It’s the first day of school and the land is awash with colours.
Crisp shirts and well-seamed trousers compete for admiration with stiff skirts and kimonos and boots and shoes and socks of every kind.
The book bags are a pageant in themselves. They are pushed, pulled, wheeled, dragged, hoisted, piggybacked and slung with the care given to puppies or birthday gifts.
Notebooks, textbooks, assorted pens and pencils, the inescapable erasers and the ever present cellphones present themselves impeccably. And dainty little food containers wrapped in the best towels will be displayed and shared later on.
Fussy parents, guardians, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings and friends accompany the “future” of our country with big hopes and even bigger dreams. It really does take a village.
The wide smiles and big laughs hang side by side with the loud screams from frightened little boys and girls. Love struck parents face tough decisions. And teachers like Ms. Williams of St. Agnes Primary School, step in to save the day.
It’s the first day of school. Notebooks are clean and pencils are well sharpened. Entire legacies are handed over to unsuspecting boys and girls. Friendships will begin today that may endure for a lifetime. And mothers all around are so relieved.