THIRTEEN-year-old Shaquan Lewis might not know it, but when he treks to a community standpipe to wash his clothes he rekindles memories of how it was years ago for an average Barbadian family who did not have running water connected to their homes.
But, as that Bajan tradition fades for many, washing clothes at a public pipe has been a reality for Lewis, of 8th Avenue New Orleans, since he was eight years old.
Lewis, a student at Grantley Adams Memorial and second youngest of eight children, has mastered, along with his siblings, the art of washing his clothes, thanks to early guidance from their mother.
But washing has its challenges. It takes a toll on his back as he leans over the old baby bathtub to do the laundry and then lug it back to his home.
“Sometimes it hurts my back,” he said of the twice-a- week chore. (LK)