Bito, broken and forgotten - St Andrew community on life support due to poor infrastructure

Huge boulders, defective vehicles, badly broken roads, newly formed riverbeds, and precipices are just some of the sightings one will encounter while making the journey into the community of Bito.

What was easily a 45-minute journey from Papine square into the rural St Andrew community, now takes close to two hours. Weeks of heavy rains have shattered the road infrastructure, which is even proving a difficult task for a heavy duty tractor whose operator tried to clear sections of the roadway.

There is a welcome sign at the entrance of the rain battered area but when the news team walked the 47-minute journey to the square, there was hardly any sign of life except a cow and several goats.

There are several houses, but most of them appeared abandoned. However, about five minutes from the square is the eye-catching home that belongs to Eden 'African' Malcolm. The 71-year-old is one of 20 residents who live in Bito, which was once home to at least 150 persons.

Some relocate

"Whole heap a we did live here but some relocate because the gypsum miners dem buy the space from dem or dem just waa live closer to civilisation a bit but mi like it up here," he said.

Malcolm's home is made with curious combination of board and dried calabash tied together. He said the concrete structure he used to call home was destroyed in Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and he has been living comfortably in his self made house for more than three decades.

"Mi comfortable bad here so. Is just di other day when the rain did a fall mi tink di place did a go collapse because the two river dem did come down and my house inna di middle but that didn't happen, suh mi alright," he said.

The community has been plagued by bad roads for years, and currently the route has been inaccessible to vehicular traffic for the past three weeks. Malcolm, however, is unbothered, stating that he has grown accustomed to walking the two and a half-mile journey into 10 Miles twice a week, especially since there are only two cars in the area.

"Mi is a farmer so mi will walk and carry mi tings dem go sell or go buy what mi need. Up this side not lively because is not a lot of people live here but yuh have to find ways and means to keep yuhself occupied. Mi is a artist so mi always a make and draw things and mi love to read. Mi will watch TV too anytime electricity is here," he said.