Part One- Promises unmet: Penal Rock Road still waiting

Manuelita Morales-Reveiro has lived in the Penal Rock Road, Moruga, community for more than four decades.

It’s where she raised her ten children and made a life for herself.

But as her 82nd birthday approaches, Morales-Reveiro is considering becoming a shut-in, as she says travelling on the badly dilapidated roads in the community leaves her feeling unwell.

In an interview at her home on April 8, Morales-Reveiro told News 19 TT, even her journey to church on Sundays leaves her frightened. 

“Sometimes when I going to church and I see the maxi sinking down (on the road), I does bawl, because I does say that maxi going to capsize,” she said.

“The road ent nice at all.”

The part of the road Morales-Reveiro referred to is hard to miss. Most of the two-lane road is sunken, forcing motorists to slow down considerably to navigate a sudden drop. There are no warning signs but the state of the rest of the road serves as a warning that better is not ahead.

About a 100 feet away, a blue metal barrel, surrounded by pieces of bamboo and red caution tape, sits in a large crater in the road. Residents say the barrel was placed there so motorists would not drive into the crater and get stuck. 

Morales-Reveiro said the state of the road has left her afraid to leave home.

“That road, one part, you meeting good and the next part all how. Look when my daughter come to pick me up to go and pick up my little pension, I tell you the kinda jerk I getting on that road, my belly does be paining meh.

“I say, ‘Lord, girl Kathy (daughter), it look like I will have to stop go for pension and send you for pension now’, because meh belly, when I come back, yuh see meh foot? Pain, pain, pain, all over. This road ent nice.”

Another resident, Darrel Aping, said he feels embarrassed whenever someone has to visit him in the community. 

“It doesn’t feel good. I feel shame to tell people where I from too, people doesn’t want to come inside here because of the state of the road.”

Residents also complained of an unreliable water supply.

Morales-Reveiro said her family chose not to take a WASA connection for a pipe-borne supply of water years ago, as they collected rainwater in their tanks. But with harsher dry seasons, she said her tanks often run dry. 

She said residents without a WASA supply do not get truck-borne services from the regional corporation.

Aping said even those with WASA connections have issues.

“Water does be a problem too, water does come once a month inside here and the condition it does come sometime, it real terrible, yuh could hardly drink it, yuh could hardly wash clothes.”

He said the water in the lines is often brown with sediment, making it unsafe to consume and staining clothing. 

Both also complained of a lack of activities for young people in the community.

Morales-Reveiro said with the Easter school vacation ongoing, children have no opportunities for recreation close to their homes.

“It have nothing here for children, nothing inno. Look at holiday time, which part the children is? All home on tv or with their little tab (tablets), it have nothing.

“Look at youths in this area, and more boys than girls, nothing for dey to occupy themselves in. “The youths going astray and the only thing for them to hook on now is drugs.”

Aping said while there is a recreation ground with a pavilion, that facility is also dilapidated. There are holes in the roof and vandals have destroyed some of the locks on the toilet doors. He said vandals also stole cricket equipment that was stored at the facility.

Aping said promises to build a community centre have not materalised.

Another resident, Olondo Sotio, called for a trade school to be built in the community.

He said many young people were getting involved in gangs.

He believes if the youths had opportunities, they would turn their backs on crime.

In Part Two- Promises unmet: Penal Rock residents still waiting, we’ll tell how these residents rate the performance of their Member of Parliament Michelle Benjamin and what Benjamin has to say about the issues facing her constituents.