By Lakhram Bhagirat
If you met Royston Garnett a few years ago and told him that he would have been unemployed for 10- plus months and struggling to make ends meet, he would have certainly given you a few taps on your head to check to see if everything was in place, but today all he can do is worry about where the next dollar will come from, since he practically is as broke as a church mouse.
I know a lot of you will say that ‘we all go through financial hardships, but it is just a phase and work harder, search harder and make the sacrifices and watch the fruits of your labour develop’. But that is not the case for Garnett, since he has been pushing himself harder, he has been making the sacrifices and he tries to diversify but is limited by his circumstances. He is limited by the fact that he is both mother and father to his three children, two of whom are in secondary school. He is limited by the fact that he lives in a county that has a virtually dead economy caused by the retrenchment of its largest workforce.
Garnett was employed at the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Skeldon Estate for the past 20 years in the shovel gang. But like thousands of persons, he was handed the dreaded redundancy letter in December of 2017 and according to the 44-year-old, his entire world shattered.
He remembers collecting his letter and the hot tears that started to roll down his cheeks making their way to his toes. His entire body was numb. He didn’t cry for himself, rather he cried for the hardships his children would have to face. Yes, he was pessimistic from the beginning, because he knew that there was only so much he could do for a number of reasons.
Garnett now spends his days going around in search of employment, only to be told that there are not any jobs available for him owing to a number of factors, particularly his age as well as the fact that “business bad”.
“Life is hard right now, because I am not working at the present moment. You barely getting a two-day mason work and that is what you have to cope with. Businesses also crying out, because the sawmills them telling you that they laying off workers because business bad, so the market people them crying out. If people nah get money, they can’t buy. Skeldon is a ghost town. Work ain’t doing and everybody just crying out, wondering to know when estate starting, when estate starting back,” he said.
He added that they were told to standby because once the Skeldon Estate became operational once again, they would be rehired, but they were yet to get word as to when exactly that would be.
Garnett says that he has his 13-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter who are both in secondary school, adding that the expenses associated with their education are sometimes beyond his reach. However, he makes the sacrifices to ensure that every assignment is completed on time, every text book is purchased and every exam paid for.
“I have to make the sacrifices because education is important. My daughter because she is in Form Four, she always have an assignment and sometimes the money don’t come to get it done but I does have to make the sacrifice because is she education. The boy is only in Form Two and he does get one, one assignment, but not so much like the girl,” he explained.
Just last week, his daughter needed an Integrated Science textbook which was valued around $1500 and he was heartbroken that he could not have afforded to purchase it immediately for her. However, he scraped and found the money to get her the book.
During the course of his time working with GuySuCo, Garnett acquired a plot of land in the Number 76 Village Housing Scheme and took a loan to construct a house for himself and his children to live in. He said while he was still paying, the dreaded thought of repossession loomed over his head every time he failed to make his weekly payments.
Thus far, Garnett has received half of his severance payout to the tune of $372,000 and he would have utilised a portion to pay six months of his mortgage and the other portion went to managing his household and sending his children to school.
“People might think you get a big sum of money but to me that is still underpaid but we accept and bless because it better than nothing. Mine is finished, because I got a loan at the bank and I paid some down…I don’t have nothing in bank and I owe them for last week and this week and that is S10, 000. I got to try (pay that) before it build up more because that is problem. I ain’t getting work and that is problem,” he said.
“It rough because I ain’t working and when I used to work and it cut out, I used to make much because I still get something to use and right now I ain’t getting nothing and that make it more hard. I got to find that money to pay the bank and that building up and when I build up, them gon send and call me because they reminded me of it already and I don’t want that,” Garnett added.
Now he spends his days running around trying to find a stable job so that he could provide for his family and give them the life they deserve. (Times Sunday Magazine)
