This soldier paints the fence surrounding the Simon Bolivar monument.

"Smaddy grab di buckit! Tun on di pipe nuh man!" The weighty woman beckoned for water as she held the dry hose up to her eyes.

Two other women dressed in jeans pants and hats were shoveling cement and stones on the sidewalk as a man with a brown cap and dark glasses stood in the shade of a nearby tree, peacefully watching the action unfold. Photographer Ian Allen and I were on Arnold Road in Kingston watching some of the work being done by residents as they prepare for the upcoming Cricket World Cup. Now the entire Kingston Gardens area is abuzz with activity as the event approaches and the men and women who live there are out almost everyday shoveling this and planting that to get the area in tip-top shape in time to greet the thousands of visitors expected to arrive here soon.

Popular song

These workmen and women are busy reconstructing the fence around the National Heroes Park. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

The man with the brown cap, who someone called Winston, grabbed a shovel when he realised he was being watched and went behind the weighty woman. "Woi a cricket time yah now! We ago jump and wine!" he shouted while trying his very best to get the woman to dance with him. "Hello, you nuh see a work we a work?" the woman said, her eyebrows raised. But in no time at all someone was singing a popular song and all the shoveling and mixing gave way to uninhibited gyrations and sexually suggestive movements that would make the most decadent days of the Roman Empire seem like a fairy tale. When that was over with, the work restarted and a man called Thomas walked up. "Yes man. Some of us not into the cricket thing, but we working hard to see that the place is ready," he said.

A few feet away a garage was being renovated. Most zinc fences have been torn down and new concrete ones constructed in their place.

At the Simon Bolivar monument just down the road, a group of Venezuelan soldiers were busy painting and re-tiling the steps leading up to the statue. They didn't speak any English, but that didn't stop a short girl in a purple blouse and braided hair from trying her utmost to speak with the one doing the tiling.

"So is which part unuh come from?" she said, still sucking on what little was left of a bag juice. No answer. "Unuh come pan plane or pan ship?" Still no answer. "When unuh going back?' This time the man muttered something in Spanish and girl raised her eyebrows. "Is which language unuh talk?'

I walked away.

The fence surrounding the National Heroes Park has been torn down and a new one is being built. Anthony, one of the men working on the new structure said he's looking forward to the World Cup. "Bwoy is years mi nuh see so much tings gwaan fi downtown so when it come it must besomething big," he said.

Anthony is about 60 years old and can clearly remember the 'good old days' in Kingston Gardens. "Yes man. First time this place pretty all the time. This was the place to be, man. It was the hottest place in town. When you ready you just walk down to Princess Street and have a drink or go watch a show. When I was a bwoy I used to just go down to di harbour and watch di ship dem a come in," he said. "People say dat when di World Cup start it going to look like those first times when downtown crowded and pretty. I will happy fi see dat again."

An elderly woman walked up and joined Anthony. He introduced her as his sister Faye. "Howdy do?" she said and then cleared her throat. She lives in Kingston Gardens as well and recently her zinc fence was taken down and a brand new concrete fence put in its spot. " I love di World Cup of course. Now people start pick up shovel and broom like when me was likkle. Dis place nuh get nuh clean up in many years and now everybody working together like first time and taking care of their surroundings. Dis World Cup thing is a blessing. Dem should do it every year!" she said.

Women seem to be the muscle behind the labour.

Alvin Lewis (right), a miniature ship-builder, receives a cheque from the Gleaner's Robert Lalah on Tuesday at the newspaper company's North Street offices, downtown Kingston. Mr. Lewis has been suffering from an infection in his right leg and needed to raise $48,000 to purchase special beads that doctors told him would save it from having to be amputated. His story was published in The Gleaner last Friday and two anonymous donors put together to write him a cheque in the full amount. Looks like stories do have happy endings after all. - Andrew Smith/Photography Editor