KINGSTON, Jamaica — Farm worker Victor Lettman has been on the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme (SAWP) 24 times.

On Friday (January 3), he departed Jamaica for his 25th trip to Canada, a country that has provided for his family’s needs for more than two decades.

“I couldn’t get any job. I had my young kids and couldn’t find anything fi give them, so me haffi seek higher ground. It helped me to put bread on my table and it helped me to have a roof over my head,” he told JIS News.

He shared that he worked hard to provide for his three sons who are now in their thirties, noting that the goal of this trip is to save for retirement.

“Think about living in Jamaica and you don’t have a weekly wage. So, it makes sense that I can go and set my goals and prepare for retirement,” the 60-year-old resident of St Elizabeth said.

About the weather, he said he had to condition his mind to working in colder temperatures.

“Wherever you get your bread from, it cyah be too hard, and dem seh yuh haffi seek yuh bread in desolate places,” Lettman reasoned.

He explained that his more than two decades’ experience has been varied.

“Every year is a new year, so you have to look forward to new things coming at you. I wouldn’t go this time of year. I usually go in March. So, right now, me a go inna new sumpm weh me nuh understand, so me haffi go learn,” he said.

Lettman also told JIS News that the technology used on farms has changed over the years.

In addition to manual labour, farm workers operate harvesters, pullers, tractors and other equipment.

“You have to know your job and if you don’t know your job, then you have a problem. Maybe you come home back on the next flight,” he said.

This year, Lettman will be working on a sweet pepper farm as he has done for the past 24 times.

“A lot of people find it hard, but for all the new guys, you just have to put your shoulders to the wheel,” he encouraged.

— JIS