Santa will need a boat to visit ‘Tiger Bay’

Dec 25, 2008 News

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In case you are wondering if Santa will visit the ghetto this year, no he wouldn’t, at least not in Rose Mary Lane
Some residents there have had to find Santa for themselves and it was no easy task.
Apart from a few visits from city businessmen who shared gifts and foodstuff, there is little to shout about this Christmas in ‘Tiger Bay’ as it is popularly known.
No extra cash for the public servants and heavy rains that prevented hucksters from plying their usual trade effectively have combined to confine the residents there to a quiet Christmas.
Not quite. Like all Guyanese, no matter what the circumstances are, the traditional Christmas food will be in abundance.
This newspaper was in time yesterday to meet food vendor Patricia Samuels mixing her dough for her special home made bread, which goes with pepperpot or garlic pork.
“I finish making my pepperpot, I got the chicken in the oven,” she said.
While she prepared the food her husband Orin Bollers, a Stevedore, took care of their little apartment.
They are preparing to entertain friends, some of whom have arrived from overseas.
But there will be no going out on Christmas Day.
“Friends must come around and you must enjoy the Christmas,” Bollers said.
The couple plans to attend the Main Big Lime, which will be held almost at their door step, while a night out is planned for Old Year’s Night.
But had it not been for the rain, the couple might not have had to spend Christmas in the ghetto.
“If wasn’t for the rain, we would have finished building (house) and might have moved in for Christmas. But right now the rain got the workers hold up so they can’t get to work. So maybe January or February we will move,” Samuels told this newspaper.
But she said that she will never forget the ‘ghetto’ where she operates her food vending business.
Their neighbour, Veronica Feliciea lives in St. Lucia but has spent the most part of the year at her daughter in Tiger Bay.
She said that she wished she was home in St. Lucia for Christmas because of the inclement weather here.
“I’m just relaxing, helping my daughter around the place. I may go out to the Main Big Lime because you know I was a person who used to drink but I stop, but you know you got to take a lil thing,” she laughed.
She planned to do all her cooking preparations on Christmas Eve, so by now the smell would be whetting the appetites of her neighbours.
“I will be spending Christmas with my grandchildren and then for the New Year I will be going up the Demerara River to spend New Year’s with my Chinese grandchildren,” Feliciea said.
Her daughter ‘Mice’ has everything to be thankful for.
“We does always enjoy we Christmas in ‘Tiger Bay’ because we get overseas people…business people does come around from around the 19th and share out food, gifts for the old people and other toys for the children,” the woman told Kaieteur News.
She said that a leading businessman even put money in envelopes and shared to several persons in the ghetto.
She has been living in Tiger Bay for the past 28 years and has no plan of leaving soon.
She said that she started her preparations early this year so apart from a few finishing touches to her modest home, she would not be too hard pressed.
She did not purchase anything new for her house, since she had it all before.
Nicole is a single parent who occupies a very small apartment with her two daughters.
“Without money I can’t do nothing. I got to try and make ends meet because the cost of living is hard,” she said when approached.
She, however, presented her self with a CD player for Christmas.
“Right now I don’t have no time with husband, I have time with me children,” she added.
National footballer, Shawn Bishop, who recently led the ward to victory in the just concluded ‘Guinness greatest of the street’ small goal competition,” will be tuning out for the Alpha United Football Club against Pele in the Christmas Day feature at the National Stadium.
While his family members are not football fans, he will not be surprised if they make the event part of their Christmas Day activity.
“Pele has my Christmas gift,” he said.
For Sharon, another resident of Tiger Bay, Christmas is not as nice as it used to be.
“Because they say food stuff selling cheap but that ain’t so, and the whole place is water. So what Christmas dey gat?” she questioned.
She will not be baking cakes until after the Christmas as she hopes to rake in some much needed finances.
“I does bake early but this year I baking late because is the rainy season and I does sell. You ain’t getting much business. So you gat to try with what you get,” Sharon said.
Cathleen Archer, a public servant said that since the government did not give them the customary back pay this year, she has had to pull out all the stops to ensure that she and her family enjoy Christmas.
She took some time out from washing some dishes to speak with this newspaper.
She was also in the process of adding the finishing touches to her Christmas preparations.
“New blinds, new bed sheets, everything I buy. Government ain’t pay so we ain’t got no sort of money. We ain’t get not a back pay so you gat to struggle with de lil salary wha dey give you and dat is it,” Archer said.
And of course the usual limers were on the corner.
They too claimed that business is bad for them, although they said they are never out of cash.
The residents are hoping that while Santa has not visited them for Christmas, he will visit for the New Year.
But instead of a sled for the snow, Santa will need a boat for the rain.

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