My 12 year old nephew asked me this morning, “Uncle Eddy, were you robbed last night by a Black guy?”

I said yes and briefly shared with him what had transpired.

He inquired, “How come it’s happening to our family? MaMa (grandma) got robbed by a Black guy, you got robbed by a Black guy and Daddy got robbed by a Black guy.”

I said, “Sometimes desperate people do desperate things. This did not just happen to our family. It happened to our neighbors also. There’re many reasons why things happened.”

Before I can say more, he went back to playing with his dog and puppy.

7-1-2002

It’s my shower day so I got an early start on my exercise. It felt good as always. I showered and ate breakfast. The cop surprised me by asking, “Shower or cigarette?” I couldn’t understand him at first until he explained. He has a bag of rolled cigarettes on him. If someone chooses the cigarette he will give up his shower. I asked why he did that. He said, “That way I don’t have to shower that many people. The sooner I finished the sooner I can go to my little room and sit down.” What a job!

I folded some heart shape origami to decorate the cell. It’s one way to pass time. Mr. K came by to visit. He wanted to check on my correspondence course status. He just got back from vacation and heard that I was in Ad Seg. The rumor he got was that I was caught with weapon. I laughed out loud when he said that. That’s the first rumor I heard so far.

I was hoping to receive some letters in the afternoon, but I didn’t. I felt disappointed and started to wonder why. Then I had to let it go because is out of my control. There’s no need for me to stress about it. I wrote to J a bit. I won’t send the letter out until I hear from her.

I had a long talk with “Little”. He’s a good neighbor. I saw people rolling boats and wind surfing on the bay. They were having fun.

After the Officer picked up mail, the other lady Officer gave me two letters. One is from Yuri and the other from J. It was too late for me to respond to the letters. The reason they were late was they were rerouted to me from North Block. The letters were opened. Instead of giving them to me right away the Officer decided to read them first. That delayed my chance to write a letter. Yuri and M (a sister) wants to visit me tomorrow or the next day. They sent in the visiting forms. They don’t know that it takes 4-6 weeks for the form to be approved. I won’t be able to see them anytime soon. M is going to China in a few days. I will miss meeting her this time around. Hopefully faith will brings us together again. Yuri sent me a group letter since she’s behind on her correspondence. She writes a few lines on the margins. She also sent me a couple of pamphlets. I appreciate her for caring about me.

I want to maintain the sense of peace I have during the last couple of weeks and extend it to my future. I want to overcome this obstacle and start over.