My Kindergarten

Watercolor impression of our schoolyard back in 1956

It was back in 1956 when I started my scholastic career that would end 21 years later, in my last year at the Major Seminary, the year of Ordination, 1977. My recollections of my first school are still very vivid, and 2 years ago I painted this scene from our playground at the Franciscan Sisters Nursery/Kindergarten school, located at St Julian’s Hill, in the convent named for St Vincent De Paul, adjacent to a hilly road known as Tal-Kirxa. Many of my childhood friends were to become constant companions and classmates even into our Grade School, which was called the St Julian’s Primary School, from Stage 1 to Stage 6. Our Kindergarten teachers were all nuns, dressed in full habit, and all we could see was their face, basically from their eyebrows to their chin. Even their ears were covered which made me wonder how they ever heard us! I have very fond memories of that school, and tomorrow you will meet my teacher, whom I was able to trace again back in 1998.