Papine: hustle and bustle on the borderline

Mel Cooke, Sunday Gleaner Writer

PAPINE, St ANDREW, is a borderline area. It is where students from the University of Technology, the University of the West Indies, Mona, Papine High, HEART/NTA and other institutions make contact - even briefly - with the residents of Tavern, Kintyre, Mona Commons, August Town and Highlight View (the renamed 'Mud Town').

It is also the gateway between the two St Andrews - below Papine is distinctly urban, Hope Road leading to Liguanea, while above the heavily commercialised community it takes on a rural appearance, the greenery quickly becoming more dominant than built-up areas.

Physically, Papine is distinguished by two rather undistinguished physical features, the run-down park around which a one-way road curls and a market which extends its often unsightly tendrils very close to the roadway.

Inside the market, 'Copper' is sitting on the edge of a stall, smoking a Matterhorn cigarette. He tells The Sunday Gleaner that he is from near Annotto Bay, St Mary, and comes into Kingston to sell peanuts.

"No man no trouble me too tough. Me only come and hear say people dead and hear say people chop up people," he said.

Among the people who he has heard about dying violently while on his Friday trips to Papine Market is a lady who operated a shop close to where he is sitting.

"A one time me come an' hear say one brown lady whe used to work deh so dead," Copper said. "Me used to buy fry tings from har."

"When me come one Friday, me hear say dem shoot har same place ova deh so," Copper said.

The park in Papine is as busy as it is dirty. Strangely, though, although it was filled with people when The Sunday Gleaner visited last Friday, a lot of the persons were simply sitting and staring, many with jaws chomping on gum or food.

There are three entrances to the park, the steps leading up to the upper level. Trees are still in the park, but one bears strange fruit - clothing hangers displaying blouses bearing large messages - 'Go Ahead', 'Make Happen' and 'South Pole'.

The lady selling the shirts is not the only vendor in the Papine park who looks very much at home. A snack vendor does not seem to be doing the best of business at the moment, though. And another tree is used for something other than hanging clothing - a rope has been suspended to make a swing in which a little girl sits, grinning gleefully as she is pushed back and forth.

However, it is not all fun and laughter in the Papine park. Papine High student Sasha-Gaye says that she has seen several incidents since she has been "passing through" to and from school. "Is nuff ting happen, 'cause is here so everybody meet up. Even when my school and Mona High boy them in problem, things happen here so. Is not everything make news, you know that," she said.