SEINE BIGHT

Elizabeth Pridgeon

Readers who are familiar with this column may remember that many months ago, I intended to do a ‘Voices of the Village’ article from Seine Bight on a trip to the Placencia Peninsula, but changed my mind when I was greeted by a significantly hostile reception by a group of villagers.  More recently, I headed to Seine Bight once again, and although this trip proved more fruitful as far as research was concerned, I must admit that many of my scepticisms regarding the village remain.

The main essence of my village visits is to hear what concerns villagers have about their settlements, and also to learn about special aspects of village life in order to ‘big up’ the village and therefore encourage readers to visit. Sadly, during my trip to Seine Bight, few locals found anything particularly positive to say about the village, and many used my inquisitiveness to vent anger over issues such as adolescent attitudes, slothful behaviour among younger generations, increasing propensities of failed relationships and single-headed households, and escalating health problems which can largely be prevented by conscientious life choices.

The Garifuna village, for a long time home to just a handful of families, now boasts a population of over 2000 due to recent influxes of immigrants seeking their share of ‘Peninsula Paradise’.  However, many of these new arrivals are housed in condominiums and luxury holiday homes which are situated to the north of the village towards Maya Beach, and therefore the majority of village complaints are only felt by those in the most central areas of the settlement.

A recurring complaint was the behaviour of school children, which was in turn blamed on inert parenting methods.  Absenteeism is reported as being a huge problem, affecting all age groups of the village, including High School students who commute to Independence every day,   Truant school children are accused of misdemeanours throughout the village, including stone-throwing at vehicles and mischievous acts such as destroying signs and public notices.  Whereas some villages report problems such as these when high proportions of the adult population are occupied with meaningful employment, Seine Bight cannot use the same excuse.  Since farming and fishing have taken a back-seat in the village economy, many parents are not employed at all, and thus should be even more responsible towards sending their children to school, so they are not doomed to a similar fate.  Many households have family members who are employed away from home, be it in the police force, the BDF or even those who emigrated to the States, and some village elders believe that it is this external source of funding which is jeopardising the village’s future: some families are so dependent on being sent money, that they do not even try to source their own incomes instead.  Rarely has the correlation between “idle minds” and “the devil’s workshop” been so visibly apparent.

Inappropriate parenting methods are also blamed for several health problems in the village, particularly epidemic levels of parasites and skin problems among the village youth.  Even more preventable are frequent cases of malnutrition, psychological damage caused by abuse, and genetic complaints caused by incestuous relationships.  Recently, social services again intervened to remove twins from a neglectful home, and health clinic staff threatens that this year, such behaviour will not be tolerated, and where necessary, further institutional intervention will be requested.

Perhaps the underlying cause of these problems is the high incidence of teenage pregnancies – from as young as 13 years old.  These ‘children having children’ are unprepared for the duties of parenthood and the responsibilities of adulthood, and as such unnecessary problems arise within households.  The village nurse, Nurse Reynolds, has established the Seine Bight Girls’ Club Meeting, which encourages young girls to commit to the group that “I pledge to honour God, my parents and my elders, to love and respect myself and others…and as a team we pledge to make a difference in our community”.

It can only be hoped that this group secures high participation rates, and inspires further groups to form, which may lead the village youth down a different path than that taken by their young parents.  With the number of sensible village elders dwindling, and a dearth of suitable younger candidates to take their place, the future success of Seine Bight village is clinging onto very tentative hooks right now.

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