2014-JAN-12-2310Hrs
Like Carlston I remember all of my Mausica experiences as if they happened just yesterday.
Firstly as a child I lived next to the Bellile brothers in Balmain and on Sundays when their father took them up to the campus he would take some of us for the ride and company. I always wandered about those long buildings with so many windows, never having a clue about them or even an inkling that I would be a student like them and reside in on of those long buildings. Secondly our Principal at Couva Government Secondary (which opened its doors in the same year as MTC), Mr. Effle Mohammed regularly mentioned Mausica as a place and teaching as a career worthy of consideration when we had gotten our O levels--he even indicated the $330 monthly salary.
Patrick Musaib-Ali (66 - 68) was working with the Anglican Youth Group at St. Sylvan's parish church on ST. Mary's Junction, and in an effort to make the service more meaningful wrote a calypso mass in which all of the musical elements of the mass were done in calypso tempo, unheard of at the time. Three of the Howe sisters attended the same secondary school as I did--Gemma, Merle and Linda. Gemma and Linda were in the choir, and my musical skills which were known at the time were requested to help with the project. The mass was performed at several Anglican churches, had mixed fortunes, but well loved by Fr. Brotherton at the Diego Martin Anglican Church. It was televised on Trinidad & Tobago Television, and yes on Sunday afternoon was done at Mausica. That evening I had my first meal at Mausica.
During this time I resided in the Freeport area, not too far from the Howe family, and my landlady used to ask me to play the organ at the St. Sylvan's Church. I used to play at the St. Andrew Parish Church in Couva at the request of Howard Spencer's father who knew as a child when I resided a few doors down form them in Couva.I had applied for teaching after doing my A levels at Presentation College, Chaguanas where illness in the 2nd year put paid to all of my efforts. The Parish priest at the time, Fr. Everest Hall need teachers at the two Anglican schools in the parish--Couva and Carapichaima--and he sent me to the Anglican Education Board of Management and I was appointed as a teacher. I could have chosen my alma mater (Couva) but I would have met a teacher who taught me as an Infant, and at the time there were to conflicting 'sides' on the staff. I decided to go where I was not known.
I excitedly replied to the invitation to apply for a place at Mausica, and the entrance examination was scheduled for two venues--Port of Spain and San Fernando with instructions that persons living north of Couva were requested to be at the Port of Spain venue, and persons in Couva to be at the south venue. Knowing from my Geography that Freeport was well north of Couva, I dutifully reported to the Port of Spain venue to find that my name was not on the North list. After an anxiously long telephone inquiry, my name was on the South list like a few others, but we were allowed to write the examination.
Invitation to participate in an interview at San Fernando was proof of my success at the entrance examination, and on the panel I met Mrs. Cuffie again. There was a workshop for A level French and Spanish students at Naparima College and she was one of the presenters. Mrs. Cuffie's stint at questioning me involved whether I was acquainted with the Presto Praesto Youth Camp. I answered in the affirmative, adding that I lived close to the area and would usually ride to go there. She quickly asked if I rode a horse, and the question which followed the answer that I rode a bicycle sought to enquire as to how much I had paid for my bicycle licence. Of course I told her I never paid any since the bicycles were borrowed, and that it was no longer necessary to pay for a bicycle licence since that legal requirement was abolished that year.
The contents of the fat brown envelope with the letters O.T.T.G.S. stamped on it contained my letter of invitation to Mausica, the contract and the list of thing I had to do and bring to the College. Several persons made it their business to find out if I was coming. Rudolph Datterdeen (72 - 74) whom I had known from Gran Couva came to church to enquire from me, but I did not know that Howard was there already.
So on that Sunday afternoon, September 10th 1973, as soon as the last sweet breads came out of the oven, |
Herbert Garvin 75
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