Reid

Robert Lalah, Assistant Editor - Features

Even though the sound of gunshots often affect his ability to concentrate when he's hitting the books, 17-year-old Andr Reid of Trench Town, south St. Andrew is determined to succeed.

His school, Charlie Smith High, in the same community, has been the scene of some violent clashes over the past few months, as gunmen have made a habit of using the back gate of the school as an escape route. Just last week Andr sat in the science lab at the school about midday when a handful of gunmen who reportedly were involved in the murder of a teenage girl moments earlier ran on to the school compound.

"I didn't see them, but everybody told me about it. From I started hearing the gunshots I decided to stay in the lab. I live in Trench Town, right on the borderline of two places that are at war, so I know a lot about gunshots," he said with a wry smile.

Way out of poverty

Andr lives alone with his mother who is unemployed. He sees his education as his and his mother's way out of poverty. "Times hard on my mother. I don't really care about myself 'cause I am a man so I can handle it. But every day I look and see the kind of place that my mother have to live in and I say I have to make something out of myself and take her out," he said.

Andr explained that his father migrated to the U.S. many years ago and, since then, has made little effort to contact him.

"Every time I am the one who has to call him. I feel angry because it just seem like him forget about my mother. I called him the other day and told him my mind. After that I just deleted his number from my phone. It's all right though, I will succeed without him and I will make sure that my mother live the best life without him," Andr said.

Increasingly difficult

The young man plans to sit 10 subjects in this year's CSEC exams. He's been preparing for it for some time but, as the violence worsens in Trench Town, he's finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on his studies.

"I don't really know where to study. If I do it at home then is pure gunshots. If I try to stay back at school it's the same thing. It's not even safe to stay back late because when you're walking home anything can happen," he said.

Even as he struggles to find time to study, Andr has other responsibilities to meet. "Because my mother doesn't work I do some hours after school at a cookshop. I cut up the chicken and everything. It's alright though because I love the work. It makes me feel like a man," he said with a chuckle. Last summer Andr got a temporary job at an office in Kingston and earned enough money to buy his textbooks and pay his school fee.

"I was really happy when that happen because it ease the pressure on my mother. She was really happy when I told her I would pay the fee. I want to see that look on her face more often so I going to pass all my exams even with the war and take her out of the ghetto. My father wasn't a real man and do it for her so now her son will do it for her," he said.