Clean People of T&T #5: When the spirit moves you... to be clean

Clean Person: Anderson, 13, Secondary School student

My mother tells me to be clean, or else I’ll get sick. “cleanliness is next to godliness”, she says. I feel she’s lying because none of the other fellas seem to get sick at all.

Some of them don’t wash their hands in the bathroom, then they want to take my racket to play table tennis. It’s all sticky, when I get it back. The other day Marc, a boy in my class, was eating pholurie with tamarind sauce, and he asked me for my pen to get some girls number. The worst was when a small tree frog was outside of the classroom door, and Dexter caught it barehanded, and put it into a jar. He then grabbed my phone, took a picture of it, then told me to send it to his Snapchat.

My mother told me to “Cover myself in faith”, so that my spirit will be clean in school. So, not knowing what that means, I started drawing the sign of the Cross on all my stuff. My phone, my bag, my stationery case, even my racket. Now everyone thinks I’m covered with the “Holy Spirit” and that I’m going to be a priest when I grow up. At least now they don’t take my stuff anymore.

My teacher says that she’s worried, but at least my things aren’t dirty anymore... and that’s fine with me.

Are we teaching our youth enough about hygiene and health? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.