Ingrid Applewhite and her son, Joshua, who were living in a public bathroom at the Pinto Road, Arima, recreation ground, now have their own simple, airy home in a serene, windy, wooded settlement off the Valencia Main Road.
Mother and son, who share a love for animals, have taken under their wings two puppies, two cats and a guinea pig and are kept busy caring for them. Applewhite got the puppies from a neighbour in Valencia whose dog made 18 puppies. “I gave them wormouts and treated them for fleas.”
Joshua, 12, who is still to return to school, is delighted with the puppies and calls them Shortman and Butch. Applewhite said she was grateful to the T&T Guardian for highlighting her plight on April 7. “It’s because of that all of this happened,” she said.
“On Monday I sat in the house and it was so breezy and spacious and comfortable I fell asleep in the chair. It felt like home.”
However, she is yet to move into her new house because it is still incomplete. “It needs windows and locks on the doors and a washroom,” she said. The house was built with materials donated by Multi Grade Hardware of Arima and by volunteers. Applewhite said labour was a problem and this caused a delay in the completion of the house.
In the meantime, Applewhite and Joshua have been staying in a one-room hut next to the house which belongs to a neighbour while her wooden house with its concrete flooring stands empty, with only the wind blowing through it.
“I am not moving in until the windows are up and the doors are secure,” Applewhite said. In the one-room hut, she uses a flambeaux for light at nights and candles. There is no electricity or pipe borne water in the new settlement and residents depend on generators for current and rainfall and the water truck.
A blue barrel someone gave her stood at the back of the structure with a new length of galvanise in it to collect water from the roof. After a brief shower Tuesday, there was less than quarter of a barrel of water. Joshua said a water truck comes into the area once a week and fills up residents’ tanks and barrels.
Applewhite has no furniture. A mattress on which she and Joshua sleep lie on the floor in one corner of the small room in which she stays. She said she was a good cook and worked as a kitchen assistant at the Hyatt Regency, Hilton Trinidad, and places like Homes in Arima, and is skilled at making all types of roti, including “buss-up-shut”, dhalpurie, sada and dosti.
But she has not been able to prepare meals because she does not have a stove, she said.
“We eat mangos from the tree at the side of the house and buy bread and snacks from the parlour. People sometimes give us food,” she said.
T&T Guardian employee, Ryan Diaz visited the Applewhites last Tuesday and bought a box of groceries, two cases of water and lunch and dinner for them.
Applewhite was hesitant about writing a second story about her. “I will appreciate any further help but I do not want to appear down and out and as if I am begging,” she said. She plans to look for work and start saving to buy a small generator which costs $2,500 and finish her house. “I really want to open a shop, too,” she said.
She said MP for the area, Glenda Jennings-Smith, had promised to help get her into the Unemployment Relief Programme and she is awaiting word from her.
When the Applewhites’ story broke, the NGO, Sharing Humanitarian Love, said it was taking full responsibility for their welfare. They promised to build her a house in one week. The T&T Guardian contacted a member of the NGO who asked not to be identified.
“We are still in the process of completing the house,” she said. She said head of the NGO, Zahir Ali, was not available for comment.
Anyone wishing to help the Applewhites can contact Ingrid Applewhite only at 486-8692.