Fabian McKenzie, now a student at Mico Teachers' College, Marescaux Road in Kingston is focused on the goals ahead. - WINSTON SILL /FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
EVERYONE HAS a story they say; no matter who you are. Take quiet and unassuming Fabian McKenzie for instance.
From the rural St. Andrew community of Lunafield (Border, Lawrence Tavern areas), there aren't any pipes, so the water residents get comes from springs.
"It's an agriculture based community. Mom and dad were very poor. Sometimes we didn't have lunch or school books," he remembers. His father was a farmer and mason while his mother was a butcher. The house in which he and three other siblings lived with their parents was made of wood and sat on stilts. There was only one room to suffice for all six.
EARNING A LITTLE MONEY
Fabian made a little money for himself fetching water for other persons in the area. The $10 he made could only buy a little food.
Though poor, the family found happiness together. But life has a nasty habit of kicking you in the ribs when you're already on the ground. Fabian lost both parents within two weeks of each other. His father succumbed to pneumonia, while his mother lost her fight with cancer; Fabian was merely 11 years old.
"I didn't even understand it fully. But I was asking God why? In my innocence I wasn't sure what was happening," he says. The family was then split up as relatives took charge of different wards. Fabian moved in with one of his uncles in Unity. Life was a little better but it would begin to take shape when he began teaching.
TEACHING
Fabian never intended to be a teacher. He had set his sights on soaring the skies as a pilot. For the former head boy of Oberlin High School, the challenge of financing a tertiary level education back then was too great. He had small jobs at the Jamaica Theological Seminary and the Ministry of Agriculture. But he started teaching at his church, Peat Hill Seventh-day Adventist where he held Mathematics and Computer Technology classes for both adults and children.
"People used to come for help with Mathematics and so I thought, 'let's have a class on Sunday evening," he explained. Despite not having any formal skills, his 'class' soon grew and would have as many as 20 persons.
"I did not know anything about lesson plans," he laughed. "I just tried to carry it (the information) across in my style. Before teaching a concept, I asked them how they would solve it and then showed them the right way".
Fabian has been teaching Grade Four at another alma mater, Paisley All Age since 2002. This is his first year at Mico Teachers' College and already there are challenges. He works a full day at school and then attends classes from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m on Fridays. The bus ride is long (when he can find one going to Border), and arduous. But he keeps going.
SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
"Teaching gives you a sense of accomplishment when you've helped someone. It's not the financial reward, it's to see that you're assisting in nation building," he reasons. What little pay he gets mostly goes to the utilities, which doesn't leave much. But he still puts aside his tithe offering. It is this strong faith that has kept him afloat. He imparts this to the young people to whom he ministers, both in the classroom and the church.
"I'm from the same community so I show them that though we are poor, we can hold our heads up and achieve," he says. The Mico programme has given him new methods of bringing across his knowledge. He wants to get the education degree after his teaching diploma but the so-called better schools won't get his services.
"I want to stay (at Paisley) and give back to my community and my school," he affirms.
