Immigration Detention Center

Last Thursday I went to the Immigration Detention Center to visit a member of our ward who is being held there. He is in Thailand illegally- a refugee from Sri Lanka, and has been here for about 4 years, until he was picked up by customs about 4 months ago.

I had tried to go once before with another lady who knows the ropes, but I'd forgotten my passport and wasn't allowed in. This time I was all on my own, and a little flustered. I wasn't entirely sure how to get there, and definitely unsure about how to instruct a taxi driver. Walking from the train station took much longer than planned, and the straps broke on the grocery bag that I was carrying, so I was really hot and sweaty when I arrived...at 10:02. You're supposed to register by 10:00 for the morning visiting hour, and the people working the desk didn't strike me as the really flexible sort. I was discouraged and sure I'd struck out for a second time. But for whatever reason, they gave me the forms to fill out, checked my passport and told me to sit. So I did.

At 10:30, they rolled back the big metal door on one end of the waiting area and I shuffled in with about 25 other visitors. They gave me a locker for my purse and checked out the groceries (no glass, all containers must be see-through). Then I got a pat down that would put TSA security checks to shame and was ushered into the visitation yard. This isn't my picture, but it looked pretty much like this:

It was at this point that I realized I had no idea what the man looked like. Most of the other visitors found the person they were looking for and paired off on either side of the fence (no touching!). I wandered up and down the line, trying to look friendly but not too friendly. I made brief eye contact with a number of strange men. At one point I saw one of the visitors throw something surreptitiously over the fence. After about 20 minutes, one of them approached me. "Sister?" he asked.

With everybody talking at once it was very noisy. We had a shouted conversation: "I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU BEFORE!" "I'VE NEVER SEEN YOU BEFORE EITHER!" After 10 minutes of limited-English, shouted small-talk, I wasn't sure what else to say. ("SO, IS THIS PLACE AS BAD AS IT LOOKS?!")
"I'M GOING TO GO NOW!" I yelled at him. "OK, SISTER!" he yelled back. "THANK YOU!" As I was walking away, he called to me again. "SISTER!" When I turned, he bowed to me. "REALLY. THANK YOU VERY MUCH."

Sometimes I am very glad that the church pushes you out of your comfort zone.