Pamela Poly­dore

Lev­el 2, NALIS AM

Life for me was a chal­lenge be­cause the day my moth­er gave birth and she came out of the hos­pi­tal, she dis­card­ed her ba­by in a dust­bin. My body was cov­ered with bit­ing ants and the worms from the food in the bin was al­so on my body the fol­low­ing day.

The next day, a woman was emp­ty­ing her rub­bish and saw this ba­by pant­i­ng for breath. She took this ba­by out of the bin, car­ried it to the hos­pi­tal for treat­ment and took care of me un­til the age of nine. My moth­er was nowhere to be found.

Up­on reach­ing that ten­der age, the woman told me I would have to go and look for work to main­tain my­self. I told her I didn't know where to go. She said, "You go on! You will find some­where to go."

I start­ed to cry and packed my be­long­ings and head­ed down the road, walk­ing un­til it be­came dark. I looked for a card­board box and I slept on the pave­ment un­til morn­ing.

The next day I went from house to house ask­ing if they need­ed any­body to work. I found a house where they took me in and I start­ed to sweep and scrub the house. I nev­er got the op­por­tu­ni­ty to go to school. I worked there for five years. The treat­ment was ter­ri­ble. They worked me to a fraz­zle. If I don't do some­thing they ask me to do, they phys­i­cal­ly abused me and burned my fin­gers.

I got fed up and one day I left and went back on the pave­ment. I was 14 at that time. It was a chal­lenge be­cause of the el­e­ments that was out there. Food was a prob­lem, so I had to beg to sur­vive.

One day a good Samar­i­tan saw this young girl on the pave­ment and res­cued me and put me in a shel­ter where things were go­ing fine for about one year and af­ter that I got mar­ried at 16. I start­ed hav­ing chil­dren and couldn't get to ed­u­cate my­self be­cause I had to see about the chil­dren.

Now all four of my chil­dren are grown, I can now try to ed­u­cate my­self to the best of my abil­i­ty. This is the rea­son why I chose Al­ta to start from foun­da­tion and to get my pass­es and then pro­ceed to my de­gree.

For the New Year, play your part to build lit­er­a­cy. If you have time, vol­un­teer to be an Al­ta tu­tor, a Read­ing Cir­cle guide or to as­sist stu­dents on the com­put­er. If your time is al­ready booked, spon­sor an Al­ta stu­dent for the year (TT$500). Call 624-AL­TA (2582) or e-mail al­tatt@ya­hoo.com.

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These are the top ten E-book Fic­tion best­sellers on the New York Times Best­sellers list.

1. HOPE­LESS, by Colleen Hoover. (Colleen Hoover.)

The man who has been re­lent­less­ly pur­su­ing Sky Davis is not who he pre­tends to be.

2. SAFE HAVEN, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Cen­tral Pub­lish­ing.)

The ar­rival of a mys­te­ri­ous young woman in a small North Car­oli­na town rais­es ques­tions about her past.

3. GONE GIRL, by Gillian Fly­nn. (Crown Pub­lish­ing.)

A woman dis­ap­pears on the day of her fifth an­niver­sary; is her hus­band a killer?

4. THE CO­IN­CI­DENCE OF CAL­LIE AND KAY­DEN, by Jes­si­ca Sorensen. (Jes­si­ca Sorensen.)

A boy and girl, both of whom have tragedy in their past, come to­geth­er af­ter a chance en­counter in col­lege.

5. SOME­ONE TO LOVE, by Ad­di­son Moore. (Ad­di­son Moore.)

A one-night stand turns in­to love for two col­lege stu­dents.

6. COL­LAT­ER­AL DAM­AGE, by Stu­art Woods. (Pen­guin Group.)

Back in New York, the lawyer Stone Bar­ring­ton joins his for­mer part­ner Hol­ly Bark­er in a dan­ger­ous case.

7. THE FOR­GOT­TEN, by David Bal­dac­ci. (Grand Cen­tral Pub­lish­ing.)

The mil­i­tary in­ves­ti­ga­tor John Puller probes his aunt's mys­te­ri­ous death in Flori­da.

8. FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E L James. (Knopf Dou­ble­day Pub­lish­ing.)

An in­ex­pe­ri­enced col­lege stu­dent falls in love with a tor­tured man who has par­tic­u­lar sex­u­al tastes; the first book in a tril­o­gy.

9. FIFTY SHADES DARK­ER, by E L James. (Knopf Dou­ble­day Pub­lish­ing.)

Daunt­ed by Chris­t­ian's dark se­crets, Anas­ta­sia ends their re­la­tion­ship – but de­sire still dom­i­nates her every thought; the sec­ond book in a tril­o­gy.

10. FIFTY SHADES FREED, by E L James. (Knopf Dou­ble­day Pub­lish­ing.)

Re­unit­ed, Anas­ta­sia and Chris­t­ian face a world of pos­si­bil­i­ties and un­ex­pect­ed chal­lenges; the fi­nal vol­ume in a tril­o­gy. (AP)