FOR the last two months, she has been scrounging for bars of chocolate and hoarding it under her bed, waiting for the day she would finally be reunited with her children.

The bars of chocolate – meant as gifts for her three children – finally reached them on May 14, after a 36-hour journey from Argentinato Singapore.

She had used money which she saved while working in prison to buy chocolates for
her children. Anna (not her real name), 38, was finally reunited with her children after serving 21/2 years in an Argentine prison for drug trafficking.

We are not identifying her so as not to embarrass her family.

She and a friend, a fellow Singaporean, were caught trying to clear customs in a Buenos Aires airport wearing pants with packets of cocaine sewn onto them.

That was in 2007.

It was the start of her nightmare – a time she was so eager to leave behind when she packed her bags five weeks ago.

She was told her sentence was completed. But she didn’t know exactly when she would be freed.

Because of administrative processes, the wait could have taken as long as six months before foreign convicts are deported, said Anna.

The New Paper had reported her story last month when she had called our hotline seeking help. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) had also been in contact with Anna, and had been offering assistance to her.

When it was time for her to be released on April 7, she waited for news of her deportation.

It was to take another five weeks before the warden finally told Anna that she was free to go home.

The wait was stressful. Anna was so depressed, she remained in bed for most of the days during the five weeks.

Recalling her last day in prison on May 12, Anna said: “One morning, the warden came to me and asked me to get up because she had good news for me.

“I told her, ‘Nothing is good news for me except my freedom’.

“She said, ‘Then get up’. And she smiled at me. I jumped up because I was so excited, and I pulled her hand and put it on my chest.

“I told her, ‘My heart is jumping in my chest, don’t lie to me’. Then, her superior told me, ‘It’s the truth’.”

That’s when Anna started shouting: “(Anna’s) going home!” and ran around the prison facility.

Her friends in prison were also excited for her. There was a flurry of activity as they
started grabbing her toiletries and pushing her to the bathroom to shower and get ready to leave.

Everything happened in such a rush, she only had time to call her mother before she left Argentina for Singapore.

The authorities had arranged for her ticket by encashing the value of the return ticket she had bought two years ago, and using that money to pay for her ticket back.

She travelled from Argentina to Cape Town, then to Johannesburg in South Africa,
before taking a flight to Kuala Lumpur and finally, Singapore.

Her entire journey took about 36 hours.

Not afraid

And even though she had to go through many airports, Anna said that she was not afraid.

She said: “This time, I knew I wasn’t (smuggling) something illegal, and I was in
good hands. The flight stewards and stewardesses took very good care of me.”

She said she was the first to get on the plane, and the last to get off, with stewardesses holding onto her passport.

Officers from the Interpol had taken her to the airport at Argentina, and handed her over to airport security with instructions that she was to be deported.

Flight attendants had also received the information, although they were not told the reason for Anna’s deportation.

She said: “I expected harsher treatment but I did not need to be accompanied by anyone, and the stewardesses served me, just as they served other passengers.”

She was met with another surprise when she was greeted at Changi Airport by an immigration officer who recognised her from earlier reports in The New Paper. She had not been identified in the previous reports.

She said: “He must have known it was me because I was the only one coming back from Argentina, and he had some records, so he must have seen the similarities in the cases.

“The officers were very nice to me, and told me to calm myself down, and to enjoy
the air-conditioning. After that, I was shown through a special door to collect my baggage.

“It felt like VIP treatment.”

Anna said she did not have to go through additional checks at airports, even though she was convicted of drug trafficking.

She was only taken aside when she arrived in Singapore because she was coming home after being deported.

She looked fervently for her family through the glass enclosure but did not see
them at once.

Anna said: “I was a little sad because I thought my family did not come to the airport to meet me. I thought I would just get my luggage and take a cab home.”

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a hand waving.

“My niece was jumping and waving at me, and I realised that everyone was there.

“I rushed out to meet them and I was crying for joy as everyone surrounded me
and kissed me. I was so excited that I forgot about the trolley with my luggage and left it in the middle of the glass doors.”

When she got home, she started calling out to her parents who were waiting at home.

“I got out of the car, and I shouted:

‘I’m home!’” She did not wait for her sister and daughters as they helped her with the luggage, but rushed up to her parents’ flat, screaming as she ran out of the lift.

Breaking into tears, she said: “When I met my mother, I told her that I was sorry that I did not get her anything for Mothers’ Day about a week ago. I couldn’t go into the duty free shops, and I did not have time to prepare anything for her.

Special Mothers’ Day gift

“It’s a week late, but (my return) is the most special Mothers’ Day gift I can ever give her. We are reunited at last. ” Anna is still adapting to life back home.

She has been cooking for her family, going on outings with them and sharing stories from her two years in an Argentina prison.

She said: “I’m still in shock. Sometimes, I can’t believe I’m really home. When I sleep, I’m still waiting to hear the word ‘recuento’, which is what the wardens say when they want to do a head count, and when we have to stand by the doors of our rooms.

“Now, instead of hearing the shouting of the inmates when they quarrel, all I hear is the sound of my son playing with the Playstation, the babies crying and my family members talking and laughing.”

She has saved about 4,000 pesos (S$1,400) from her time in prison, and is seeking work in the hotel sector. She hopes the little Spanish picked up from her time in Argentina will help in her job search.

Anna has no plans to seek out her Nigerian ex-boyfriend to confront him about duping her into carrying drugs for him.

She said: “That chapter is closed. I just want to move on.”

Anna, a divorcee, will be selling her three-room flat to buy a smaller one near her parents, so she can live there with her children, aged 9, 18 and 19.

Her flat had been sealed off when she was arrested in Argentina, and had remained empty. Her children had to live with relatives.

Her daughter, Jane (not her real name), 18, is looking forward to living with her mother and siblings, and going back to school. Jane had quit school to work as an administrator after her mother’s arrest.

She now hopes to take up a fashion design course at La Salle or the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Jane said: “I’m proud of my mother. I’m glad that she made it through this ordeal and has come out stronger and more down-to-earth.”

Anna said she is grateful to MFA and The New Paper for highlighting her case and helping her.

She said: “I’m glad that the nightmare is over. I will never take the easy way out and try to earn a quick buck any more. There’s no such thing as quick and easy cash.”

This article was first published in The New Paper.