We felt unseen eyes from apartments watching us, as a two-man Sunday Guardian team walked through the alleys of George and Nelson streets in east Port-of-Spain.
Then, like an oasis in the middle of a bleak concrete jungle, we unexpectedly encountered a lush garden.
It was at the home of 69-year-old activist Hazel Smith on Duncan Street. Her garden is filled with ornamental plants, food-bearing trees and crops including mango, coconut, avocado, soursop, banana, noni, lime, cassava, pigeon peas, hyssop, tomatoes, potatoes and ixoras.
Smith's apartment is located in the area on the lower east side–nicknamed Rasta City–north of Prince Street is "Muslim City."
Prince Street is the invisible demarcation line which gangs do not cross–unless it is to settle disputes (mainly, these days, over dwindling work contracts).
Quoting from the Bible, Matthew 7:16-20, Smith said there were many good, decent residents living in East Port-of-Spain, who were like the trees in her garden. Depending on what they were nurtured with, whether love and caring or the poison of hate, people will bear good fruit or bad fruit, she said.
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit."
"When you look out there at the able-bodied youths in our community, it reminds me of the inmates comprising young men at the state prison in Comstock, when I was a health administrator for New York prisons in the 70s," she reminisced, stating:
"What they really need is work and proper direction, and it will be different for them.
"Today we have some peace here because the army is around. And I love them because they're assisting in the reduction of murders, crime and people killing one another," she said.
"Every year I see a gradual change in the community. Most of the crime that is reported in the media is caused by small pockets of people who grew up and went to school together."
Gangs members wouldleave the life of crime...
She said she believed gang members didn't want to be part of that lifestyle and they would get out if they could.
Smith said they might aspire to be a "capo" or captain in a crime family–until the heat started and they saw their friends end up in a casket because of their "stupidness."
She said even though gang members may sell drugs or kill, they usually had nothing to show for it. Smith said many gang members are happy when no gunshots are fired, although they would not admit it. She felt some of them also liked the presence of soldiers in their community because that helped to keep them alive.
Smith noted there have been gangs in every society and epoch. Port-of-Spain had gangs in the 60s, she said, such as the Law Breakers, Silk Hats, Sun Valley, Fallen Angels, Applejackers, Commandos, Thunderbirds and steelband gangs Renegades and Desperadoes.
Smith said those long-time gang members had a code of ethics: they used to address elders in their community with "Yes Sir", "No Sir"; they helped women and seniors with their bags, and made sure no one came around and disrespected them. She said those days were long gone. Today's gangs are a lot more threatening, she said.
The barber of Duncan Street
Lincon "Cripple" Griffith is from Duncan Street and is a barber at Reflections Salon, East Side Plaza, Port-of-Spain.
His nickname comes from the contorted position his friends said he made, when he released his shots playing basketball.
He grew up in the community, surrounded by gambling, cocaine, marijuana, drugs and crime, but he never became entrapped in the web of vices despite the peer pressure.
His father was a "casa"– their house sometimes resembled a casino, he said, but he never indulged, even when the gambling was at home or in the Savannah.
Griffith's escape was through sports, football, basketball, athletics and cricket. He was good enough to play basketball for the national team from 1976 to 1993, but had to cut short his career because of a thyroid condition.
The all-round athlete said he could have excelled in four sporting disciplines–athletics, cricket, football and basketball–if there were more opportunities available.
"I'm from the area, but not trying to be of the area, when it comes to those illicit activities. Growing up in these streets can be a learning experience," he said. "Some of the biggest changes in the neighbourhood are the amount of drugs and guns coming from outside.
"Since corporal punishment was banned in schools, and prayers were removed, we're seeing a breakdown in fundamentals–like parents forgetting even how to raise their children properly. We might need a centre for parenting skills. There's a general decline in family values, standards and morality and the children need guidance," he said.
"A lack of maintenance and standards seem to be plaguing the country ... and that's why we're not doing as well as we're supposed to be," he emphasised.
He also commented on today's negative music: he believes some music genres negatively influence impressionable youths, with themes of sex, drugs, guns, rape, violence and death.
Youths need role models
Griffith said youths needed more role models. He observed when politicians or "high society" people behave questionably, they set bad examples.
He said Government's social programmes were good–but accessing them safely was a problem, because of how divided the neighbourhood is. For instance, he said a youth might want to access a programme on one side of town, but could not, due to gang violence.
Griffith said there was already a basketball court on Duncan Street, but it was "bare bones." He said youth needed more choice, even in sport–what about athletics, cricket and football? he asked.
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Josiah Thongs:Dreams of spiders
Aside from the mohawk, at six feet one inch and a half, 18-year-old Josiah Thongs is polite and considerate.
Josiah doesn't fit the stereotype of a youth from Duncan Street: he doesn't smoke or drink excessive alcohol; he has five CSEC passes from South East Port-of-Spain Secondary School; and he is currently studying for two more. He also works at a job at Standard Distributors Limited on Henry Street.
Josiah wants to be an arachnologist–a person who specialises in the study of spiders and other related creatures. He would love to be the one to find cures for the ill effects of spider venom, he said.
"The biggest challenge for young people is jobs," he said.
"When you tell them where you're living, most people would watch where you're from, and say, 'Duncan Street? He's a criminal.' Sometimes they watch your background, and if you have a family member in criminal activity, even though you're not part of it, they will judge you and not give you a job, saying you are a criminal."
He said Duncan Street had a lot of love–but simultaneously, also a lot of hate.
Josiah likened the bad elements in the community to a bunch of grapes: if a few grapes go bad, you pluck the bad ones out before they infect the others.
He said it was just a few people who made the whole community look bad.
Meanwhile, Josiah said he's saving up his money to pursue his dreams of becoming an arachnologist.