School Opening Crisis

Gladys and I vacationed in Macao from September 3 to 8. We attended the 7:45 am Mass at St. Joseph church in Senado Real every day. On September 7 after mass, we had breakfast at the fast food chain, Subway in front of the Colegio Diocesano de San Jose nursery school. From our table, we saw adults and children entering the nursery gate. Next to our table were some Macanese elderly who spoke English.

They were laughing so we asked what was funny. They pointed to the crowd fronting the school gate and explained. It was the third day of the school opening. While most children went in sleepily, silently, anxiously, and mournfully, some were crying, shouting and holding onto their Lola, Pa and Ma, one son was crying, hugging papa who kept saying “school is good for you.” The son shouted, “if it is good, you go in. I want mama.”

Another scenario was a girl holding onto Lola, crying “The room, my classmates smell bad.” Another boy hugging Mama shouted, “the woman in the room is an ugly old witch with angry looks.” Boy entering the gate “Ma, you sure Donald Duck is here.” Boy to Pa, “Ma the ninja turtles are not in the room. Let’s go home.”

Some twin girls crying to Lola “Guamah, they’ll close the door, we can’t get out.” And lastly, there was a fat boy, crying, shouting, holding on to the gate, then the stair rails said “Guamah, Guamah, Let’s go home.”

In 1945 I was a “saling pusa” at the St. Peter School which was below the old convent attached to the old San Pedro church. So, what else is new?