IT took more than 24 hours of travelling by bus from Biloxi, Mississippi for 47 Jamaican hotel workers to get on a flight in Miami to Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport. But despite the journey and the experience of the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, the workers returned home with high spirits. Another 85 arrived in Montego Bay.

“We have to give God thanks because God is so good and we have to thank him for everything,” said Steven Francis, who was the first person out of Customs last night. “It was rough in the shelter we just fight it through. It was worse than (Hurricane) Gilbert, it mash up everything down there.”

Francis, who lives in Kingston, said he was working in Biloxi for seven months before the hurricane struck.

He said that now that he is home he will wait on instructions from the Ministry of Labour, but he will definitely be going back to work in a hotel as soon as possible.

Yesterday, the 132 hotel workers had to take three buses, one which broke down. They were also forced to detour on route to Miami as a bridge had collapsed, which added another hour to their travelling time and forced Labour Minister Horace Dalley to ask Air Jamaica for a one-hour wait – just to get the Jamaican workers home.

The workers were greeted at the airport in Kingston by Alvin McIntosh, permanent secretary in the labour ministry. McIntosh said another 227 workers are expected to arrive in the island this morning.

Doreen Griffiths of Hanover said she spent four days in a shelter following the passage of Katrina and described her experience as difficult.

“It was really hard. We had to sleep on the floor and there were a lot of people there not smelling good, but we survived and we thank God,” she said. “I feel really good coming home.”

Some of the workers from the Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino, however, complained about their working conditions, despite their joy of returning home.

Cerea Samuels said her pay for the two weeks before the hurricane was docked severely leaving her with only 44 cents, which is drastically lower that her regular pay of almost $200 per fortnight.

“I am ashamed of Beau Rivage. Will never go back there,” she said. “When I look at my paycheque I going back with 44 cents. Nobody don’t say anything to us all them tell is that they want them uniform.”

Despite all of this most of the workers said that they had to find creative ways to survive until help arrived. One worker told the Observer that they cook food on wood fire to feed many of their colleagues.

-davidsont@jamaicaobserver.com