First Grain of Sand — Page 116
100 FIRST GRAIN OF SAND I am a religious missionary who came to this country solely to glorify God's name. After looking at my wounds, he asked me directly what it is that I want. I said I have only one wish, and that is that he first come to my room with me and do a full search through my belongings, clothes, and bedding to validate that I do not have any piece of paper in my possession. And upon validating that I do not have any paper on me-plus having read through all my statements and interrogation reports to release me from captiv- ity since I am not a criminal so that I can continue with the work for which I was sent here. However, the atheist State Prosecutor from Tatar gestured to the officer to require me to put this request for a search of my room in writing. The translator then gestured to me to refuse to do that. So, when the officer took the State Prosecutor's advice and told me to put my request in writing, I responded that each day at their prison is like a year for me, and who knows how long it would take for him to acknowledge such a written request and then act on it. I implored that since I am in so much pain, I need him to come search my belongings immediately. To my deep dis- appointment, the officer stood up and left the room without giv- ing any response. Then I was taken to a hospital outside the city on a bus in order to treat my wounds. As I was leaving, a soldier who was very kind to me with the surname Шанко [pronounced Shanko] filled a cup with clean water and gave it to me. At the same time, he dis- creetly gestured to me to not take any of the medication they may provide me. At that moment, I did not quite yet understand what he meant by this but took note of it. When I reached the hospital, they dressed me in the same clothes as sick patients, put me in a