Albert from Jamaica:

I recall my mother telling me the story of Uncle Rencha and Uncle Taddy (Thaddeus) being recruited to go to Panama to work in the Canal Zone. They left from Manchioneal Harbour in Portland on a lighter (a small row boat) to a bigger ship which was anchored off shore. They were young then and their younger sister (my grandmother) cried all the time for them. They worked in Colon during the building process. On his return Uncle Taddy bought land and built a house at a place called Barracks in Portland. He would regale the residents of the area with tales of the massive construction site. One sad tale he told was of 'Shortie' who fell off the scaffolding while cement was being poured for one of the locks. Despite pleads to stop the pouring of cement so that Shortie could be rescued the American contractors told them the cement had to be poured in one go. So Shortie is encased in a cement tomb in Colon, Panama.

May:

I was on the boat Marsina from Kingston Jamaica. While we were on the mid ocean the boat caught fire, we were lucky to be alive. Someone was smoking a cigarette on deck and it fell down the cracks at the bottom of the boat where they keep the suger and it slowly caught fire. An old man called Pape, heard a crack but his friend told him that it was nothing just the water. Pape said no man and he opened the dooor and he saw the smoke, so he ran and took one of the sailors by the hand, showed him the smoke because he couldn't understand English. When he saw the smoke he went and rang the bell and went and wake up everybody. Then they put the fire out. They wouldn't let the ladies go and see the fire and we were mad about it.

Thalia:

My dad came to England and stayed in England for seven years. Then he went back again because he felt sick and he wanted to see his family. So now I'm half French and half English. By: Thalia

parool:

I was born in the UK but my parents decided to move back to India when I was 8. I loved it in India but my father, who had lived in Africa and the UK found it difficult to settle and we all moved back when I was 12. My first impression on returning to the UK was there were not many animals / insects or reptiles around. The raised bungalow in India had a cobra living underneath, countless lizards sharing wallspace alongside photographs of family members, birds nesting above windowsills indoors. I have vivid recollections of the large colonies of monkeys that lived near the market, they frequently terrorised my aunt and other women returning on there way back from the market laden with fruit. In contrast the quiet street in England that became home was occasionally host to the odd cat or obedient dog following his owner to the park on cold evenings; I missed the untamed and abundant wildlife that became part of my life whilst I was in India.

Anisha and Reema:

We have chosen the picture of the man returning back from the market. We chose this face because we could remember it because of the horse he was on and the weight he was carrying.

Florence and Michelle:

We are going to tell you about the pictures that we have seen in the royal geograpical socity. We saw some very interesting pictures. we saw a picture of a man on a donkey.We thought that the picture of the man on the donkey was able to tell us a bit about how they deliverd foods to the market that they worked at or town that they sold things in.The picture of the man told us about how people worked and what jobs they did.

ADRIAN J at chisick school:

My story is that first of all i liked the whole exhibition. Then we loooked inside the exbedition. It was realy fun!!!. My favourite photo was a man with a white horse. Becuase i liked this was becuase i myself am found of horses.And shows me how people were dressed in the 20th centry. Also you could even seen that he was posh. And not many people then could have owned a horse or posh clothing in them days. adrian from chiswick community school!!!.

sk8r_dude:

I am shocked at how cool this place is. I have learnt new stuff. I go to chiswick school and have grandparents from Dominica and St. lucia. This has been so educational.

PARISA :

The face that I chose was a religious man who was not a slave. He looked happy and had a picture next to him.

Jenna and chanell:

There were very few rich people so the rich man on the horse stood out to me because he had a horse, glasses and he had a suit and a hat.