Yesterday was a complete mixture of confusion. As I was not able to get to the Chapel before lunch, as our officer in the unit, seemed to have missed the call over the radio every hour.
We are told to drop our commissary sheets in the assigned boxes before the end of the night for tomorrow. Thankfully I don’t have much to order, so I sit down in my cubicle to mark my items on the commissary sheet.
This morning I woke up in time to get ready, and thankfully Mr. Rivero was already in the Glasshouse waiting for me. We head out of the unit, and over to the dining room for breakfast, I eat my cereal, and he eats his cakes and drinks a milk carton. We leave the “chow hall” and head out to the commissary area, it is packed with others from different units. It’s not our unit, and one of the commissary workers makes an announcement. Unfortunately, my unit will not be shopping until after 10am according to him. I look at my watch, it’s 8:15am, so Mr. Rivero and I head back to the unit.
We arrive at the unit, I drop off Mr. Rivero in his room, stow away his wheelchair, and head to the Glasshouse to grab a cup of coffee. As I am finishing my coffee, the officer announces “COMMISSARY!!!”, I glance down to my watch and see it is 9am, shake my head in slight frustration, head over to get Mr. Rivero, and he is already out of uniform, laying on his bunk, hands intertwined on his belly, eyes closed with his headphones on listening to his radio. “COMMISSARIA”, I tell him in a loud voice. He wasn’t too happy but he was up quickly and dressed to head out again. Back in his wheelchair, he makes an engine start noise, and we are zooming out of the unit and passing others rapidly, we hypothetically shift to 5th gear and rapidly arrive at commissary.
Just like everything here, hurry up and wait. In prison if you don’t learn to build your patience, you will fail miserably. Mr. Rivero and I arrive back in the unit close to 11am with our commissary items, and we decide not to head to lunch for the “hockey puck”, which is what the hamburger was named here. I went into my locker, grabbed a pack of salmon and prepared it. I emptied the salmon package into my bowl, added some spices, mayonnaise, peanuts, olive oil, garlic powder, and hot sauce. It was exceptionally good I have to say. I head to the bathroom to wash my bowl, put my things away, grab my water bottle, fill it nearby at the water fountain, and head out to the chapel.
Today is Catholic mass, given by Father Silva from the Federal Detention Center in Miami, FL. Time to work, I move the altar to the front center of the chapel, podium to the left. Father Silva asks me for a white sheet to cover the altar, and we setup the candle, and crucifix. He asks me to put a music CD to play certain songs during the service, so I get it ready, turn on the media center, and put the speakers at a good volume. Some guys came into the Chapel with me, and wait for me to set them up with movies in the personal televisions, but I setup the Catholic mass first, then head over to them and set them each up with their preferred movies. I grab my disinfectant spray, and head to the bathroom to wipe down the toilet, sink and hand dryer to leave everything clean and ready for everyone. Father Silva is outside the bathroom asking to use the restroom, so I step out. Soon after as he leaves the restroom, he says how impressed he is about the bathroom being so well kept. He heads back to the main chapel, and when I return to where he is, I see him looking around the chapel, and then over to the Bible’s shelf. He asks me, “Who is the one maintaining and organizing the chapel like this”, and when I told him it has been me since March this year, he was gave me a thumbs up, and was happy at how I have turned the chapel around from the last time he visited. Service was excellent, and as it ends I begin cleaning up, and organizing everything back to normal setting.
Time for 4pm count, and Mr. Campos is making a shredded beef ramen soup. My stomach starts rumbling and tumbling, I can’t wait. I take my bowl over to him and sit nearby to wait. Count clears, I head to the phones to call dad. I received my 6 month program review today, so I shared the positive information with dad, and what specifically caught my eye. On my way back to Mr. Campos’ room, I smell food, hopefully its mine. My bowl is full and ready, I cover it and take it to my cubicle, add some hot sauce and grab some saltine crackers to accompany the soup, then let it sit to cool a few minutes. The soup is still very hot after a few minutes, but that is not going to stop me from enjoying it, so I can then head to the Chapel for the evening Jewish study group. I clean up, and head out over to the Chapel, where I meet with Chaplain Estrin.
The Jewish community heads out and back to their units, while I turn off the lights, and prepare everything for Chaplain Estrin to close up, and I head back to my unit for the night. I arrive to the unit, and immediately get called over by someone asking me for help in typing a request for medical. We send the request and I head to the phone to call mom. I’m loaded with minutes for the month, with two days to go, so we take advantage of the fifteen minute phone call. Later I called my sister to do the same, still I have over 42 minutes per day.
Lockdown for the night, they lock the door to the Glasshouse and I grab my things to shower. Once done, I put my laundry in their bags and into the laundry cart, grab two graham crackers, and head here to the computer to finish my journal.
“Across the top”, they just yelled. Had to close the computer session and head to my cubicle before the officers arrived at the Glasshouse door. I grab two more graham crackers as I wait for the count, while listening to the nightly news, and now that the officers are gone, I head back to the computers to finish my journal.
Father God, I am exhausted, but somehow I keep going as if nothing was wrong. Thank you for the strength and push you give me to be awake so long throughout the day, with enough energy, and mental capacity to continue helping others, and doing all I can to better myself along the way. Thank you so much for my family, their love and support. Thank you for another great day, even in these conditions we are in. Thank you for keeping me positive and humble. I pray Lord for a good night sleep, and for a possible day of rest tomorrow.
Eduardo L. Valdes
02499-506
September 25, 2024
22:37
