Sandhill Man to Welcome New Year in Broken Down House
While many of you are rejoicing with Sunday’s lottery draw, there is one man who is struggling to keep a smile on his face. Tonight, we bring you the story of sixty-seven-year-old Aalan Caseries, a resident of Sandhill Village. For the past two weeks, Caseries has been living in a broken-down house. He spent Christmas in less than fortunate conditions and is about to welcome the New Year in those same conditions. Reporter Hipolito Novelo visited Caseries today to find out more.
Aalan Caseries, Needs Assistance
“Like I am living in hell. I wish things to get better because it was better than this but now it is way down to the bottom.”
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
A smiling sixty-seven-year-old Aalan Caseries is keeping hope alive that he will welcome 2020 in better conditions. But by the looks of it, Caseries will be spending the first hours of the new year sleeping inside this broken down house. A peek inside the small space shows the disastrous state that it is in. It is unhealthy and unsafe.
There is no front door. To enter his quarters, Caseries crawls up a window and unto a mattress which he has placed over broken boards. His room has walls filled with hole. One the walls has taken the role of a roof, with a window and sharp raindrops that disturb his rest. There are snakes, bugs and a lot of mosquitoes.
Aalan Caseries
Aalan Caseries
“It leaks at the top because the windows are at the top so whenever I lie down there, the water comes down. Nighttime, the clearing drop on me and all that stuff. I have to pay attention to what all is happening. I try to close up all the little holes around because there is a lot of holes underneath the mattress because I just set the mattress on some boards so there are a lot of holes under there.”
Hipolito Novelo
“A lot of mosquitoes?”
Aalan Caseries
“A lot of mosquitoes. I have to burn the coils so that they go. But before morning you will hear them at your ears.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Do you live alone?”
Aalan Caseries
“Yes, many times but I am a soldier, I was a trained soldier in the United States.”
Hipolito Novelo
“But there is so much loneliness one man can endure especially at your age.”
Aalan Caseries
“Well, I can endure it because I have trained myself to do that. Things don’t worry be like that.”
Located in Sandhill Village, along mile eighteen and a half on the Philip Goldson Highway, the house was damaged during the latest hurricane but on December eighteenth, the main structure collapsed leaving the adjacent room flipped on its side.
Caseries is a vehicle mechanic but business has been slow. He has no running water, but is still connected to the grid.
Aalan Caseries
“I have to go to the jungle to use the bathroom right now and I cook on my stove. I have to go to the back and take a shower because everything is broken down. My bathroom gone, everything.”
Hipolito Novelo
“You are not afraid that someone might target you? I mean you are vulnerable out here.”
Aalan Caseries
“Well I no really afraid because I keep my stuff in my room. I keep my machete and stuff like that because I am trained soldier and they are not going to attack me just like that. I know how to do my thing.”
He has been assisted with mattresses, food items and other materials sent by Area Representative Edmond Castro. But what Caseries needs now is a proper roof over his head.
Aalan Caseries
“This is suffering for me. I have never lived like this in my whole life.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Do you thing twenty-twenty will be better for you?”
Aalan Caseries
“I think so. I think I see a little future. Mr. Castro sent me something so I see a little future with it.”
Hipolito Novelo
“Four mattresses.”
Aalan Caseries
“It is four mattresses. He sent me some more stuff, some food items, a stove top with a tank and stuff like that and some sanitary stuff.”
Hipolito Novelo
“But you need a proper roof over your head.”
Aalan Caseries
“That is what I need now. I’ll see if he will come up with something bigger.”
Hipolito Novelo
“What about your children? You said you had one son?”
Aalan Caseries
“I don’t see none of them because they are playing this hate role on me.”
Hipolito Novelo
“They don’t come and visit you?”
Aalan Caseries
“No, they don’t come.”
And while you might think that all hope is lost, Caseries believes that 2020 will be better.
Hipolito Novelo
“Do you have any new year’s resolution?”
Aalan Caseries
“To live better next year and to uplift myself higher than how I was living.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
If you would like to assist Caseries you can contact him at cell phone number six-three-seven-seven-five-zero-two.
