St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #355

Date for Entry: (Friday 06 September 2024)

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

[T1, W:01 – WD:05, (Td:3)*].

Dear Diary,

    I got to Georgia's late this morning. Not many teachers were around in this staff room too. I got to eat first and then handed over the students' forms to Ms. Rivas instead. She said that she would use the form for next week. When I asked why, she also mentioned that the school does not keep a record of students' numbers. She said that she would white out the dates and fix them for next week. I then went on to fill my resumption form out.

    “Jess” said that we would have to go and check the forms next to them. We took a spin by the cafe first. She spent time chatting with Mrs. Santana. MMT meeting was going on with a different SS3. This was a lady. It seems as though Mr. Persard was not coming this morning. The timetable was also going to be worked on again. No students were in the Form 6 classes too.

    While heading back to the staffroom, I saw that Mr. Ustache was trying to set up the office area. I would have stayed with him and helped him, but I knew that I would have had to go back and help with the art room. The art room was not as stuffed as the office. I know Janice and Amira were making the office seem like a nightmare, but the art room seemed to be a higher priority than the office since the art room had more work to be done.

    Ms. Gittens came and left her unfinished painting on her desk. I told her I would go to check on her as soon as I was finished with my entries for the morning. The Form Five art students were there helping out Ms. I kept an alarm on my phone for 9.40 when they would all have to leave for their third-period classes. Miss told me that her uncle was the one to build the fences out in the garden. I ended up making a video that she needed to show to him.

    Mrs. Santana got a copy of the leave form from me during recess time. I had to remind her that she could not use the form because it was not Ministry-approved. It was then that I shared with her my hope that it would be approved by the Ministry. When she opened the file to put the form inside, I saw that the book that I gave her, which was a copy of the St. George's College Song booklet, became detached from the spiral home. I offered her to take it home and fix it and she seemed to agree.

    While sitting back at my desk, she was giving a nice rhyme to Donna. I couldn't make out the words, but we all got a nice laugh from it. At the start of the fifth period, or more so before the fifth period, a tutor meeting was called by Mr. Marlon and Dr. Jogi. It was a fusion meeting between TUTTA Reps first and then the staff meeting.

    When Mr. Charles came in, this meeting dealt with issues on the compound for the tutor segment and then agreement on students for the lower sixth coming into the school in the second segment. This meeting concluded during lunchtime. All of the fifth and sixth period was used for both meetings.

 

    The meeting ended and I ended up falling asleep on the top of my table. I didn't see “Jess” as yet and she had left also, maybe for her class. The sky had a lot of dark clouds on the left side of the school. I had hoped that it would not break down any rain while walking up the street. Thankfully, the first week had a good fit in the remaining pages of this journal, book number three. I learned that it was Donna's birthday today. Maybe it explained the reason why she was dressed in that particular dress and she had asked me earlier how her dress looked. It was a very beautiful floral patterned dress, but I found it to be a bit too short.

    I couldn't wait for school to end any longer. I felt better to go back home and do some music writing. Surprisingly enough, the zeal had come in me that evening to do music writing. As I almost made it to the bus stop, “Choo Choo” called me out. We had a lovely chat sitting on the bus.

    I got home late again for the fourth time after leaving school so early this week. I ended up gaming and then went to do music writing, which concluded at 11:30 from 8 PM. The full song for “Right By My Side” was transcribed. Tomorrow, the chords will have to be determined and inserted. I went to read Love Island.

    Tonight, Emel and Oakley were both eliminated from the game and soon after, Max and Sienna too. Both dumpings were done by public voting. Not many people were on Whisper again. I wonder if the Whisper app will decrease in traffic as it is depreciating this way for 2025. Only repeaters and prostitutes are there. A few comments from ‘sugar parents’ are there. Not many of the nice people are around on Whisper again. Sad to see. This journal entry makes the end of Daily Log Book #3.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:59 am – 2:51 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #354

Date for Entry: (Thursday 05 September 2024)

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

[T1, W:01 – WD:04, (Td:2)*].

Dear Diary,

    I got ready in 30 minutes and got to Curepe at 6.50 a.m. this morning. The road was super clear. As soon as I got to the bus route I saw “Mr. Adams” waiting for his bus. Also, as soon as the bus that I was on reached the junction in Barataria, he was in the front seat of a taxi. I had a good laugh at him in my mind. The 6th Avenue was clear as well. I saw Ariel with her dad walking her down to school.

    Not many teachers were there in the staff room too. I got my pie done while chatting with Miss Gittens. Better news of Mr. Greenaway came. They said that he was doing well but his body had to recover before surgery and that there was a better chance of him getting to come home. It was nice of Miss Patel to hang with us too. I got a beautiful bookmark from “Choo Choo.” Mr. Persard came in and he met me. He spoke with Mr. Pierre before I got up to go to class with “Jess.”

    The music room was not ready too so we were allocated a spot in the hall for meeting the Form 4 students. A short introduction was done and then she spoke about the course of study and worked on the three examination papers for CSEC. The breeze was so nice by the wall fans in the hall that it started to make me fall asleep. I had to fight it a lot. Only three of the four students were present today. It reminded me of Miss Kittens' four students for Form 4 Arts this academic year.

    I spoke with Mr. Persard when I entered the staff room again about the forms and gave him a copy that I made for him to keep. He was also shown some of the other forms that I made and he liked the teacher's log too. He liked the concept and idea and I gave him a coloured copy to keep in case that was a form they would like to adopt and use too. Thankfully it had my logo printed on the back of it.

    I saw that the green bag with my cleaning supplies was gone. Not sure if Miss Gittens had taken it to start cleaning the art room. No one was there in the art room when I got there. I went to see “Jess” in the music room. Far from the art room, she was trying to get Mr. Bain to fix a broken table that they had stolen from UTT. I met Janice in the corridor outside the staff room with my green bag of supplies. We went to the art room and I got started. She sprayed some bug spray and left for a very long time.

    I ended up going through boxes of papers by the time to help with organizing the papers into teaching materials, things for Miss to organize and see what to keep, as well as things that would have been handled for children and sorted them out into different groups. Miss came in a little before recess time and met me there. We both worked until lunchtime. A lot of things were mixed up still in the art room.

    The delivery men came and took chairs out of the room and they helped remove some other stuff that did not belong in the art room. Thankfully Shiva helped us out a lot. Towards lunchtime when Miss was not there, Janice and Amira came but they didn't stay for long. Miss Kittens was now leaving early too. I thought Jess went out with Carty again. Miss Dana had a good quote to share today. I'm not sure about what happened with Inshan Ishmael but he was one of the hot topics in the conversations that the teachers were having.

    Nice to see Mr. Charles coming back in the staff room. The area was very noisy and buzzing. I wasn't sure what was going on with the administration office too. I hope that it will be up and running as soon as next week. Even lunchtime finished quickly and it took forever for lunchtime to reach. I felt as if I could have gone to bed when lunch was over. We had a class with two 2L. The class that moved up from 1L.

    “Jess” and the children were commenting on the classroom’s heat. The same was true for the rest of the teachers. I waited on my feet and then sat for the last 30 minutes of class. She wanted me to carry a blue chair from the hall to the music room. Back in the staff room, I learned that it was “Maria's” birthday today. Some more reports of heat affecting students in the classroom were mentioned in the staff room. Another shocking discovery was discussed too.

    With one more day to go, I hope it goes well. I got up to the bridge right by my side and transcribed tonight. Hopefully tomorrow the rest will be done. In Love Island, there was a man's choice after movie night and Jin had chosen me again. Max ended up picking the Casa girl Sienna who was very mean to me in the game. Theo did mention he would have picked me. Hari had chosen a dancer girl named Hazel. I went to bed immediately and hoped that waking up in the morning would have been easy.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:11 am – 3:19 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #353

Date for Entry: (Wednesday 04 September 2024)

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

[T1, W:01 – WD:03, (Td:1)*].

Dear Diary,

    This morning, Daddy and I were both too tired to get up from bed. He was surprised how quickly I got out of bed, had a bath and was ready in 20 minutes. We got to Curepe and I boarded a Maxi. The driver had some nice music playing.

    Somehow the driver reminded me of Dion, but yesterday I heard that Dion was hired to teach mathematics in another school. I was not sure if it was a private school or a secondary school. I had breakfast and I still remember the song that I heard sitting down in the Maxi, which would have been very nice to transcribe and also turn into a steelpan arrangement. Sadly, I did not know the name of it.

    The walk down to St. George's was short. I saw “Deane” walking in front of me on the other side of the pavement. As I got to the savannah, I was greeted by “Mr. Haynes”, who looked like he had packed very light for that day. The guard had called me back to find out my name and the spelling. Students were now coming in. The compound looked very small in number.

    Today, the Form 3s, 4s and 5s had a brief assembly in the hall. As it was their first day back out of school for the academic year, we were told by Mr. Pierre that all the Form 1s and 2s would be kept in their classrooms for morning assembly. It was also mentioned that we had homeroom for the new specified time according to the mandatory ‘Cultural Transformation’ idea on all schools by the Ministry of Education. We had homeroom for the, well, 30 minutes in the morning before the first period began.

    Timetables were handed out and “Jess” took hers from me. I gave her Ms. Jones's timetable to rest on her desk. Not sure what time Ms. Gittens will be here. She has the final pack today from Valsane to get to St. George's. It was our last day to pack and leave the compound as well. Mr. Prasad was here too. It was nice chatting with him. The two of us spoke about the leaf forms for teachers and he gave me his email to send it off to him.

    Javid said that he was ready to start class. He had a lot of papers to give back to his children on that first part of the day. I got to see the insect vector guy who came into the staffroom too. Surprising that the men's room was locked to the flooding. That meant I had to hold up urine for the entire day. Jess and I had Lower Six placed on our strange timetable but there were no lower six students present in school today.

The times of the periods were changed to suit the 30-minute homeroom after assembly. While writing people are starting to notice my journal book. A lot of people came by looking at it and asking and talking about it in whispers. We heard that fans were missing from the classroom and Miss Poops ended up walking out with a fan in her left hand saying, “This heat boy? I cyah take this heat!”

Classrooms were in session when I was out for a few minutes. Dean's matters with the wrong size of skirt were taking place early in the morning with a parent and the office was locked again. There came a time during the day when Mr. Pierre was asking for numbers of students from form teachers. I will make a student's numbers form for Mr. Pear this evening.

    "Jess" and I went to form 3F for class during the 5th and 6th periods. It had to be split up for theatre arts and music. We didn't have anything planned to do with them for the day. She gave back the test papers and tried to convince some of the students to make music. Once that was over with six children, I shared with Jess that music is very hard for them and it is not favoured heavily at Form 3 into Form Four.

    In the last 20 minutes to lunchtime, Artee had 3M on our left-hand side. She was exhausted from the heat and so was Jess. She went back to the staff room to pack. Both ‘Jess’ and Carthy were leaving early. I packed up and left after asking Mr. Charles to leave early as well. Some long waiting was done in the bank. Luckily someone left early and we got their number.

    I sat next to Anil in the bank from UWI and he shared his discovery of the western modes and some of their relation to the Indian classical tarts. I did mention to him that at some point the modes and tarts began to be less similar to each other. I also got my extension letter from the OJT office in the Anva Plaza. This was before going to the bank. The time range was extended from the 18th of September 2024 to the 26th of May 2025.

    As soon as I got food finished and out of the way I fell asleep on the couch until 10.15 pm. There was a strange dream of “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” although this particular TV episode was not real. This was a made-up episode in my dream. As soon as I had a bath I went and got the email of the teacher's leave form prepped and ready for sending off to Mr. Sanjeev Prasad. I also sent a copy of the teacher's attendance book that I had created and detailed it well in the discussion. This was in case both documents would be considered for adoption. The time was midnight after this exercise.

    I got the introduction to “Right By My Side” transcribed. The rest of the morning was spent reading three chapters from Love Island. I hope that the Ministry will be able to approve the documents. It would feel like a nice accomplishment to me.

    If in future they ever decide to accept and adopt the teacher's attendance register that I had created, it would feel like a blessing and I know for sure that the vice principals in the different schools would have an easier task of doing their checks for late and absences. This was mainly my idea while observing Dr. Blandin last term when we had to do lates and absences and she had my assistance. Having these observations helped me to get some more useful ideas. I hope that when George's is ready and set I will be able to go and continue to assist the teachers with the late and absences forms.

 

LINK(S):

• OJT Extension Letter. **

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(7:48 am – 2:48 pm)

St. George’s College (Week #77) – Day #352

Date for Entry: (Tuesday 03 September 2024)

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

[T1, W:01 – WD:02, (Td:X)*].

Dear Diary,

    I had a late arrival waiting for Daddy to come up home. We got a spicy chicken pie by the bus route in Curepe and I got the first bus on the priority down to Barataria. Daddy also came on the bus with me this morning. He was going to Steve Electronics in Barataria Junction to get a multi-USB port for the computer. Sadly that one was spoiled and I had to get another one. He was asking me how long this one had lasted and I told him that it was since the beginning of the two-year OJT program that he had bought this spoiled one.

    I met Miss Mohammed by the office and three male parents were waiting. I didn't bother to ask her for the OJT log book seeing that the office was still in a mess and not packed up yet. I went to the staff room instead of the long walk behind the hall. Looking through the window first, it looked like a meeting was going on. When I got inside by the first table everyone was there. Mr. Charles was directing the discussion at the time and I took my chair.

    There were issues with the timetable that had to be prepared for school tomorrow. These were the instructions from the district supervisor Mr. Sanjeeve Prasad. He had the last part of the meeting to discuss different points with us. Two other fallouts occurred.

    We also learned that once the principal is on vacation she has no authority except for the person acting in her place. I learned that the principal decided to take three months of vacation which means that in January of 2025, she will be coming back to Georges.

    The list of seniority was reviewed for the role of acting principal. Once Mr. Charles's name was called he accepted the responsibility when the staff expressed their confidence in him. Since Mr Martin after Mr Charles was not present the list review had to stop and Mr Peer was asked to assist as acting vice principal until word from Mr Martin. He would have to send his decision in writing. Mr Prasad did not accept the person's decision while the principal was still on duty.

 

    The meeting ended immediately for an urgent MMT meeting to begin. Ms. Gittens gave me her supplies and she placed them into my green cleaning bag before heading over with the heads to the MMT meeting. She came back to let me know that security had the keys to open the art room.

    Mr. Harry while doing my entry asked if I was writing a love letter in this journal book. I told him in a joke that I was writing my heart and soul out. He gave me a big smile. Donna too tried joking to see in the journal love book. This was book journal book number three. She had been joking with everyone about not saying anything during the meeting with Mr. Prasad. I just hope that cleaning the art room will not take forever.

    Ms. Greenaway had already expressed how shocked she was at the state of the art room and she said that the art room and the home economics room were both the worst classes in the entire school, concerning their status. The guard outside said that the gate for the art room was opening but they had tried all the keys they had and the two doors were not opening. I had to let Ms. know about this situation when she came back to check on me from the MMT meeting.

    When Waverly came to visit “GG”, Shiva laughed and gave me a hard lash on my shoulder as I learned about Waverly going to a Presbyterian school. He must have forgotten how much his lashes hit me. Not sure when the room will be open but I went to work on my Bible reading. There was a lot of flaming and noise in the entire staff room until it cooled down. I did not see many of the MMT members after their recess.

    I left early again that afternoon and went up home. I saw Javid leaving too before turning up 6th Avenue. The evening went by quickly. I tried watching the “Chicano Club” documentary but it was too long. It also lost my attention. Perhaps if they had a series in the holidays I may have appreciated that. I got two Love Island chapters read out and all of “Another Day in Paradise” was fully transcribed that evening.

 

Daryl Zion M. Ali

(9:18 am – 2:59 pm)

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)

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)