The Basketball Court: Last Act

bball court #2, originally uploaded by schleicher.

It has been a real drama. I've been working on finishing the basketball court for several months now (the project was destroyed during Accompong's 6th of January celebration). I thought it was hopeless when I went to my boss in Kingston and told him what had happened - expecting to be chastised for my failure. Instead, he simply said, "well, we have to finish it. Write another proposal and we'll get you more money."

I went home and drew up a new plan. This time, I wouldn't rely on community members to volunteer the labor. I contracted the work out to a mason in town. He quoted me a price of US$650 and said that he would need 35 bags of cement and two truckloads of finely crushed limestone to finish the job. I wrote a budget and submitted it to my organization's "Small Project Assistance Committee" (of which I am a member) and it was approved. I couldn't believe it. I was actually going to finish the court.

But I dared not tell anyone. I didn't want to jinx it.

The check came in last week and I rushed down to Santa Cruz to order the materials so they would arrive before Easter. Then I could have the mason do the work over the Easter holiday (in Jamaica, spring break is centered around Easter). The crew started working on Monday, while I was out of town at a festival (doing some advertising for The Original Trails of the Maroons). Tuesday morning, I went to check on their progress. I was scared to do so - I just knew that something more was going to happen to prevent the completion of the project. Everything had been running so smoothly, too smoothly.

Sure enough, I arrived on the site and the mason told me that he had underpriced the job - he would need an additional J$10,000 to finish it. I just looked at him. I didn't have any more money to give him - the budget had been written and our funds had been dispersed. It was too late to make an adjustment. He also told me that he'd need more cement. "It's a lot bigger than I thought," he said. I just looked at him. I wasn't angry. I know this guy and he's an honest, hardworking person. He genuinely wanted to help me finish the court - he had seen me toiling away, alone, on the court many times as he came back from work in the afternoon. I know that he wanted to help me, but he's a working man and he's got mouths to feed.

I understood his situation. Everyone has underestimated the size of this court, including me. I just didn't have the means to pay him more or buy more cement, but, at the same time, we had to finish the court. I thought that if I avoided the conversation, he would finish the court and I would've successfully deferred the argument over money.

That didn't work. He had a crew of ten men and if we didn't give him the extra money then he wouldn't have any money left for himself. You see, the court was taking longer than expected, partially due to bad weather, and his labor costs were growing with each additional day. I told him to finish the court and I guaranteed him that I would get his money. "What about the cement?" he said. "Borrow it from someone," I told him. "I'll replace it. Just finish the court."

The next day (yesterday), I was up there working alongside his crew. I also roped another unwitting volunteer into spending his day doing hard manual labor with me and the Maroons, and I had the laptop bandit up there working off his debt. We were racing against time - and the weather - and our dwindling pile of cement (when it was all said and done I had to borrow an additional 21 bags of cement to finish the job). We worked well into the night. I even had to buy cigarettes and a case of Guinness to keep these guys working (they did over 12 hours of back-breaking labor for J$1,000...pretty amazing). And I had to give another Maroon 10 bucks to drive his car onto the field and give us some light. At times, I just stood and stared. There were so many variables to consider and, ultimately, I had little control over what would happen. The wheels were set in motion and the uncontrollables (i.e. the weather) were just that. Still, I couldn't help but stop and stare and think if there was anything more I could do to make sure we wouldn't fail again.

After 8 p.m., we finally finished. I still can't believe it. This court has been both my greatest accomplishment and my biggest failure in Jamaica. And it's almost over.

Why almost? Because although the court itself has been completed, there are still some debts to settle. Between the borrowed cement and the money I owe to the mason, I need US$375 to put this basketball court to rest.