April 2, 2017 - 23:22
I spent a lot of the session at PICC this week talking with one of the guys. He had a lot of questions for me based on observations he'd made. We talked about my background, how my family's from China and I grew up in China, and how he wants to visit China some day. I felt a little hesitant to answer his questions about myself at first, but I felt myself opening up to him and responding honestly to all of his questions. He remembered that I had said something about my girlfriend last session, and asked me about how my family feels about my sexuality, as well as whether my family cares or not if the person I date is of another race or not. I was put off, not used to being asked questions like these so blatantly and upfront. He has a court date coming up soon, and there's a chance he might be getting out after that. I asked S to help figure out when his court date is so we can potentially go support him. When we were making the villain, he asked if he could draw something on my hand, since we had been talking about my tattoos. I said yes, and offered my left hand. I don't know what I was expecting, I was intrigued though and curious about what I'd see when I got my hand back. I was surprised and amused when I found that he drew a heart on my hand between my thumb and pointer finger. A little later, he asked if he could add something and, after I let him, I found that he added devil horns and a tail to the heart. When I came back to school at the end of the day, I showed my girlfriend and we made a joke about my "new prison tattoo from a boy."
At RCF, it was just one girl. We began the session trying to do the same superhero workshop where we each make superheroes after she said that she'd like to do that, but we soon all decided it'd be more fun to play games. We spent the rest of the session playing a number of playing card games and Uno. I think I'm finally understanding the impact of organizations like YASP that host these workshops. These workshops, if anything, provide simple human connection and support. It switches up their monotonous days while locked up with something they can't usually do, and gives them something positive to do. Especially as youths, they must all feel so alone in there. With the workshops, they know there are people out there trying to help and make a difference. In the case of our workshop at RCF, it gave the single juvenile girl in the adult women's prison, some companionship and friends for at least a little while. She's going to court on Tuesday (I think) and she was pretty confident when she said that her lawyer told her she'll most likely be released. If I were in there all on my own in that situation, I imagine having some people to play cards with for a few hours would be a greatly welcomed distraction from my mind and just the anxiety of waiting.