BERMUDA Regiment soldiers have been greeted as heroes in the hurricane-devastated village they are helping to rebuild on Grenada.

As the soldiers have toiled under the blazing sun, repairing public buildings, local people have greeted them with overwhelming gratitude, said the Regiment's Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Eddie Lamb.

Yesterday, the Bermudians were repairing a community centre in a village in the parish of St. David and after that, they will move on to a primary school.

Hurricane Ivan hammered Grenada last September, killed more than 30 people and left tens of thousands homeless. Many buildings on the island have been in disrepair in the five months since.

Speaking from Grenada yesterday, Col. Lamb said: "The children swarm around us like bees. We're welcomed with open arms everywhere we go.

"The people are pleasant, courteous and humble and they can't thank us enough for what we are doing. It's a very good feeling for all the soldiers to be appreciated."

Yesterday, Col. Lamb met with the Grenada Minister of Education, who visited to express his thanks for the Regiment's offer to repair the primary school.

"I presented him with a cheque for $1,000 for the Ministry of Education, money that we had raised in the Regiment," Col. Lamb said.

"The Minister told us that these places would probably not have been repaired for a long, long time if we hadn't come, because they are concentrating on fixing up the capital, St. George's."

The Regiment got off to a difficult start when they arrived in Grenada to find the building materials they had pre-ordered had not arrived. "We ordered the shipment long in advance and it was supposed to have been in Grenada before we arrived, but because of shipping and other problems it did not arrive until this week," Col. Lamb said.

"So there were some initial challenges. We're still waiting for the first container of lumber and materials. But we've been busy painting, doing masonry work and some plumbing. And the main effort has been to replace the roofs destroyed during Hurricane Ivan."

The Regiment would be working on the community centre for the next six days, the Commanding Officer estimated, before they moved on to the primary school, a complex comprising four buildings.

The first group of soldiers left Bermuda last Saturday and will return on March 5, when a second group will arrive and work in Grenada until March 19.

"It's blazing hot and the guys have been working in T-shirts rather than fatigues and wearing hats to protect them from the sun," Col. Lamb said.

"I'm very pleased with the work ethic these soldiers have shown and the initial challenges had no negative effect. The people of Bermuda can be very proud of these guys.

"We've been working at such a good rate, despite the setbacks with materials, that we might even have time to do some repairs on a medical centre and a library after we've finished the school."

The soldiers are working high on a hill overlooking the Caribbean, from where Col. Lamb said the effects of the hurricane were still very apparent.

"I can look down into the valley and see a courthouse with its roof completely destroyed and there are lots of houses with tarpaulins still on the roofs," he said. The benefits to the Regiment soldiers from the operation were wide-ranging, said Col. Lamb.

"One of the major benefits of being here is that the guys are getting a cultural experience unlike anything most them will have ever seen," he said.

"We Bermudians are very fortunate. Now we are seeing how these people live and how basic their living facilities and classrooms are. This is an impoverished village."

Col. Lamb said Governor Sir John Vereker was scheduled to pay the soldiers a visit next week and Premier Alex Scott the week after.

He understood that the Bermuda Department of Education had managed to put together nearly two tons of books to donate to Grenada. These will probably arrive with Premier Scott.