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A great story on hard work...
Pan chicken man 'Ruddy' Bent — shining example of hard work
Source: Sunday Observer
BY SHAMILLE SCOTT
With the right attitude and determination to achieve success, 17-year-old Rodney Bent left his Clarendon home for Kingston with the belief of obtaining a job, only to experience life at world's end.
Upon arriving in Kingston with the intention of being employed at a sawmill, Bent, also known as Ruddy, learned that he was duped when his promise of securing a job proved to be just a castle in the sky.
"I travelled from Alston, Clarendon, with the intention to get a work from a gentleman. When I come now, the man never give me the work, mi just box around, box around, fight me way through," he said.
His refusal to return home jobless saw him enduring the wonders of the night, as he was left to call the root of a tree, home.
"The way how me grow, me sleep under tree," he said while recounting the rueful events. "Night after night I sleep under it ... house that is a mango tree."
Despite a dusty and rocky bed in an open lot beside the Grant's Pen Clinic, Bent remained there, determined to find a job in the area.
"The insect dem a night-time dem no bodda trouble me again because me just say dem nah bite me, because me no have nowhere to live," he said.
Young, small-framed and alone, Bent took up various jobs to make money.
He hung around construction sites but was prevented from doing extensive work because of his tiny structure. To make extra cash, he washed cars and worked with a bus conductor.
"No matter how I beg them a work on the construction site, I get turned down. I was too skinny," he said, while laughing, examining his now mature structure.
But the money that he earned from the various jobs couldn't suffice. So Bent decided to try the pan chicken business.
"I sat and watched the men doing pan chicken, and thought I can do it too," he said.
Bent managed to get a welder to transform a drum he bought to build what became one of his greatest asset, a pan chicken grill.
"I never even have money to pay him. I paid him in chicken," he said.
With two chickens, a fork, a pan and a couple spices he bought from the man, Ruddy prepared his first pan chicken to sell.
"Mi come out every night, all Sunday night, mi come out and mek $200," he told the Jamaica Observer.
"Only $200. That is a big money for me. I glad, because me have $200."
Fast-forward some 30 years later; Bent operates the same pan chicken business on Red Hills Road.
"Today, I would consider myself the best pan chicken man. My food tastes good," he said.
Perhaps his achievement in last year's Caribbean Broiler's Pan Chicken Championship is a testament of his success. He placed second in the Kingston and St Andrew region.
But Bent believes that his ability to send his four children to school is one of his greatest achievements.
"Mi now can cook over 100 quarters per night, school my kids from high school, to college in New York. Then I extend my business to another one, I start to sell ground provision, yam and banana and all those
things," he said.
An emotional Bent recalled how he managed to send his eldest daughter to the private high school where she ended up after sitting the Common Entrance Examination.
"When she come home the evening with the Common Entrance results, I look on the paper and see Priory High and a wonder how I'm going to pay the fee," he said.
He was bent on seeing his child through.
"When I first went to register her, and see the type of people, top of the line and shiny people, I say, I must give Jody everything she needs," he stated.
He bought her textbooks every Friday night until she had them all. And admittedly went over his budget on school shoes and school bag.
"I don't want her to feel like she is behind, I want her to look up," said Bent. She passed 11 CXC subjects at grades one and two.
Fighting back tears, he recalled the moment that he decided to save harder to have her enrol in the University of the West Indies.
"One day her little sister come tell me she sad and want to go to school," he reminisced, voice cracking all the time.
By working harder and joining partner schemes, he sent all his children through high school.
Pan chicken man 'Ruddy' Bent — shining example of hard work
Source: Sunday Observer
BY SHAMILLE SCOTT
With the right attitude and determination to achieve success, 17-year-old Rodney Bent left his Clarendon home for Kingston with the belief of obtaining a job, only to experience life at world's end.
Upon arriving in Kingston with the intention of being employed at a sawmill, Bent, also known as Ruddy, learned that he was duped when his promise of securing a job proved to be just a castle in the sky.
"I travelled from Alston, Clarendon, with the intention to get a work from a gentleman. When I come now, the man never give me the work, mi just box around, box around, fight me way through," he said.
His refusal to return home jobless saw him enduring the wonders of the night, as he was left to call the root of a tree, home.
"The way how me grow, me sleep under tree," he said while recounting the rueful events. "Night after night I sleep under it ... house that is a mango tree."
Despite a dusty and rocky bed in an open lot beside the Grant's Pen Clinic, Bent remained there, determined to find a job in the area.
"The insect dem a night-time dem no bodda trouble me again because me just say dem nah bite me, because me no have nowhere to live," he said.
Young, small-framed and alone, Bent took up various jobs to make money.
He hung around construction sites but was prevented from doing extensive work because of his tiny structure. To make extra cash, he washed cars and worked with a bus conductor.
"No matter how I beg them a work on the construction site, I get turned down. I was too skinny," he said, while laughing, examining his now mature structure.
But the money that he earned from the various jobs couldn't suffice. So Bent decided to try the pan chicken business.
"I sat and watched the men doing pan chicken, and thought I can do it too," he said.
Bent managed to get a welder to transform a drum he bought to build what became one of his greatest asset, a pan chicken grill.
"I never even have money to pay him. I paid him in chicken," he said.
With two chickens, a fork, a pan and a couple spices he bought from the man, Ruddy prepared his first pan chicken to sell.
"Mi come out every night, all Sunday night, mi come out and mek $200," he told the Jamaica Observer.
"Only $200. That is a big money for me. I glad, because me have $200."
Fast-forward some 30 years later; Bent operates the same pan chicken business on Red Hills Road.
"Today, I would consider myself the best pan chicken man. My food tastes good," he said.
Perhaps his achievement in last year's Caribbean Broiler's Pan Chicken Championship is a testament of his success. He placed second in the Kingston and St Andrew region.
But Bent believes that his ability to send his four children to school is one of his greatest achievements.
"Mi now can cook over 100 quarters per night, school my kids from high school, to college in New York. Then I extend my business to another one, I start to sell ground provision, yam and banana and all those
things," he said.
An emotional Bent recalled how he managed to send his eldest daughter to the private high school where she ended up after sitting the Common Entrance Examination.
"When she come home the evening with the Common Entrance results, I look on the paper and see Priory High and a wonder how I'm going to pay the fee," he said.
He was bent on seeing his child through.
"When I first went to register her, and see the type of people, top of the line and shiny people, I say, I must give Jody everything she needs," he stated.
He bought her textbooks every Friday night until she had them all. And admittedly went over his budget on school shoes and school bag.
"I don't want her to feel like she is behind, I want her to look up," said Bent. She passed 11 CXC subjects at grades one and two.
Fighting back tears, he recalled the moment that he decided to save harder to have her enrol in the University of the West Indies.
"One day her little sister come tell me she sad and want to go to school," he reminisced, voice cracking all the time.
By working harder and joining partner schemes, he sent all his children through high school.
i cried when him guh uppa priory and decide seh him a guh pay fi the tuition one way or the other
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