– says Linden teens of those daily commutes to, from school in GT

IMAGINE having to wake up three hours earlier than your peers to prepare for school and then having to endure a close to two-hour bus ride from one town to another, just to get an education at a top-ranking high school in the country.

Bleary-eyed, tired and exhausted were just some of the adjectives used by the hundreds of students who journeyed every day from Linden to attend school in Georgetown to describe their daily routine.

After realising the growing number of children who were making this journey daily from the mining town to the city, minibus owners decided to offer their services at a cost of $20,000 a head per month.

But while “bussing” the children to school in town has turned out to be a lucrative venture for minibus owners, it is the novelty of it all and the adventure that their young charges would relish most.

Many did this for the entire five-year stint at high school,and recently sat the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

Wainwright Marshall, who attended St Joseph High and wrote 13 subjects, said that for most of the five years, travelling more than 65 miles twice a day was very hard, especially when he entered fifth form and the workload became heavier.

The hardest part for him, as it was for the rest of the students, was getting up early, and for this he has his mother, Debra Marshall, to thank because many mornings he would have missed the bus were it not for her.

READY AND WAITING
He had to be ready and waiting for the bus by 06:30hrs, and many times had to do a “Usain Bolt” to be at the pick-up location on time.

After school, the bus would make the return journey around 18:00hrs. By then his poor body would be so drained it was an effort to carry on, but because he was determined to succeed, he mustered the strength to complete his assignments and put in some revision before catching some sleep.

When it was time for him to attend lessons and practise labs, it got worse, since many a time he would miss the bus back home and have to travel up to Linden late at nights, sometimes reaching home around 22:00hrs.

“Mom would hope that I reach home that time, because she couldn’t get to sleep. And even that late, I still had to push in the extra work,” Wainwright related.
“I had to use those alarms from those small phones, turn up the volume and then plug it into the speaker, so when it went off, the whole house used to be hearing it,” he jocularly recalled.

“And if that didn’t wake me up, the screams of mommy to turn it off would, because the whole house used to make noise.”

The fifth-former is elated that he excelled at his 13 subjects, despite having to face the many hurdles he did. He is also appreciative of the many sacrifices his parents made, because it was hard on them financially as well. “I would like to give thanks to God and to my parents, and for all those like my uncle who supported me,” Wainwright said in closing.

Serena Roberts of Queen’s College who wrote 12 subjects, also travelled every day from Linden for school. Like Wainwright, her biggest challenge was waking up early, and even after doing it for five years, she never really got accustomed doing it.
She made up for the loss of sleep, however, by sleeping throughout the journey to Georgetown, as most of the other students did.

THE ONE ADVANTAGE
But when the need arose, however, she would use the time on the way to school to study and complete assignments. “That was one advantage for me,” Serena said, adding:
“In the mornings, I would do subjects that had more notes because everyone was sleeping and it was quiet, but in the afternoons, I would revise lighter subjects, since it was noisier.”
Another challenge was having to leave earlier some days to attend morning lessons in Georgetown, so instead of waking up at 05:30hrs, she would now wake up at 04:00hrs to catch an earlier bus. The one thing travelling daily has taught her, Serena said, is not to procrastinate and to have a schedule so as to strategise how best she can use the free time remaining from travelling long hours to do some work.

She is extremely grateful to her parents, whom she said has to face the financial challenges associated with sending her to school in town.

“It’s not like I could have come home for snacks or so; I had to get money for snacks every day, and it was long hours,” Serena said. “So, even though it didn’t take much of a toll on me, I knew it took a toll on them and I’m grateful.”

She is also grateful to her contract driver and her friends who travelled the bus with her over the five years. “It was never boring on the bus,” she said.