Wini Chung

THIS is the fifteenth part in a series of profiles on old-time Caymanians, whose lives are intimately linked to the rugged soil and azure seas of these Cayman Islands. Rarely have these men and women had an opportunity to speak about the absorbing adventures of their youth. But each has a fascinating story to tell, which Pam DaCosta has been eagerly discovering, as she travels the length of Grand Cayman in search of these unique intriguing human treasures.

Ms Chung, who is 94 years old, continues:

“An associate of ours flew our fish from the farm’s airstrip to Curacao then on to Miami. One time, we landed in Curacao. Our pilot said: “Ms Wini—look out your window! Soldiers are ready to meet us!”

The soldiers boarded our plane searching, only to find me sitting cross-legged on my tiny bed on the floor, with all these fish stacked around me. They were so shocked! ‘Fish?’ they asked?

But soon enough our fish fad took off and then we’d fly into Columbia to take our fish. On these trips, I’d get to look out the window and see the Andes Mountains as we flew over the summits. Then the US became our largest market; we started getting orders from Hartz Mountain— a large US pet company and as far away as Paramount Aquariums in Los Angeles.

“Our associate’s plane could no longer suffice. In those days Pan American World Airways was our only route into the US, and we needed them to fly our fish. Initially, they baulked at the idea of carrying our fish, until finally my husband dashed a fish in a plastic bag filled with water onto their counter…they relented when the plastic bag didn’t leak.

“I still remember what Pan Am charged us— US$4.80 per pound. Then the tropical fish fad began in Europe, too, and soon KLM was flying our fish into Europe. Nowadays, aquariums aren’t very popular, young people hardly stay at home; they’re usually out and about or else watching television.

“Chung Creek” was quite the jack of all— we kept fish in netted ponds in one area, and we only drank water from upstream. We bathed in another part of the stream and did our “bizness” down stream.
“As for me, baths at evenings were a task. I’d to call several of the men to ask them to stand guard a short ways off. Then, I’d enter the creek to bathe. I told them if they’d ever heard me scream to come running and help me— sometimes there were alligators or piranhas.

“I’d go into the water, make noises, splash the surface water with my arms to keep anything away—at least that’s what seemed to work for me. Everyday I’d ask God to show me which part of the stream to bathe in. I’d to trust the Almighty to get me through everything. Not only the baths, but I’d to ask him for daily strength, too.

“Once there was a rumor someone would pay several thousands to anyone finding a thirty foot boa constrictor. My husband and workers came across several; but these were all only between 28 and 29 feet long.

“The husband of one of my domestic helpers knew how to catch them—so when one crawled into a room of the warehouse, I yelled for her. I told her she’d better call the men. But she said she knew how to catch it, because she had watched her husband many times before.

“She grabbed a pole and a large cloth bag, and started making grunting noises…soon that snake slid and wrapped itself right around that pole— it was a terrible looking thing! Somehow she got that bag around him, twisted the top around, but she couldn’t budge him so she asked my help.

I said: ‘Me? You’re calling the wrong person!’ I yelled for the men, they came to drag it out. It was 29 feet long.

“Because we were in the jungle, wild animals, snakes and insects were often present, so you’d to look down while walking, not up as you would in the city. Snakes and other animals could be crawling along, or coming out of the bushes.

“There were no doctors, but we did have a phone by the warehouse that worked on and off; otherwise whatever happened out on the outside world we never knew about. Once a government official showed up with an entourage of MGM filmmakers asking for Louis’ guidance through the jungle to make a movie.

The government official declared he’d only allow the filmmakers to stay and film if Louis accompanied them. So, Louis showed them the choicest areas to film, and built them a mini village in the dense jungle, to house their location crew. The movie was ‘Green Mansions’ filmed around Kaieteur Falls— the highest straight-drop waterfall in the world. It starred Audrey Hepburn and Anthony Perkins. I’d get my helper Esma to make special Guyanese sponge cakes and fruitcakes for the film crew.

“By then Maxine, my daughter, returned from college. She wanted to remain close by, so we put our heads together and came up with a business idea. In those days, only seamstresses made dresses, so I thought of selling US ready-made clothes at a store in Georgetown. We first telephoned a Miami store, then flew up there, walked in and asked for the manager. He was shocked that it would be women he’d be contracting with for clothes. He was expecting men. We opened our store, got the clothes flown in, affixed red carpet over the four steps which entered into the store, and down the middle of the store. And we presented the newest fashions modeled by the prettiest girls. The store was beautiful! And jam-packed! Our sales shot off—soon we ran out of clothes, and then had to re-order. Local women lined up just to find out when they could come back to buy more.

“In British Guiana, there’re two main divergent populations, the Blacks and the East Indians. As time wore on, tensions grew within the country between the two. Everyone started saying what was causing the trouble was that the Communists had taken sides with one of our political parties. But on our farm, both groups worked alongside perfectly. It was like our own community out there. All the workers called me “Mistress” and two workers especially loved our family. One was nicknamed “Black Chung.” He would have given his life for us and another East Indian named Lewis.

“One day, I’d left our farm and drove the 35 miles into Georgetown. On the way home, I saw that sugarcane fields were ablaze. I knew something was wrong. I gunned our station wagon, but I soon came upon a roadblock. Both sides were lined with hundreds of East Indian men— some brandishing cutlasses.

“I inched forward—my hands and feet were shaking. I kept praying: ‘Lord, help me! How am I going to get through?’

“My heart was pounding in my chest: ‘pup, pup, pup, pup, pup’. I rolled my window down, and announced rather boldly: ‘What’re you boys doing here?

Why don’t you all go home!’

“ One of the men recognizing me, exclaimed: ‘Oh! It’s “Mistress!”’ He yelled several times to the others: ‘It’s “Mistress”! Pass it on!’ So, they kept passing it down the line saying who I was, as I slowly moved forward. I had to travel slow— wait for clearance until the message got passed down. When I got home, I collapsed. I felt sick for days afterwards.

“The evening Maxine called saying she had gone to check on her store. Because it was located so close to the Communist headquarters, it got somehow spared. So she had run in, grabbed as many clothes as she could carry, and then left before she was harmed. She said the town’s main shopping district, including the large Booker Company Ltd. department stores, were on fire. She said they’d been smashed into, looted and set on fire, and the whole area looked like a civil war!

“My Louis was away in another part of the country. He’d tried calling, but all phones were down. Afterwards he’d told me all he could think of was that if anyone had hurt his family, he’d shoot anyone in his way. He was quite the marksman! All air travel was shut down. Eventually he got through on his short wave radio to say he’d be getting a pilot to land him onto a dirt airstrip about five miles away. So I covered up our red truck with tarp, since the only other red truck belonged to the Communist party, I didn’t want it spotted from the air nor by anyone else— as I was scared of any repercussions. As Louis walked in, he was armed to the teeth. He had a shotgun, a Winchester rifle and a pistol. Within days, British troops had arrived, via ships, to quell the riots.

“Life continued on, we closed the clothes shop. British Guiana became independent and became Guyana. Some large corporations were nationalized. Both my girls worked in banks where they’d just met their husbands, Louis Jr. was a pilot with BWIA, and Barry was in Canada. Then Jackie moved to Cayman, and so Louis and I traveled there to spend the Christmas with her.

“The next major disruption was when Maxine called us in Cayman with disturbing news about our farm. The long and short of it—which Maxine told us in code was—‘Don’t come back to Guyana, things are getting worse’. Fearing that Maxine and her family might not soon be able to leave Guyana, I called her back saying: ‘Come as you are! Bring nothing but yourselves!’ My granddaughter Joan was not yet four years old.

“Maxine and her husband Bill closed our farm, all the workers left, except for Black Chung and Lewis. Maxine instructed them to sell the van, and keep the big truck, and to take anything else useful. One worker returned asking ‘Only for the chair that “Mistress” sat in.’ Louis Jr. soon phoned saying: ‘Mother, no one will take away my parents’ hard labor of over thirty years, I’m letting the fish go!’ He later told me he’d ripped open the nets with a knife letting the fish into the creek from the ponds.

“We remained in Cayman, and then Maxine and her family joined us. Since Louis had been a Director of Lions International, we’d already traveled extensively to many parts of the world raising funds for charity, then when he became a Cayman Lions Club member, we continued going to meetings worldwide.

“At these meetings, women were only allowed to stand at the back and serve h’ors deurves and cakes to the men, after the speeches. This was the limit to women’s input. So, at a meeting in New Mexico, I had just about enough of this…about 30 of us women stood at the back of the room. We’d just finished serving refreshments, the men stood around munching and chatting in groups.

“So I cleared my throat and raised my voice, announcing: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’.

“All went quiet. ‘Men, you want us to bake your cakes and always be at the back serving. We ladies want recognition! We’d like to have our own president! We’d like to be a club too!’

“My husband overheard this and loudly said: ‘Elect them! They’re wanting to be independent!’
“It was fantastic. Louis had helped me out. All the women cheered. Soon meetings were being held worldwide to discuss this issue and it was later put to a vote at a meeting in Chicago. Soon the Ladies Lions was formed. I’m an honorary member of the ‘Lions Club of Tropical Gardens’ and we are all women.

“In Cayman, the climate was wonderful, and the people were so friendly. People like Sonny Boy and Rose Bodden, the Hunters, the Fosters and Bill McTaggart family— all were so good to us.

“People couldn’t do enough for us when we arrived. At one point, Dennis Foster suggested that the Cayman government give us status, saying: ‘Louis and Wini have gone throughout the world representing Cayman, so give them status’…and we got it. We’ve loved living here. Unfortunately, my Louis passed away in 1985. But up until then we had traveled to every Caribbean island and Cayman has always remained our favorite.”

Miss Wini states: “I’ve lived in the wild jungle, done it all and I’ve come far on having one term of high school. I still have my senses, thank God, and I’ve trusted the Almighty always.”

As tiny Wini ends her story, I understand how incredibly tough it must have been in that huge jungle. A sunset’s glow silhouettes the Andes in the far distance…fast flowing tributaries carve their way through cool deep-shadowed forests like slivers of ink and there’s Wini…trying to claim her evening bath amongst nature’s wilds, splashing and praying, placing all her trust in God. Ah…but He’ll lead her out of this place, to a place flowing in milk and honey, to where her heart will blossom and she’ll be content, to where its people also firmly believe in God, and where they will love her as one of their own.
He’ll bring her home to her Canaan…the safe and sun-dappled Cayman Islands.