By Michel Outridge

WALKING two miles from her home in Silver Hill, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, to her small roadside shop on the highway at age 72, is perhaps the secret to her longevity.

This village elder doesn’t look her age and is without any medical complaint and is very much able-bodied.

Uleen Michael is a resident of Silver Hill and is well-known as “Aunty Lynn.” She has a small wooden roadside shop where she has cold beverages, school supplies, confectioneries and home-made snacks.

She has been a roadside shopkeeper for the past 15 years and prefers to walk to and from her home to her shop, because it is a form of exercise and taxi fares are too costly.

To go in by taxi is $1000, a sum she saves by walking, which she is accustomed to; but at times the sunshine is way too much for her to endure, plus it is even hotter with the sandy condition of the soil.

Uleen makes sponge cakes, pholurie, channa, plantain chips, chicken foot, mittai and tamarind balls to sell at her shop.

As a result of the epidemic she re-started selling three weeks ago after having closed shop for weeks in fear of contracting the deadly Coronavirus.

This elderly woman would wake up early in the morning to prepare her snacks to take to the shop.

She would leave home about 09:00hrs, cease selling at 15:00hrs and would make the journey home on foot.

In addition, she would have to carry her bags and it is a walk that would take some time.

Michael lives alone and is also tasked with cooking and doing all her household chores.

“I don’t really go out much, except for church and selling, so I am at home mostly and that is just fine with me,” she said.

She does her vending from the shop on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

The schoolchildren and locals are her customers, but with the closure of schools since March, business is slower than usual.

“The schoolchildren would come daily and buy all my snacks but since the pandemic there is no school, so I am trying to stay afloat,” she said.

The Silver Hill Nursery and Primary Schools are housed in the same building which is located within walking distance.

Michael was residing in Linden, but when her father passed away she had to relocate because he left his house and 40 acres of farmland.

That was 20 years ago and she is now used to the serene life at Silver Hill, where people enjoy very private lifestyles and plenty of space.

Michael’s brother has taken up farming on the lands and has a cultivation of coconuts and citrus.

The mother of six related that all her children are grown and are leading their own lives elsewhere.

“Life is normal here but considering you have to work to live comfortable and most people know each other, so there is no real issues and we live far apart, so that’s just perfect,” she said.

The teacher in training
The Pepperpot Magazine also met another resident, a teacher in training, Anesia Simon, who was out with her daughter.

She uses a dirt motorcycle to get around in the village and was in the midst of doing so when this publication caught up with her.
Simon is in her final year at Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) and is waiting to complete her last exam, but due to the he COVID-19 epidemic there isn’t much she can do but wait.

“Teaching was my first choice as a profession, because I want to give back to my community and it is the ideal job to serve the people,” she said.

Simon also had nursing as a second choice, but was deterred by the shift system by which she would have had to work and opted for teaching, since it can be done during regular working hours.

She has a three-year-old daughter and is originally from St. Cuthbert’s Mission, called Pakuri, which is located off the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.

“When I finish at CPCE I want to return to my village as a teacher and work there, because it is my home village,” she said.

Like many other villages along the highway, Simon said the young people have to fend for themselves and it would be easier for them to have a resource centre for skills training, where they can become self-employed.

“Living on [sic] these far-fetched [sic] villages off the highway is not easy and it takes a lot to get out and get qualified because everything costs more here,” she said.

She relocated to Silver Hill 15 years ago and has no immediate neighbours except for her grandmother. In her spare time she would go with her grandfather, who is a woodcutter in the jungle, to cut wood and other times enhance her sewing skills at home.