THE faint wails of a baby and the incessant thump-thump of a machete or axe on hardwood carried on the wind as the visitors gingerly navigated the narrow, bumpy roads leading to Sturge Town, a quiet rural district in North West St Ann.

These distant sounds soon gave way to loud squeals wafting across the playground of the Sturge Town Primary and Junior High School. Robust boys and girls were at play when the Sunday Observer visited the community recently. Others queued to purchase pre-lunch snacks from vendor Lureama Ingram who has been selling on the school compound since 1985. She gently reminded one young customer that he had “forgotten his manners”.

The boy laughed good-naturedly before responding.

“Mawning, Miss,” he said.

“Good morning,” Ingram corrected the youngster.

“We have to insist on good manners, language and behaviour,” Ingram told the Sunday Observer, without looking up from her task of serving and calculating change. The boy whom Ingram had scolded did not forget to utter a hasty “thank you”, before running off with his packet of biscuits.

Ingram was not alone in her push to keep the town’s children “in line”. In fact, it quickly became apparent that every adult was a “parent” in this close-knit community, founded in 1840 by freed slaves, with the assistance of the Baptist church. Sturge Town, said to be the second of about 200 free villages established on the island, was named for Joseph Sturge, a Quaker abolitionist from Birmingham, England.

But 85-year-old Betrice Christie, is worried that the future of the village will not be safe in the hands of the younger generation, who “are lacking” in discipline.

“When I was growing up, children had to obey their parents as well as every adult they came in contact with. This is not the case today,” said Christie.

“Sturge Town gone to the dogs,” she said, her voice laced with annoyance. “We need development in the area – new construction. We also need to plant the land, but laziness taking over; they (some young people) only want to bring down our history to nothing.”

But Christie, Ingram and a number of other residents told the Sunday Observer that they would not stand idly by. “We just have to keep counselling the young people, giving them words of encouragement and helping them to turn their lives around,” said Christie, who was forced to retire from “domestic work” because of failing health.

At age 97, Kathleen Tracey still leads by example. The “sun never catches” her in bed and on the day of our visit, the former dressmaker was repairing one of her dresses.

“Mi string any needle, no matter how fine,” she boasted. “I sew every day now because I have to take in (alter) mi clothes since mi get thin. Yuh si, mi trouble with pressure (hypertension) since 1962, but other than that mi fine,” she explained.

Tracey, whose husband died 35 years ago, said her children now take “very good care” of her. “My husband – he was a tailor – and I had 30 lovely years together and six children (four boys and two girls) but two of the boys died,” she said, comfortably switching from Patois to English.

The sharp, witty senior citizen told the Sunday Observer that she does not believe in waiting for politicians to help.

“You can’t depend on other people to solve your problems; you have to help yourself,” she said.

For Tracey, this means getting up early in the morning to reap pimento from her property, which she bags and sells to buyers. She is assisted by several women from the district.

“We get $50 a pound for the pimento now; this is the first time this year since the price has dipped this low. But we are quite fine.

“You see, the only problems that we have here are the bad roads and no payday. But we have to make our own little payday,” she added with a chuckle.

She told the Sunday Observer that she was currently renovating a house at the front of her property which she plans to rent on completion. She said this would provide her with an additional “payday”.

There is no shortage of enterprise in Sturge Town. For example, the residents recently broke ground for a community centre – the brainchild of a returning resident from the United States of America. “The returning resident is helping with the funding, and we also had a tag drive to help out,” said resident Lavern Green. “We started putting up a wall around the back, and the MP (Othneil Lawrence) also promised to help in whatever way he can. He has been very supportive,” she added.

Earlier this year, Sturge Town placed first in the National Better Environments for Social Transformation (BEST) Competition and Programme for 2008. The community, which took home more than $2 million in cash and prizes, won four sectional prizes, including best community spirit and self-reliance, cultural heritage, most improved agricultural practices and youth development.

Tracey, who has witnessed several changes in Sturge Town, is proud of its accomplishments. “This is a wonderful place to live. We have been lucky; we don’t have a crime problem,” she said.

She believes Christianity has helped her to stay healthy. “I got saved at the age of 12. I am a Christian, not a ‘grease can’ and I get my blessings from helping others,” the fiery senior said. She also attributes her long life to drinking the water from the Marley Spring.”

“It’s the water,” Tracey insisted, “it keeps us young and healthy.”

The spring, which supplies the district with water, was said to have been discovered by a runaway slave named Marley.

Scores of residents in Bamboo are not as fortunate as they have no springs to supply them with “healing waters”. They have to rely on rainfall to fill their tanks or purchase water, which they say is expensive.

Sixty-five-year-old resident Raynes Bennett has a tank which she built from “stones” simply because she could not afford the cost of concrete blocks.

“As long as the rain falls I have water in the piece a tank, but when the drought is on I just have to try and survive until God send me water,”

she said.

Bennett, who has two grandchildren in her care, said sometimes she has to find $7,000 to fill the tank.

“It is hard on me. During the last storm I lost several goats, pigs and chickens, and all now I can’t replace them because I have no income, no husband and no job. I need help.”

Bennett also appealed for help to get her 19-year-old grandson, Liddon Johnson, into college. Johnson, who has won some 36 medals in athletic competitions at the high school level, dreams of competing at the Olympics. He specialises in 100, 200 and 400 metre races.

The frustrated Holmwood Technical graduate said he got accepted to GC Foster College, but could not take up the offer as he could not afford the $160,000 tuition fee. He is desperate to get back in the classroom.

“Bolt inspired me to do more, and he made me see that I can aspire to do anything I want. I need to further my education, and what I need right now is a little help to get on the right track,” Liddon pleaded.

Unemployment is high and Carlton Daye, retired production supervisor at St Ann Bauxite is worried.

“Too many of our youngsters are hanging out in the square with nothing to do, and most of them not really employable,” Daye told the Sunday Observer. Nevertheless, he said he constantly encourages the youngsters to get their Tax Registration Number (TRN) and National Insurance Scheme (NIS) number so that they can fill job openings at short notice.

“For instance, I need somebody to pick up trash from Bamboo to Brown’s Town, and I am going down to the square right now to ask – and I don’t ask these young people if they are JLP or PNP,” he said, adding, “we need to get them off the streets”.

Colin Williams has no plans to stop working anytime soon. “I love to work,” said the 90-year-old farmer from Hazelwood, Bamboo. Williams and his faithful donkey, ‘Jim’, make the daily trip to his vegetable field in Banks Mountain. “I sell my produce to higglers for resale in the markets,” he said with a proud smile.

Added Williams, “I have tank water, and I try not to worry too much about things I can’t change,” he said simply.

Albert Edwards, who does “building work” and farming part-time, does not share Williams’ philosophy. The Bamboo resident, who plants yam, carrots and sweet potatoes and also raises goats, is calling on the member of parliament to address the lack of water and the problem of goat thieves in the community.

“We want these issues addressed, now,” Edwards said.

Meantime, residents in Trysee and Bennin called on their MP to repair the roads in their communities. In Trysee, for example, residents said the main road has been in a state of disrepair for more than 10 years.

“Taxis don’t want to come up here because the roads are so bad,” said Randal Palmer, retired mason. The Trysee residents also called for the creation of more jobs, particularly for young people, for, according to 49-year-old Alexander Reid, “even when the young people dem have skills, they can’t find nuh jobs”.

The cry was the same in Discovery Bay and Brown’s Town. Gary Gilzene, a 28-year-old barber from Brown’s Town, said business was so slow, and he was considering migration.

“.this area is just not good for business. I just want to migrate,” he said.