CLAUDETTE Walters rests weary legs on a rickety wooden bench leaning against the community wayside shop.

It is one of those rare days when she is not bent over a large tub of laundry, working feverishly to complete a task which puts food in the mouths of her eight children.

“A washing me do for a living and wherever the work deh, me gone because my children have to eat and go to school,” she says, displaying hands hardened over the years by the constant stroke of the brush against fabric.

This morning, if only for a few minutes, she relaxes under the warm St Mary sun and takes a good look around her Top Road community.

From this vantage point, she can see the many unemployed young men hanging out along the wayside, and young girls sitting idly by.

“All the young people do is walk up and down,” she says, shaking her head sadly.

Walters never got a “good education” or acquired a skill, and does not want the same for the young people in Top Road.

Spreading her hands towards the vast expanse of empty lands, she bemoans the lack of development for this rural community.

“There is no employment for the young people,” she reiterates.

Who knows better than her, since her boy at age 20 – skilled as he is in repairing computers – cannot find a job.

She, however, has very little sympathy for some of the older folks whom she chastises for not working hard enough to take care of their family.

At 53, Walters knows what hard work is and never misses an opportunity to work for what she wants.

“Mi husband farm and him do a little two days work, while mi do me washing. So, me nuh sit down for a minute,” she explains.

Even Sunday, which is usually reserved for worship, is sacrificed when a job opening comes her way.

Her main goal is to see her children excel; and she works to ensure they will never miss a day from school.

For the back-breaking task, Walters is usually paid $1,500 a day, but will not turn down $1,000. And when ‘washing’ is not readily available, she works with small farmers, plucking chickens, or planting chick peas.

“From me a age 11 me a wash, yu nuh… me never stop work and so me nuh know what name tired,” she says, chuckling loudly.

It is from this livelihood she built a house, sends her children to school and is now earnestly saving to pay for the eight Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) subjects her daughter will be sitting next year.

“Me ago wash and throw pardners (an informal saving scheme) ’cause me know me ago pay fi them subject when the time come, so me start save from now,” Walters says proudly.

Times are hard, and she would love to see the member of parliament for her St Mary Western constituency, Robert Montague, “working” to provide more job opportunities for persons in that community.

St Mary Western, with its approximately 30,000 registered voters, meanders at one end through rugged terrain in the hills of Gayle and Retreat, before running into the prime real estate areas of Oracabessa and Boscobel, with its numerous hotels, guest houses and villas by the sea.

But although the first-term MP says the wheels have begun rolling for a number of employment opportunities in the constituency – characterised at one end by agriculture and another by tourism – some persons are not waiting around to be hired.

Instead, residents like Ivel Hines-Anderson hires out her service as a field labourer, working seven days a week to take care of her sick husband, children and grandchildren.

Dressed in clothes reserved for the field, Hines-Anderson was on her way home from enquiring about a day’s work in the fields when she stops to talk to the Sunday Observer.

Her hands too are hardened by the machete, which she wields briskly in the hot sun stroke-for-stroke alongside male counterparts.

She has to be strong if she must take six cows out to pasture every morning, a job she does without complaining since her 78-year-old husband is confined to bed.

“Me do any kind of thing just to achieve because me nah go tief,” she says.

Hines-Anderson proudly relates how she wakes up at 4:00 every morning to send her grandchildren to school, give her husband a bath, and move the cows and goats, before heading out to “chop bush”.

Unskilled persons like Hines-Anderson used to work as domestic helpers at the homes of the more affluent, but a tougher economy now means less people are able to afford this service.

Between having to find $4,000 in transportation cost to take her husband to the hospital in Annotto Bay for his regular appointments, and buying medication, Hines-Anderson said she does whatever jobs come her way.

Sometimes, prospective employers doubt her ability to do the work – usually reserved for men – but Hines-Anderson says it usually doesn’t take her long to prove herself.

With unemployment high in sections of the constituency, particularly the communities farthest from the Ocho Rios resort town in the adjoining constituency, there are many unemployed women.

Caroline James became widowed a few years ago and, with no employment options, she quickly learnt how to eke out a living “chopping bush” to take care of her children.

“Me used to do washing, but because most people get washing machine them don’t need nobody to wash anymore, so now me chop bush, plant and do every little thing fi survive,” she says.

She had never worked that hard before the death of her husband. But difficult times, she says, require drastic actions, and she has slowly adjusted to taking on the tough jobs usually reserved for men.

But there are others who complain that there are not enough jobs in the constituency.

But Hyacinth Anglin, instructor in housekeeping at one of the eight skills training facility in the constituency, says many of the persons trained through that programme have since been employed at hotels.

“We just sent four people to Couples Hotel for work experience, and they all got called back for employment,” she boasts.

The programme, she says, is turning out its third batch of trainees since it started in Jacks River two years ago.

Anglin, who had high praise for the MP’s decision to offer skills training to the many unemployed young men and women, explains that they are trained in housekeeping, computer, mathematics and English, and entrepreneurial skills.

“Mr Montague saw the need to get people off the street so they can get a skill, especially since many of them are teen mothers,” she says.

She is hoping that they will see more young men making use of the skills training programme, especially since she says there is a high demand for men to work in housekeeping on cruise ships.

But Juline Coombs, a young mother, says although she has been certified in food preparation she has not been able to land a job in the past four years.

Her address is usually a turn-off for prospective employers who, she says, believe she will not get to work on time since it is hard to get a taxi from her Governor’s Pen community.

“When rain fall, people are marooned in the community because of the bad roads and so yes it is hard to get taxi sometimes,” she says.

Bad roads are not unique to Governor’s Pen as there are similar complaints in several other communities across the constituency – some of which are only accessible by foot.

In some communities such as Grants Town and Mason Hall the cry is for piped water. Residents in these two communities say they would love to enjoy “the luxury” of taking a shower.

In Jacks River, the residents say they could do without their home being flooded by the nearby river whenever there is heavy rainfall. “One time the river come up and wash out even some graves,” says Albert Oliphant, adding that his house is often affected as well.

In Cascade, farmer Victor Saunders hopes the many acreage of wasteland will be utilised, improving the aesthetics of the community. “Ah pure five acre of land these yu nuh,” he says, pointing to the acreage lying in ruins. “But nobody not farming them because people bruk and nuh have nuh money,” he adds. He believes if the farmers would reclaim their land, more life would return to the lonely roads in Cascade.

Meanwhile, Boscobel, one of the more affluent communities in the constituency has a problem of another nature.

The beautiful, serene community with its well-kept gardens and whitewashed walls is flooded with raw sewage, which flows freely along the road in some parts.

A resident explains that the sewer system was built for an initial 30 homes, but now the development has grown to 300, exceeding the sewer system’s capacity by far.

To compound the problem, residents say they have been informed by the National Water Commission that there are no funds to upgrade the system.

And if the raw sewage was not bad enough, the roads to this community are in a deplorable condition.

Residents say the two private developers died before they could hand over the road to the parish council and, with no agency having responsibility for the roads, it is anyone’s guess when it will be repaired.