Mill bank memories: Slow pace to back-to-school
Published: Sunday | August 30, 2009
Winsome Leslie (left) and Sharon Carr (right) give a few girls from the community a lesson in dressmaking. The group was gathered at the New Testament Assembly Church in Mill Bank, Portland, for a one-week summer school. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Back-to-school activities for some of the children living in the Rio Grande Valley in Portland have been less exciting this year.
For many, almost 40, there will be no mother to starch and iron their new uniforms and to see them off bright and early Monday morning.
For others, the enjoyment of unwrapping a brand new pair of school shoes or a school bag will be missing.
With the new school term set to begin shortly, some residents of the rustic community told The Sunday Gleaner that back-to-school preparations had been quite slow.
"Mi mother nuh buy nutten fi mi go back a school yet, cause she nuh have the money," 15-year-old Ayan Telfer said, as he skilfully balanced an old rusty pot filled with banana and breadfruit peel atop his small head.
pig-feeding trip
Telfer and his cousin, Brandon Brown, were making the trek from their home in Cornwall Barracks to Comfort Castle to feed Telfer's father's young pig.
His older brother, Faston Telfer, died in the massive Dam Bridge accident last year. Luckily, his mother, Joyce Whyte, survived.
However, even eight months after the crash, Whyte still has flashbacks and nightmares about the incident.
This has also affected her financial stability as she admitted to The Sunday Gleaner that since the accident, she had not boarded another market truck.
"Before mi meet inna the accident, I would always mek sure mi children prepare fi go back to school," she said. "Mi woulda go a market and mek sure mi buy one-one things, so by time school open, dem woulda have everything dem need."
Forty-one-year-old Verone Cochrane, a resident of Cornwall Barracks, who also survived the crash, agreed that since the incident, life had been a constant struggle. Cochrane has six children, all below 16 years old, who will be going back to school this year.
Just last month, the Government provided the women with uniform material for their sons, but although they are grateful for the assistance, they admitted that they did not have the money to pay to have the uniforms made.
Cochrane has also not been back to the market since December 19, due to a broken shoulder, which she said still affects her.
athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com
