Wednesday, March 12, 2025

St. George’s College (Week #101) – Day #461

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 12 March 2025)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Friday 01 August 2025)

[T2, W:10 – WD:45, (Td:6)*].

Dear Diary,

    Today, the arrival at school was slightly late. Surprisingly, as I came down the road to the savannah, a lot of students were there in lines. Maybe it had a big field trip today? I knew I saw field trip forms registered for this week. As I got to the gate of the savannah, it looked like all of the teachers were in the field with the students and MTS workers, along with the security guards were standing on the pavement outside of the school's gate.

    When I got into the savanna, I heard "Hana" saying that there was a gas leak in the school. I met Mel by the pavilion with 3L, and we sat on the bench. The sun was very hot. Mel at some point showed me a text message the Indera had sent to the MMT chat about me to handle the exam papers on her behalf, and that she was in a District meeting. Mel showed me the message too, and I saw my name, but sitting down and thinking about it, I realised what she meant.

    In the meantime, Kalid shealtered some of us with his umbrella, and he kept on poking me with it, lol. While waiting, I gave Miss the exam template for her to do up the VAPA exam timetable. She and I had a good laugh about her name in the pencil writing. The wait was longer than expected, and then people were allowed to enter the school. Mel commented this morning, being a parents' day, and the leak occurred. I forgot about that.

    Only when "Patty" called the staff to give some feedback did I hear Dr Blandin speaking to Miss Garcia about it. The students were lined up according to their Form classes and walked back into the compound in a line. Some the the classes were sent to other parts of the school and away from the leak area. As soon as we got to the office, there was a hustle and overcrowding of parents and children. Some of the parents were being told that school was dismissed, which was not the case. Exit forms had to be made in bulk.

    "Hana" told me that she was the Acting Vice Principal. That means that she was helping out as "Pretend Vice Principal" for the day, probably? I knew in Valsayn she might have made that joke with me. She had asked me to make more copies of the Exit Form for them. It was amazing to see all those forms finished. I made thirty sheets and then cut them to put in the box. On a day like this, I was the only one again (in practical but also in reality) to hold down the office. There was no Candice or Miss Ali there.

    While that was going on, I went to assist Dr Jogie with some exam papers he came to check on. It looked like someone moved the maths papers from the upper drawer in the filing cabinet this morning. I needed to correctly explain a few times that those papers were the incomplete number of scripts completed before the machine crashed yesterday evening.

    He needed 112 copies of that Form 5 Maths exam, and only sixty-two were done. Dr Jogie signed for the other papers that were completed already in the same logbook and took them with him. The papers were stapled, and then I did the counting to find the total. Miss Chote's stapler was used. I did the subtraction and sent the paper back through the machine to get the remainder done.

    As the machine began and the original was placed back in its folder, I went to inform Dr Jogie about what happened. When he called "Kimmy: she said that the remainder wasn't needed, so the remainder was printed, and he came to sign for the rest. When those were completed, I went back to give him the papers. These were not stapled.

    I noticed Mr Charles being very observant those two times when I came to consult with Dr. Jogie. He eventually came, and there were two more papers to complete his batch of exam papers. One of the MOB papers was able to be printed. The other was giving a lot ot trouble. When I asked, he didn't prefer to give me the papers just yet.

    At the same time, Shiva came to see if "Patty" was available. He resorted to hurtful 'joke' comments to me. It was painful to take it all after what I experienced with Dr Blandin. It was already a very difficult thing handling Dr Blandin when she came with the desk labels for teachers. Mr Charles left soon after that was done. He took his papers back to the staffroom. Shiva wanted copies using the executive-sized paper. We didn't have any, and he said Candice mentioned having some in the office. He went back to the Technical Drawing Room to get some sheets. We got the prints done, and then he left.

    The room was free and calm at last. It was awful having the 'Pester Twins' around, too. It was good to see that the machine was working again. I remember earlier that when "Choo Choo" met me outside with my tray this morning, going to the office the second time, she said that I should make sure to brace myself because of the way it was. I knew the entire day would pass by, and I would go hungry again with no breakfast or lunch.

    Late into the evening, near the end of school, Miss Lewis had asked me if I could print her test paper. She even gave me the folder to do the copies, but wants to get the writing enlarged. "Patty" didn't come back to the office during the day to show me how to zoom the print. I was busy and forgot. She came by after school to see if I had done the copies, and I gave her back the folder from Indera's office.

    Only when I was finished with the exam printing did I decide to work on the copies for her. I gave her a call and asked if it was a picture of the paper. She said yes. So I asked her to email the softcopy, and I can try to work on it manually from the computer. Miss Sookhan had also asked for copies earlier via email. I told her to call me back when the email went through.

    In the meantime, I went to work on copies for Miss Sookhan. It was a lot of pages, and we were short on letter paper. I also had to call her and ask if she had a PDF of the document to see if I could get four pages of it onto one sheet of paper. She said she will search and see if she has it. Miss Lewis also hadn't sent the email yet.

    Miss Sookhan called back, and when I checked what she had sent and the document left in the office, they were two different kinds. She mentioned it was from a book that she didn't have. I told her that I could try to scan the document on the printer. That was the first time I tried to scan. I used a flashdrive in the office since I didn't have my one. The scan looked alright. I sent it off to Miss Sookhan by email to check for me.

    Miss Lewis then called me some short minutes after to let me know that the email was sent. I was already into the document. She had some tables, and I was asking if she wanted them to come off. The corrections in Word were used twice on each paper. She said that it was okay to take them out if I was able to. The images were stretched and reformatted. It looked better on screen and the same on the prints. Sadly, I was out of paper again and was not able to print Miss Sookhan's documents.

    The copies for Miss Lewis and the other remaining teachers were tucked neatly into my tray below and sent off to the staffroom. I locked up the office and turned off the lights first. Donna was still there, and she was on her laptop late. She was surprised that I was still there. I had the copies for the teachers delivered first before packing up my bags and walking out. That evening I only got the first two pages for the third Workbook lesson fone as suspected. I couldn't do much. I stopped to watch the new episode of "Summer House" before bed.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(8:11 am – 5:48 pm)

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