The small, normally quiet village of Yeovil, West Coast Berbice, was recently alive with activity when two groups of 40 high school students came from Connecticut, USA to help build a multi-purpose centre.
They were volunteering for Builders Beyond Borders (B3) which had provided about US$30,000 for the initial stage of the project. The centre will be equipped with an indoor basketball court, gym, media centre, computers, lockers, showers and lavatories and would be a major boost for the community.
Residents of the close-knit community who are all related, earn their living mostly from rice, cash-crop and livestock farming while some operate businesses, including a grocery and general store and the Unique Beauty Salon.
The village has a nursery school and about 21 houses, a few of which have been closed up owing to migration. Residents pointed to an old, abandoned house, said to be an eyesore and called on the owners who reside overseas to “pull it down.”
During this newspaper’s visit, the village looked deserted, save for a boy who was carrying a football while riding his bicycle, as well as a few other persons going to the shop.
Later when the sound of the police siren indicated that a cycle race was about to pass through, persons came out to be part of the brief excitement.
Residents held their breath when a horse which was on the parapet grazing, bolted across the road in front of vehicles that were accompanying the cyclists. They were thankful that the cyclists had already passed and kept commenting on what could have happened, saying: “God is good.”
A resident who lives close to the trench is afraid his house may sink due to erosion. He had done some revetment work but was not getting the support from the region to do a proper job.
The village is also home to Member of Parliament Jennifer Wade, 59. She and her sister, Hazel, reside with their father, Henry Wade, 90 and are taking care of him. Hazel operates the Unique Beauty Salon and during this newspaper’s visit she was busy washing a customer’s hair. Shirley Wade, another sister was having her nails done by Wiletta Hart, a cosmetologist/nail technician.
Henry suffers from ailing health but his sight and hearing are still intact. Referred to as a “family village,” Yeovil was bought by Henry’s father and his seven brothers in 1920 “from one, Bulla Vieira.” His father and uncles worked co-operatively as “gold and diamond seekers” until they were able to earn enough money to “pay off for the land.” The land was later divided among the children of the men.
Henry, who served as chairman of the Tempe/Seafield Neighbourhood Democratic Council for a number of years, worked for two years as a pork-knocker. He then ventured into rice-farming “in the days when oxen were used to plough the fields and moved on to the stage of tractors.” He also operated a rice mill in nearby Ross Village.
Henry has rented the land to other rice farmers but his son, Winston Wade is planning to “get back in the business.” Winston, a livestock farmer who rears chickens, ducks and pigs on a large scale said “stealing is prevalent.” Young men [from other areas] would go to Ross Village to purchase drugs and would break into his pen. “The other night I was not around and they ripped out my mesh and stole eight of my big drakes.”
Henry, a father of 13 children, two of whom are deceased, was described by Jennifer as a “strict disciplinarian who is well respected…”
“The young men know that they cannot ride in his yard [with bicycles] or enter without wearing a shirt. And if their pants are below their waist [and their underwear is exposed] they would pull it up when they pass his house.” She said too that he is a “generous person and loves to help people… If someone didn’t have a house lot, he would be willing to share with them.”
She also described her father as being “community-minded… he would donate land for community projects first word.” He had donated a plot of land for the nursery school and more recently he donated another plot in the village for the KingChes project – an abbreviation for the Kingley-Chester community.
Apart from having a busy life as a politician, a job that takes her to different parts of the country on outreach visits, Jennifer still makes time for church and community activities. She serves as Lay Minister at St Gabriel’s Anglican Church.
KingChes
Jennifer’s cousin, Camille Wade, who served as a registered nurse in the US returned to Guyana three years ago and has been the main driving force behind the KingChes project. The initiative of the KingChes centre got started after Camille met the Executive Director of B3, Amy Schrodder-Reggio during a conference at the Grand Coastal Inn last year.
The Sunday Stabroek was present when Amy along with Steven Lewine, Chairman of the Board of Directors and a member, Tony Sanfilippo visited from Connecticut, USA for an inspection and a dedication ceremony.
Amy told this newspaper, “Guyana has been a particularly wonderful experience and the students had a fabulous time. We intend to stay in touch and would still offer support with project and development ideas.” She said “B3 is really a lot more about building. We work to build relationships and leadership and responsibility in our students.”
Two other community centres were being built at Festival City, Georgetown and at Bethany, while two sand roads were built at Wakapao and a pedestrian bridge at Moshabo. In all US$150,000 was spent on the projects.
She felt that “while we were working in Guyana, our community partners also grew in terms of building their own responsibility, their own character, their own leadership. I think they found some strength they did not even know they had…”
She said happily that “we stayed in the community, we played in the community. We played Phagwah… The students loved their stay in Yeovil.”
Registered nurse
Camille always wanted to be a nurse but because it entailed working at night, her parents who were strict disciplinarians preferred her to be a teacher.
She was able to realize her dream of becoming a registered nurse four years after migrating to the US in 1989. She worked in “all fields of nursing, including acute care, long-term care, occupational health and home health.” She also served as a Public Health Nurse for a number of years, a staff development instructor for three years and a performance improvement instructor with visiting nurse/hospice of Atlanta.
Upon her return to Guyana she worked with the Ministry of Health as a tutor at the New Amsterdam School of Nursing.
Camille, a mother of two daughters who are also in the medical field, and a grandmother of two, loves teaching. Travelling across the bridge was “really hard” though, so she no longer works full time.
She finds that there is a “long way to go with nurses and the kind of training they provide… A lot of in-service training is needed for nurses.” According to her, “Accountability is not there at the hospital. No auditing, no chart review and patient chart auditing are being done. From that they would see where they are lacking and where to improve.” However, “despite all shortcom-ings in patient care rendered, I have observed that there has been some improvement.”
She started her early education at the St Judes Anglican Primary at Lichfield, then Tutorial High and then Berbice High School. She graduated from the Cyril Potter College of Education in 1980. The following year she moved to Wales with her husband, a production manager at GuySuCo and taught at the Wales Primary while attending the University of Guyana (UG). Her husband was subsequently transferred to the Uitvlugt Estate and Camille began teaching at Stewartville Secondary.
She returned to Berbice and started teaching at Lichfield Primary (formerly St Judes) and then the Bush Lot Secondary before returning to UG. During that time she taught at the North Georgetown Secondary.
Multi-purpose centre
Residents had presented a project proposal to B3 for funding for a multi-purpose centre, KingChes. They considered themselves lucky that it was one of five projects out of 30 that were approved in Guyana.
They had sought the help of the “Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sport, to take us through…” They still have the roof, floor, windows and other areas to complete and are “hoping to have a lot of financial support from businesses and other agencies.”
Camille said they also intend to host fund-raising activities including bingos, fun day, bring- and-buy sale, talent shows and dinner and dance. She is confident that they would get the money to complete the building.
The students were assigned a partner (other students) to work with, and when they arrived there was a grand welcome and an exchange of Guyana and US flags. Camille said those students “taught the local high school students, as well as the other community members, real valuable lessons about what volunteerism is all about.” They stayed at Camille’s home where they hung hammocks that were covered with mosquito netting. After having breakfast at 7 am, they started working and in the afternoons they engaged in fun activities.
The students visited the beach at Belladrum and other places and when it was time to leave they cried. They enjoyed the Guyanese cuisine prepared by Shirley Wade who said they were fascinated by the ‘bake and salted fish’ which was on the menu for breakfast and “wanted to know how to make the fried bread.”
Shirley developed her skills in cooking and baking on her own and earns her living by catering for weddings, birthdays and other events. She also assists her son with his kitchen garden.
