Elaine White | ✔️

2

September 22nd, 1966

It's been a week since I arrived at the school, and things have only gotten worse since I've arrived. The nuns wake us up so early in the mornings, banging things together to make noise and screaming in languages we just don't understand. It's terrifying. I've learned to simply follow what the other girls do, and it hasn't seemed to fail me yet. When the girls stand up, I do too. When they pull out their bible and start reading, so do I.

Every day starts out the same. We wake up and quickly get dressed in our clothes. Our hair is short and quick to fix. Every morning, we have to make our beds, put away our clothes, and clean up the washrooms once everyone is done washing and brushing their teeth.

On Sundays, there is even more work to do. The chores vary from person to person. Some children would scrub the floor, some would clean the washrooms, and other would do yard work. The girls always had more "homey" tasks, while the boys got more of the outdoor work. I envy them for that. While I clean the washrooms alongside two other girls at the school, I can sometimes see a few of the boys feeding and brushing the horses outside the window. I can remember doing the same thing every day back home with my dad. I don't get why I'm not allowed to do that too.

After chores are done, we go for morning Mass in the chapel. I always look forward to morning Mass, because it's the only time I can see Daniel. He sits in the row across from me. We aren't allowed to talk to each other, but I always make sure to wave to him. Usually, I'll get a wave back in return, but sometimes I don't think he sees me over all the other kids between us.

After Mass, we head inside for breakfast. It's the same thing every day; sticky, flavourless porridge, a slice of bread, and a glass of milk. It' taking me awhile to get used to the food here. It's so different from what we used to eat at home, and with each new kid, I can see I'm not the only one to notice the difference. I asked one of the older girls if the food ever changes. She said she hasn't seen it yet, and she's been here a while, so I think I'm out of luck in that regard.

After breakfast, we all make our way to our respective classes. For me, I start with religion. We spend our time reciting prayers, reading the Bible, and memorizing all the rules that come with it. The class is maybe an hour long. After that, we have about two hours worth of regular classes. We mainly work on our language skills; reading, writing and speaking, but sometimes we get to work on math. I love math. Something about numbers just makes them so... simple to me. Math is right up there with morning Mass on the list of my favourite parts of the day. My first two classes have boys and girls in them, but this changes when I go to my afternoon classes.

All the girls go to classes based on sewing, laundry, cooking and cleaning. The boys, on the other hand, get classes about farming, tending to the land, shoe repair, and carpentry. They seem to get all the fun things. I have learned to deal with it though. It's not that I hate my classes, but I can't help but to want to join them. Sometimes I can hear their classes when we leave the door open. Some of the things they learn... it sounds so interesting, but I can't join them, I know that. I'm a girl, so I have to learn the same things all the other girls do. I have to do the same things all the other girls do.

After classes, we have study hour and then supper. Once we have all eaten, all the girls go to help clean up and wash the dishes. Some of the girls will start making tomorrow's breakfast instead of cleaning up. I never get asked to help cook...

Once everything is finished, we get a little time to use to socialize. Nothing long though. It always feels like just a few minutes after we start having some fun, the nuns come and rush us off to our beds for prayer. After prayer, all the girls have to hurry into our beds, unless you want to be yelled at for being too slow.

Everything considered, our days are so similar that they seem to blur together. It's such a huge difference from back home. There, we didn't have such a tight schedule, things just seemed so much more natural.

I don't like it here much, but I'm trying my best to just deal with my situation as it is. Nevertheless, I really hope I'll get to go home soon.

Elaine White