Funeral Service for Nigel & Nerkyle Mootoo

Date for Entry: (Friday 30th December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 30th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today was the service for Nigel and Nerkyle Mootoo. The Church’s steelband was asked to play. There were two pieces done: “The Prayer” by Zara and “Oceans” by me. The service began later than two in the evening. Today was also the first time we tried to play the piece after it was amended in the summer earlier this year. I knew that the ending of “Oceans” was difficult but it went well. That was played for the recessional.

    I had a long wait afterwards waiting for daddy to come. Some of us were waiting in the breeze under Morton House facing the road. We had never seen music trucks at a funeral before. Shortly after the two hurses exited the compound. A lot of music trucks lined up the street and followed in the same direction.

Link(s):

• Service Programme.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

Aramalaya’s Christmas Play (2022)

Date for Entry: (Sunday 11th December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 24th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This morning I had an early start to get to church. We had to be there for 7:15 and the rest of the steelband members were there practising. I felt a bit ashamed because they were practising and making mistakes in front of everyone.

    I had no idea that the service would have started faster than I thought. The time went by really quickly. Mr. Sharma was not there for the entire service so I had to count in the band on both occasions for the procession and for “Away in a Manger” during the play. The “Away in A Manger” was one of my arrangements. The procession was a medley of “Little Drummer Boy” and “Oh Come Emmanuel” that Mr. Sharma did.

    I was grateful that the service went out very well. It concluded in a short space of time. My favourite part of the play was the short video they played describing Adam and Eve in the garden. We had another practice right after the service when I met Miss Linda. There was an evening function early next year that the church wanted us to play for. The song of choice for that particular function is “The Prayer” which was arranged by Zara.

Link(s):

• Images from the Service’s Play.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

St. George’s College (WEEK 12) – Day #53

Date for Entry: (Friday 9th December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I had a long start at home. I got to school very late twenty minutes after eight. Even though Miss Chote was there, the Principal came in late after me, then some of the OJTs and then Miss Roberts came in at the latest. I had Dr Sookdeo take my timesheet filled and ready to be signed and stamped.

    Once it was out of my hands, I went up the corridors with my two bags to look for Miss Gittens. She was not in the art room so I decided to of back to the office and wait. By the time I reached the Block C staffroom, I went in to see if she was there. She and Miss Libea were there. They laughed and told me, “Oh Gaw boy, Sir Boy. As soon as we now talk about yuh, yuh walk in de door.”

    I was given some of her subject registers to enter forms one to four marks to all the students on the St. George’s page. I liked the technology system but my ‘forms-making mode’ awoke and was beginning to inform me of things that can be done to improve. I wished I was able to remember to ask about making recommendations during the staff meetings.

    There was a sort of brunch before the meeting and I enjoyed the ham they had. The rest of my day was in the staffroom liming with some of the teachers and helping Miss Gittens with her marks to submit online. Did not realise the time today had gone by so quickly.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:20 am – 4:20 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 12) – Day #52

Date for Entry: (Thursday 8th December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today was the students’ final day for their class parties and report sheets. I personally found it was better for report books to avoid the printing and last-minute everything that usually occurs. It did happen that way too and the office was crowded with teachers waiting for reports to be printed on legal-sized sheets. I could recall there was one of the students that did not get a music grade and Miss Roberts had to go and insert it.

    I had on my red shirt and long black pants on that day. I did not dress up like some of the other students and teachers. My entire morning was spent in a classroom working on the teachers’ attendance sheets, and subject registers, and creating a new temporary mark sheet for plenty of coursework. Those mark sheets were literally labelled “plenty coursework” on the top.

    The Teachers’ Attendance Sheet would enable the Vice Principal to take attendance for an entire month as opposed to a single week. The subject register was a complete remake of the outdated sheet they had. I heard some of the teachers comment on their dissatisfaction with the sheet. The plenty coursework mark sheet was made to accommodate marks for fifteen assignments. I had plans to make an excel version but it is still difficult to lay out the entire document on legal-sized paper.

    From lunchtime to the end of school, I was in Form 1 Leacock with Miss Gittens’ form class. She had invited me to lunch with the class. I had to carry a chair from one of the classrooms to theirs. Lunch was lovely. They had a gift exchange and I remembered getting the Christmas card the students signed and gave to me. I stayed back, helped Mr Bains pack up his Christmas tree to carry home, and sent the remainder of the cake to security by the road.

    I packed up my bag and went to wait for the bus shuttle. The pictures of the subject registers from Miss Gittens were too small to read and enter in my excel forms.

Link(s):

• Pictures and Videos of the Class Party.
• Teachers’ Attendance Sheets. ** [File confidential.]
• Teachers’ Subject Registers.
• Temporary Mark Sheet – Plenty Coursework.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:39 am – 3:23 pm) 

St. George’s College (WEEK 12) – Day #51

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 7th December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

*Sample picture of excel

Dear Diary,

    Today I met up with Miss Gittens a bit later than we were intending to meet. She was in a meeting with a parent and a student. We met in the office to go to the art room to start marking assignments and entering them onto her subject register. I got my laptop opened with the excel document I had made for her to enter the information from her subject registers.

    Had no idea that the day went by so quickly. By the time I was about to ask Crystal if it was lunchtime, she told me that school would have been over soon. I looked down at the cock in the laptop and I had only twenty minutes again to meet 2:30 pm that afternoon. I had another hard situation with Miss Rough-Tops’ at the guards’ building this morning. It spoiled my entire day and night. Miss Gittens, Miss Libea and I got a ride from Miss Riva that evening. We were all so very tired on our way out of school.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:36 am – 5:53 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 12) – Day #49

Date for Entry: (Monday 5th December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Didn’t have much of an early start or a good one. I work up with some bad acid pain but thankfully that was gone by the time I was leaving home. I entered my marks into the temporary mark sheet and then sorted them into alphabetical order by surname before sending them into my white folders. The assembly was not that long too. Some of the students were going over to Vishnu Boys to do lab work for their coursework.

    I did not go to the art room today because I was working on my brown table in the lonely noisy classroom next to the office doing work on my computer. I had only two students to do makeup exams that they missed last week. It took me less that a minute to mark and insert the marks.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:45 am – 3:20 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 11) – Day #48

Date for Entry: (Friday 2nd December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Today I was in the art room working hard on the banner for Miss Gittens’ walk tomorrow. I showed her the words that I did and as I got to the table to work on it, I saw that someone had thickened up the word “army” that I did and someone else tried the first layer of white on the word “the”. By the time lunchtime was completed, all the words were covered in white. We had some students working on their neatness of them.

    They had a talent show during lunchtime and it took some of the students a while to get back to class. I stayed with them for some time to do the exam. I also took up the papers twenty minutes earlier before school started. I could tell that they did not study their work. I went back to the art room to work as much as I could to get the oil to vie drawn over and base it in white. There were two intersecting swords to the top right that were not even one. I felt like I might have spoiled them.

Link(s):

• Exams Drawings from Form 1F. **

 

UPDATE.

** Saturday 3rd December 2022 **

    The Saturday came and it was only me going down to Barataria to meet Miss Gittens. Everyone else had cancelled last minute. Daddy got a car to carry me to meet her. It took a very long time for the car to also get us. I had the opportunity to read a sermon that she wrote and another essay. I knew that by the time I worked on it the driver would come and so it occurred.

    The walk had already finished by the time we got to Independence Square. We spent seven hours on our feet. The rain came down on us three times but did not stop anything. I was given a reading and something else that a lady predicted. My one out of many was a bit special. She opened up the entire gathering like God had opened up the ocean for the Israelites to cross the sea and she said, “Come… Slowly!” It was very scary for me. I met Daddy and Andrew in Curepe that night.

Link(s):

• Images of the “Five-Fold Army of God” banner. **

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:49 am – 3:29 pm)

St. George’s College (WEEK 11) – Day #47

Date for Entry: (Thursday 1st December 2022)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Saturday 10th December 2022)

Dear Diary,

    At my entrance to the gate, it was nice to see one of the security that greeted me but their supervisor wanted me to be rough. I just let her yell to finish it out. I could now understand how the parent earlier this week felt when he complained about the security yelling at him and it had to be her. The only issue in her comments was that some of us were taking the bus and not reporting. I felt THAT she decided to pick on me because I was the only OJT that did not sign out that day on the bus.

    It was Day 5 in school today. I spent the whole morning and lunchtime in the art room. I saw that Miss Gittens had gotten a piece of red fabric and she drew the outline of a shield to her church’s logo on it. A lot of o time was spent on making the white in the shield thick and full. Someone else and Miss worked on the white and yellow for the flame.

    Not many of the students wanted to help. Before lunchtime ended, I took a white colour pencil and draw out the words and was only able to colour the word “army” in white paint. I saw that the students drawing below did not look at the mathematical aspect. We had to leave out a gold line in the shield. The vile with oil I saw also needed doing over because of the shape and the mathematical positioning.

    In the evening, I had the in-class written exam with Form 1L. They were quiet during the exam. I could not believe the children when they said they were not ready after all of the preparation.

Link(s):

• Images of the “Five-Fold Army of God” banner.
• Exams Drawings from Form 1L.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:18 am – 3:33 pm)