REBUILDING with resilience is the message coming out of the hills of Bog Hole, Clarendon, from an 81-year-old resident as he puts his home back together following Hurricane Melissa.

When the Jamaica Observer visited the community, which borders St Ann, on Monday, Reginald Campbell’s house, with its damaged roof, was a hub of activity; everyone working, from the builders re-roofing the house to the elderly homeowner tilling his field beside them.

“Hard work nuh do you anything, you know,” Campbell joked before describing how his house was damaged by the Category 5 hurricane.

“During the hurricane I peeped through my brother’s fence and saw a roof with the zinc still on it, and I was wondering where the breeze carry that roof come throw in the yard, when I looked [up] a the sky me see,” Campbell said with a chuckle.

The retired farmworker, who gave his age as “81 plus tax” is not dwelling on his experience with Melissa, instead he is looking forward.

“The children abroad are very much concerned about us, so they give us a push-start as early as possible. I don’t bother to wait on the Government — try and help yourself. I’m not saying I would not accept help, but I don’t wait. They [the children] had told me to slab it, but I am hard ears, I couldn’t bother with all the [construction] noise in my head, and I paid for it. Sometimes you have to pay to learn,” he admitted.

Despite working feverishly to beat looming rain, members of the MKC Construction team working on Campbell’s house were eager to send a message of resilience and rebuilding to Jamaicans.

“This is what we want to see, rebuilding, you see it. Because I was at home just watching videos… depressed is how I felt, just seeing the place torn down. So the people need to see some things like this, rebuilding going on, that’s motivation to know that we don’t just stop there because a Jamaica say resilience and brilliance,” Shane Campbell, whose brother owns MKC Construction, said as he worked.

Another member of the MKC team, Torre Ricketts, added that it felt good to take at least one burden off the 81-year-old.

“This is a flood-prone area also, so this is a bad spot when it comes on to the weather, so we are trying to at least get off some of the pressure off the zinc and [replace it] with decking,” said Ricketts.

Owner of MCK Construction Marlon Campbell said though his team had been working full-time since the passage of Melissa, this was one of the first houses where the homeowner wanted to change from zinc to a decked roof.

He maintained that the MKC team would do the repairs for a reasonable price,

“No, no, not killing them with the price. All of us are Campbells, not related, but you know,” said Marlon.

“It feels good. My house is… firm, and for houses like this where they have lost the roof, we are glad to help out.”

Flipping over a tarpaulin to show a generator underneath, Shane explained, “We haven’t even got back electricity yet, but we not waiting on electricity to even get the power tools going, just generator, and do what we need to do, you see me? It’s one Jamaica, it no stop there so.”

Owner of MCK Construction Marlon Campbell (left) and members of his team preparing to deck Reginald Campbell’s house in Bog Hole, Clarendon, on Monday.