Dispatch from Albania # 7 Nov. 22, 1999
From: Cdcphotog@aol.com
Subject: Message #7 fr Albania
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Photographed the Rapid Response people today. They get supplies and relief
(not foodóother relief agencies do that) quickly to refugees from Kosovo,
cutting through red tape and the bureaucratic mess. At this time, there is no
emergency in Albania, so for the staged photograph, the team unloaded the
usual toilet paper, buckets, soap, wash rags.

In the afternoon photographed a man who had resisted communism and at age 20
was put into prison, often tortured; 26 years of that. He looked frail but
was a very gentle soul. Kathy had interviewed him and invited me to ask him a
few questions through the interpreter. This is what I remember:

Q: What sustained you the most during prison and the torturing?
A: Thinking about freedom and the outdoors and nature.

Q: Did religion help you?
A: Yes, especially by watching and being with the Catholic clerics, who
could stand anything,, any torture. They helped us all with their quiet
ways and endurance.

Q: What could you look forward to each day?
A: I looked forward to reading books from the prison library.

Q: What did you read?
A: We had the classics, so I read a lot of Shakespeare. I also read Tolstoy,
Chekov, Balzac, Schiller who helped me the most. [He said he later read
Hemingway, his favorite American writer ìbecause of the way he writes.î He
also liked Mark Twain., but Western writers were not allowed in the
prison library.]

Q: Did you read Dostoyevsky? Camus?
A: No, they were not allowed.

Q: What was your favorite Shakespeare?
A: I read ìMacbethî over and over [and he even recited a long passage].

Q: If they had tortured you more by forbidding your use of the library, what
would you have done?
A: I would not be with you today.

Q: Have you been to America?
A: No, that is my dream.


Love,
Carolyn



next