Etsa got his name because of a concession I was able to gain regarding a matter of prison routine. Each prisoner was to brush his teeth in the morning, before breakfast, and then return his toothpaste and brush to the cabinet outside his cell. However, my brush and paste were handed to me, creating a break in the routine. I decided I needed to brush twice a day, which was minimum for me on the “outside.” I guessed that if I asked, they'd probably say no. Therefore, taking advantage of the situation, I decided to try a bit of slight-of-hand. I planned it so that, if successful, it would show I meant no harm; that is, I didn't intend to file the brush into a pointed weapon.

I picked the time for my maneuver when “More Stupid” was on duty. He was an attendant who, obviously, was a bit slower than “Stupid,” the one who let me fall onto the floor. Later I'll explain how I named “More Stupid.”

Because the attendant gave me my tooth equipment in the morning, he often forgot to retrieve it during “operation latrine.” When he forgot, I also “forgot” and would place it behind my wash basin under the bed — not exactly “hidden” but out of sight. If the attendant asked for it, I'd willingly hand it over, pretending a simple oversight. In the evening I would brush my teeth, using drinking water from my cup and the urinal for a spit receptacle. Then, when the attendant would come for my supper containers, I'd hand him the brush and paste, so they would be in the proper place in the morning. I had subtly inserted an extra step into the routine. This worked well with Stupid and More Stupid. Not so, with Etsa! When I handed him my equipment one evening, he looked at it, then at me; and in the Chinese equivalent, he asked, “What the hell are you doing with these?”

I told him I wanted to brush my teeth “ligunga” (twice) a day.

He said, “Yitsa gao. (once is enough).”

Much of the time the spoken words sounded differently than they appear in the Chinese - English dictionary. Yitsa sounded like etsa to me.

I said, “Etsa hao. (once is good). Ligunga ding hao. (Twice is very good)!”

The discussion went about two more rounds, then he left, making no decision. Two things resulted from this. First, I got to brush twice a day, always handing over the paste and brush in the evening. Second, I had a name for the chief attendant — “Etsa.” (Mentally I pictured that spelling for his “name.”)

I'm still convinced I'd have gained my objective in no other way. I had to go through the rigamarole of demonstrating my intentions first.

After the morning ablutions and breakfast were out of the way, the day tended to sag considerably.

One or two days of the week, at first, the activity curve did not completely bottom out. On these days my crutches were brought, and I was taken outside for a twenty minute walk in the courtyard. Soon, however, the interval between exercise periods stretched to two weeks or as much as six weeks. Other prisoners seemed to exercise regularly.

Lunch was served at noon, except on Sundays when there was no lunch. Supper was about 6 pm.

The food was mostly rice, which had worms in it now and then. As time passed, I didn't seem to notice them. There were vegetables, mostly of the cabbage family and, once in a while, a sweet potato. When we got pieces of Irish potatoes, they were from the bottom of the pile, with black spots which, like the rice worms, went unnoticed. Bread, when provided, consisted of very heavy steamed rolls not quite a large as my fist. These had to be eaten slowly and preferrably when the tension level wasn't high. If consumed at supper, under stressful circumstances, they wouldn't digest easily. The aftertaste, in the morning, made me think I'd eaten cardboard.

Another culinary delight was a sort of thin soup, the consistency of tea, in which floated leaves similar to planton leaves, a type of lawn weed. Much of the time this dish provided a meager supply of meat because of the little black bugs floating in it. However, they were well cooked.

The only other form of meat was pork. On occasion there would be a chunk or two, about half the size of a thumb, in the soup. It came complete with a thin strip of lean, a layer of fat, the rind, and then a bristle or two. When they butchered, I could hear the pig squeal. The kitchen seemed to be somewhere nearby. A meal or two later, we'd get the pork, but I think it was what was left from the previous butchering because it was often rancid.

At rare intervals there would be carrot stew or a small piece of cornbread. Mostly, however, the diet consisted of rice and cabbage. The latter was prevalent enough so that accumulated gas in my digestive system caused me to float, no less than three feet off the floor most of the time. In the winter, when allowing me out to walk, Etsa often opened my cell window, obviously to air the place. I suspect the odor, to which I'd become accustomed, was due, in large part, to the flatulent release which was necessary if I was to avoid rupturing internal organs.

About every six weeks a “barber” came to my cell to give me a haircut and a beard clipping. He cut the hair closer than the beard. I suppose little critters couldn't hide as easily in the beard.

Interrogations, infrequent exercise, and meager reading material made the first few months, of the fourteen I spent in solitary, the most difficult.

For the first five weeks, the only printed word in my cell was the word “BOOK” scratched in large letters on the whitewashed wall. This got to me, as I pictured some other prisoner being in the same situation and wanting release from the loneliness and crushing boredom.

I've been asked how I could cope, and I ask how the Vietnam POWs managed to survive under much worse circumstances. The answer seems to me a matter of taking one day at a time, keeping the mind occupied, and praying.

I also decided that to dwell on frustrations and feelings of anger toward my captors would only increase my anguish. I was able to avoid the negatives quite well and work mostly with the positives. I say mostly, because there were the BAD days. At these times, I found myself standing on my head, literally! It was something different and replaced pacing which I could not do. Of course, I had to confine this unusual activity to the times between the guards' random observations. Much of the time I was successful, but now and then I'd be caught. The guard would bang on the door to remind me I was supposed to sit down, facing the door.