in hot water, let it cool, great wound cleaner, and will kill off topical bacteria. Put a plastic bag over the phone receiver and leave it open where you talk and hear. I would have thought sanitizer would be available there in some form.
Some people have trouble with kindness. To some people it is a character flaw. Small unseen acts work better. Like you said, showing them God is at work.
Soon be spring, flu season will be gone. Got to get your head into the parole mindset. Need you outside. Your done being an inmate. Going to be an out mate!
All the best to you and those you love.
T

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Hello Antoine
Hope you and your are good and free from this modern day pestilence Coronavirus or whatever they call it.So we are in lockdown. Police make me furious. Police cars running the streets, picking up people in groups sending people home. Before this virus the police were nowhere to be seen. If you are the victim of crime you get sent a postcard from them and they can see you in six weeks to report it.
Exercise wise have you heard of something called, and this is probably the wrong spelling, burpies. There’s an exinmate called Wes Watson, currently taking the internet by storm. And he got super fit during his time in the California department of Corrections. He suggested that people stuck inside do burpies in their cells. It’s a way to be strong and build up stamina. You stand in one spot jump with your arms straight then drop to the floor into a press up, then bounce up from that. Something lime that anyway, ask someone they’ll probably know.
In UK jails people tend to come out of the, thinner and fitter, nothing much else to do. We do;t really have basketball here. They’ve tried to introduce it several times but the British do t really like it. I used to like watching the old team Harlem Globetrotters. They were great. I was surprised at the outpouring of grief for Kobe, he seriously made an impression on peoples lives. Was more upset about the deaths of the children in that crash. Child deaths are always worse than adults. American football is picking up a following here. I don’t understand it, there’s a lot of stopping and starting. I like rugby.
The hardest part of a prison stay is the period of time before release. People pick up on it, you feel pressured and other people envious of you will pressure you. Keep your head down and, as they tell racing car drivers, don’t look at the walls, focus on what is in front of you. If you look at the walls you will hit them. Going to post some snail mail to you tomorrow, hope you get it soon.
Looks after yourself and those you love.
T