kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
With tarpaulins for a wall and a broken-down roof covered with soot over their heads, Anita Ramdass Singh and her husband, Thackoor Baboolal, have been living an unhappy life.Besides their living conditions, Ramdass Singh misses her family.
Her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter have been moving from relative-to-relative in search of shelter.
The family’s lives suffered a hit when a bushfire spread uncontrollably through the Claxton Bay hills before razing their home on March 18. Baboolal’s brother, Toolsie and his sons lost their home. Toolsie now sleeps under a tent.
Thankfully, the Couva/Tabaquite/ Talparo Regional Corporation sends them a truck-borne water supply weekly to keep the place clean.
Their furniture is now plastic chairs and a few shelves neighbours gave them. They also got a water tank, mattresses, hampers, clothes and tarpaulins.
With no refrigerator, they make several trips to the market weekly as the cooler is not enough to store all their perishables.
Money is hard to come by. Ramdass Singh, a seamstress, lost five sewing machines, leaving her without the tools to make money. Baboolal, an auto electrician, said work was hard to come by, and as he nears 60 years, no one wants to hire him.
Ramdass Singh said she battled bush fires for years, but they took her home while she was out.
A cardiac and asthma patient, she lost her medical documents in the fire and has to visit the San Fernando General Hospital often.
With no electricity to use her nebuliser, she can only rely on her emergency inhalers at night as she constantly breathes in the soot left by the fire.
It is also cold sleeping with no walls, and she often has to use pills to rest. She has no privacy.
“It is hard because at night I cannot sleep. I got accustomed to them (family) around me. When I lie down and try to sleep, I see this fire all over again. I am seeing how I had the place before and how it is now. Yes, it is a disaster, and things happen, but it is hard to put back together.”
Baboolal filled out forms to seek help from Housing Development Corporation and the National Commission for Self-Help.
“Right now, the structure hangs. It dropped there. Sometimes we inhale the little smoke on the roof. The breeze blows high here. We cannot cook. We have to cook early in the morning or late in the evening because the breeze blows high and blows out the gas,” Baboolal said.
While bandits use tools and sophisticated means of breaking into homes and businesses, Baboolal fears that he and his wife are easy prey. There are no doors, and bandits rob villagers walking along the road.
As the wet season approaches, the couple said their makeshift home would suffer water damage if they did not get help before the rains. They have no storage, so many donations are on the ground.
“Little or, however, small it is, I want to build back home here and have my family together. Even if we get a two-room house: we can move on from there. Something stable before the rain comes,” Ramdass Singh said.
Baboolal said the State’s response to emergencies like this should be less than a week. While he understands there is a process, he said the wet season is near, and they will suffer under severe weather.
He said once he gets materials, his family can get help in the village to construct a new home.
Anyone willing to assist the family can contact 725-9731.
