Unpleasant times in Pleasant Hill

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

CARLTON BROWN pushes his handcart along the main street in Bog Walk, St Catherine, as if pressing back stubbornly against a difficult life - slowly, with measured steps, head bowed over his steering wheel but slightly rheumy eyes unblinkingly fixed forward.

And the 69-year-old quickly announces that life is difficult. "A two medication paper me have up a de yard an' one X-ray paper," he says.

Added to that is the fear that is at home with the long-time resident of Pleasant Hill, one of the many communities around the loosely defined Bog Walk community. Brown says "me no like what a gwaan. De people a kill off de people dem. Pure shooting".

He says there was a shooting three weeks ago and speaks about the funerals of two murder victims a week apart. "What the killing about, I don't know. I don't know what to do," Brown said. "Me inna me bed an' me hear bam bam, di-di-di-di-di. Man dead. Lawd Jeezas, me feel fraid an coward."

A Close call

Three sentences, spoken from a black car, drove the fear home. "One night in March (2010), I was going up the road, up the big curve. Me see a car pull up beside me. One man say, 'A no him dat'. A nex' man say, 'Yuh sure?' The firs' man say, 'Yes'. An' them move off wid a speed," Brown said.

Ironically, Bog Walk is most popularly identified with two physical features which are outside the community. Bog Walk gorge, through which the Rio Cobre meanders and, in periods of heavy rainfall overflows and sends motorists on to the pothole-ridden Barry route or the hilly Sligoville road that is currently an unclear and unpleasant drive because of ongoing roadwork.

'Shower Man' runs a small shop, selling shoes and clothing, along the main street, on the outskirts of the concentration of commercial activity. While he has not been affected personally by crime, he says "if me get large me no know what woulda happen. The way of life now is the man whe earn get target all over".

Sibyl Small has lived in the Magazine Housing Scheme since the late 1970s. The Sunday Gleaner encounters her at the spot where her daughter was robbed two years ago. She could have suffered more than the loss of her handbag and folder, as the criminals tried to drag her into a car.

Small says while there haven't been many incidents in the small housing scheme since then, "on the highway, a lot of things always go on".