M Twee V Cribs

Whats the worst place you have ever lived? When I first landed here in the US and A, Mrs.Waring and I lived in an apartment in the Westlake district of Los Angeles. Just outside Downtown, it's a rough, largely hispanic, gang infested area. There were not many white folks around. It wasn't that bad, I actually liked living there. We had a top floor corner apartment, with a great view of the downtown skyline from one side and a view over Hollywood from the other. The rent was cheap, but there were lots of insects and a rather unpleasant smell most of the time. The neighbors were odd to say the least, freakish is more like it and it was noisy, very fuckin noisy. Things could have been worse. We could have been living in a discarded kitchen appliance like Noel Currie of St.Ann, Jamaica who has lived in a 12 cubic foot refrigerator for the last 5 years.

Sadly, a few weeks ago, someone set fire to his fridge, leaving him exposed to the elements. "It was a man who helped me to do some work who gave me the fridge and I took it here to sleep because I had nowhere else to go," Currie told the Sunday Observer under a tree in Mile End, St Ann.

"When the rain a fall me will get wet"

59 year old Currie claims that the fridge was set on fire by some neighbourhood boys while he was at the doctors, and although he admitted that the fridge wasn't very comfortable, it was better than sleeping in the open air.

Currie, who used to make a small amount of money by running errands for the locals, is unable to work at the moment. "I used to work all over, and I'm willing to work to do just about anything, although me foot sick now," he said, pointing to a wound on the sole of his right foot.

"I just want someone good who I can work with because I used to wash cars, do farming, just about any little thing because I am a hard worker," he said. "It's just that I can't get anything to do to help myself."

The locals, who have known him for years, say that he isn't mentally ill, he was just dealt a shitty hand. One resident who asked to be named only as 'Miss Jill', said that when Currie first returned to the community after having gone to live with his father in Kingston as a child, he was neatly groomed and smartly dressed. But the years of living under the tree and sleeping in the refrigerator at nights have taken a toll on him.

The residents say they remember that Currie used to live in an old house in the community, but when the owners returned to take possession of their property he had to leave.He said it was at this time that he got the refrigerator, which he moved to one end of a flat piece of land which was later developed into a cricket and football field. One resident explained that when Currie took sick recently and left for the hospital, persons who wanted to further develop the field were only too quick to set fire to the refrigerator, thinking he was not going to return.

"Irie Mon! Me am got no arms!"

In the meantime, 'Miss Jill' is hoping that Currie can get some assistance from the state, as, she said, he has suffered long enough. "People always promised to help him but is always only a promise," she said, adding that he can no longer work to support himself."You should see how him bend up in pain and was crying the other day when his stomach tek him," she told the Sunday Observer. "I just had to boil a lot of tea and give him until they took him to the doctor."
Currie showed this reporter the medication prescribed by the doctor. They are to be taken after meals. Unfortunately, he did not have enough food to take them. In fact, the only food in sight at his makeshift home was a pot containing boiled bananas, remnants of his breakfast.The residents say they want to see him get a roof over his head, now that the refrigerator is gone. They remember that during Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Currie spent the time locked away in the refrigerator under the tree.
"He loves to work and is not afraid to work, but he just needs somewhere to live," said one resident who gave her name only as Marvet.
Another resident, who wanted to be identified only as Joy, echoed Marvet's appeal. "He really needs some help, and I hope that someone out there will help him," she said.

Two things struck me about this poor bastard. One, look at him smiling in that second picture. Two, in the first picture, he is wearing odd sandals even though he has a pair of blue ones.

It's not what happens to you, it's how you handle it. Like locking yourself in a fridge during a hurricane.

EDIT: Just want to thank 'Kate', whoever you are for nominating the Brando post at Post of the Week. I had never heard of it before, but thanks for the recognition!!