Camilla Matthew and Tyasha Henry are two of the finest and most hard working litter wardens you can find. Both have offered sterling service to the Solid Waste Management Corporation; Camilla Matthew has been working here for 15 years while her younger counterpart Tyasha has been with the corporation for 13 years. For Camilla, the experience of working at the SWMC has been a good one and nearing 62 years old, she knows her time for retirement draws nigh. “When I (joined SWMC) first, I never had no problem. I enjoy the time here. I will be 62 years in July so you know it’s out I’m going now. I enjoyed it,” Camilla said smiling.
Aside from the joys of her job, Camilla takes pleasure in gardening. “I home in my yard. I dig up my yard and plant my garden. When I done (working), I going to stay in my yard,” she said with glee.
She has a lot from her garden to offer neighbours and even co-workers. “I have a lot of fruit trees in my yard. Right now I have five fingers, and I have wax apple coming,” she told The SWMC Insider. “I give (fruits) to my neighbors and I give my friends and I give me co-workers too,” she added.
For Tyasha, the experience on the job as a litter warden is rewarding. She gets to see places in St. Kitts she never knew existed. “I still feel that there a lot of places in St. Kitts I haven’t seen as yet so when you go to some places you can’t even believe that you in St. Kitts…sometimes it’s the experience; you learn a lot,” she said.
Not only does she discover new places, but through her day to day experiences she learns how to deal with difficult people. When she is not at the SWMC, Tyasha works part-time at Caribbean Cinemas. She is able to take that experience of sometimes dealing with challenging customers in the field and translate that to her job at the movies.
“The first thing I say is that this person difficult, let me take a deep breath and be careful what you say to them,” she said. “Because if they are difficult you can’t be difficult, you have to be different to them and try to deal with them in a professional manner,” she said. In fact, at the movies, she deals with more challenging customers than at the SWMC. “When you come around difficult people you smile and try to talk to them as cool as possible then they calm down because some of the people come with rage.”
Their jobs as litter warden involves them venturing into various villages and ghauts across St. Kitts to assess the state of cleanliness of the area and even take reports from residents about overgrown lots in the community. They sometimes head out early in the morning but the time of their work fluctuates as the demand arises. One thing for certain, they both enjoy what they do and working on the SWMC. They also had high words of commendation for General Manager Mr. Alphonso Bridgewater. “The general manager; he is a good person to talk to whatever problem you have and he does understand,” Tyasha said. Camilla echoed similar sentiments. Their only wish is for an improvement in their remuneration, but when all is said and done, their commitment to the cooperation is unwavering.