St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #351

Date for Entry: (Monday 02 September 2024)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Sunday 08 September 2024)

[T1, W:01 – WD:01, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    I knew the holidays would fly by in a rush. Only in the second to last week before school could open, I heard about preparations for St. George's to open in Barataria. Not much information or feedback was given to me. Two online Zoom meetings took place. Only a limited amount of attendees were welcomed.

    The Thursday before school opened, the staff, except for OJT trainees, were called back to duty. A meeting was probably to be scheduled then and on Friday. There was still no feedback. Over the weekend, we saw news, comments and other social media releases about the reopening of St. George's with the Education Minister. The school was not ready and she noted that Saturday and Sunday would be used to have the school's classrooms ready.

    On the new 2M chat, someone said that the rooms looked like prison cells and matched the visual appearance of a prison cell that I remembered. Sunday evening (yesterday), Daddy came and helped me pack up my bags for school and Aunty Vangy wanted to know if to come to help me with my things for tomorrow. I told her that I would have to wait and see what happens.

 

    Last night I could not sleep at all. The alarm sounded at 5:30 in the morning and then I got up to drink half of my 1.5 litres bottle. This was a Mountain Dew bottle. It sent me to the toilet one time. I had my bath also and then went to get dressed. Andrew was going to work today as well.

    As soon as I got a pie and Curepe, waiting for a bus was the next difficult thing. A nice driver drove me to Valsane. Before he took off from Curepe, I realised that all the seats were taken and I may have had to leave the bus. I saw that the front passenger seat was available. I took a seat in it. It felt so shaming for me trying to get into the seat. The driver stopped near the lights and I had to wait. The mistake I made was not crossing to the other side for a better pavement to walk on. The pavement on the left-hand side going down 6th Avenue was too high for me and hurt my ankles.

    There were a lot of cars all over. Ms. Mustafa and Mr. Marlon were there in front of the compound by the guard booth. The office was locked so I could not get to sign in except for signing my daily logbook to record the time that I arrived at the compound. I helped Ms. Santana move boxes and tables. Everyone in the staff room was all over making noise. It had a lot of murmuring and the confusion gave everyone a headache. There was also difficulty with getting persons to organise their tables in groups of four and also to assemble them as they were before moving.

    I was told that I had to give up the big table that was given to me and take a smaller one so that it matched the other table sizes and that it could fit. My big table was moved and they gave me a smaller one. It was moved all over the room and everybody wanted to go back to their original positions. Ms. Gittens introduced me to a nice Muslim girl who will be working with Mr. Charles. I was told that she liked to do art but she wasn't an art student.

    At some time before lunch, Ms. Carty asked me to move and exchange places with Jasmine. I figured it was for friends to be close together. At least the corner would be empty a lot of the time. There was a short TTUTA briefing between Mr Marlon and Dr Jogi to the teachers. It was interesting to see the education minister there. She did not come in to speak to the teachers but she took a peek in and walked away to some other part of the compound. Probably she spoke in the hall for the new Form 1 students.

    It was hurting for me after lunch to see Mrs. Sawh go. Today was her last day working at George's. “Choo Choo” had to help me out a little bit. I got a nice brownie that Mrs. Sawh shared with everyone. I was also given a George's Teacher's Planner book from Mrs. Sawh when she was cleaning out her cupboard. Dr. Blandin liked it so much that she wanted to take it from me. I took the book and hid it away in my book bag immediately.

    During the middle of the 7th period in the afternoon, I went for a short walk around the school feeling sorry for the Form 1s. The Form 2's could have taken it as detention for all the trouble that they had created for the first year of their school. Everywhere I go, I smell feces and the ground looks very muddy and dirty. Some of the classrooms had tiles that were broken and displaced. The library too was closed and I had a good chat with the electrician for the school. He too was trying to get accustomed to the school's arrangement of classrooms.

    Miss Chote and I walked to the music room not sure what she was looking for. After returning to the staff room, I decided to leave early. The past 5 days were a lot of difficult for me to fall asleep in the night. I hope that tonight things will be easier. Daddy and I had a while to wait in the Chinese restaurant and then Green Street was filled up with cars. I had a short sleep on myself in the back seat during the traffic. Even trying to walk up the stairs was not so easy for me.

    Daddy was surprised at my speed getting to Curepe from Barataria. I had to fight to stay awake on the couch. I wanted to see what they would say about St. George's on CNC3 News. It felt like a waste of time but I made it and got in bed by at least 7.30 pm. I did not wake up until the phone alarm at 5.30 the next morning. I did not get up until 6.45 am. Not many people were online that night for conversation either.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:10 am – 3:52 pm)