00:00Being visually impaired is a challenge by itself for husband and wife duo, radio personality
00:06Kuhn Tyson and his wife, Sparkle.
00:09Kuhn was born visually impaired, while Sparkle gradually lost her ability to see in her ongoing
00:15battle with diabetes.
00:17They take life in stride, but the state of their Cashew Gardens community has been making
00:22the ordeal more difficult, like the all-but-impassable roadways.
00:28Taxis, having some issues coming into the area on account of the bad roads, they raised
00:35the taxi fares.
00:36Some of them bluntly doesn't want to come.
00:39Not alone in their plight, their neighbor, Mrs. Pipell, amends the increase in taxi
00:44fares.
00:45I came in this morning and the taxi was charging me more to come in.
00:51Okay, what is the regular fare and how much are you charging?
00:54Eight dollars, and some of them take ten, some take as much as fifteen.
00:57I am a pensioner, so paying more for transportation would be kind of hard on my part.
01:04There are many other virtually impassable strips like these throughout the community.
01:09Coming into the space, when you're coming into the main road there, you saw how bad
01:14the road was, and now that you're into the housing scheme, it's bad.
01:17We have a lot of visually impaired persons, I think right, which by that pothole is right
01:22behind us, there is a young lady on the opposite side here.
01:25She literally has to come out and try to maneuver that whole flooding pothole area
01:31to get to her apartment.
01:35Walking is simply not an option.
01:37A couple of people fell on account of the drains, the driveway of the housing areas,
01:47there were metal sheet covering and the other side was open.
01:52So on account of that, some of the visually impaired persons fell into the hole.
01:58On my side of the street, I fell into the hole, but they came and rectified that problem
02:01because I made several reports on it.
02:04So they opt for TT Rideshare, which is turning out to be much more costly.
02:08Even with the TT Rideshare, they work with per hour and the time, so the time it'll take
02:12to come in here, it will certainly cost you more money.
02:16You know, sometimes you're late for something and it will cost you maybe ten or fifteen
02:20minutes just to get out of here because the roads, as you realize, is really, really horrible.
02:26And it's really becoming an inconvenience.
02:29Kuhn Tyson laments how this situation compounds his impairment.
02:33You feel as if you're even more alienated.
02:35I mean, Trinidad and Tobago shouldn't have bad roads like this.
02:40And it would certainly help us if the roads are better.
02:43It would save us a lot.
02:45But when you're here, you feel as if you're cut off from the country because if you have
02:49to get a transport, you have to basically call somebody maybe a day or two before,
02:54ensure there's a driver.
02:55So it's really an inconvenience because I work in Portisby.
02:58Having lodged numerous complaints, they are just frustrated with the lack of action.
03:03Fix the road, for God's sake, fix the road.
03:05I mean, thankfully, we have election.
03:07I'm not afraid to be political or apolitical, but election is around the corner.
03:12To me, it's the perfect time to fix the road.
03:15Meanwhile, another neighbor, Kwesi Abraham, is frustrated with the road, yes, but more
03:20so the flooding of his duplex.
03:23Every time there's any type of rainfall, we are flooded.
03:28If it comes really heavy, water enters our home.
03:33Normal rainfall, the driver can't get access to your vehicle.
03:39If you look presently, the rain is not even falling and the drains are filled and the
03:43water is not even moving.
03:45And this has been an experience for approximately going into five years now.
03:50Their losses are mounting.
03:52We have had loss of television, refrigerator, stove, and you name it.
04:05Not me personally, but my neighbors who share this building, they lost rugs and they lost
04:09tables and they lost living room set.
04:11I have not been able to furnish the downstairs part of our home.
04:14We have been existing on the upstairs alone for the same reason.
04:18Appliances here in Cashew Gardens remain permanently on bricks as residents try to reduce their
04:24losses.
04:25We contacted the Housing Development Corporation, but no response was forthcoming, up to news
04:30time.
04:31Ravishi Tamori, Rupanarayan TV6 News.
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