Commissary day today, missed my alarm ringing at 6:45, but thankfully I awoke at 6:49. Jumping out of bed, I remember to do it quietly since my roommate is still sleeping. I wash up, and put my uniform on, grab my commissary bag (laundry bag), spoon and sweetener for breakfast, ID, and head out of my room down and across the dorm over to Mr. Rivero’s room. Him and his roommate are both up and getting ready. In my mind I can hear Mr. Rivero thinking to himself, “Why does my roommate have to come down and get ready at the same time as me, there is no space for the both of us to do so”. I knock quietly, open the door, say good morning and pull his wheelchair out of the room. As I sit outside the room waiting for him, they call “CHOW”. It was raining this morning so we both grabbed our poncho’s, but luckily it stopped raining right as we go through the doors out of the unit.
We have our breakfast, grab our commissary and head back to the unit. After dropping Mr. Rivero off in his room and putting his wheelchair away, I see the counselor looking for me, to go with him over to the Chapel for the Admission and Orientation. The Chapel is clean and ready, the projector screen unrolls itself down the wall, and I turn the projector on, while I turn on the media center and get the PREA DVD ready to play. I translated for safety, and later for the chaplain to close the orientation out and we all head back to the units for lunch.
Today was pizza day on the national menu, so many went to lunch today. I don’t know if you can really call what was given to us, “pizza”, even though what makes pizza is cheese, tomato sauce on bread, and that is what we were given. Thankfully I have pepperoni that I took with me, and so Mr. Rivero, Mr. Ballester and I all had “pepperoni pizza” slices which made it just that much better.
I drop off Mr. Rivero back at the unit, and head to the Chapel, with a coffee in one hand and my water bottle in the other. I am greeted by our Christian Chaplain Hostler, as I step in to get to work. My buddy Mr. Escudero arrives wanting to see a movie in the personal televisions, so he is let in, and I set him up, but then asks me if we could take this time to check the air conditioning filters so we can clean them, and so the Chaplain gives us access to the attic space, where we pull out the six washable filters and take them to clean. These filters look like they have not been cleaned in over a year; the dust is thick enough to grab, roll into a ball and throw it a few feet. I attach a short hose we have to a water spicket outside of the chapel, and hose them all down. We return the filters back to the a/c units, lock up the attic and clean up after ourselves, but my whole uniform is drenched in sweat and water from the splashing off of the filters. Chaplain Hostler tells me I should take the rest of the day off to clean up, since the Chapel will be closing for the day in about an hour.
Once back in the unit, and I clean up, I decide to do a deep clean to my room. First I sweep the floor, then sweep it again to clear any dust/dirt particles. I then grab a hand towel and drench it in hot water, and start wiping down the floor, then I spread some antibacterial liquid soap around the floor and clean the floor again with the hand towel and hot water, then using some baby shampoo that they sell on commissary, I clean the floor again to add some scent to the room. Once the room is dry, I put everything back in it’s place and I sit down to read my daily devotionals. This is where my day got even better.
First daily devotional provided the following verse for August 26.
Deuteronomy 2:7
“The Lord…has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness.”
The second daily devotional provided the following verse for August 26, 2024.
Hebrews 10:36
“Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that He has promised.”
Two beautiful verses, from two different books written at different times, that mean so much to me in this “journey through this vast wilderness” we call prison. When times feel like they are taking the best of me, and things are not going the way we want, be patient and continue to do good, never lose faith, and never forget that God is still working and when He feels it is time for us to “receive all that He has promised”, he will provide.
So with this energy boost I felt, I put my recreation shoes on, and waited for count to clear. Since I have already spoken to Mr. Rivero and asked him to stop feeding me so much, I am skipping on dinner today. Before anything, I head over to Mr. Gibson’s room and check on him, and make sure he gets to “pill line” for his medications. So once they call the move, I get him in a wheelchair, roll him over to pill line, and leave him there, for another helpful soul, Mr. Coopmans, to take him over to dinner and I continue to recreation, where I walked at different paces for 1.5 hours, and returned to the unit at 7pm.
I called dad, he is doing okay, but had to cut the call short as I have blown through my minutes this month. Now after completing this, I will call mom, for the rest of the 3 minutes I have for today, until I renew minutes in 2 days.
Lord Jesus, I cannot thank you enough for all you do, and for giving me the will to do good on a daily basis. Thank you for taking care of me, and for always being there for me, please God continue to watch over all of us here at FCI Miami, our families, friends and loved ones. I pray for a good night sleep tonight, with the strength and mindset to take on a new day tomorrow full of any new challenges. In your name Jesus I pray, Amen.