Students In Crooked Tree Board School Boat at 4 in the Morning

Tonight, a second-form student at Edward P. York High School is sharing her struggle to get to school on time from Crooked Tree Village. The extensive flooding caused by Tropical Storm Sara means villagers can only travel in and out by boat. Previously, students relied on local water taxis, but now they’re getting help from NEMO and the Belize Coast Guard. However, fourteen-year-old Hannah Perriott says the inconvenience is starting to wear on the students in the area.

 

Britney Gordon

“So can you tell me a little bit about the struggle that you have been experiencing to get to class? When you have to get up in the morning, what do you see when you’re out there?”

 

Hannah Perriott, Resident, Crooked Tree

“Well, when we mi di go down di other day, we had to walk in our water, fi get to the boat.  And all different type of things like that.”

 

Britney Gordon

“How early do you have to get up to go to class?”

 

Hannah Perriott

“Like three o’clock we have fi get up fi get ready and go to catch the boat.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And when you get to school, are you finding it difficult to stay awake and pay attention?”

 

Hannah Perriott

“Yes, ma’am very difficult because like, wake up to early and then when yo sleep on the bus, it feel like yo noh have enough time for sleep and recover from things like that.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And, by the time you get home, what’s the struggle like then, when it’s time to come home after school?”

 

Hannah Perriott

“The boat come and go and come and go, some times you reach home, like six-thirty soh.”

 

Britney Gordon

“And then, you have to do homework after that as well?”

 

Hannah Perriott

“Yes ma’am.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Do you think it would be easier if you were taking online classes instead?”

 

Hannah Perriott

“I think it would be easier because you don’t have to up and down and wake up like that early anymore.”

 

Britney Gordon

“Do you have any classmates that haven’t been coming to school, or any friends that you know in the area that hasn’t been going to school because it’s too difficult?”

 

Hannah Perriott

“Yes ma’am. A few friends weh noh di go da school.”

 

 

TS Sara Related Floods Take Over Crooked Tree Road