Commissary day today, Wednesday April 1, 2025.
5:30am, up and out of bed, getting ready, dressed into my class-A uniform, not in the mood for breakfast, a cafecito will do. Mr. Rivero is not up yet, I will check again in a little bit.
6:00am, Counselor Cornavaca is in his office; I take a walk over to him, say good morning and let him know I will be going to commissary and will be at the chapel to help him with Admission and Orientation when I am done.
6:15am, chow is called, and several guys from the unit head over to the dining room; I stick around enjoying my cafecito. I head to my room and sit down to read my daily devotionals.
From the “Stand Strong 365 Devotions for Men by Men” devotional book, Mr. Jeff Olson brings us a great message.
“You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them.”
[Psalm 89:9]
Perfect for today in the situation I am in. Thankfully I have learned to stop worrying, having God in my life. The waves in my life continue to “mount up”, but with God in my corner, they become “still”. I can’t wait to be home with family and friends and bring them these messages; which I hope they are reading anyway, and understanding. Nothing is big enough for God. As Mr. Williams from the room next to me said in conversation to me today, “If God is with me, who could be against me?”. Thank you God for all you do.
6:30am, Mr. Rivero is up and taking his teeth over to the restroom to brush them and put them on. I mention to him that our plan is to leave by 7.
7:00am, wheelchair is carrying Mr. Rivero and I am pushing him out the unit, around the lake and over to commissary.
We wait, we wait and we wait.
8:30am, my name is called, I back my items, and a few guys later, Mr. Rivero is called. I help him with his items, and we load up, and head back to the unit. I drop him off at his room, place his bag of items on a chair in his room, fold up his wheelchair, store it up against the wall and take my bag over to my room. I tie the bag, and slide it under the bottom bunk before heading out towards the chapel to assist my counselor at orientation.
9:25am, orientation is nearing its end. Counselor Cornavaca opens the media closet, where I play the PREA DVD for the group of guys, while he makes copies of the A&O acknowledgment/attendance sheets. Once the video completes, and we collect all the signed documents from each person, we make sure everyone is out of the chapel; the compound is closed so Mr. Cornavaca escorts us to each of our units.
9:45am, I am back in the unit. Now we wait for the call to lunch. Time goes by, I sit in my room on one chair, my roommate sits on his bed, and Mr. Rivero sits on our second chair, as we talk amongst each other.
10:30am, they still have not called recreation, so we continue to wait. I take a few minutes to head up to Mr. Cornavaca’s office and see if he needs anything I could help him with.
11:00am, they have yet to call any moves. Apparently there is a truck on the compound so we are not going anywhere for a bit. I head to the Glasshouse to get Mr. Rivero’s wheelchair ready, I bring it out and sit to wait once again. There is no communication here, it would be simple to just notify us of what is going on so we are not sitting around anxiously, as it is almost 12:00 and still nothing.
12:37pm, and the call to chow is made. As we near the dining room, there is a mess of officers outside pat searching almost every AIC going into or out of the dining room. I thought this was a LOW, this is really a little overboard. Once inside, I grab two trays for us and head to the tables. Our chicken breast is not only cold but hard and overcooked on the outside, but pink on the inside; the rice was cold and crunchy, and the beans were tasteless. The best thing on the tray was the cream filled chocolate dessert unfortunately.
We are back in the unit before 1pm, and the move was called promptly on the hour. I put change out of my uniform into shorts and a t-shirt, planning to go out to recreation at 2pm, so I lay down on my bed listening to K-Love 89.7FM, and slowly fall into a deep sleep.
2:15pm, my eyes open, I missed the move. I look out my window and see the new Re-Entry Coordinator walking towards our unit. What a perfect coincidence he is coming in because this is the guy I want to work for. I quickly jump out of bed and put my uniform pants on just in case, check my hair in the mirror and head out to the main floor of the unit (to be seen). I have met him before and thankfully those few times have been positive interactions. I notice him walking with my counselor, when my counselor looks over, sees me and points to me. I could read his lips as he tells Mr. Nicholas that I am his orderly, as I wave over to him. I continue to wait over by the tables where others play dominoes, poker, and/or chess. As the Mr. Cornavaca and Mr. Nicholas walk back the other way, Mr. Nicholas makes eye contact with me and waves me over. I take the stairs and head up to him.
Mr. Nicholas: “I have a project for you”
Me: “Yes sir, what can I do for you?”
Mr. Nicholas: “This desk, I want to take it to the re-entry department, do you think we can do that today?”
Me: “If you allow me to, all I need is a cart”
Mr. Nicholas: “I don’t have a cart right now”
Me: “Okay, leave it to me, I will find a few guys to help and will find a cart.”
I point out a few guys, ask for their help and we get to it. We grab a cart we found nearby in the unit, between four of us we maneuvered, “pivoted”, the desk out of the office, down the hallway, down the stairs, and upside down onto the cart. We delivered the desk over to the Re-Entry department office, and quickly headed back to the unit in time for count.
3:30pm, they lock the doors, and we wait for count. I noticed the Christian chaplain was here today, hopefully we are on schedule to continue our Bible study group, after Ramadan completed this past weekend.
4:00pm, the officers begin walking around for count. We stand by our room entrances and wait for them to come by. As they complete their walkthrough, I head to the phone to call dad. Tonight the menu shows to provide us an “Italian Pork Sausage” for dinner, so I may go.
4:45pm, count clears and the first recreation move is called. I head to the chapel, and find Chaplain Hostler in his office with his door open, I knock and he welcomes me in. He hands me “The Chosen” DVD case and says we are back on!…But as soon as they called for dinner, I said I would be back, and met along the walk with Mr. Greenberg. We walked and talked around the lake, until we got into the dining room and we split up. I grabbed my tray, and found myself near Mr. Escudero, where he offered me the sausage from his tray saying he “doesn’t eat that”, so it’s a win for me.
5:45pm, I am back in the chapel setting up the DVD in the player, electronically unreeling the projector screen, turning on the projector, and preparing the audio to sound as good as possible. I help the chaplain by bringing out a sign-in sheet and we wait for everyone to arrive.
6:00pm, the move is called. As everyone enters the chapel, we all greet each other and take a seat. The chaplain leads us in a prayer and I press PLAY. We complete the last fifteen minutes from Season 2, Episode 4 that we could not finish two weeks ago, and then I change to DISC 2, where we jump into Season 2, Episode 5.
7:18pm, as the episode is coming to an end, the chaplain hands me two sets of discussion sheets for the Bible Study discussion following the corresponding episode. The discussion is based on, “The Merciful and Their Mandate”. We had enough time to get through the first 3 sections of the Bible study discussion sheet which covered, several aspects of showing mercy to others. In the best of words, “Mercy is a cycle, as we give it, we receive it, and in doing so, we reflect the heart of God to the world around us.” This discussion helps me understand how I can be more merciful in my daily life, both in my words and actions.
8:00pm move, I am headed back to the unit, straight to my room, it’s almost time to call mom. Mr. Bethune calls me over to his room, asks for a favor, then I find a bag of “Cool Ranch Doritos” on my bed, and find out Mr. Readon put them there, says it’s a gift for all I do for him. I put the bag away and head out of my room, just to be stopped by my buddy in the room next to me, because they put a new guy in his room. This new guy is from Scotland. His accent is so cool, and he seems to be a peaceful guy, very respectful. We helped him with a few things to get started, and information he needs to make his phone calls, then I went over to the phones to call my family.
8:30pm, I check the callouts for tomorrow, luckily I am not on it. I am happy I showered earlier, so I grab my tablet and headphones, and head to my chair to watch television.
10:19pm, the day is over for me. Time to watch some “Gutfeld” on Fox News, before count comes around, and I go to sleep.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
[Matthew 5:7]
Thank you Father God for always showing mercy on me. Thank you for allowing me to show mercy to those who wrong me, or who, to some may not deserve it. Thank you for the discussion today that had a positive impact on my view of mercy. Thank you oh Lord for my family and their love. Thank you God for continuously giving me hope and building my faith. Already tomorrow we are at the middle of the week oh God; I ask for your guidance throughout this week and your protection. Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
April 1, 2025
22:22
