Meet a typical

1. Meet a typical St. Lucian family...

2. Mrs Namata. The Namata family live in the small village of Gros Islet which is just outside Castries. Mrs Namata has worked very hard in bringing up her family, supporting her husband and running the family home. Now the children are at school she feels it is now time to go out to work. Many of the women in St Lucia have found work in factories. She has found a job which involves making sewing machines, which are then sent to other countries, the United Kingdom included. Mrs Namata’s day is very long, and she works these long hours for less than £1 a day. This is much less than the minimum wage. Mrs Namata and her family enjoy going scuba diving in the sea. They never tire of admiring the amazing coral reef, this is one of the attractions to the island. Unfortunately, due to the increased demand for bananas in other countries they are having to clear the hillsides to grow more banana trees. The bananas are treated with chemicals throughout their growing time, to ensure that they are not damaged by insects. When the heavy rain arrives it washes the soil down the hillsides into the sea, the chemicals are then killing the coral.

3. Mr Namata Mr Namata also lives in the small village of Gros Islet. Mr Namata wakes up at 7am every morning. He works very hard for his family because they do not earn much money. Mr Namata works in the banana fields as a banana farmer. He depends on his career to make money for his family. In his free time he likes to play cricket with his friends. His childhood dream was to become a professional cricket player. He and his family always pray before they eat as part of their Roman Catholic religion. Mr Namata is very concerned about the future of St. Lucia. He is worried that people are forgetting about the real beauty of the island, much of the luscious rain forest is being destroyed to cater for the ever increasing tourists that visit the island. Although the tourists do help to create jobs for the local people, he is concerned that it will soon lose the beautiful landscapes. Already all the flat land is full, they are now having to build in to the sides of the mountains.

4. Simpson Namata Simpson is an 12 year old school boy. His school is called Borda Secondary school. He likes to play cricket as well as his dad, sometimes he goes to play with his dad’s friends. He gets good grades in school. His favourite subject in school is science, when he grows up would like to go to university at Oxford in England to become a scientist. He wants to join the basketball team but his sister thinks he is not cool enough. Simpson’s school day starts at 8.00am. He starts with three lessons and then has a break, after another two lessons it is time for lunch. After lunch he finishes with another two lessons. Is this different to your school day?

5. Imogen Namata Imogen is 14 years old. She goes to Gros Islet School for girls. Her favourite past time is going shopping with her mum. They use to go to the open market but now they go to the supermarket because there is a wider range of food, the only problem is everything has to be packaged. They are now trying foods from other countries, especially those that they have seem on the television, as many of the programmes we watch are from America. Imogen has two pet dogs Heinze and Pickles. They are King Charles Spaniels. She hates to leave them when she goes to school. She takes them to basketball training and they do join in! Imogen enjoys going to school, she loves to meet up with her friends. Her favourite lesson is Spanish, all children in St. Lucia have to learn a language in school. Do you? Living on the island can be a lot of fun!