I AM WOMAN………..We can’t sit back and bawl
Every woman has a story to tell… this week, all woman presents the first in a new series, I Am Woman, which will give air to the voices of our Jamaican women. Feedback? Comments? Want to tell your story? e-mail allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com
By Maxine Neil, as told to Karyl Walker
My name is Maxine Neil. I live in Malvern, St Elizabeth. I am 37 years old and I have three children.
I farm and do laundering at the Hampton High School to make ends meet.
Around here, I’m not one of a kind. lots of women are farmers and have their plots of land that they cultivate to make a living. Farming is hard work, but at least it give us a little independence.
Emily was not good to us. Most of us lost all our crops which were washed away by flood waters. On my farm I had carrots, pumpkin, corn, gungo peas, plantain and sweet pepper.
Everything was washed away. Everything. We now have to start from scratch.
Still, we can’t just sit back and bawl. The work has to start and we just have to bend our backs and start put produce back in the ground.
Today I was working on the farm, that’s why the soles and sides of my feet are caked with red dirt. My clothes are also dirty, but dirt on my feet does not worry me because the earth is rich.
The profits I make from the produce I reap from my farm go towards sending my children to school. How that school fee going to pay I don’t know, but I not going get mad, Massa God will work out a way.
At least there is the work up at the school.
It was sad what happened during the hurricane when the five people were washed away. It only makes me know that I am lucky because I lost crops, but others lost their life.
