SHEER misery!

That’s how one member of Long Road in St Mary South Eastern summed up the quality of the community’s main road — a sentiment largely shared in the deep-rural village.

The roadway, which allows only for one vehicle to travel freely at certain points, has not only made living miserable for those who reside in the community that produces, among other things, the ‘Long Mango’ — a sort of endemic variety of the sweet fruit — but also for others who do business there, in particular teachers at Long Road Primary School.

“Mi a beg unnu, write ’bout da road ya inna unnu newspaper nuh, mi boss,” one resident shouted at the Jamaica Observer news team that bravely took on the thoroughfare last Tuesday. “A years wi a suffer, an’ all wi complain an’ beg the politician dem fi fix the road nutten nuh happen,” he continued.

One woman, who asked not to be named, and who admitted that she was a “strong” Labourite (supporter of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party) insisted that the road was last fixed in 1992, soon after she moved into the community from nearby Fort George.

“This ya road ya a sample road,” she said, “mi never see a piece a road so bad. Up ya is a cool place fi live, but people nuh fi have dem kinda road ya. And a nuh just di road a di problem, we have water problem too, an’ JPS always a chip out [regular loss of electricity].”

Teachers at the primary school also bemoan the challenges that they face in getting to the institution. The school had been conducting classes virtually for several months, but will go back to physical classes tomorrow, as it is one of those approved for face-to-face instruction by the Ministry of Education.

So, while there was some ease in the daily commute for a while, although the other problem of lack of electricity often intervenes to curtail classes, the buggy ride style of getting to work with pain all over will pick up pace as of tomorrow.

All four teachers — Keziann Brown, Jodian Trusty, Nastassia Gordon, and Sharon Brown — Principal Audreth Gardner, and temporary Guidance Counsellor Jay-Ann Noble have to use the road daily, as they live in separate communities within the parish. The others on staff — Vinette Lewis, the cook, and Charlene Simpson, janitor — are spared the indignity, as they are from the community.

The final leg of a seeming relay is Annotto Bay, close to that town’s primary school. Willing taxi operators, convinced that children must learn, take on the arduous task of doing the 45-minute bobbing and weaving along a trail that, if paved, would take no longer than 10 minutes driving far slower than world champion Louis Hamilton would be inclined to.

The round trip costs $400 for adults to get to the institution that accommodates 42 pupils on roll, but which can take in around 120.

Principal Gardner does not dare to drive her Toyota Axio motor car all the way, and usually arranges to leave it in Annotto Bay, when she completes the other leg of her journey from Hampstead in central St Mary. Any temptation by her to test the road with her low vehicle would result in serious damage.

Trusty, though athletically blessed, revealed the endless back pain she has to endure when she embarks on the journey from the Annotto Bay leg, following a relatively flawless ride from her hometown, the St Mary parish capital of Port Maria.

There may be hope, though, at least if one member of the political directorate has his way.

Member of Parliament for St Mary South Eastern Dr Norman Dunn told the Sunday Observer last Thursday that he will continue the struggle to have the Government provide money to fix the road that falls under the management of the National Works Agency.

“I agree that the road is in an atrocious condition, and I sympathise with the people of Long Road,” Dr Dunn commented.

The MP, who is also Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, said that the struggle to improve the road has been a long one for him.

“I did one mile of grading of the Long Road main road about a year ago, but I knew that that would not last very long, but I can’t get any money. I am still trying to get money to fix Long Road, as well as [nearby] Camberwell road, but things are hard. What I can say is that I want to do a bushing programme on Long Road and Camberwell road within a week or two,” Dr Dunn said in respect of the overhanging shrubbery along both roadways.

Until then, there may be no short cut to an otherwise long and painstaking wait for any ease to what one villager described as the “worst road in Jamaica”.