RE: Condolences

2022-JAN-21-1326Hrs

I was saddened to learn of the passing of Robert Green and his wife. May God comfort the family and relatives. He was 1971-1973.

Euline Fox-Peters 70-72.

RE: Joycelyn Walker

2022-JAN-20-1257Hrs

I found this picture of Joycelyn who is on the left of the picture, holding the rake.   She was a pioneer and she lived in Kirkendale.  Cynthia Davis-Huggins was her room mate.

Joycelyn also attended Bishop Anstey High School - POS.

Condolences from our Mausica family in the North.

Brenda

"and this too will pass"

Brenda Alexander-Perez 65

RE: Condolences

2022-JAN-18-2004Hrs

I do not think or can remember anything like this. It is with Great Sadness to inform the Mausica Family; Robert Green (72-74) wife passed away in her sleep; and One day later he, Robert died in the Hospital. It has been reported that Robert has been ailing for a long time . Great Condolences to Their Families. They were both attached to St. Cyprian's Anglican Primary School, Santa Flora/ Los Bajos.

Ansel Knights 71

RE: Condolences

2021-DEC-17-1026Hrs

I wish to extend condolences to the family of Angela Henry. We both lived in Villa Nova and shared a warm relationship.  May God comfort her friends and family.

Euline Fox-Peters (70-72)

RE: Condolences

2021-DEC-17-0938Hrs

I wish to extend condolences to Anne Kelly-Simmons - White on the passing of her Mom. May the God of all comfort embrace the family at this time.

Anne was my second year. I also remember her as a very helpful person,  very easy to talk to.

Euline Fox-Peters (1970-72)

Re: Fwd: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-AUG-06

2021-DEC-17-0932Hrs

My fellow Mausicans, I received this message on the 10th December 2021

My dearest family. Aunty Evelyn Hordatt passed away a short while ago. She was 21 days short of her 103rd birthday. Safe in the arms if Jesus. Safe on His gentle breast. May she rest in eternal peace.

Ana

May Miss. Hordatt's soul rest in peace and rise to eternal glory forever and ever.

Myrtle Spencer 74

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-DEC-17

2021-DEC-17-0906Hrs

May the soul of Janet rest in peace ad rise in glory. Amen

Clare Creese-Woodley 72

Re: The passing of another mausican

2021-DEC-13-1254Hrs

Greetings to all my fellow mausicans. I sadly wish to announce the passing of another mausican in the person of Janet Angela Henry, my roommate. ( 70 - 72 ) May her soul rest in eternal peace.

Sheila Warner 72

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-NOV-19

2021-NOV-19-1929Hrs

Well the 68 intake of men in Haven included Reynold Davis, now deceased, who sadly fell of the rail along the way. I loved him and was saddened by his misfortune. A fantastic Haven man when he was right.  Great sportsman, football, cricket. Tenor in the choir. Had been coached by Wes Hall at Fatima.

I remember when he came in. It was during the holidays..1968...since some of us did not go home for the summer...and he had come in straight from Guyana...where he had responded to a call from Forbes Burnham...for Caribbean youth to come to help clear forest for the new City.....and Reynold came in fresh from that....and I found him to be a fitting haven man ....full of our spirit.....

I think Benji was in Haven too. He and Carlton Layne (Carlo), Fabien Alvarez,  Jagessar.....quite worthy additions to the Hall of GENTLEMEN. Our sports capability was enhanced by that 68 intake.

Joe Stevens and Rodney (Acheson) Charles strengthened athletics in Mayfair.

Garth Nicholas strengthened the Villa. A force.

Very worthy men in that 68 intake.  We tried to teach them all we knew. But they were quick learners, and you had to get out of their way.

Then there were the girls who came in 68. Who could run.....Pamela George, Sigrid Sandiford......who could sing....Janice, Rita....

This idea of a new year group coming in to be initiated was exciting beyond words.....You are going to be a SECOND YEAR....good lord......what a thrill....

.exciting even now, as I think about it. But there was also the sadness.....that came with the departure.....from the college generally...and from the hostel.....the characters who gave texture to the place.....leaving......Cecile, Nicoline, Ana, Pat Lashley, Ralphie, Andre Stephens (Uhm, Mr Joseph, I was wondering....),  Bullock, Darnley...and Sahadeo with the cutlass chasing Ian Paul across Fair Haven square during initiation as the rest of us looked on not knowing what to make of it...

Beck...coming to Fairhaven crying with a cutlass in hand one night....because some Havenite went to Mayfair and inadvertently left the water running in a sink in the washroom and it overlflow....and de water run down the hall and flood one or two rooms...one of them Beck's...now deceased...his shoes and thing floaing......and Beck. (Frederick Beckles -66-68, one of the greats.....Football, Cricket....Choir.....and they call him "(Badjohn Teacher Face) because he could get vex sometimes.....and we see him coming to Fairhaven, from Mayfair....crying because most of his things floating in inadvertent water....and prudence said that we should lock the hostel up....which we did.

Haven men being men of peace, and not stupid either.

Scratchie.

Theodore Lewis 69

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-NOV-12

2021-NOV-13-0827Hrs

Scratchie thanks for the History lesson. You left out Bert "Al" Fraser (RIP) the Tunapuna "Panman" who beat the intellectual Lloys Best (RIP) in the General Elections. He was also a havenite and a Bomb Room Room 12 Champion. The Grell Cup was discontinued after 1971. Finbar "Count" Ryan was also a Havenite and Hospy's lil bro Ricardo who was also called Hospy. Great memories I dare say. 

Continue the education.

Allan S. 

Fair Haven Rm#12 1970-1972

Allan S Noreiga 72

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-NOV-12

2021-NOV-12-1938Hrs

Thank you Allan for posting those pictures. Garth had released some earlier. It would be nice if any Mausicans, who were part of the Guyana project, and who have pictures of that really enriching experience (on a range of levels), can post them so that we can produce a photo essay of the trip.

Ainsworth Ancil Ovid 71

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-NOV-05

2021-NOV-05-1318Hrs

Looking through my archive of pictures, I stumbled upon these from our trip to Guyana in 1970.

Pic #1

After waiting in Piarco for the whole day, the plane finally arrived to take us to Guyana.  When we landed, Officials were there with photographers to take pictures of our arrival. I walked with my quatro, and I started singing and playing a Mausica folk song. Mauretta. Everybody joined in, spread out and sang our way to the building where the immigration was waiting for us. The officials joined us, but did not know the song, but from the picture, it was clear that they enjoyed our arrival.

Picture #2:

That was where we had our meals. If you look closely, you will see Malcolm Pena still eating. This is where Happy sang his calypso, Panty Raid at Taj Mahal, 10 minutes after the woman came in to complain about losing all her panties. Her exact words were,

" Commander Young, those boys stole all my panties, and I don't think it is funny."

Picture #3

Our sleeping arrangements. Those of us who went to Lethem after working at Mhadia, had to sleep in hammocks.

Picture #4

The only person in this picture who is not a Mausican is Charlie. He is the short one in front holding my quatro. He is half Amerindian, and was in charge of our work gang.

Garth Nicholas

1969 to 1971

Sunset Villa

Garth Nicholas 71

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-NOV-05

2021-NOV-05-0837Hrs

Fair Haven Bomb Room? Hmmm!

I thought we had banned Grell Cup in Fair Haven...we forgot to put a time limit on it. So I am now finding out that men who came after participated in Grell Cup.

Back in my first year 67-68, De Warden put up a sign on the notice board outside of the assembly hall during Grell cup that said "Fair Haven-Campus Donkey."

Now I have to say that even here in 2021, I still feel quite hurt about that sign, which was really a gross disrespect of the GENTLEMEN of fairhaven, men like Geezmo (Kent Rennie),  Carlsbury, Rodney, Patrick Ali, Anthony Lum, Deodath Ojah Maharaj, Efeebo, Murrel, Miguel, Arthur Hume, Gaston Alleyne, Clyde Maurice, and my Second Year roomate Sto (Selwyn Bethelmy).

Respect to those no longer on this earth... Toco, Phillip Kendall, Oswald Thompson, Hospy, Martin Brathwaite.

So this "Campus Donkey" sign was left up on that board for the whole Grell Cup week.

But during that week Fairhaven fought back, through the fortitude of me and my roomate Sto. We issued an edict that Fairhaven men will NOT take further part in de Grell cup, and in fact that instead of a Bomb Room, we will have a La Basse room and  our room will be it.

We put a sign on the door inviting all to just throw their rubbish in our room, on the floor......we left the room open. And men obliged, emptying their trash....with cane peeling from their foraging of our cane field ...and everything else.

Bomb Room?

Down in the Villa Davis Charles had a Bomb Room. The man cheated, bring Chenille Bed spread from home to put on his bed in the Villa flat, where he was hostel Rep. You go down to de Villa to see this thing and you fraid to enter that room  it so clean and antiseptic. Flowers and ting.

The Warden and his team came down to inspect rooms in Haven, and we left our room open....and I would have given money to hear the Warden react when they went in to "inspect".

The next year, 68, I sang "No Grell Cup" in the calypso contest....came in third..dey tief me....

"Who start up dis Grell Cup business

Nobody eh know

Some Say is de Bald head Warden

Some say is Harry Joe

Whoever it is, dat eh worrying me

Just Tell dem I say

No Grell cup for Lord Scratchie.

I am disheartened to see that men in Fairhaven fell back into de Grell cup to the point of having bomb room.

But I understand. A Fairhaven man beats his own drum, and nobody cant tell him what to do.

Lord Scratchie (Calypso king third place 1968).

Theodore Lewis 69

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-OCT-29

2021-OCT-29-1141Hrs

I was thinking the other day about the art lecturers I encountered at Mausica. Of course Boodoo, but also Thomasos, whom I never quite understood.Two of Thomasos' assignments caused a stir among us on the campus, one was "Stop Thief". The other, was "A mendicant".

"Stop thief" made the rounds outside of class as a kind of Mausica special.

But when Thomasos gave us the assignment of drawing a "mendicant", many of us, including me, did not know, or had never heard about, a mendicant. I had never heard the word, and in Marabella where I grew up I dont think we had mendicants. So many of us did not know what to draw.

Mendicant was a first year assignment, but second years in Mayfair and Haven got on to it, and soon it got into the hostel lexicon, with phonetic adjustments.  Mendicant became a label you could affix to a man. You could say to a man, "you is a mendicant or what?"  Men like Beck, Bullock, Sto, Geezmo, Braf, revelled in this.

I had Thomasos as supervisor for student practice. On the Friday of student teaching, as all may remember, we were back at lunch, and the supervisors were supposed to spend the afternoon  going over the week's experiences with their charges. This of course is where people like Cuffie excelled. But Thomasos was candid about this, and told our group he did not know what he was supposed to do. He walked down the corridor and saw Cuffie and others in front of their groups, in animated posture.

When he came to our group he said, memorably, "all these lecturers, talking, talking, teaching teaching, what are they talking about?"

I remember him vividly. There was an honesty about this that was striking. Maybe specialist lecturers like him should not have been given that role.....maybe it should have been left to those more steeped in teaching methods and classroom management. People like the Cuff, Hordatt, and one or two others.

Scratchie.

Theodore Lewis 69

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-OCT-29

2021-OCT-29-0930Hrs

I am a bit of an expert on prostate cancer...having had a prostatectomy back in 2002 when I was 55. There is a better option now especially the DaVinci robotics surgery, which is nerve sparing.

Severed nerves is the risk in this surgery.  But without the surgery the options are bleak. Although I know someone from Marabella who, like the late Lord Shorty, tried bush tea. He too is now "late".

Prostate cancer leaves you with no bargain really, and some men risk death by avoiding surgery which they believe would emasculate them.

Selwyn Cudjoe had a prostatectomy and wrote a hilarious account of its effects on him in one of his columns. His main point was that he is alive, though a somewhat softer man.

This is the disease that took the lives of Lloyd Best, Carol Keller, and Keith Smith. Large men.

It leaves you between a rock and a hard place. Or something like that.

The local problem is that there is a shortage of urologists. Sawh is the big guy, but Carol complained bitterly about him.

I have heard from Dr. Strisiver my General doctor at St Augustine private hospital that they have the da Vinci option at the hospital.

Brachy therapy is another option, radiation seeds planted....but that depends on how close is the cancer to the skin of the prostate.

Scratchie.

Theodore Lewis 69

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS

2021-OCT-28-0750Hrs

Keep up the good work Errol.

Scratchy's 330 +330=660 brought back memories to when there were moves to raise the salaries to $380.

Lord Lester (Osuna) sang a calypso with  back-up singers Everard Bobb, Ricardo Hospedales and myself. (apply double entendre profusely to chorus below)

Bring back the three thirty

We doh want no more three eighty

We want back the three thirty

Leh we run by Mrs Cuffie

Valerie telling Happy

Boy doh bother with she

With your three thirty and my three thirty

Six thirty for you and me.

On another note.

Scratchy, your article in yesterday's Express was an interesting and thought provoking one. A walk back in time to the present. I hope this signals a much awaited return to that newspaper.

Finbar

70-72

Finbar Ryan 72

RE: Thanks to all those who assisted and those who participated in Mausica 1971 -'73 Reunion.

2021-OCT-25-1213Hrs

Many thanks to all Mausicans and guests who participated in our 1971 – ’73 Entry into Mausica Teachers College 50th Anniversary Celebrations. A special “Thank You” to our  Mathematics lecturer Mrs. Patricia Briggs, to our first year’s, facilitator brother Howard Spencer, and sister radio announcer/artiste with the golden voice Jemma Jordan, and our year group sister Janice James Quamina for her exclusive, informative and interesting video, together with artistes Xavier Strings and Johann Chuckaree  for their entertaining videos. We are also very grateful to our united team/ Committee members :

3 Pats:- Aqui Abraham, Kalloo Chuckaree, and Phelps-Scott

2 Glorias:-  Griffith Vitales, and Bernard Webb

3 J s:- Janice James-Quamina, Jemma Jordan and Jennifer Jackson David

And Everette Browne, Denzil Walker and Howard Spencer.

We received lots of compliments and it was a pleasure getting in touch with brothers and sisters especially those that we had not seen or heard in many years. Thanks to all. I cannot mention every name of those present or assisted behind the scenes but special mention and sincere thanks to Howard’s family- his wife our sister Myrtle and their son and those who sent us pictures and videos, cds and supportive prayers and well wishes.

We cherish and savour these memories, for they will not happen again with the same/ exact group of people in the same place here on earth.  We would have liked to have all our brothers and sisters with us, but this was not humanly possible. We identified all of the one hundred and eleven students who entered Mausica Teachers College in Trinidad and Tobago In 1971. However we hope to seek and find those who are still alive. For we are our brother’s keeper. R.I.P to all those who have passed on.

Kudos to all Mausicans on Facebook, Messenger, What’s App, no device but everywhere.  Praise and thank God for all and for God’s favour in leading us to a successful reunion for the common good. Amen.

Yours Sincerely,

Patricia Phelps-Scott on behalf of the team.

Patricia Phelps-Scott 73

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-SEP-17

2021-SEP-23-0844Hrs

I don't know if it was the same highway. We were at the start of the project in Mhadia. When we went to Lethem, we went across to Brazil in a dugout canoe. When I sat in the canoe, the water reached the top of the boat. Carlton asked me if I can swim. When I told him no, he got out of the canoe and came across later. He was still in time to play football against the Brazilian soldiers, whose camp we went to.

Another experience in Lethem. One night rain fell, and we were bitten by some flies that the rain had disturbed. The Kaboro fly. They bit us through our hammocks.

Garth Nicholas 71

Re: Fwd: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-SEP-17

2021-SEP-18-0533Hrs

Hi all,

It is with sadness that we mourn the passing of another Mausican. I met her years ago at a workshop and can attest to her professionalism. I didn't know she was a Mausican. May her soul rest in peace and may there be comfort for her relatives.

Barbara Mellowes 66

Re: MAUSICA WEEKLY EMAILS 2021-SEP-10

2021-SEP-10-1804Hrs

A few years ago I was in Guyana and took a maxi taxi (15 seater) that went from Georgetown through the forest, through a dirt track from Linden to Lethem on the Brazilian border and was able to walk across the border to Brazil and then take a bus to Boa Vista. I do not know if it is the same road that my fellow Mausicans helped build. Thank you. On the way back I had to sleep in a hammock in the forest. What a memorable journey that was!

Felix Edinborough 65