Belinda Pestana visits Leeuwkop Prison | | posted by the ICPKP Webmaster 1:18 PM, 5 October 2009 NZDT | The following article comes from an email sent by Belinda Pestana to Dr Bruce Dewe and gives an account of her time with ICPKP Faculty member, Gabby Fels, in South Africa, experiencing first hand the work Gabby is doing with inmates of Leeuwkop Prison.
Dear Dr Dewe
I wanted to express my sincere thanks to you for your wonderful talk on 29th April at the Kinesiology Academy where I'm currently completing my Cert IV with Arthur Bablis.
I know it may seem a while back since you spoke there but I wanted to let you know how inspiring it was for me, especially to hear about what was happening in South Africa at the Leeuwkop Prison. Co-incidentally (or as I believe, not!) I was heading off the South Africa the week after and I decided after hearing how you spoke about Gabby Fels, that she was someone I would love to meet and to talk to on my trip there.
I emailed Gabby and subsequently we met up a day after I arrived for coffee (Tuesday) - it was so lovely to meet such a warm & generous person and to hear her story. What struck me was how Gabby's passion for what she is doing has surpassed so many obstacles - when you hear about the amount of bureaucracy she had to face to initially start her work at Leeuwkop, it's amazing that she didn't give up!
When Gabby invited me to go along with her to one of her teaching sessions at the prison on the Thursday, I thought this was an opportunity not to be missed! As we left our handbags in the car, walked through the entrance door, which had 'no drugs or cell phones allowed' painted overhead (ironically, I thought "no guns or knives so perhaps these are permissible?"), and got body searched, I started to feel really excited and a bit nervous too as I wasn't sure what to expect. I did however feel really safe with Gabby though as I trusted she would never take me into an environment that would endanger me in any way.
A few 'prisoners' were walking around wearing their bright orange coloured 'uniforms' - I think the area Gabby teaches in is not actually the main prison area so there weren't that many walking around. After Gabby introduced to me to the guards and to the social worker (who were all delighted to see her and warmly said 'hello' to me), she showed me her teaching room. When Gabby had initially mentioned how small the room was, I wasn't actually prepared for what I saw as the room was much smaller than I had imagined! Slowly her students trickled in until there were about 14 in the room - plus just Gabby and me - there were no extra guards, no additional security - just 2 women with 14 supposedly 'hardened criminals' together in this tiny little room...and I didn't feel any sense of threat at all.
When Gabby introduced me to her students, I felt quite overwhelmed by how welcoming they were. I was offered one of the scarce chairs to sit on (there were only about 4 chairs in the room so everyone else was on the floor) and one of the students even offered to give me their manual to use. Gabby had to speak to someone mid-way through the initial roll-call so I enjoyed the privilege of doing this for her while she stepped out of the room... Bearing in mind, I'd only been there literally 5 minutes, there I was alone with all these men, doing roll-call. This told me how much Gabby trusted her students with me and it was really humbling.
The next few hours seemed to fly by once Gabby started teaching - the most memorable part for me was when Gabby demonstrated how to do a meridian massage. Initially she demonstrated on this really huge, muscular guy who was also about 6.3 foot tall! He closed his eyes and was, as I would call it, simply in a 'standing trance'. When she asked him how that felt for him, he said, with so much surprise in his voice " that was sooooo relaxing". I then wondered how long it might have been for him since he had last had the opportunity to feel a moment of peace within himself... and I was struck by how amazing it might have been for him to experience that, even for just one moment, within the prison environment.
The next exercise was simply precious - Gabby had all 14 men tracing meridians on each other. In that moment, I wish I had had a video camera to record the scene! Here were 14 supposedly 'hardened criminals', in one of South Africa's maximum security prisons, gently giving each other a meridian massage, and experiencing that wonderful sense of relaxation that goes with it. It was just surreal!
When it was time for the students to leave, they all fondly said good-bye to me, like we had known each other for years. There is no doubt in my mind that the respect that have for Gabby way surpasses anything I could describe - the way they asked her questions, their curiosity and their willingness to learn, all highlighted how much they trust, respect and love her. I think it's because Gabby interacts with them as human beings, rather than as 'hardened criminals', and she teaches them respect and love from the place of love and respect in her own heart.
Dr. Dewe, when you expressed your vision of how different the world could be when we, as Kinesiology practitioners, help our clients from a place of love, I now understand what you mean because I've seen it in action through Gabby's work....
For those few hours at Leeuwkop, I was not sitting with 'hardened criminals'... I was sitting with men in a prison environment who were 'free' ... and that is an experience I will remember and treasure for the rest of my life.
So THANK YOU Dr. Dewe, for sharing Gabby's story.
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