その後 Afterwards

そろそろこの話も終わりにしなければ。読むほうも疲れるでしょう。

lunch time
高畑さんが帰り、調書作成を再開した。気の遠くなるほどの時間をかけて、やっと私の調書が出来上がった。プリンターで印刷したA4２枚の書類にサインをしろと言われるが、意味もわからない書類ににサインはできないでしょ、やっぱ。私はかなり疑い深くなっていた。通訳のお姉さんに最初から最後まで内容を英訳してもらって、私達はたくさんの訂正箇所を見つけた。例えば私の出身地とか、親の名前とか、あとはスペイン語の単語のスペルミスは彼女が見つけてくれた。まぁ、こんな書類に誰かが後で目を通すとも思えないけど、一応念のため。やっと中庭に戻ると、皆が「ずーっと帰ってこないから、もう解放されたかと思った！」と口々に言った。大使館の人が来たりしたことを話すと、私は羨望の的。彼女達の話だと、大使館が収容所まで出向いてくれる国なんて他にないよ、日本大使館ってなんて親切なの？！と。金仁淑は暇をもてあまし、日本語のヒラガナとカタカナの５０音を紙に書いて、それを陳河瑛に教えてあげていた。その後も彼らは私の持っていたガイドブックを見て、漢字を見ながら日本語のお勉強に熱心だ。私は、昨日買った葉書がたまたまバッグに入っていたので、ちょーちゃんに葉書を書いたりした。あぁ、ちょーちゃんに会って話したい！と思った。
１３時、”A Comer! “の呼び声がかかり、 昼食の時間だ。さて今回のメニューもまた、なかなかのもの。パン、リンゴ１個、揚げた魚に野菜たっぷりの赤っぽいサルサがかかったお皿に、ピラフみたいなものとサラダがついて（もちろん魚にかけるライムも添えて）、飲み物はレモネード。レストランとまではいかないが、コメドール程度の水準はクリアーしている。屋台よりも上かもしれない。ここで暮らすと太るというのは納得だ。食事の様子も様々で、今回隣に座ったエリトリア（アフリカ）の女の子達は、食べ始める前に長い祈りを捧げていた。食卓では醤油みたいなのが人気で、皆がそれをご飯にかけていた。
Mr.Takahata went away and again I was interviewed. After a long, long, long interview ( actually I wasn’t really interviewed very carefully, but I was waiting for my documents to be done ), the officer completed some documents. He told me to sign them, but I was suspicious about all Mexicans and didn’t want to sign any documents which I didn’t understand well. I had the interpreter put every sentences into English, and we found several mistakes. She found some misspelled words in Spanish, and I found misspelled names of my parents, etc. Maybe nobody would read it, but to make sure, I asked him to correct all the mistakes.
When I went back to the courtyard, my friends got surprised. They thought I had been released because I hadn’t returned for a long time. Told them that the Japanese Embassy sent somebody for me, then everybody envied me very much. No other Embassies will kindly send somebody to the detention center, they said. Until lunch time, Kim was teaching Hayoung Japanese ―Hiragana and Katakana, and they also wanted to learn more Japanese using my guidebook. While, I wrote a postcard to Shoko. I really wanted to see her.
At 13:00 the guard shouted again; “A Comer!!” , time for lunch. Well, the lunch was good. We had; bread, an apple, a plate with fish with salsa which contains a lot of vegetables, fried rice, salad, and lemonade. Maybe it was not as good as meals at some restaurants, but better than those in diners. I was impressed by the African women from Eritoria who was praying for a long time before eating. There was a bottle of soy-sauce on the table and everybody liked to have their rice with it.

陳河瑛の物語　　Hayoung’s story
午後また私達は芝生に寝そべり、おしゃべりを始める。収容所にもう１ヶ月も暮らしている河瑛の気の毒ないきさつについて、私は書かずにいられない。彼女はアメリカ在住の韓国人だ。家族全員でサンディエゴに住んでおり、彼女はそこで仕事も持っていた。１２月の初め、彼女は休暇をもらいティフアナに行った。ティフアナはアメリカの国境に近いメキシコの町で、サンディエゴから目と鼻の先だ。彼女はパスポートを持たずにいるところを、私同様に警察に捕まった。そこから先は悪夢だ。彼女はパトカーでなんと丸３日かけて、何百キロも離れたメキシコシティの収容所へ連行された。彼女はスペイン語が話せないので（警官達に英語ができることを期待してはいけない）弁明もできず、自分に何が起こっているのか、丸３日の後に連れてこられた場所がどこなのか、全くわからなかったという。誘拐されたのではないかとも思ったらしい。ティフアナで突然消息をたった彼女の荷物やパスポートは、もはやどこにいってしまったかわからない。彼女の家族は、彼女が殺されたかと思ったそうだ。そんなわけで、捕まってから３日の空白は、彼女から自分の身元を証明する術を奪ってしまった。収容所から韓国大使館に連絡が入り、諸手続きが始まった。悲惨なことに、彼女は韓国籍なのでアメリカから入国したとしても、アメリカに帰国をすることは許されない。メキシコの入国管理局は彼女を韓国に送還しなければならないのだ。家族の元に帰りたければ、一度韓国に帰ってそれから渡米しろという。おそらく正規料金だろうと思うが、その飛行機代はかなりの額だ。そんな大金を持ち合わせていないので、アメリカの家族が、メキシコに送金することになる。収容所からは電話１本かけることすら大変なのだから、このような複雑なことを一つ一つクリアーするのは、どれほど時間がかかるだろうか。アメリカに国際電話をかけるのは結構高くつくが、彼女はお金がもうほとんどない。大使館からお金を多少借りてはいるはずだが、充分ではないだろう。アメリカから収容所にかけてもらえればいいけれど、彼女の家族はスペイン語ができないので、看守に電話を切られてしまい、つないでもらえない。更に、彼女は非常に目が悪く使い捨てコンタクトレンズを使っているのだが、捕まった時メガネを持っていなかった（普通持ってないでしょ）。コンタクトを使い続けることも出来ず、ほとんど周りが見えない状態でずっと収容所生活を送っている。言葉がわからない非常時に相手の顔もよく見えないのはどれほどストレスがたまるだろうか。―私も旅の間は１日使い捨てのコンタクトを使っていたが、テオティワカンに行く日は、砂埃がひどいことを予想してメガネで出かけた日だった。皮肉な偶然だがこれはとても助かった…。さて、収容所に入って１ヶ月、彼女はまだ出所できる目処が立たずにいた。仕事も、間違いなくクビだろう。サンディエゴにいるボーイフレンドも、こんな信じられない状況を果たして理解してくれるだろうか、嘘をついていると思われて振られてしまうのではないか、と心配もしていた。彼女はあまりにもたくさんの犠牲を払ったが、メキシコの警察や入管がそれを保障などしてくれるわけもない。あぁ、かわいそうな河瑛、早くアメリカに戻れますように。
In the afternoon, we again lay on the grass in the courtyard and talked and talked. I cannot help writing about my best friend there, Hayoung, who was staying there for 1 month. Her story was terrible. She was Korean, living with her family in San Diego, California. She had job there. At the beginning of December, she took some days off and came to one city in Mexico; Tihuana, the city near the border between Mexico and the USA, not very far away from San Diego. Just like me, she was caught there for the ‘CRIME’ not having her passport with her. Then she was put in the police car and THREE-DAYS- DRIVE took her to that detention center in Mexico City, which is hundreds of kilometers away from Tihuana. She didn’t speak Spanish, and none of the policemen understood English, so she couldn’t understand what had happened to her. She even didn’t know that she was brought to Mexico city until some kind girls in the dormitory told her. She thought she had been kidnapped, her family in America thought she might have died, because she suddenly disappeared and her family hadn’t heard from her for a long time. 3-days-drive caused her big problems― no communication with anybody, missing of her all luggage and passport. Finally, the Korean Embassy was informed from that center about her and started some procedure to help her out. Her passport was going to be re-issued, but it wasn’t done yet. To make the matter worse, she was not allowed to go back to the USA, because her nationality was Korean. Mexican immigration has to send her back to Korea. So, she has to buy an air ticket to fly back to Korea first, where no family lives. Then she should fly to the USA. What a waste! She had almost no money, so the family had to send a lot of money to buy that ticket at the regular price, because they had to ask the Korean Embassy for the air-ticketing. As I wrote, just making phone calls is not very easy thing to do there. She wanted to call home, but international calls were expensive and she couldn’t afford it. Her parents don’t speak Spanish so even if they called to the detention center, the guards hang up the phone. Besides, Poor Hayoung had really bad eyesight. She was wearing disposable contact lenses and of course didn’t have her glasses with her when caught. Who knows you get caught and have to stay somewhere else for a month? She couldn’t wear her contact lenses anymore and can’t see almost anything without glasses. Not knowing the language, not being able to see anything well, she must have been having a hard time. Me, I was wearing disposable contact lenses during my trip too, luckily I wore glasses only on the day I got caught. Because I went to Teotihuacan where clouds of dust blow very strong in the dry land and I thought glasses were more comfortable. Just lucky. Well, Hayoung had stayed there for 1 month, spent her Christmas and new year there, but still didn’t know when she would be free. You know, under those unlucky conditions, it would take ages to be released. She knew she would lose her job. She was worried about being dumped by her boyfriend after her long absence. She said her strict boyfriend didn’t seem to believe what had happened to her because it was so crazy. Yeah, he may think she has found somebody else and ran away from him, if he doesn’t hear from her for 1 month. She had lost many things but it was clear nobody would compensate for them. Mexican police? Mexican Immigration? Nobody! Oh, poor Hayoung, I really hope you would be out soon.

１５：００
中庭では、私達に向かって「そのジーンズ売って？それか、私のと交換しない？」とか「じゃぁ靴を交換しよ？」とかそんな声がかかる。きっと皆、今着ている服に飽きているのだ。女の子だからね。
イタリア人母娘の怒りは頂点に達していた。彼らも大使館が動いてくれてはいるものの、フライトの時間は６時、もうカウントダウンだ。お母さんは、イタリアに無事帰ったら今回のことを新聞や雑誌に報道してもらう、と力が入る。河瑛も、私だって解放されたら新聞社にこのことを報告するわ！と同調。会話の中には、「No more Mexico」という言葉が頻繁に登場した。イタリア人のお母さんは、弁護士を雇って慰謝料を払ってもらうよう進める、とも話していた。あとで日本大使館の方に聞いたが、この日イタリア大使館の人達は本当にものすごい執念でメキシコの入管と交渉をしていたらしい。どのような特別な手続きが進んだのかしらないが（気合勝ち？）イタリア人一家はついに解放された。たぶん、大使館の人たちがかなりがんばったに違いない。大急ぎで出て行く彼らと私は、別れ際に熱く抱擁をし、なんだか私はじんわりきてしまった。思えば昨日のテオティワカンからずっと、この人達とは一緒だったのだ。ひとしおの感慨がありました、まじで。
　　さて、私はというと、まだ進展はなかった。でもイタリア人達も出してもらえたのだから私もいけそうじゃん？って急に楽観的になることができた。そしたら、ここにいる時間を少しでも楽しまなくちゃ損だという気がしてきて、私は更におしゃべりに興じた。収容所内でも明るく楽しく、人なつこい笑顔が素敵な人達―それはもちろん、私の大好きな国、ブラジルの人たちだ。河瑛は彼らを “Happy People”と呼んでいたが、１０人弱のブラジル人がそこにはいたと思う。彼らは皆で歌を歌ったり、なんていうか楽しみ方がとても上手なのだ。私が少しポルトガル語がわかったので、むこうも親しげに私に話し掛けてきてくれた。小さな息子を連れたある女性は、私がブラジルに３度も行っていることなど話したら、自分が習っているカポエイラを少しだけ披露してくれた。彼女は泣いて悔しがるイタリア人のことも、上手になぐさめていたっけ。私、次はやっぱりまたブラジルにしよぉっと、もうメキシコなんて二度と来ないしー、って次の旅行を心に思い描きながら彼女と話した。
“Can you sell me your jeans? If not, how about exchange it with mine?” “Why don’t we exchange our shoes?” Some people were talking to me like that. They have no other means to get different clothes other than buying from someone or exchanging. Girls always pay attention to what they wear.
It was 3 in the afternoon and the Italian family was very much irritated. Their flight was at 6. Although the Italian embassy was trying to help them, they weren’t sure when they would be out. The mother was saying, “I will tell the newspaper and magazine company about this terrible experience!” Hayoung agrees saying that she would do the same. In their conversation, I heard them saying “No more Mexico” many times. The Italian mother even said that she would hire a lawyer to demand some money as compensation for her detention. Good idea. Later I heard from Mr.Takahata that the Italian embassy was working really hard to help them out. Finally, their names were called and they could go home! When leaving in a hurry, we hugged each other tightly and wished good luck for each other. I cannot express well what I felt then. We were like comrades, since we got caught after visiting Teotihuacan.
Seeing they were free, now I took it easier than before. I was sure I could go home. Then suddenly felt that I had to enjoy my time there, the time with the people I could never meet again. That afternoon, I talked a lot with Brazilians. There were about 10 Brazilians there. Brazil is my most favorite country, and I love friendly Brazilian people. They are good at living happily, and even in that center, they were trying to have fun singing together or talking about some interesting topics. Hayoung called them “Happy People.” I got friends with one Brazilian woman when she had come to cheer up the crying Italian family. When she knew I love Brazil, ( actually I have been there three times ) and I told her that I love Salvador very much, she got excited and showed me how to do capoera. I was thinking I would visit Brazil again, not to Mexico, ever. In Brazil, I would have much more fun. It’s obvious.

１６：３０
　看守が私の名前を呼んだ。出所だ、と言う。やった！間に合った！私と河瑛は抱き合って喜んだ。出口で出所簿に名前を書き、皆と熱い抱擁でお別れ。ところがここから先が、思いのほか時間がかかった。写真撮影、指紋、もうこれで何回目？という感じ。入所時に没収された靴紐やベルト、服の紐を受け取るにも、それがどこにあるのか探すのに延々と待たされ、何人もたらいまわしにされ、３人目の看守でやっと受領。何枚もの書類にサインをさせられる。日本語でサインをしたら、エスパニョールでサインしろと書き直し。解放されたことを大使館に連絡するために、公衆電話の使用許可をたのんだ。看守に連れられてまた電話の前に行き、使用簿にサインして、待たされているところを別の看守に咎められ、私は出所を許可されたのだと説明しても聞いてもらえずに房に戻される。さっきの看守を探してまた外へ出て、もう一度電話の手続き。電話をしている間にその看守がいなくなり、また別の看守に詰問されて、本当に部屋から出していいのかどうかを彼女が確認に行く。やっと房を出て事務所に入ったらまた別の人に「毛布を返せ」と言われる。毛布はさっきもう別の看守に返したと話しても信じてもらえない。こっちも返したことを証明するために部屋まで戻って毛布がない自分のベッドを見せなければならない。ではその返した毛布は今どこにあるんだ、と聞かれてもそんなこと知らないよ。さっき私から毛布を受け取った看守はもうそこにはいないし、なんでこんな下らないことでモメるの？とうんざり。その看守が現れるのをずっと待って、廊下を通りかかったところを追いかけて捕まえて、やっと信じてもらえる。とにかく一事が万事、そんな感じ。単純なことが何一つスムーズにいかず、目の前の担当者が消えると全てが振り出しに戻る。私がいつまでも女子房を出入りするので、さっき抱き合ってお別れをした皆と何度も再会することになり、間抜けだ。カメラに至っては、担当官が私の書類を持っては部屋を出て行って帰ってくる、というのをなんと６回も繰り返し、それでも返してもらえず。
　そして、ついに大使館の高畑さんが私を迎えに到着した。彼は所長の部屋に行き、お礼を言ってくれたようだ。高畑さんも、すぐに私を引き取れると思ったらしいが、下らないことで私がたらいまわしにあっていてなかなか帰れないのでだいぶ待たされた。所長と２人で「書類は全て整っているのに、あとは何が足りないんだろう？」と話していたと後で聞かされた。 こっちが聞きたいよ、ほんとに。
I heard my name called by the officer. I was released! I would be in time for my flight! I and Hayoung hugged each other. I signed the notebook of the list of people being released, said good bye to everyone, many hugging, and left the dormitory. But it took a long time to be free. I had to sign many documents, had my picture taken again ( how many pictures did they need??), they took my fingerprints again ( Oh,again??), and had to wait for SOMETHING ( you would never know what it was ). Wanted to call the embassy to inform I was free, I asked one guard for the permission to use the public phone. She took me to the place where phones were, I signed the notebook, she told me to wait there, and she disappeared. Then another guard appeared and demanded an explanation why I was there. Then she tried to take me back to the dormitory, even if I told her that I was released. I had to find the first guard and came back to the phones. While calling, she again disappeared and I had to be demanded another explanation to another guard. After that, I was finally in the office. Then one guard came to ask me to return the blanket I had used in the dormitory. I had already returned them to one guard but she was not around there. The new guard didn’t believe me so I had to take her to my bed to show her I had no blankets there. She still kept asking where those blankets were then, which I had no idea, and I had to wait for that first guard to appear again. Finally I met her and she proved I was not a liar. Everything was like that. If you want to do something, you have to keep that first officer/guard always stay with you. Otherwise, you will be questioned by the other officer /guard and very simple matters become more difficult. It was nothing but waste of time. I felt embarrassed to be taken back to the dormitory two times after I had said good-bye to everyone there. About my camera was crazy. The officer went out to bring my camera with my receipt 6 times, but came back without it. I didn’t understand what she was doing or why she couldn’t bring it to me.
Anyhow, while doing those stupid things, Mr. Takahata from the Embassy arrived to drive me back to the hostel. He went to the chief officer’s room to thank him, but he had to wait for me for some time. He and the chief officer were wondering “Why is she so late? All documents are fine and she is free. But what’s lacking??”

１７：３０
大使館の立派な車に乗せられて、私はとうとう収容所をあとにした。カメラは、最後まで不安だったが、最終的には返してもらえた。快適な車の中で、私は高畑さんと色々な話をした。彼らは朝からずっと、ポランコの事務所と、郊外の収容所と、大使館とを何往復もしながら尽力してくれた。今回の私の解放は、朝８時台に私が大使館に電話できたことが勝因だったことを聞かされた。拘束されてから約２４時間強、異例のスピード解放だったらしい。大使館が朝から先回りして動いてくれたから間に合ったが、そうでなければ彼らは収容所から調書のファックスが来るまでそのことを知らなかったはずだ、という。つまりその調書は午前中のあの長ったらしい調書だったわけで、あんな物を待っていたらそれだけで昼になっていた。そこで半日ずれたら、間違いなく私の解放は月曜にずれこんでいただろう。たまたまテレカを持っていたこと、たまたま大使館の電話番号が載っているガイドブックを携帯していたこと、たまたま優しい看守がこっそり朝の電話を許してくれたこと、どれが欠けても私の解放は間に合わなかった。私は本当についていたのだ。彼らは私の体調や食事のこと、色々心配してくれていた。彼は大使館で働き始めて何年も経つが、日本人女性がこのように拘束されたのは初めてのようだ。女子房はベッドなどもそれほどひどくなかったが、男子房はマットもなくてコンクリートの上に寝るような施設なのだと聞いた。彼は以前ブラジルで働いていたこともあるが、メキシコの警察はブラジルの警察より悪い、と言っていた。私もそう思う。
In the comfortable embassy’s car, I left the WONDERFUL detention center. I really worried about my camera, but at last it returned to me. Mr. Takahata and I talked about many things. It was 26 hours after I got caught. They went back and forth between the immigration office in the downtown, the detention center, the embassy all day. Thanks to their all efforts, my release was remarkably fast. According to him, I wouldn’t have been released that day if I couldn’t have called them early in the morning. They would know I had been in the center only after they got the fax documents from the officers. Those documents were what they had been making all morning. So, if I hadn’t called them around 8:30, they would have been informed about me around noon, and after that they would have started everything. It was possible I had to stay there till Monday. I thought I was really lucky. I had a telephone card by chance, I had a guide book with the telephone number of Japanese Embassy by chance, there was a kind guard by chance when I asked her to call. Mr. Takahata told that he had been worried about my condition, the food, everything. He had been working for the Embassy for some years but this was the first case that a Japanese woman got caught for such a stupid reason. He also told me that in a men’s dormitory, there was no mats and they had to sleep on the concrete floor. In the women’s dormitory, the beds were not bad, I taught him. He had worked in Brazil before, and said that Mexican police was worse than that in Brazil. Yeah, I agree.

PM ７：３０
渋滞の中、２時間ほどかかって車は私の宿に到着した。握手をして高畑さんにお礼を言って、赤ちょうちんのドアから私は帰宅した。アドリアナさんも喜んで迎えてくれた。彼女も９年間日本人宿をやっているが、こんなことは初めてだと言う。以前に同様に捕まった人もいたが、警官が宿まできてくれてパスポートを確認したり、または連れの誰かがパスポートを取りに宿に戻ったりということで拘束までは行かなかったそうだ。その夜は外出する気分にはなれず、宿でお湯をわかしてカップラーメンの夕食にした。収容所で河瑛が私にくれた、「辛」という韓国のカップラーメンを、私は彼女を思いながらいただいた。
Driving in terrible traffic jam, it took us 2 hours to arrive my hostel. Shaking hands with Mr. Takahata, I thanked him and opened the gate to the hostel, which had a red Japanese lantern sign. Adriana, the owner, welcomed me happily. She had been running that hostel for 9 years, but hadn’t had any of the guests being caught before. There were some who were caught, but the police came over to the hostel to check their passports, or his/her friend came back there to pick his/her passport to show them. Maybe I had this great experience because those policemen were lazy? I don't know.
I was dead tired and didn’t feel like going out that night. For dinner, I ate Korean cup noodle, which sweet Hayoung gave me that day. I was wondering what she was doing then.

おしまい　　the end