If you’re reading this, then you made it past 2020, which will likely be a year that many of us will never forget.
With the challenges of the past year not quite yet out of sight – the fear and uncertainty of living during a pandemic, the deaths of loved ones, layoffs, new restrictions and arguably the most divisive elections in recent memory – we asked a number of persons to tell us what helped them get through it all.
Love
For Kumarie Lall, the Deputy Headmistress (DHM) of St. Joseph High, the answer was love. Lall said it was her love for what she does that kept her going. If she didn’t love her job, she said, she doesn’t know how she would have stayed motivated. “I’ve always had a love for children and I feel that when you do things genuinely you enjoy it. I… have been successful in this profession only because of my love for my students. Even when I have my down days, just knowing that I have someone depending on me is enough motivation for me,” Lall told Stabroek Weekend.
The start of the New Year had found Lall still settling in at the school, having been transferred from Anna Regina Multilateral Secondary School in September, 2019. Lall was enjoying her new experience of the different culture, learning about the city life and getting to know her colleagues and students when Guyana’s general elections were held, giving way to a five-month long political impasse, amidst the backdrop of the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Easter Term started off well and we celebrated a week of culture and then we had Mash then from the time elections come in March, the children start to stay away and the week that they decided to come back to school was when we found out about patient zero who contracted COVID… and by the following Monday we stayed at home,” Lall said.
She noted that by the time, school was eventually reopened for students sitting CSEC and CAPE, every teacher and child involved had adopted a new way of living and socialising with each other. Despite the pandemic, it seems each teacher and student were even more self-driven in 2020 as the school, she said, saw 100% matriculation for the first time ever in the school’s history.
In September, in-class learning resumed for students of Grades 10, 11 and 12, who were required to return to school as per normal.
Lall shared that she lived in fear daily of whether she would contracted the virus. Close to the end of the Christmas Term, Lall noted, a student whose mother works at a hospital tested positive for the virus, which led to other teachers and students getting tested but no one else was confirmed as being COVID-19 positive.
A simple thing such as the itching of her throat now has her gargling with salt water and a rise in temperature sees her reaching for Tylenol. Aside from the physical effects, the pandemic, she said, has affected her psychologically.
At 50y ears old, Lall said, understanding to use technology was a challenge she had to overcome and overcome quickly. She noted that being the DHM meant that she was added to each of the different virtual groups. Parents and students who got her number in these groups would often individually reach out to her from time to time for assistance pertaining to school.
It was through this means that she learnt many of her students were not happy being at home. “Many children keep asking when school reopening and would say that they are not happy at home. When you ask them to put on the camera so that you could see them, they say they can’t put on the camera because of the home situation. That really made me sad, to know that these children, although they are at home, they are not happy. The school is a safe haven for many of these children. Few children would tell you that they like the online school and usually these are the children who have the support of their parents. It was a time when being an administrator, you had to be more understanding and show more empathy,” she said.
Dreams
What has kept Bishops’ High Sixth Form student Kriston Smith is her dream of one day becoming a lawyer.
Last year, Smith, a former student of Zeeburg Secondary School, sat the CSEC exams. She said school closed several months before she sat the exams, during which time she was still working on her school-based assessments (SBAs) and did not have the proper guidance of her teachers.
When school reopened just weeks prior to the examinations, Smith said she struggled like all of her peers with keeping her facemask on. They did this as well as maintain physical distance from each other but for many children they only did so within the confines of the classrooms. As soon as they were out of school, facemasks were pulled down and they walked around together in groups. Asked whether she was one to do so, the teen said that she was not and added that as her mother is very strict, she was expected to get home immediately following school.
Many persons, she noted, have become comfortable with the pandemic and are not concerned enough to be cautious. “It was hard to focus or breathe properly with facemasks on. Some of us were way behind and had to catch up. It was hard because most of our CAPE work, we had to do through online platforms. I learn better when I’m in a classroom setting. When you’re at home, and class is in session, and there are so many distractions in your home, it’s really hard to concentrate. I keep trying because I want to be a lawyer,” Smith said.
During the time she was sitting her CSEC exams, the 17-year-old also entered into the Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship Digital University Programme along with 15 other girls. Smith last year topped the programme and has secured herself a spot in this year’s Miss Guyana Teen Scholarship Pageant, where she has the chance of winning a $400,000 scholarship.
Faith
The New Year has found Hits and Jams 94.1 Boom FM radio host Feliz Robertson counting her blessings. “2020 was a very difficult year for all of us. That was the only equalizer—is that everyone experienced some type of hardship. They may have lost something, there were so many losses. Even if you didn’t lose someone, you lost something. We lost so much time. I really enjoyed Christmas on a different level [last] year because it had been so many months since before I was able to see my siblings together,” she said.
Among the many things she is grateful for is that fact that she is among those who still have jobs. The radio station, she shared, lost advertising and though no one was laid off, she and her other colleagues saw pay cuts. “We’re also grateful for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. It was because of them that I think we still survived and got some contracts,” Robertson said.
She also confided that with the pay cut, she was certain then that she’d have to stop paying all of her bills except for her electricity bill but was surprised when she somehow still managed to pay them all and save, for which she gives all credit to God.
A single mother of a son who sat the National Grade Six Examinations last year, the broadcaster said it was challenging when it came to juggling work and home schooling. She said that she think what made it easier for her was the fact that she has a responsible son who ensured that he finished his school work by the time she got home. Her internet connection, she noted, is not the best but she was happy to have a landlord who was kind enough to share his connection so that her son could attend his online class sessions.
“My faith in Jesus Christ was what kept me going. If it wasn’t for my faith in the Lord—and I’m not a perfect Christian by any standards but do know more this year that God truly does love us and if we trust him, everything will work out. Going to work, I was nervous because you’re working with different people, you don’t know if somebody might have been exposed. I, too, was apparently exposed to a young man of a company I was working on an ad with who tested positive for COVID. They called me and said this person tested positive and I needed to get tested too and I said ‘No, this can’t happen to me’ but I went to Eureka, got tested and – praise God – I was negative,” Robertson noted.
Among her many hardships last year, Robertson said, was the loss of her 90-year-old grandmother. Her grandmother passed away in the US – though not from the virus – and it was really hard for her not to be able to attend her funeral because of the pandemic. As a girl growing up in Mahaicony, she and her other siblings spent many afternoons after school at her grandmother.
Shortly before Christmas, Robertson and two other friends, “Monique and Nicole,” opened their online gift shop, called ‘Shop Just Because’. Within the short time of being launched, half of the business’ products have been sold. “Nothing happens without faith in God. If you walk about this life and you’re just thinking negative, saying ‘nothing will ever happen,’ nothing will ever happen… you have to think positive. I realized that [last] year, the amount of fear I had, and I just had to say, ‘I am going to do this and I’m going to do well at it,’” said Robertson.
“We made it to the end of this year and all we can do is wish for the best, the absolute best for 2021. When I told people ‘Happy New Year’s’… I meant it with every fiber of my being. I have many plans for this year… More than anything, I plan to put myself out there more and do more of the things I’ve been fearful of doing….”
Dr Carlin Hanoman, of Max Hanoman Medical Centre, said her clinic was significantly impacted by the pandemic. “There was not enough PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) because they were supplying most of it to the public institutions. It was very scarce for us, being a private institutions and prices went up,” she said but this was only the beginning of her problems.
Hanoman said she lost staff because the clinic was not able to provide everyone with a risk allowance. It was a difficult time, she said. While she lost staff, they were nonetheless able to hire new employees. The cost of running the clinic also increased as the prices for saintizng products and medications went up. The woman shared that in spite of all of this, they pushed onwards knowing that their services will help those in need of it and may very well save someone’s life.
For photographer, Ken Bacchus, sales skyrocketed as persons were instructed not to socially gather and, therefore, many persons reached out to him for photoshoots with their loved ones.
Aside from the financial aspect of how he was impacted, Bacchus felt the negative effects of the pandemic socially as many of his relatives were abroad and travel was restricted. This affected him emotionally. “Whenever I felt like this, I spent my time editing photos or watching Netflix. What was my motivation was the hope I had that this (the pandemic) is just a phase and is temporary. The pandemic has also helped me to realize that I shouldn’t take anything for granted,” said Bacchus.
