JEFFERY HUTCHINSON sitting in a wheelchair is a very different man from Jeffrey Hutchinson cleaning the bottom of a fishing boat in the Black River.

On land, he moves short distances between seats - from his wheelchair to a wooden bench under a large tree, where he sips a soda in the shade.

In the water, though, his arms and shoulders pull him along quite nicely.Hutchinson has consistent income from the fishing industry, although he does not go out himself. "Me clean the boat bottom with steel wool. It take me two day (to do one boat). Me start seven in the mornin' an' done 4:30 in de afternoon," Hutchinson said.

Just for fun

There are times when he clambers to the top of the bridge high over the Black River and jumps off into the water below, just for fun.

"Me see crocodile stan' up straight like you, but dem no bodda me," he said.

Although a doctor has told him that an operation may help him to walk, Hutchinson says: "Me arright. Life a gwaan. Me go look fe me girl same way."

- M.C.