Woman In A Shelter

Woman In A Shelter

‘A quarter acre plot and 10 sheep / was really all she got
Sufficient for her livelihood and upkeep / she was contented with her lot
She farmed in the day and then sleep / In a simple two room hut

Now all has changed around / That area’s out of bounds
Yes the day dreams can’t be found / They all gone they all gone

I hear a woman in a shelter balling
Shhh, listen.

The piece of land she cultivated / Is six feet under ash
The animals she daily shifted / Were all killed on the spot
Her cosy little home has melted / And where it was it’s not

A pyroclastic flow / Has dealt a heavy blow
There’s nothing left to show / They all gone they all gone’

– Extract from Song 'Woman In A Shelter' by Zunky 'n Dem

And then sometimes you cannot sleep in peace and comfort because the others are out there playing domino, knocking cards, knocking this, knocking that, and you want to sleep because you don’t have nothing to do. So it was disturbance, but what can you do? We are all in a shelter.

– Montserrat Resident, 2019

And then when it comes to the cooking, you have some people who like to cook at 10 o’clock in the morning, you have another set who cooks at 12 o’clock, and then you have another set who cooks at 6 o’clock, so it’s like these who go in at 10, they don’t want to come out the kitchen until 2, so who is going to cook at 12 have a problem with who goes in at 10, because 10 don’t come out of the kitchen yet, and 12 want to go into the kitchen. So here we are, we have this quarrelling, ‘She cannot be in the kitchen’ or ‘We want to cook …’ You know what I mean? So now you have to be in there like, ‘OK, you take this side, and then this person take that side.

– Montserrat Resident, 2019