myshoesmyhome

21 April 2012, at around 9 p.m..Second night in the land of absurd wonders: Antananarivo. My 50 years old, willy nilly working taxi was stopped by the police and I was "kindly" asked to show my passport..Everything began when I realized having forgotton my passport at the hotel! I found myself trapped in a huge prehistoric jeep with six police officers in six different outfits which felt like a Hitchcock movie:) Accompanied by half fear and curiosity (I mean how many tourists can get the opportunity to have a unique police station experience in a politically unrest country humm?), I was directed to a 25 m2 room with dancing rats and drunken cockroaches. With my broken French, I tried to explain the officers that I forgot my passport in my hotel which was just 200 meters behind the police station but nobody seemed to be interested in my beautiful language experience.After being jailed by an 18th century stout padlock, my first reaction was immense fear!!! I tried to explain the situation in all the languages I could speak but police officers were only interested in the cards they were playing around a circular wooden table. The room was dim and damp smelling like a cavern. Then I felt tremendous rage against being illegally arrested and began cursing in ten different languages including Greek :) Nobody took me into account! I guess after spending an hour in a colorful bunch of feelings of fear, rage, self-pity, sorrow and so on I ended up with symphaty to the police officers.At the end of the day, they were just doing their duty and it was my fault to leave the hotel without my passport.God knows how many hours passed in the jail -me counting the bars again and again- but then the chief officer decided to release me. I was seated to the table and asked to play a card game, which I had no idea whatsoever, with the cops.I really started losing my sense of reality and this absurd situation became more and more funny.I was Alice in Wonderland playing card games with five huge African police officers on the other side of the world.My turn came, I played my game very professionally.Yes, I was gambling in a Malagasy prison and doing something more illegal then leaving my passport at the hotel! I was the supergirl who lost $40 at the end of the night!Suddenly the police officers awarded me with my freedom.I was pushed to the entrance of police station not knowing if I should run immediately or walk as if nothing had happened..Now I know what Stockholm Syndrome is!