AS TOLD TO BC PIRES

My name is Nadia Huggins and I can say people in St Vincent have been living in hell since the volcano erupted on April 9.

I couldn’t say I was living in hell myself because, although I’ve had huge pileups of ash all around me in the green zone, things are much worse and people far more vulnerable in the orange and red zones. Coconut branches, laden with ash, droop in the green zone (but) houses in the red zone were buried under ash. We had very heavy rain on April 29 and that helped clean off all the roofs.

I left Trinidad when I was three, but I would say I was from Cascade.

Trinidad left an indelible mark on my family, even after we moved to St Vincent. We were raised in a particular way, to remember that energy of Trinidad.

In terms of language, behaviour, that type of thing, I grew up in St Vincent in (a very Trini way).

I moved back to Trinidad for a couple of years in 2014 and I’ve always been back and forth.

But not since covid. Every time I land in Trinidad, that energy resonates.

We were a small family, mother, father, sister, but my mum comes from a very big one.

I eventually want a family but, as a photographer, you need a level of hyper-focus to get things to develop, career-wise.

I live in puns.

My mother’s Catholic, my dad was born Anglican, but I rejected religion at age 11, as soon as I went to high school.

Religion just didn’t make any sense. The reality I was living was nothing like the Bible stories.

I think I believe in a greater energy that is in all of us and the earth and our surroundings.

I don’t know if I have the kind of power BC Pires asks me about, to pray to God for good weather for the cricket.

My Trini roots never made me feel like an outsider in St Vincent, but I have been judged and excommunicated from groups as a creative person.

“Why is that person so quiet? Why are they swimming out in the ocean alone?”

Little things like that.

We all judge people based on their appearance.

I have alopecia and it took a long time to adjust when I started losing my hair when I was 14. Obviously, I got bullied a lot growing up and still encounter the odd person who’s a little unkind.

But I recognise that’s not about me, but (them).

It took a while to be comfortable enough to say, “Right, screw everyone, I’m going to take off my headwrap and rock my bald head!”

Just owning that, I get a lot more respect. The odd person will be unsure how to engage, but once we start to talk, they realise there’s more to me than my physical appearance.

[caption id="attachment_892660" align="alignnone" width="768"] After the volcanic eruption Nadia Huggings say she has never been so grateful for fresh air, running water, shelter and things being green. - Zaina Mahmoud[/caption]

I was a very average student. Mostly because a lot of the su