how do you spell "amphetamine?"

So I was bad last week with posting. I’m sorry. I’ve been writing a lot, just not posting stuff. I think I would like to write more in the future, but not about stuff I want to post here. Here I am trying to post things about my experiences in Bulgaria, to try to inform people about life here.

Life here. I had dinner with one of my prisoners last nite. He works in the employee cafeteria, but had last nite off so joined me for dinner, kinda. He ate two pieces of cake while I ate cold steak and soup. Apparently he’s been in prison for two years, and hopes to get out soon. He said anytime now. I usually don’t want to know what my students did to get in the big house but he brought it up.

How it was presented was like this (rough translation):
Prisoner X: So what was your profession in America?
Me: Well, I was a student.
Prisoner X: What did you study?
Me: Well, I studied Anthropology.
Prisoner X: {Something I didn’t catch} studied {unintelligible}
Me: What?
Prisoner X: I studied {again, something unintelligible}chemistry.
Me: What? What kind of chemistry?
Prisoner X:  {you guessed it, I didn’t understand again} chemistry.
Me: Biological chemistry?
Prisoner X: No, {still didn’t get it} chemistry.
Me: {cue the light bulb… now!} Oh, Synthetic Chemistry!
Prisoner: Yes, that’s how I got in here.
Me: Huh?
Prisoner X: Well, you take a little of this and a little of that and {some gestures with hands} you got Amphetamines.
Me: Oh, gotcha.

So one of my men is a drugmaker. Ok. He got married last year, while in prison, to a woman who he knew before. He hopes to get out in a few months and live with her for the first time. It’s interesting, this guy probably ruined a bunch of people’s lives by making drugs, but you wouldn’t know it from talking with him. He’s an honest guy, works hard in the kitchen, takes English classes, and has one simple wish: to return to live with his wife. I hope he learned his lesson these years in jail and will return to the public a changed man. I’d hate for the next volunteer to have him in their class too.