challenge, with a little hard work anything can be accomplished.

Maya Furbert had a goal this summer to make money to help put her through college. But she found it difficult finding a summer job where she felt suited.

After thinking about it, she hit on the idea combining something she knew and enjoyed -- braiding hair -- with making money by offering the service to cruise ship visitors at Dockyard.

With her mother's encouragement, Ms Furbert plunged into the project and has been surprised at how much positive feedback she has received since.

"I just know how to do it,'' she said. "So my mom said I should give it a try. My mom saw someone doing it at the St. George's cruise ships and thought it would be a good thing in Dockyard.'' Although Ms Furbert said she wished she had started hair braiding in the early part of the summer, she added it had been an entertaining way to spend the summer.

"This is my third time doing it,'' she said. "but meeting the tourists makes it very interesting.'' Ms Furbert said that business had been brisk. And at $35 to $45 a head, she noted that during her work day she seldom gets a free moment to relax as she does an average of ten people in a six-hour workday.

"Hair braiding is very hard work,'' she said. "Sometimes it can take more than an hour because most of them have very long hair. And once one person sees me, they all want to get it done -- but that's good.'' However Ms Furbert said she is not averse to striking a bargain with the tourists.

"Sometimes I make a deal,'' she said, "or I'll charge $2 a braid or $1 for a single plait. I'm easy, but they just like getting it done.'' Ms Furbert said that she hoped to be steadily working until the end of the cruise ship season.

She noted that cruise ship workers have helped in pointing the passengers in her direction, and she believed that this was a good opportunity to learn how to make money on her own.

"It all started because I wanted to make money to go to school,'' she said.

"I'm planning to do that in January. But this has been a good thing and I know that I can do anything I put my mind to.''