At first, I thought I wouldn’t survive prison.
But in fact, the experience made me stronger.
I didn’t need help from anyone.
I unloaded things at the prison gate, worked as a yard cleaner and a cook.
Everyone would tell me that I wouldn’t be able to make it in there.
I lived a luxurious life with the money I made from drug dealing.
It’s not easy maintaining a job in prison.
We helped out each other a lot.
We would give each other cigarettes, make each other food and sometimes even have lunch together.
When things got rough, we would wait for the prison food.
And If we store it, it gets infested with mice.
We washed the dishes once a month using a hose.
We would try to lighten up the mood in there.
Some people would do the washing and others the rinsing.

We have to survive in there.
And you can’t ask anyone for help.

It’s not easy getting your hands on cigarettes in there.
You can’t ask just anyone for a cigarette, and you can’t give just anyone a cigarette.
You can’t let the inmates know if you’ve got bread, for example.
It’s a struggle getting bread in there. We would exchange cigarettes for bread.
I had no problem living off bread alone when I was in there.

In there, you have to have some dignity.
And in order to work, you have be skillful.
Some women like to play tricks, while others like to work hard—it’s the only thing they’re good at.
If you stay strong, nothing can beat you down.
There’s no such thing as “I can’t.”
It’s the woman that does everything.
She decides whether she wants to live a good or a hard life.