St. George’s College (Week #76) – Day #350

Date for Entry: (Friday 05 July 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 25 July 2024)

[T3, W:13 – WD:59, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was the last day of school for the academic year. Since I left my book bag over in Block K yesterday evening, it felt weird coming to school with a heavy blue plastic bag in my hand. I ended up having to go home without my book bag because no one was in Block K yesterday to open at 5 PM.

    As soon as I got onto the compound, I got signed in and had my timesheet fixed up. The journal entries book was fixed first and then corresponded with the OJT logbook before that information was transferred into the timesheet. Afisha said that at 10 o'clock they wanted a picture of the OJTs for the school magazine. She also said that she had to stop and drop off her timesheet and would carry mine as well.

    I got breakfast done and out of the way in Block K. Dr Addison called me out on the corridor near the conference room to ask if I could do the entries. She wanted to get the document handed over to Mr Charles as he is now the new acting Vice Principal. I told her that I would have to go through my errands for the morning and once they were completed, I would come back to see her.

    The timesheet was signed out and handed over to Mrs Sawh for signing. There was a short wait in the lobby. I learned that Mrs Sawh was Acting Principal for the day as well. I sent it to the official's desk and Kiel took it to be copied a while after. Dr Allison and I were waiting for Mr Charles to come.

    After a very, very long while she left to have her breakfast in her car. Ms. Jones finally came to give her the leaf that was pending but she was not there to get it. I waited very long again and went back to the staff room. They did not have the picture taken while I was there. My tray was taken from the art room yesterday.

    I gave the appreciation card for Janessa that I had filled out. At first, she thought I had something bad to tell her or concerning but she appreciated it. I had to wait a long because of Donna and the students coming by the door. She sent me a picture of the card that I could now put in the minutes of the APC library.

    The time was now after recess and somewhere going into lunchtime. The teachers were waiting around and everyone was bored waiting to go home. We did not know if there was going to be a staff meeting or not. I knew that Mrs. Allen Brown had taken her bags and left early. While all of this was going on, I took time to make a to-do list and a list of our schedules to do the house cleaning.

    The brief meeting did happen. Dr. Jogi and I ended up using the washroom, went to get our books in the staff room and then we walked off to the library:

• August 29th to officially start the term
• Waste of resources for printing reports
• Mr Charles new VP
• Missing leave and absence is still after the meeting.

[End of meeting.]

 

    The meeting came to an end. “Gigi” was telling me that they were looking for something to individualize the leave and absence forms. She mentioned that I did what was wanted and that what I had was on point.

    I got my bags placed in Block C's staff room and went to see if Mr Charles was there and if he had gotten a copy of the attendance form for teachers' punctuality and regularity. Usually, I would have gotten a copy and given it to Ms. Stout as acting VP when she was there. I did the same for Dr. Allison and I wanted to do the same for Mr. Charles.

    Dr. Allison was in the office when I entered and we waited but someone said that he must have left the school for the evening. We were both shocked Dr. Allison now finally began to test my patience and I was tired after a very long term of enduring patience to give her. I told Dr. Allison that the term is over and we can probably leave it as it is. I told her goodbye and she left.

    Mrs Sawh and I spoke on our way exiting the Vice Principal's office. She seemed to have seen the Excel document created to assist with the tallying. I will have to see when Mr. Charles is ready to do the work. Dr. Allison was about to walk to her car when she stopped for a final conversation to ask about my holidays. I mentioned doing work. She said that I needed to have some fun and have time away from all the work. She said I need to learn to relax and not be in all kinds of work that I do. We had a light laugh about it in the corridor and walked our separate ways.

    It felt as if the term was finally over now. As I entered the Block C staff room, the teachers were having a party and eating with loud music. I was not feeling so good about it being around them so I took off my bags and left immediately.

    I had a while to wait for Daddy to come to Curepe. I didn't feel like eating anything after seeing what had happened. I hope that the end of the term will be successful for them. I also pray that a new term to come will have more good things to come and less disappointing things that this term has witnessed.

    However, I am looking forward to creating more steelpan music. I do have in mind to have another WhatsApp ‘concert’ as I did in the April vacation. Thankfully, there will be electricity in the house, and I hope that the house cleaning will go smoothly, as well as the King David camp that Mr Sharma wants me to assist as a teacher’s assistant. I hope everything goes well.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:51 am – : pm)

St. George’s College (Week #76) – Day #349

Date for Entry: (Thursday 04 July 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 25 July 2024)

[T3, W:13 – WD:58, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning I came as early as I could. The office was filled with deans for the registration day for four months. Few cars were coming into the compound. I got signed in and then went to Block K for breakfast.

    “Choo Choo” saw the box of cake that remained on the outside. Everyone didn't want it to take any longer because of that fact. Miss Soodeen said, “Maybe we should let Mr Ali try it first and then we will decide if we want to take any.” The three of us had a good laugh and Choo Choo said that was wicked.

    Choo Choo asked me why I didn't take any more. I said that Dr. Jogie was watching me carefully and that I tried to behave myself. She said, “Next time you just need to ignore people and if they ask, just say that cake was made for eating.”

    Sometime later Miss Gittens had finally made it to school. We worked on our Bible notes from class last night. I was able to get my reading of Genesis 26 completed along with the sonnet. The notes for 27 were taken. Hopefully, the writing will be done tonight.

    For the rest of the evening in school, we were entering the final set of marks. Some others were not automatically saved on the online platform, so I sat and called them out for her. Janice came very late with her form 3s and form 4s marks to tally. She had to find out how to work out the percentage but we told her how to do it.

    There were still a few cars in the yard, probably from the workshop going on. I hope Janice can get through entering all that information on the online platform by tonight. Miss and I ended up leaving after 5 p.m. The first maxi didn't wait. Thankfully another one came up after. As the driver took off I realized it was “Koric” as the driver. The guard Corey was now coming to work for the evening.

    Later that night I spent a big majority of time writing up the journal entries in time for the timesheet tomorrow. Lord, please let that go smoothly too. This took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to fix tonight. I have to meet with Dr Allison for the last of the pending dates and absences.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:10 am – 5:08 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #76) – Day #348

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 03 July 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 25 July 2024)

[T3, W:13 – WD:57, (Td:2)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was an early day, praise God. As soon as I got signed in, Dr. Allison came into the office with the logbook and also the laptop to set up. I didn't have time at all to eat breakfast because she had called me out as soon as she got in. She took me with her immediately.

    We went into the conference room where “Patty” and “Ms Celia” were going through the new timetables for September 2024. They were too loud and I couldn't make out the majority of what Dr Allison was saying. It made the minutes difficult to insert and so several repeats were required from her. We were done by 9:38 AM and my head was spinning. I didn't feel so good after leaving the conference room.

    Kiel had to make prints of the timesheet when I came to ask for some. It looked as if there were new changes to the OJT timesheet from a far glance. The times for yesterday and today were entered. I had no cell phone with me so that times for other days would have to be entered tomorrow. I went to Blockcase straight away to safeguard the sheet. Ms. Gittens met me there in the office too as I was waiting for the timesheets to be printed.

    Many of the teachers were there back in the staffroom. Mrs. Santana and I spoke about May when she asked. I told her that there were 14 teachers with pending information. She learned from me that Mrs. Sawh would be taking it over to work in June and pending May 2024 on Friday evening, when school would be closed for the summer vacation.

    Once the form was put away, I used the washroom and took the laptop from the art room to go down to the music room. “Jess” was there with her fake eyelashes. She was starting to tally the Form 1 exam papers and then tally that mark with the practical mark for a total out of 100. I got the 1L and 1F marks entered into my digital markbook. We spoke about a contract too and extensions as well. We also spoke about options for lessons.

    Soon we both left the music room to go to the library where the monthly staff meeting began. Ms. Alexander was reading her minutes of the previous meeting. I was called outside by “Jess” in the middle of the meeting to be asked for help with a performance that she had to do. She wanted to know if I would want to play the keyboard chords or if I wanted to play the African drum. I told her I would see what I could do.

    We passed in front of Block A after getting the keyboard and its stand from the hall. Some boys from 2M were there and helped us to get the chair for the keyboard and the keyboard down to the music room. I wasn't feeling so well at all while walking up there. I got the same boys to see if they wanted to play in the performance when I told Jess I wasn't feeling good again. I learned that Mr. Bain was going to sing and she was going to do something in the performance.

    After that, I didn't bother to go back to the staff meeting although I wanted to. I went back to Block A and did up my journal entries for Friday and yesterday. I thought that maybe by doing the journal entries it will help me get my mind off of the sick feeling. I did not get many journal entries completed by reading into the AI app. This most likely will have to be done simultaneously with Bible reading next week. I have no idea when school would have ended.

    I saw teachers leaving for the rest of the evening. Dr. Jogi stayed with me in the staffroom after we had cake leftovers. I didn’t go to the function again. I got the laptop back to Block A from the music room because the art room was locked. Everyone was already gone except Mrs. Nunes-Charles. I saw Mr. Nunes-Charles waiting for her on my way to the office.

    Later in the evening, Daddy didn't pick up the phone when I tried to call from the office. As I was waiting for Mrs. Santana outside, Ezekiel called me from outside while sitting on the bench and he told me that someone called back. Miss waited for me and we walked to the car after the phone call. She said that the road is going to be empty the way it is when primary schools would be closed for the academic year. Indeed we got up to Curepe very quickly.

    I had a long wait for Isa to come back to the store. It took him a while too to prepare the certificates. He ended up forgetting to make the catalogue cards and subject cards that I had ordered last week. He had taken note of the order. He also said that the document created for the course looked good as always.

    I went to the Chinese store in Curepe to get food for everyone. The wait to get the food was long. It gave me the time to sit and write this extensive entry for today. The time was running close to 7 pm in the night and Miss Gittens had sent me a message to remind me of getting ready for the Bible study. Thankfully at 7:04, they were still waiting for other persons to get to class.

    Instead of getting a notebook to write down the notes as prescribed, I opened up Microsoft Word and got the notes down. The document came up to three legal-sized sheets of paper. I sent it over to Miss and she was amazed at the layout.

    I went to see if there was anything else that I could have done with the Lone Star song called “Amazed.” But the time was too short and not many hours remaining. The introduction was super difficult to figure out strumming patterns. Normally I do not like to put any rolling in the back line instruments but it became necessary. After three hours the introduction was fixed.

    This is the second night that I could not send it to Miss Mustapha because it was too late. Some games were played for one hour until 1 am. I started playing a new pool game and won the first seven levels with three stars each. I am not sure how long I will last with this particular game.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:46 am – 3:21 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #76) – Day #347

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 02 July 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Thursday 25 July 2024)

[T3, W:13 – WD:56, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    Yesterday the schools in Trinidad were closed because of Hurricane Beryl. I went to spend the night with Auntie Vanjie on Monday night which was yesterday and spent the evening to return to school. There was a front-seat ride in the Maxi which felt very dangerous. The driver asked me to put on the seat belt. I didn't like the seat by the door because the seat belt didn't usually like to come out and then clipping it in the buckle was very challenging.

    I did not see “Jess” in the music room until I saw her message. She said that she was going to be late. The music room too was like a ghost house with many missing tables and chairs. I sat with Miss outside after eating and writing in my Markbook for 2M. We got all of the Form 1s and 2s at marks into the online platform over her phone. This was our first trial using the cell phone because my laptop did not have access to the internet. I thought that if you can insert Max by the laptop you could probably do so with the cell phone. Thankfully it worked.

By lunchtime at 12.32 all the Marks for Visual Arts were entered onto the online platform. Miss had to get her prints. Dr Allison still needed me to enter the lates and absences for her. We were about to end at 2:27 but I told her that we should continue and finish the rest of the Mathematics department. I got a call towards the end from the principal's cell phone but it was Izekel on the other side. I didn’t make out everything he was saying.

    My bags were in the art room and they were locked up. I had to get “Miss Bianca” to open. By the time I got my bags, it was 2:39 when Dr Allison and I had finished. They had already left. It was nice that Mrs. Santana could join us in the conference room while she did her marking. I had to travel out because the ride had gone. They couldn't stay.

    I travelled out of the compound with Mr. Jaheim Griffith. We were speaking about time signatures after he asked how my day was going. It seemed as if the form three students went on a field trip. He mentioned that time signatures were one of the topics that used to give him a lot of trouble. I was telling him that he could have come and visited me at lunchtime anytime for help but he said that he enjoyed the conversations we had time and time here and there talking on music theory topics.

    The driver of the Maxi was Frank and he was joking aloud with a lady in the front seat and snapping his fingers. I went home and I got into church work. This evening I decided to work on the document for the quotes. Getting the sizes was a huge challenge. I ended up creating a large document with a big table to send off to Isa. I'm not sure if this will make printing easier for Iza where I went and recreate some of the forms into individual sheets that contained one form alone.

    I also got a call for help to make a certificate of appreciation for another Sunday school. I was able to get the church logo from the MTC Facebook page instead of waiting for Dion. Three terms had gone by and no one had sent the logo. So this time the blurry image had to be used from Facebook.

    Space allocation was the issue for their logo. My DAPHA Projects logo had to go on next. The full DAPHA Projects logo was too big. By force, I had to use the abbreviated version. It was going to fit only below the signature lines. Once it was done it was sent off to the church for their members to see it. I just hope that they don't stir up hatred towards my logo as it has been enduring many times in St. George's. 

    Praise God that I was able to get my Bible reading and notes done tonight. I took time shaving tonight for the function tomorrow. The teachers were planning a special surprise retirement function for Mrs. Sow in the library. I hope that everything goes well.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:20 am – 3:22 pm)