It’s early Saturday morning, and like every weekend, I need to get to the chapel on the first movement to get things ready for the Jewish Shabbat services. Up and dressed, I prepare myself a small “cafecito” and head to the chapel. The main door is open, sign is turned to the OPEN side, and lights are on.
“Chaplain Hostler beat me to the chapel this morning”, I said to myself.
Mr. Escudero came by to help me, and follow me to see how things work on weekends. I have him in training to see if he wants to be assigned as the Orderly to help me and be on the payroll. Once services end, we organize everything back to normal, turn off the lights and head back to the unit.
Back in my room, I sit down to read my daily devotionals. Today my favorite was from the “Our Daily Bread” booklet. Turning the pages to November 23, the Bible verse mentioned is:
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.”
[Jeremiah 29:7]
What that means to me, is wherever God puts you, He wants you to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city”. The city could be anywhere, in my case would be this prison. I never thought I would be of so much help to other guys here, and would have never seen myself working in the chapel, learning of different religions, and serving/assisting in all the services that are followed here at FCI Miami. My goal here with everything I have learned in 38 months of incarceration, is to shine my light on others, so that their light may shine brighter, and help build a better, safer community inside and outside of prison.
I decide to make myself a small sandwich like I do every Saturday when I am offered a bread from the Jewish services. I split the bread in half, lay them down inside-up, pour some olive oil on each side, spread some gouda cheese, pour some honey, and spread it with the utensils. Then on the bottom piece, I place some pepperoni slices, one spam, then more pepperoni on top, now some Nacho Cheese Doritos, then grab the top bun and flip it onto the rest of the sandwich and squish it down, then enjoy. I wash it down with some water, then prepare myself another small cafecito before grabbing what I need and taking the first move over to the chapel.
I arrived a little early, set up two guys on the televisions to watch movies, then with Mr. Escudero we cleaned around the chapel. He grabbed the sweeper and swept the chapel, while I decided to make some changes in the layout of the chapel. I moved the main left speaker more to the left, and the right one more to the right. We moved the piano over to a better spot on the back wall of the chapel, and had to move the drum set out of the way to do so. When we moved the drum set, and lifted the floor mat from where the drum sets sat, the floor beneath it had some sort of grease. God only knows how long it has been since that mat has been moved, and where the oily substance came from. I take the mat outside and luckily the Captain’s orderly is outside cleaning a rug from their office and invites me to use their brush and soap to clean. My goodness, the grime that I was scrubbing off from the that mat was disgusting, the water was brown as I hosed it off. Finally after a thorough cleaning on both sides, I lay it over two plastic chairs under the sun to let it dry completely and I head on inside to now clean the floor where the drum set once was.
Several guys from the Christian community came by to go talk about setting up a cabinet to store donations that we can provide to newcomers who are in need. It was a very productive gathering, and we asked the chaplain to type up the information for the Christian Cabinet, so we could each have a paper copy of the items we are looking to gather from donation.
Everyone leaves at the 1pm move, besides Mr. Boodman who stays behind to test the speakers and see if together we could get a better sound out of the system, especially since tomorrow evening is “Movie Night in the Chapel”. Once everything is tested and ready to go, we put everything back in order, and get ready for the chaplain to send us back to our units. Its almost count time.
I head past Mr. Campos’ room and he is preparing food. He stops me to tell me what he is making, but I tell him I will not be eating with him today.
“I am going to the rec yard as soon as count clears and they call a move.” I tell him.
Count clears, I call my dad, everything is good on his end. I grab my I.D. and water bottle, they just called move, and I head out. I am wearing a long sleeve shirt with a tank top underneath. The weather is pretty cool outside and I don’t want to get sick. Once in the yard, I head to the track and walk with a few good guys I have built a positive relationship with. With this weather, I won’t be breaking a sweat which is good, I don’t want to be all sweaty with this weather. By 7pm, I head to the main gate and wait for a move to head back to my unit.
I go directly to my room to eat something. I decide on grabbing a pouch of salmon and one of tuna and mixing them in a small bowl with mayonnaise, Mrs. Dash seasoning, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and then add salted roasted peanuts for a little salt and crunch. My roommate walks in, “What are you going to eat that with?”, he asks me.
“I am going to eat it just like this, why?” I reply.
“Here, take a bagel, split it in half, and top the half with your mix, and eat it like that, you will thank me later”, he says as I am opening the bagel wrapper. I split the bagel and top off a half with the fish mix.
He was right, this added a good touch to it. Problem for me is bread inflates me, and what I am trying to do is avoid bread whenever possible, or eat it early in the day if I must. Time to shower, I grab my shampoo, soap, razor, towels and head for a deep cleaning. Of course, the razor was useless to me without a mirror; there is no way I am shaving my face without visibility. After my shower, and putting everything away, I take my razor with me to the restroom and shave in front of the mirror.
I feel fresh, clean and relaxed. Time to call mom, but first, a little dessert. I grab a small oatmeal cream pie, and head to the phones. I am second in line but it did not take long until it was my turn. Mom answers the phone, she sounds like she is getting over a cold, mima is in bed not feeling good and step-dad is getting over his cold so I kept the call short so they could go rest. The night is still young, I have 30 minutes before lockdown, and there are a few good movies playing on T.V.
Father God, today was an excellent day, thank you because your love is what allows for days like these. I pray dear Lord for a beautiful day tomorrow, I am so proud of what we are doing in the chapel for everyone, and I feel great that tomorrow we will have a very successful day in so many ways. With your permission dear Lord, I ask that you give me the strength to wake up early to exercise, then be in the chapel to assist in the Christian services, then attend to a large group of guys who will be visiting the chapel for a movie on the big screen. Oh God, I promise that I will forever continue to “seek the peace and prosperity” of this current place I am living until the day you have prepared for me to return home to my family and “seek the peace and prosperity” out in the world. Thank you Father for all you do. Please watch and care for our families dear God. In your name I pray always, Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
November 23, 2024
21:04
