On the fringes

Mon, Feb 23rd 2015, 12:45 AM

The smiles of the children betray the squalid conditions in which they live. It had been sometime since we went into the belly of the community to talk to those finding it hardest to survive, and as we always are, we were struck that anyone could live in this environment. It is hard to call it a house. But for Delerice Rahming, 41, and her children, it is the only home they have. There is an outhouse in the yard. As we drove through the Bain Town community talking to people who still use outdoor toilets, it was hard to imagine such things still exist in some areas. Rahming, a mother of nine, is perhaps fortunate that theirs has a modern toilet. But it cannot flush. The shower in the outhouse is also of no use. There is no running water. The children dart around us in giddy excitement. They are dirty. Rahming tells us that with the loose dirt in their yard it is hard to keep them clean. "And they do not like shoes," she remarks. Their tiny feet are caked with dirt, so are their clothes. Later, the children show us where they get water. It is a short walk to the nearby street. A small girl masters the water pump as three little boys assist, one of them sitting atop it. Remarkably, the girl then lifts the bucket, which is more than half full now, back home. We are awed by the strength of a child so small. For them, this is life. And the only one they know. Rahming allows us inside. It is difficult to be in this space. It is cramped. There are three small rooms, one a kitchen. A few items are scattered about. There are two small beds that the children jump around in. Surprisingly, there is also electricity. Rahming tells us she pays $100 a month in rent, which she says "isn't bad". But even $25 a week seems to be too much for these conditions.

Rahming used to be a mother of 10, but her eldest son was stabbed to death in the yard, she tells us. Five of the children live with her, ages four, six, seven, nine and 11. The others are grown, she says, one is 18, the others in their early 20s. There was one question we had to ask: Why so many children without a job? It is a question we asked several other women in the area that day. In each case, the answer was the same.

"They are already here," Rahming says. "I don't know why. "Like I said, I try to make it work. I pray and they don't see no hungry day. I send them to school. [I'm] going to make sure they get an education. That's the only thing that will work in this Bahamas." When we visited, several of her sister's six children were also with her. We asked Rahming how she takes care of her children.

"God mostly," she says, "And [I'm not] lazy. [I'm] a survivor... I don't mind ironing, cleaning; That's taking nothing off me." Above one of the beds is a line with snacks pinned to it. Rahming says selling them helps her get money to survive. She says the father of her last six children also helps out. Looking around the small wooden structure we ask if she likes living there.

"I'd like a bigger place, because man, when they're ready they can make noise," Rahming says, referring to the children. "I don't have space. I think I will have space when [I'm] 50 something." Rahming says she gets $180 in food coupons every month from the Department of Social Services. Sometimes when I cry about certain things, the next day it comes," she adds.

Most days, she says, she is lying on the bed with nothing to do, just passing the time. The numbers Rahming's closest neighbor is a 49-year-old man. He wears an ankle bracelet. Like the children, he is without shoes in the loose dirt. The neighbor, a burly man with a seemingly quiet disposition, tells us he is accused of burglary. He lives in the same wooden structure, but his side is separated. We do not go in, but we imagine it is not unlike what Rahming already showed us. He tells us he is unemployed, that he used to work a construction job.

The man says he used to get food stamps from the Department of Social Services, but he says those have been stopped. Asked how he eats without having a job, he says, "[I will be] real with you; most of the times I go to Bethel Baptist Church and get breakfast from there, or if they have lunch too I go there too."

The rest of the time, the man says, he does odd jobs to try to eat.

"You have to make things work," he adds with a child-like shyness. "You have to go out there and hustle."

Because he shares the outhouse with Rahming and her children, he also has to tote water.

"I really don't like living here, but I'm used to it," he says, adding that he had only moved there recently.

A 32-year-old mother of five who stood nearby adds that she has carried water from the pump all of her life. But she hopes one day her children have a house with running water. She starts her day by toting water. She ends her day still toting water.

Like Rahming, the woman depends on help from the Department of Social Services every month. She says she gets $160 and a few additional dollars are now included to cover value-added tax. It is hard to quantify how many people in Bahamian communities are living this way.

According to the Department of Statistics, 43,000 people were living in poverty in The Bahamas at the time a survey was conducted in the first half of 2013. The absolute poverty line -- the minimum required for an individual to meet his or her basic needs -- was stated at $4,247 annually. The results of the Household Expenditure Survey showed that 2.8 percent of the population lived in poverty, an increase of 3.5 percent over the 9.3 percent of the population who lived in poverty at the time of the Living Conditions Survey in 2001. The mother of five we spoke to is one of more than 5,000 people who received food assistance from the government for the six-month period June 2014 to December 2014.

According to numbers presented by Social Services Minister Melanie Griffin in Parliament last week, $2.2 million in permanent and temporary food assistance was given to 5,181 people. The minister also revealed the government paid out $425,041.89 to assist 769 people with their Bahamas Electricity Corporation bills. She said $68,321.16 was paid to assist 150 people with their water and sewerage bills.

The government also assisted those in need with rental payments, temporary accommodations, burial assistance and medical assistance. Wanting a better life The woman we spoke to told us she is grateful for the assistance she receives. Asked how she makes the $160 stretch, the woman says, "It is only me, so I have to make it stretch. I have to make it the best way I could."

When we ask her about having five children and no job, she says, "I thank God for having them; plenty people can't. I don't ever regret my kids." But she adds that she does not plan to have any more children.

"In 2015, I have too much to accomplish," the woman tells us. "I am 32 and I [have not] accomplished [anything] yet. I can't let 2016 meet me doing the same thing. So [more] kids right now are not on my mind."

She tells us she lives in a "clustered place" with her sister.

"I [am] trying to get my own place and my own car," she says. "I'll feel much better with that. I don't want my kids to grow up around here. I have so [many] dreams for them. I want them to go off to college. I want them to have the best life that I never had."

As we listen to her and watch the children play in the background, we wonder what will become of the children. What will their environment shape them into? At one point, several children lock themselves into an old vehicle in the yard.

A young boy who they refuse to let in, becomes so enraged that he runs and grabs a bottle from a nearby pile of trash. Pointing that bottle at the window of the car, he erupts into a kind of anger that does not seem natural for a boy his age. These conditions are not conducive to the rearing of children.

We fight unsuccessfully against inserting ourselves and our feelings into a situation that will still exist after we have left. They will still have to carry the water to that outhouse. Rahming will still have to walk by the spot every day where her son was murdered. This will still be home for her and her children.

The reality of that impacts us in a way that causes us to lose objectivity. We have our story. We have our photos, and we admit, a bit of heartache too over the time we spent in the yard that day.

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