Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The ven­dors whose shacks were torn down at Swal­low’s Bay, To­ba­go, last week, have re­ceived their promised tem­po­rary tents and have re­turned to the site.

How­ev­er, those who spoke to Guardian Me­dia said they were still shocked by the po­lice ac­tion but re­mained op­ti­mistic about the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly’s (THA) plans for a per­ma­nent so­lu­tion.

Last Fri­day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine an­nounced that 15 ven­dors, whose tents were de­stroyed, would re­ceive pop-up tents. The THA is al­so work­ing on a per­ma­nent plat­form to en­sure safe and com­pli­ant op­er­a­tions.

The ven­dors had been warned ear­li­er by Bon Ac­cord/Crown Point As­sem­bly­man Joel Samp­son that proof of per­mis­sion was re­quired. With­out it, the po­lice dis­man­tled their set-ups.

Au­gus­tine as­sured that the area would be re­aligned, and on­ly the orig­i­nal 15 ven­dors would re­ceive tents, which they must pack up and take home dai­ly.

Ar­ti­san Joel Glas­gow said he had spent the last five years mak­ing a liv­ing in his makeshift shack.

Glas­gow, who moved from sell­ing wa­ter to snacks, then veered off in­to art and craft, said the move left him shocked and sur­prised.

“We got a tent and ta­ble from the THA so we can con­tin­ue sell­ing. The Gov­ern­ment say they do­ing some­thing good and we just wait­ing, hop­ing and pray­ing every­thing hap­pened the way it’s sup­posed to hap­pen.”

Al­though he had mixed emo­tions, he said he un­der­stood the in­ten­tions be­hind the move.

“Some days I come out here and I don’t make any­thing but just be­ing here pre­sent­ing my craft it’s a bless­ing. I can say, the time I’ve spent here, it’s al­lowed me to im­prove my craft and chal­lenge my­self. And the en­counter with peo­ple, I’ve built a re­la­tion­ship. It’s about build­ing the com­mu­ni­ty. That’s what it was for me as well.”

He said the ven­dors had de­vel­oped close ties and had helped each oth­er’s busi­ness­es grow over the years.