Photos by Nathaniel Stewart
LEFT: Residents of Fenceside view a street light in their community, following the commissioning of electricity there by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller on Friday.
RIGHT: Adassa Nelson, 70, is happy upon receiving electricity in her community of Fenceside in Clarendon.

Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

THE MOON lights up the skies above Fenceside, in Jericho, North Clarendon, and the scent of sugar cane sweetens the air.

Life in this part of the world is not all hunky-dory. Residents clamour for water, good roads and, prior to Friday, electricity.

Today in Fenceside, children, and adults alike, are looking up at a street light in their community for the first time.

Fenceside is represented by Member of Parliament Horace Dalley. Political observers say Dalley, who has been MP since 1993, is in hot water, and thatan epic ballot-by-ballot fight looms with his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) rival, Laurie Broderick, for the seat.

Getting attention

Fenceside is a part of the eight per cent of the country that, prior to Friday, has been without electricity.

Now that the election nears, places like these - which have been deprived of basic amenities - are getting great political attention.

On Friday, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, on a tour of the constituency, along with Mr. Dalley, flicked the switch on, and there was light in these communities for the first time.

"Promise made, promise delivered," the Prime Minister later said at a mass meeting in Braes Head.

For Karen Smith, a 36-year-old resident, the electricity coming to the community is long overdue.

"Without it (electricity), we were just like animals," she tells The Sunday Gleaner.

"For a very nice place like this, we should have had light long time," Smith adds.

Other means of lighting

Prior to electricity coming to Fenceside, Adassa Nelson, a 70-year-old woman, says they depended not just on kerosene lamps and candles, but they often had to find other ingenious lighting methods.

"Mi born and grow here and mi neva know if mi woulda live fi get light," Ms. Nelson says.

Her brother died last year at age 84 and he, like many deceased persons from the community, never experienced electricity there.

"Mi affi gi thanks. If mi even die now, an di (funeral) parlour man come, dem can have light fi mek likkle singing," Nelson says with a giggle.

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com