Good morning, since I have a callout for 8am, I was in no hurry to get up out of bed, especially with the body aches I have from this first week of exercises.
I’m up, its 6:45, I organize my bed, and leave my things ready for inspection today. I open my locker and pull out a bagel, and spam. After spreading mayonnaise, some honey and lite seasoning, I put the warmed up spam and enjoy my quick breakfast.
On my way to the restroom to wash up, brush my hair and teeth, and dress in my class-a uniform and be ready for that 8am move.
I thought today would be the last day for the class, but the talk we had today veered off course, so we will be sitting together for one more class next week, which is great too because it is a good group of guys, and our psychologist in charge is great.
The compound is closed so she escorts us each to our units, and I head to my room to read my daily devotionals.
Today from “Jesus First for Men 365 Devotions to Start Your Day” it talks about being in His presence.
“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually”
[1 Chronicles 16:11]
I thank God that these verses come to me like this. In my daily prayers I constantly ask God to help me keep Him close to my heart, and ask him to stay with me always, so a verse like this helps me build my faith in Him. I will forever follow God and His ways for my future. I choose to not do anything without asking myself, “(W)hat (W)ould (J)esus (D)o”. I ask others here, incarcerated with me to do the same. In times of trouble, in times of tribulation, stop and think before reacting, and as we “Seek His presence continually”, He will continually guide us on the right path.
Time to wait for lunch now as I hear several guys asking each other if we know what is being served today. Tuesday we were given chicken on the bone, so today we might get something else. From my room I see the supervisor officer to Receiving and Discharge, and I remember that one of the older gentlemen from another unit had given me a request form to try and handed it to this certain officer, so I grab it from under my mattress and rush over to him. I am able to explain a little the situation behind the request form, and I get a response to provide back to Mr. Pumariega.
They call chow and we head to the dining room. At the moment there are about four wheelchairs and several push carts that come from my unit, so we are all headed the short way around the lake, one behind the other. Today they gave us chicken on the bone again, and it was extra crispy (burnt) in today’s meal.
Returning to the unit, I take Mr. Rivero and drop off him and his wheelchair at his room and prepare myself a cafecito. I brush my teeth, and take the first move over to the Education department to help in the library with setting up some guys with movies on the televisions, as the others organize books that were returned.
2pm, I take the move back to the unit with a slight stomach ache, but as I am walking by medical I see “Bob”. Bob works in Unicor, which is on the other side of the compound. He was just provided a brand new wheelchair, and as I am waving at him to say hello, he waves back, asking “Hey, if you are not busy, could you push me to the ‘West Gate’?”. “I was heading to the restroom but, yea why not, maybe I’ll just use the restroom at Unicor”. So on we go, around the lake, past the dining room, through the west gate metal detector, past facilities, past the dumpster, and over to Unicor. As soon as we open the door, several recognizable faces see me and greet me loudly.
I worked in Unicor for several months from 2023 to 2024, moved through sewing, quality control, material handling, and then handling the inventory in the “cage”, until the chaplain one day made me feel guilty she didn’t have anyone working in the chapel to help her organize and clean. Okay, maybe I just felt guilty when she told me, so I offered to work with her and resigned my position in Unicor.
I felt like the Mayor walking through Unicor, everyone waving at me and yelling my name to go over and say hello. I went row by row shaking hands and a getting a few “bro” hugs. One guy even wrote a request form, with my name on it, stating I wanted to return to work at Unicor, and told me all I had to do was sign it and turn it into the officer to start working. HAHAHA, these guys are too much. I feel that at this moment, it is my duty to be there for Mr. Rivero, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Readon in the Glasshouse, especially Mr. Rivero who even though could possibly have someone else take him to lunch and back, has gotten comfortable with me helping him and at his age, I prefer to be there for him as much as I can, so he does not stress having to rely on someone else stepping in to help. It took me an hour to walk through Unicor saying hello to everyone, so my mind forgot about the stomach ache, and I left Unicor at the 3pm move back to the unit.
Back in the unit again, I get out of my uniform and dress into my recreation clothes, and sneakers. As soon as the officers counted and left the Glasshouse, I head to the phones to wait a few minutes for 4:30 to call dad. I keep the call to one minute, so I have enough minutes to call my sister today.
Rec move is called, and I speed walk next to Bon-Bon in a wheelchair being pushed by “Chino”. As soon as we get into the rec yard, I head to the storage room, we grab the racquets for racquetball and head to the courts. We play a good hour, and in between games, I did jumping jacks and some burpee exercises. At 6pm I met with the Christian band at the band room but the officer did not want to open the band room for us, so two of the guys grabbed guitars from the outside storage room and we went out by the concrete soccer area, sat on the bleachers and hung out for an hour. While sitting there, I was speaking with one of the guys, and we see up in the sky there was a weird object flying at high speeds over the compound with several small lights surrounding it, and as it got to a great distance, it exploded in the air. It was truly amazing to see how it all happened, and as we were leaving the yard, a few guys said they saw on the outside televisions, the news was showing it was a “Space X” rocket that blew up. Now it makes more sense, compared to what everyone was saying it could have been.
As soon as I am back in the unit, I grab my things to shower, and wash the clothes I am wearing since there is no more laundry cleaning until next week. Done showering, I head to my room to hang the wet clothes, and prepare myself something to eat. One ramen chicken cup soup and a bag of shredded beef all mixed together, added some peanuts, bacon bits and mayonnaise, and it was exquisite.
Just called mom, a quick one minute phone call, and after the thirty minute wait, I call my sister. After a good ten minutes we didn’t realize we were about to blow through the full fifteen minute call. Time to watch the rest of “Hannity” and then on to “Gutfeld”, on Fox News, then after count….goodnight.
Father God thank you for this day and all you do in my life. Lord, guide me so that i never end up living outside Your best for me by choosing what I think is best instead of asking You. Please dear Lord, don’t ever leave my side; watch over my family, friends and loved ones, guide me through all these troubles. I ask for a good night sleep, and a chance to wake up tomorrow refreshed and ready for new things. Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
March 6, 2025
