COVID-19 wreaks havoc in Mexico, St Catherine

THE GROCERY shop was opened but deserted, and our news team had to call a couple of times before owner/operator Doreen Shaw came hustling from her house next door.

When asked how she was coping with the COVID-19 crisis, she was optimistic that the remoteness of their St Catherine district, Mexico, had shielded them from the pandemic but, in exchange, had taken a drastic toll on its economy.

“That’s why we kinda free from COVID, but differently, business not going good ‘cause when things a gwaan, like today Tuesday, me haffi go Linstead go buy stuff; but me not even move because nutten much naw gwaan. Business fall way low because nobody naw come out come buy. One and two will pass and buy two likkle things, but nobody is gathering again to buy two beer, because everybody a keep them social distance,” she told The Gleaner.

To add to her woes, Shaw said, she had butchered the last batch of her more than 100 broiler chickens shortly before we arrived. She showed us a deep freeze in the shop and another in her house stocked with meat, for which she has no market. She had delayed their slaughter for almost a week past the six-week mark, in the hope that her sole contractor who usually took at least 1,200 pounds of chicken would come through for her. He hadn’t.

“The man who used to take from me say nutten naw gwaan, so me can’t sell it. Fridge them full up same way,” she said, as if pondering her options.

For Dawn and husband Christopher Shaw, as well as the entire community of Mexico, COVID-19 has, it seems, inflicted a measure of despair on a community long neglected by successive administrations. Black tanks, with sheets of zinc in place to channel rainwater from roofs, are a feature of almost every dwelling. Even though their houses are furnished with baths, showers and indoor plumbing, the absence of piped water renders the fittings to mere showpieces.

WATER PROBLEMS

Even though the community was affected by a power cut during our visit, Shaw assured us that their electricity supply was usually steady and reliable. Water was their number one problem.

“A $700 fi one drum a water and is just one day use; and if you try fi order a truckload, a $20,000 them a tell you, and sometimes you can’t even find $20,” she said.

The effect of a drought since last year has made life especially hard for the residents, whose livelihoods largely depend on rain-fed irrigation in the farming community and the failure of the Government to ease their plight has led to some disaffection.

“Them wouldn’t even send one truck with water go give them people deh up a Mexico who a suffer fi water. So any which part you can ketch a likkle water from you save it,” the businesswoman added.

Garbage collection, a service usually provided by local parish authorities, is still pending for Mexico, and so the burning of garbage happens almost daily. We were advised that two large piles of empty liquor bottles, accumulated in proximity to the bar, were a result of this neglect. Residents have, however, found some use for them, with Shaw explaining that they are usually broken and used as filling material on construction sites.

“We nuh really have nowhere to throw them, so, like, if you dig excavation, we break them up and throw them in there and fill it up and you nuh have to encounter them again fi them cut you,” she explained.

With a number of government-sponsored COVID-19-related assistance and stimulus programmes announced for Jamaicans, residents of Mexico feel neglected, citing their deep rural geographical location as reason for this, as one passing resident explained.

“You see worse like how we de behind God, no sah, nobody nuh business with up here. Only time when government people business with up here so is election time or if anything bad happen, that is the only time.”

In fact, for an area largely left out of the public transportation system, their unsung heroes are two unnamed taxi drivers who service the area. “We have two faithful taxi men, because if them bruck down today, them a try fix up back before the day done so we can get fi travel go all a Linstead,” the passer-by said, in singing their praises.