Dank jail reeking with miasma and gore

My students have a flair for the drammatic. The title of the post is from a letter written by the two students who were jailed yesterday. For a taste of the underbelly of the "switzerland of Central America" read on:

Dear Friends and Fellow Students,

We write you in the hope of putting you on the qui vive as and when you might find yourself in San José or any other part of Costa Rica . Fact is that we were arrested and jailed for over six hours yesterday, June 20th 2005 by the Costa Rican Police. We had gone to have a hair cut in San José and, as we were making for the bus stop after that, we were accosted by two gentlemen who identified themselves as immigration officials. They wanted our papers and when we presented our school I.D.s, they told us bluntly that they were not valid, insisting on seeing our passports which we, obviously, could not have been carrying around. They threatened to cuff us whence we agreed to follow them to the station.

Once there, we were thrown in a dank jail reeking with miasma and gore. We thronged with over 55 other detainees. There was no explanation given to us and they would not make it possible for us to make a call to the University, neither would they call on our behalf. We had to go around begging for spare phone cards from fellow inmates in order to reach the university via a small hole through which one's arm could barely reach the phone booth on the freedom side of the metalwork. Not even the presentation of our letters of residence and photocopies of our passports by the University authorities could make them release us. [Our]neighbor in Ciudad Colón, had to assist [the University] authorities in getting our passports from our apartment. While all of those transactions were taking place, we sat there, in the company of our new friends, staring at the rickety clock as it chimed the hours languorously. We were dead hungry and profoundly depressed as well. There was a roll call in the evening in which our names were mentioned as detainees.

So people, be with your passport all the time when straying far afield until things get sorted out. We are told by the University that this is the first time this is happening and, we imagine, it might not be the last. It is a sorry episode in there especially on a rainy day. If not for the kind inmates, who made us call the university, we might as well have been in there, incommunicado till after graduation probably.

We would like to express gratitude to the university for the timely intervention.

In Peace,