Tuesday, February 25, 2025

St. George’s College (Week #99) – Day #452

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 25 February 2025)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Wednesday 25 June 2025)

[T2, W:08 – WD:36, (Td:4)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning was not easy to get up. I was on the couch for a while. I decided to take my time walking down Sixth Avenue. As soon as I got into the staffroom, "Hannah" was asking teachers if they had any field trip forms. She saw me and told me that they were looking for forms, and there were none. I told her that I can go and make a copy of it. Thankfully, a teacher had an extra one for me to use. "Hana" came with me.

    The machine had a jam again from yesterday when Patty tried. There was another compartment to the side that had the stuck paper. The paper was taken out from another compartment I hadn't been in before, and the machine began running smoothly again. A letter from UWI came out for "Hana", and then I was able to make the copies for her. She took one for herself, and then she showed me the field trips folder with some other kind of form that I had never seen before. She moved them to their relevant file and placed the copies into the folder. I was also asked to do other things, so with these occurrences, I was not able to go to the classes.

    My tray was left in the office overnight, so before going for my pies at recess time, I gathered all of the copies that were made and batched, and had them delivered to the teachers in the staffroom. One of the patches was for Mr Charles. Once the documents were distributed, I went to buy the pies. Only one batch of copies was not with a requisition, so it had to be left without a name in the office. I took back my tray for class with the Forms 4s one time, going back into the staffroom.

    I had the pies in the tray, and "Kevon", the guard, was joking with me about me bringing the pies for him and the guard. When I walked into the kitchen, "Marcia" was getting the children to sell the chow, and Rhea was surprised that I was bringing the pies on a tray. While having breakfast, Mr Charles had thanked me for the copies and delivery. He was talking with Miss Dayna about efficiency. Somehwere in the conversation I heard him say, "Efficiency is an ass." Shiva made comments about my plate that I ate from after washing it out.

    When it was time for the fifth period, I went to the guard. "Kevon" was walking a man and a lady in the back. The lady guard said that the other music one (Roberts) had taken it already. She was there when I entered the music room. There was some good advice I got for the Form 4s. When the students came to the music room, "Gabby" and "Nai" were whispering about forgetting their laptops today. However, they were able to show me their work from their cellphones. Joshua, on the other hand, had his laptop but did not want to show me anything at all. I will have to speak to Jess about this.

    At some point, Roberts had asked if she could do something with the children. I agreed since they had nothing else to work on. She worked on melodic features with them until it was lunchtime. I spent a lot of time afterwards with "Michael" and "KiKi". They had brought "Mr Williams" with them. "Michael" had his amplifier box and a guitar that he brought to school. The three of us were shocked when he told us the cost of it. He showed me the book that he said he was bringing for me to look at. It was a book borrowed from the library with the National Songs.

    When we went through the first three pitches to “God Bless Our Nation”, it was confirmed to me that he did not know about key signatures as yet, which I explained right away. It took a long while for him to get the Bb4, but he was able to find it in octave 3. Then we climbed chromatically until we got to the Bb4. The next one was to find F4, Eb4, and D4. He wanted to learn something from the piano and mentioned my arrangement of George's anthem on YouTube. I showed him the four chords. It was a lot of trouble for him to find the chords at first.

    “Michael” also shared with us a recording from Divali with his family band. It was a wonderful presentation with everyone, and also the solo performance. I took my things from the art room and then went to the staff room. Mel came in shortly, and I told her that tomorrow I will come over to make the remainder of the envelopes. I went over to the office. There was still a lot more time for school to continue. I heard Artee chatting with Candice in the back. Only when lunchtime was over did she come and wanted to get angry that the machine was jammed. Unbelievable. We had to get Candice to come and get it. I have to turn Dr Blandin down, too.

    It took some time to find exactly where the paper was jammed before it continued. The cassette was also out of paper. Artee got her copies, but I was worried that Mrs Ramsingh's test paper had gotten mixed up. It was a lot of paper. Only one sheet for writing was not in. I hope that it will not be a problem for the students. There were no requisitions to complete. I realised that I had done all of them out.

    Surprisingly enough, I saw Jeanice there today in the back by Miss Ali's desk. Before moving on to the punctuality and regularity that I was working on with "Celia", I decided to create a table that Patty had asked me to do since morning. I recall a parent coming to ask for a letter. It was not requested, and Patty asked me to help generate the document. I went to ask Candice if she knew about it, but she said that it was not done.

    She gave me a small piece of paper with the name of the student and the form to create the letter. Patty showed me the document to make the letter, and eventually she signed it, and the stamp was printed. That was it for the remainder of the day. I got a visit from Mrs Santana to make copies of the receipts for their expenditures. I had to stick it down on a sheet of paper for it to go through the machine. She got the original to the principal and then took the copies.

    I remember when talking to "Celia" before leaving the staffroom that she had to leave early in the evening. The first time she came into the office, I forgot to ask her for the document with the minutes form for September 2024 and October 2024. She came back again and said that she would bring it. She came to check and see if I had it. We laughed that she could not find it, so she went back to look. Luckily, she came back with her file and gave me the forms.

    When she left, walking out of the office, she laughed, saying, "Don't lose them forms, eh, Mr Ali! 'Cause, ah don't have any more copies." I remained there until sometime after 4 to get September and October. The August will be left for tonight when I get home. I hope that it will have enough time to get all of that done, too. It took me four hours, and I still could not get the entry for today completed. The time was already 9:40, and I got to the computer.

    August 2025 leave was entered. The minutes from then to October 2024 will have to be entered. As soon as I began to enter the minutes, everything looked all over the place. I began to get tired and couldn't manage to do anything again. The time was close to 11 PM. The ride to Curepe in the bus was exhausting, too. I will wait to finish the judging for George's Carnival show tomorrow, and then "Celia" and I will meet up. She said that by that time, the judging would be over, and she should be ready to do the work.


Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:41 am – 5:29 pm)

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