IMAGINE A COMMUNITY with no electricity, where the residents go to bed by six every evening. The trusty 'Home Sweet Home' lamp, candle or the moon are their only source of illumination at nights. They still heat irons on a stove or coal pot. They do have piped water, but sometimes it is locked off for a month. Flashback to Gilbert? No. This is what life is like in Ginger Ground, St. Elizabeth.

This is how it has been since time immemorial. While the rest of Jamaica and indeed the world have been advancing in leaps and bounds, time in Ginger Ground has virtually stood still. For, alas, none of the common amenities of modern life have found their way over numerous hills to this very rural district approximately five miles from Santa Cruz.

Sandrene Russell, a very fed-up resident of Ginger Ground, told THE STAR that they are badly in need of everything. "We live behind judgement!" she declared as she reeled off a litany of woes.

She said the residents have been waiting for electricity forever and numerous promises by Lenworth Blake, their Member of Parliament, have borne no fruit. She said she has even written a letter to Blake that was signed by all the residents in the community. She said he held a meeting in the community shortly after he received the letter but did not say when the community would receive electricity.

Wash and wear

"You see because we no have no light, we can't buy meat. Saltfish an' tin tings woulda kill we an' a nuh Gilbert," she declared. "We tired fi eat saltfish. A pure wash and wear clothes we haffi wear because we can't afford fi use the gas fi heat di iron," she continued.

She said they only iron the clothes that they absolutely have to as if they iron regularly, their gas will finish quickly.

Ginger Ground is removed from the rest of civilization in more ways than one. Sandrene explained that they cannot afford to listen to the radio or watch television as both appliances can only be powered by batteries that are expended very quickly and are expensive to replace. This especially for persons who for the most part are unemployed or are only employed sporadically. "Mi buy battery till mi sick," she said.

She said eight medium batteries that cost about $160 last three nights in a portable black and white television. She said sometimes they get an old car battery from taxi drivers in the area which they pay $100 to recharge. This recharged battery will last about a week when they watch the television at nights only.

The situation with water is another matter, as Sandrene said although there is a pipe that serves all the occupants of about 20 houses in the district, it is not reliable, as water will go away without warning for long periods of up to one month. When this happens, their only other source of water is an open tank which she said is in a "wilderness", several miles from the house. There is very little rainfall in that part of the parish.

Needs a basic school

Sandrene said the community also badly needs a basic school. The closest school is about four and a half miles away. The official route is along a very lonely stretch of road that is all uphill. She said in order to reduce the tiring journey, the children take shortcuts through bushes and cow pastures which she said is treacherous and unsafe for them.

Sandrene said every day when her eight year-old daughter leaves for school she worries about her safety until she returns home.

"Mi nuh stop worry, especially when rain fall, mi wonda if she drop an' mash up or if no shoes no lef' pon har foot," she said.

THE STAR was told that the lack of electricity has also resulted in a spate of murders and robberies in the community as the perpetrators utilise the darkness to strike.

"Both children and big people 'fraid when night come down, from 5 o'clock come dem draw in," Sandrene said.

She said the community does not even have a church. She dismissed the closest thing to a place of worship that exist in the community as foolishness.

"One likkle building ova dere so inna di bush dem say a church an' from mi know miself a three membas di church have, sometime pon Sunday a only di pastor ova deh," she said as she hissed her teeth dismissively.