Easy going day today, it’s Friday and going into the last weekend in March of 2025. I am up at the 7:30 work call, which allows for most to leave the unit, and now that I am assigned as an orderly in our unit, I prepare myself to do what I can to help in here. But first, I grab an “everything” bagel, and a pouch of cream cheese, then follow it with a “Bustelo” cafecito.
Now I’m ready to work. I look for Mr. Tier, who is the head orderly of the Glasshouse and ask where I could help him out, but at times he makes it difficult to help him and doesn’t allow anyone to grab cleaning materials unless approved by him, so I sit back and wait for his guidance. I find Mr. Rivero and sit in his room to accompany him, even though he is just sitting on his bed listening to the news radio “Radio Mambi 710AM”.
I decide to go to my room and read my daily devotionals, and today is exactly what I am always telling myself, “Following God’s Plans”.
“If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
[James 4:15]
I had a good conversation yesterday with a buddy of mine, Mr. Stapleton. I was able to give him those uplifting words he needed to hear, during times of being down. This verse came at the perfect time. I explained to him how we can’t be negative about our situation, we need to keep in mind and heart that whatever we are going through is part of God’s plan, and as long as we let Him guide us, He will get us to where we truly need to be and in those times he feels like nothing is happening, is when God is working the most behind the scenes, moving those “mountains” from in front of us to allow us to get through. “Only God has authority and power over everything in our lives; we don’t”, Karen Huang wrote.
Now I just wait for lunch to be called, I am in my class-A uniform and Mr. Rivero just went over to his room to get ready as well. I get his wheelchair ready and tell him I will meet him out in the main area of the unit. As soon as they call lunch, we are “burning rubber” and on our way out, he has his hat on as always keeping the sun out of his eyes, he never cares to wear my sunglasses. Today at lunch was baked tilapia, white rice, beans, one slice of bread and apple sauce. The fish was very dry, Mr. Rivero didn’t like it, and put most of it on my tray.
As we are leaving the dining room, there are over 20 officers and staff watching each one of us, and several of the officers checking to make sure no one is smuggling any food or items out of the dining room. They pull us to the side, and ask Mr. Rivero to stand up, to check and make sure he is not hiding anything under him. He struggles to stand, then once he finally does, the officer says he can sit back down. We continue on our way back to the unit, into the Glasshouse, and I drop off Mr. Rivero at his room, fold his wheelchair and place it on the side of his room. I go to my room to prepare another cafecito and hang out until 2pm where I want to go to rec for an hour.
The 2pm move is called, and I am out the door. At rec I walk an hour around the track with Mr. Organo, just talking, catching up since I don’t spend much time with him since he was moved from my unit nearly a year ago, and stopped visiting the chapel services and by 3pm I was on the move back around the lake and over to my unit. As I get to my room, I find my roommate and Mr. Lorenzo talking, and as I go to grab my things to shower, my roommate says to me, “What are you doing? Not going to rec later?”, I think about it and reply, “Yea I guess I can, are you going too?, to which he responds, “Yea I need to go and walk some, maybe jog a bit”, “Okay, I’ll go”, I tell him, then I prepare myself another small cafecito.
Man I drink a lot of coffee, that needs to stop.
I place our chairs out on our spots on the flat, and wait for count to come through. I have my shoes on, hat on, gloves and identification in pockets, ready to go. As the count clears, they are calling the move, it’s an early one today. I fill up my water bottle and head out the door with Mr. Aquino. We head straight into the rec yard and over to the track. I put my gloves on and stop to do some push-ups at the 400m mark. “Rob” and Mr. Clayton are catching up, and say hello. I worked with them back in my Unicor days. We walked together for a good distance talking about our days in the making. I skipped by one of my stops, but at my next stop I completed some squats. I just finished my first round, even though it wasn’t a perfect one, and I see Mr. Carmona preparing to do his first set of push-ups. “I’m joining you if you don’t mind. Don’t mind me either, I will just follow what you do”, I tell him, as we begin. This guy is in his fifties, and with his military and law enforcement background, he is in excellent shape, so it was tough keeping up with him, but I did what I could. He had me doing lunges, squats, burpees, incline and decline pushups, flutter kicks, and I threw in some jumping jacks here and there when I couldn’t keep up with what he was doing. After the one round, I told him I was done, as I was not feeling good on my insides, so I stepped on over to the pickleball court where Mr. Boodman and “Renzo” were to hang out a little with them. After a few minutes, I grabbed a paddle and played a bit with them until the 6pm move where I walked with my roommate back to the unit.
In the unit, I went directly to my room and grabbed what I needed to shower. Once I was done, several guys on my way to my room tell me the chaplain came by looking for me. I was back in my room to hang my clothes to dry, and go to the phones and call dad. I then went back to my room, put my shoes on and grabbed a ramen cup soup, went over to the hot water machine and filled the cup to the line. I grab a fork and after a few minutes begin eating my soup as I waited for the 7pm move to go to the chapel and see the chaplain.
As I get to the chapel, I am greeted by our Christian chaplain and replied with a friendly hello. He wanted to come by and see me about planning for our services on Sunday, but said the supervisor chaplain was not in a good mood, and would talk to me about it the next day, so I said goodbye and returned to my unit.
I grab my tablet with headphones and go watch some television until it is time to call mom. I need to keep my calls short, as I am now being charged per minute, even though I have more than 300 hours of course credits that make me eligible for 510 free minutes as part of FSA Incentive per policy, which they aren’t following either and only giving 300.
Time to end the day, and enjoy it with some television until my eyes start closing on their own, which should be soon since I am starting to feel the pain from the workouts. Tomorrow I plan to continue with my routine.
Thank you Father God, I can never seem to thank You enough for all You do for me. Thank you for giving me a good, humble heart always trying to help and lift others spirits even if mine may be down as well. Please be with me this evening, and help me sleep with only good dreams in my heart and mind. Allow me a chance to wake up tomorrow strong and willing to do what is best in your eyes father. Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
March 28, 2025
22:26
