 | Daughters of Sysiphus |
 |  | Education and occupations |
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The stories behind the figures
The occupations of the 12 women who served as case studies are listed below prior to extracts from the case studies themselves.
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Name |
Occupation |
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Auntie |
Fish vendor |
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Carmen |
Domestic and higgler |
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Deula |
Domestic, bar worker, farmer |
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Icie |
Cleaner and washerwoman |
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Lena |
Hotel cook |
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Letty |
Landlady |
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Marcie |
Hairdresser / cosmetologist |
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Megan |
Higgler |
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Pam |
Domestic |
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Pansy |
Social worker |
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Pearl |
Machine operator in the free zone |
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Verona |
Shop-keeper |
Auntie
Auntie is a fish vendor. Her nephew, her son and the daughters all work with Auntie to clean and sell fish which they buy from local fishermen and sell from a small stall beside the roadway.
The family is dependent on the income that comes in from fish sales. However, sometimes sales are slow and the fish spoils and has to be thrown away. They have no electricity in the area and the fish is preserved in an old freezer which they pack with block ice that they buy off the ice truck each morning. One of the daughters has a baby father who works on a fishing boat and she, at least, gets some support from him. The nephew also sells a little kerosene to the local people which helps in the general expenses. He makes about $50 on each drum of kerosene that he buys for $190.
Carmen
"I started working at age 14 and my salary was six shillings per week. I worked in the country with a family of five and then I went and worked with a postmistress who had a family of six. I work with them. Do housework and sell gas.
"I used to sell chicken feed (food). Now I do some domestic work and do a little selling with it. I send my children to school and get a little food and that is my survival."
Deula
"My main source of income is working out (as a domestic) and a little farming. I farm banana, red peas, yam, gungo peas. The farm is in Maryland. It's not a great big farm but by the time things come up we have to sell some of the product because it is too heavy for we. We take it to Papine market. Whenever time I have the product to sell it sell. I mainly sell red peas for that come abundantly. Like most of the time the crop of banana come in excess and I may dig a few cocoes too and if it's yam time I take a few of those too. I don't worry with the days work again now because my children now they are too big for me to go and do days work now to be honest.
"I used to work in a bar but at my age now I prefer that if I get in a work I can really get to receive my Saturday, Sunday off. If I got work Monday to Friday I can go to my field Saturday and rest on Sunday. It depends on the type of work I really do."
Icie
"I do washing for students on campus. Most of them are on holday now, so l m suffering. The summer classes give me a little work to get something small.
"When college open back it's better. Right now things are bad. One of the boys is mentally sick. I take him to Bellevue and he gets injection and tablets but he won't take the tablets. In one week I wash for four students. Some of them pay $10, $15 or $20. I wash and then iron. I clean for four post grads - I charge $5 for one room but now they say that they don't have it (the money). Now I just clean the middle room and they pay $5 each. Most of them is foreigners doing research.
"If I had had an alternative I would have liked something better than washing, like a little buying and selling - fruits and so, and maybe a little chicken but I don't like the roughness on the street. I would sell on the campus. The police wouldn't bother me on campus because I m already working with the students.
"If I could get a loan I would raise chicken.
Lena
Originally she worked as a domestic, then as a cashier and now as a caterer. If she had $5000 she would like to set up a business maybe in crochet. However, she thinks that she will need more money than this. She does some freelance catering.
Letty
Letty is 79 years old. She lives with her 33 year-old grandson in a house that she owns herself in Long Lane. Her grandson works as a tiler and makes and earns about $200 a week. She used to be a cleaner in a large office but is retired now and mainly depends on the income she generates as a landlady.
Letty has one large family house, another self-contained housing unit and two smaller single rooms. She occupies half of the large house with her grandson and rents out the other half. All the other units and rooms are rented out to tenants so that she has four tenants in all.
Marcia
Originally a domestic, Marcia is now a hairdresser.
"If I could get a loan I would try to set up a shop of my own because I can do the work. Working for somebody else you don't get nothing. What you get out of it, bwoy it can't even pay your bus fare and they getting everything out of it.
Megan
Megan is a higgler. Her sister works in the free zone Between them they bring home about $200 a week.
If she got $1000 she would start a dry goods business. She would like to get a stall in the Arcade specializing in selling "raw cloth-.
Pam
Pam is an office helper. So is her mother. She takes home $ 150 a week after tax.
Pansy
Pansy is a social worker with the Ministry of Housing and takes home $800 a month.
Pearl
Pearl works in the free zone, sewing clothes for the export market. She's been laid off for the last two weeks and is heavily in debt, trying to make ends meet by making and selling coconut drops which she makes in her back yard.
Verona
Verona runs a small shop. She lives on the income she makes from the shop which sells goods in very small quantities to people who live in the area. She sells things like condensed milk, flour, rice, tinned mackerel, corned beef, small packs of coffee and seasoning, single cigarettes and bottled drinks. Most people in the area do not have a refrigerator and their cash flow is so tight that purchasing small quantities of food that do not require refrigeration is the only sensible thing to do.
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