Edith Roller – May 18, 1978 – Thursday

Transcription || PDF from


Laura wakes Patty up in the morning before she leaves but Patty goes back to sleep. I called her again when I got up at 7.30. I left the cottage at 7.45 and she wasn’t up yet. Annie B told me later she went up to the loft and called her half an hour later but that she left before Patty did. I saw Patty eating her breakfast at 8.45 and told her she was late to school which starts at 8.30. She said, “Peter (Wotherspoon) knows where I am”. She said she had registered for her medications.

Worked on my journal.

We had the biggest rain we have had since my arrival. It rained heavily most of the day. I have never found my raincoat. I have my rain hat and boots and wore a piece of plastic around my shoulders. If my head and feet are dry, I don’t care if I get wet on other parts of my body but clothing is hard to dry in this weather.

Had lunch and went to adult class at 12.15. Attendance was down on account of the weather no doubt. I commented on what I had learned last night, that some are attending my class though they prefer Barbara’s because Jim told them to go to my class. I told them to attend the one they preferred and that I probably would give my class at 12.00, as Barbara teaches at 1.00. I plan to give them a written unsigned questionnaire tomorrow.

The remainder of the period we played a blackboard game combining practice in phonetics and practice in word usage. Kay Rosas helped a little. I had learned Marcy and other counselors placed importance on this for her rehabilitation so I put some pressure on her. Lore Parris who usually helped me pass books, paper and pencils was not present today. I was late leaving the class.

I returned to the cottage. I didn’t have time for my shower so I went to the Medical Department and gave them a briefing on the news. They were very busy and not many attended, but I could make myself heard. I was also better organized and covered only three items thoroughly, three or four others in less depth.

I took my shower. I had lost my plastic, so my clothes got wet.  Though the rain subsided, I could not meet my first period class in the new tent, which leaks. We met in the pavilion. I gave them a spelling test on some of the 465 most frequently used words, after time for study.

I also moved the second period class, the advanced language arts group, to the pavilion as I planned to talk with them about yesterday’s experiment and it is too noisy in the school tent. The class and I agreed on those who really enjoyed and participated in yesterday’s black poetry reading but I could not engender much discussion from those who did homework for other classes or paid no attention to the reading. I told the class my plan to give them greater responsibility in running the class and choosing material. I started to read the objectives for their form three in the Guyanese curriculum which interested them. They asked for an explanation of “figurative language” and I spent considerable time talking about metaphors. They chose Anita March as their chairperson for the experiment, to start the week after next, in their taking a more active roll in the class.

Brought my dinner plate to the teachers meeting. We talked to a few students who had given trouble.

We had a meeting of the political enlightenment teachers. Jim had told us to draft another test to include the Soviet films, “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and the news. There was some conflict about the meeting time, the usual arguments and lack of order in drawing up the questions and intensified bad feelings between Tish and Rob Christian, but we finally succeeded in writing ten questions for those under 65 and modifications of the questions for seniors.

I had been trying for several days to get, from Vernetta Christian, another list of those who have to take the second political enlightenment class after the regular one, as Bob Rankin and I lost the list we had last week. I accompanied Rob Christian home to get it.

On arriving home I had a conversation with Inez, Annie B. and Irra. We first talked about items we would have brought to Jonestown if we had known what was needed. Then I answered questions of Inez and Irra about particular news items.

I read The Man Who Cried I Am for a few minutes.

I went to bed at 11.00.