Hot-wired for attention

AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Darren Sandy and I believe life is a lesson – so pay attention!

I’m from Plymouth, Tobago, but I was actually born in Trinidad. My mum is from Trinidad. And when her pregnancy was going along apparently kinda rough, she went down by her family, had me and came back.

I’ve never spent a day in Trinidad as a boy. I was literally born there and then spent my entire life in Tobago.

I’m the real definition of Trinbagonian.

I have three sisters. I’m the only boy, but not the baby boy. I have one sister after me.

I would catch car, at a young age, eight or nine. And I would go in town. Play tennis with the boys in town, play basketball. From a young age I was independent.

Is only as I got older that I realised what a sacrifice my parents Denzil and Ellen Parris-Sandy made to grow us up.

I’m not married, but I have two boys. My first son is 18, my second son is one year. I’m still with the second son’s mum but we not saying we getting married.

I went to Scarborough RC. But I’m not Catholic. I’m Anglican, but not a big practising one. I’m a believer, but I don’t go to church as I should. Sometimes I wake up late and our church is very early. It starts at eight o'clock on a Sunday and finish by 10 am. So if you wake up nine o’clock you miss half of church already.

The only thing I can say (to reconcile) the suffering in the world and a caring God is, it is just like with your children. You can teach them, but at some time, you need to leave them to be themselves. Sometimes they stray; sometimes they stay on the path.

I observe it with my first son: at times, you could tell him but (most times) he had to experience it himself.

So that’s why I say life is a lesson. Sometimes you need to experience things to understand.

I went to Bishop’s High School in Tobago. Out of the 80 students that came in that year, 20 came from Scarborough RC alone. The people I was in class with from first year primary school, I was with them right up to fifth form.

We stay in contact. Sometimes we might have a games night over the internet.

I went to John D to do a two-year course in triple ET, electronic engineering technician. Port of Spain was a change, but it wasn’t a shock to me, being that my mum is from Trinidad. We used to come to Trinidad every holiday. It was just the first time I was there without my parents.

I still work in triple ET.

I was at Powergen before. And then I came back to Tobago and I got into T&TEC.

When I came back to Tobago, initially I was working with the cable company and then, funny story, they joined the union. And they retrenched everybody who joined the union.

They always say there’s a silver lining behind every cloud and I believe that.

Because of that, I drove for two or three weeks for a friend and I met a T&TEC crew. And I was watching them and I say, “Like they in my field!”

So I asked the foreman, Derek Jack, “So how you does get a work in T&TEC?”

He say, “Man, just apply!” I think that was a Thursday.

I went home the Thursday, I sent in an application the Friday and they called me the Monday for an interview. That was 2004, 19 years ago.

I did tree trimming for a year and a half.

Right now I’m a hot-line linesman. It’s extremely dangerous. I work on the high-voltage wires system.

In Tobago we are very, very, very strict on employee safety, so we never really had an incident.

Whereas in Trinidad they had several incidents, loss of life.

From the time clouds set up you have to stop, because the higher the voltage, the more electricity will jump through the air to make contact. So once it has moisture in the air it will jump on that moisture. So once the place start to feel kinda bleak we have to stop. Because current could jump.

Life is a lesson, so pay attention. I don’t know where I got this wisdom.

From the time I start to become an adult, I realise I see things people don’t see. I don’t know why. I’m very observant.

I learn to observe body language. I learn to hear what is not said. Because people always tell you how they feel, they just don’t say it with their mouth all the time.

When you pay attention, you see a lot more.

I learnt that a lot of people are not happy and they pretend to be. We have a lot of new cars on the road, people buying a lot of nice, shiny things.

But they are under pressure. And they do it to give a false impression of who they are because they think that status is what defines them.

When people not saying how they feel to you but you can see how they feel, you would know how to interact with them. Sometimes they want a little encouragement. Sometimes they just want a joke because they down.

A lot of people, after I interact with them they would say, “Boy, you know how long I wanted someone to say that?”

Or just to be there. You know we have a lot of unhappy people out here.

The best thing about, "Life is a lesson. Pay attention,” is it gives you a sense of inner peace. You don’t have to take on the burdens of the world mentally. Because peace of mind is my greatest asset, not money.

The downside is at times, being able to see things people don’t see could come off to some people that you’re insensitive. Because you already focused on fixing whatever, they will think that you not showing the level of care when you done jump over that.

Lo and behold, the same exact foreman I talked to about getting into T&TEC was my trainer when I got transferred into the line section. And then that same exact foreman became my foreman after training.

So I don’t believe that things would line up so good by itself. I believe there is somebody orchestrating these things. It line up straight as an arrow.

You go anywhere in the world they don’t have to know you, once they hear the accent, all yuh is friends.

A Trinbagonian is love. I see it as love.

In Tobago, is a different level of love. A guy from Trinidad came to Tobago one harvest and he was eating and drinking about three plates of food because he never eat bush meat and thing.

So while we liming, he leans over to my friend and says, “Eh, how we paying for all of this boy?”

We start to laugh. It’s harvest.

So today he living in Tobago. He came on a contract for three weeks and he never go back.

To me, Trinidad and Tobago means a sense of serenity. I’ve travelled a bit and I haven’t seen anywhere that could make me feel I could leave permanently.

Every country has its downfalls, but I think we have a lot here and I think we don’t appreciate it enough.

Read the full version of this feature on Friday evening at www.BCPires.com