An entryway on the Chinese complex.
WITHIN TRELAWNY'S Greenfield complex is a neat and tidy 'foreign' compound.
About half a dozen rows of prefab buildings house the 136 Chinese workers involved in the construction of the site of the opening ceremony of next year's World Cup of cricket.
While the Asian workers know as much about cricket as the average Jamaican does about the Cantonese alphabet, the yet-to-be-named ground is definitely taking shape.
The southern and northern stands are growing ahead of schedule, the field has a healthy if not full coverage of grass and the pitch lazes in the middle of the north coast oval.
Just a well-struck lofted drive away to the south is the neat, fenced abode of the Chinese workers.
The administration offices boast a flower garden at the front and a vegetable garden at the rear.
Assistant project manager Linda Shen who like at least half of the workers is from Beijing points out that the crop includes pak choy, Chinese white carrots, green beans, lettuce, squash and tomatoes.
WHISTLE-STOP TOUR
"Everything grows so quick here," Shen said during a whistle-stop tour of the facility. "We have four chefs here who cook three meals a day. Most of the meals are Chinese but we have also tried local dishes," she said.
"We like things like jerk pork and ackee and salt fish."
The early effects of the World Cup are already being felt in Falmouth where the Chinese are daily visitors.
While the living quarters appear quite rudimentary, the workers do have the luxury of a cable dish which beams in, among other stations, Chinese Channel Four.
Coupled with the familiar fare, it at least gives the workers a taste of home while working on very foreign soil.
Near the front gate to the compound is a countdown sign of days to go until the project is completed. November is the
deadline and then they will
presumably pack up and head off somewhere else for another
project and their own Chinese garden.
- T.G.
