Breezy Hill residents travel hard road

Angelo Laurence, Gleaner Writer

BREEZY HILL, Manchester:

NOT MANY persons outside of northeast Manchester may be familiar with the small farming community of Breezy Hill, tucked between Craighead to the east and Mile Gully to the west, except for produce buyers and its member of parliament, Finance Minister Audley Shaw.

True to its name, it is probably the most windy part of the parish, high above Christiana and overlooking Norway in Trelawny to its north. Look to the west at the sunset and you will be greeted with rainbows or a beautiful natural picture of the St Elizabeth landscape.

Enter the community from the Craighead to Christiana main road and quickly you have made the transition from 2011 to somewhere in the early 1900s or before. To the right, the more than 100-year-old Chudleigh Baptist Church majestically sits on a hill, as if keeping watch over the plains and valleys below. A short distance away is the Craighead Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Lack of attention

From as early as 5 o'clock in the morning, farmers are seen making their way to the fields or leading their animals to a favorite feeding spot before the sun dries up the night's dew. A dog barking can be heard as a rooster or two in the distance hills call out, signalling time to rise amid the noise of crickets and toads.

The peace and tranquility, however, is but a blanket that covers the hardships that the residents have endured over the years and their determination to be economically independent.

Their cries may not be as loud as others. However, they are not much different from residents of other communities. They deplore the lack of attention to their needs by both central and local governments. With farming as their main source of income, the poor condition of the main road is a prime deterrent to produce buyers who would like to enter the community.

Rondal White, who has lived in Breezy Hill all his life, tells The Gleaner it is very discouraging to spend so much time and money to farm and because "Govern-ment won't do their part, you lose everything".

He adds, "Dem bawl seh dem no have any money, yet dem call election and do all sort of tings weh no help the people any."

With the support of his neighbours, he notes that they are not asking for "personal" assistance, but rather are seeking good roads, water and schools for their children and "we will do the rest".

Principal of the Chudleigh Basic School, Sashoy Bailey, a graduate of Bethlehem Moravian College and product of the community, proudly points to some of the students of the school, declaring they will some day lead this country.

However, she says because the roads and other basic infrastructure are in such poor conditions - and deteriorating more each day - the community cannot progress. This, she says, makes migrating to Kingston and Mandeville attractive to the younger generation, "leaving no one to build on what our forefathers have left behind".

Proud of community

Councillor for the area, the Jamaica Labour Party's Timothy Scarlet, tells The Gleaner that he, too, is disappointed with the level of neglect the residents have suffered and is making the necessary representations to both the Manchester Parish Council and the Minister of Transport Mike Henry to have the road in the community repaired.

Despite the hardships, 78-year-old Mazielyn Senior is proud of her community. "We cannot give up," she says, while complaining bitterly that the road, which she deems the worse in the county, has been in a state of disrepair for more than 40 years, despite promises from politicians each election time that it would be repaired.

When she broke her arm last year, no taxi would enter the community to take her to the Percy Junor Hospital for medical attention. She had to call on a friend in another community to help her.

Leon Adams, a young community worker, says he does not want to leave the community as it offers the atmosphere that is conducive to raising a family. He says, however, that the poor road and water condition stymies economic growth, particu-larly in the farming sector, and he, like many others, may have to migrate to towns such as Montego Bay or Mandeville.

rural@gleanerjm.com