Dear Editor,
On the evening of October 13, my daughter and I visited my granddaughter who lives in Cummings Lodge. It grew dark very early and because there is no light in the area where a certain bridge is we almost lost our lives. She drove off the embankment onto a road that has a sign or a name marked ‘Carib’. That road has a bridge straight ahead but just before that bridge, there is a road that connects to another bridge. This bridge Editor, is a ‘Trap for Death’. As we were leaving, my daughter underestimated the width of the bridge and the left front wheel of the vehicle got stuck in a hole on the bridge. When I looked out of the window all I saw was the trench and weeds in it. The vehicle had almost covered the end of the bridge. There were four vehicles, waiting to cross. My daughter got out to get help. I had to crawl out. Persons got out of their vehicles and began to help, they were not aware that we were in trouble. They pushed the vehicle away from the edge and the wheel safely out, then one of them drove it safely across onto the other side of the road. Thank you was not enough but that was all we could have said to those who helped us.
Editor, my daughter and I are firm believers in God. He did not put that hole in that bridge neither did the builders, but God used it for a life-saving purpose. If the hole had not been there the wheel would not have stuck, the vehicle then would have moved freely overboard with us inside. It was a near-death experience.
I am making an appeal Editor and I’m asking that you kindly give your support and that is for the present bridge to be removed, dismantled and a concrete bridge be built instead. There is also need for persons to clean the trench and to maintain it and for the Guyana Power and Light to put lights. I am not alone in this appeal. We are appealing for building materials, and those who have building skill to kindly respond and help.
We would do our part in whatever way we can as it relates to cleaning the trench and to assist with the building of the bridge. We would like to see a Community Development Group formed as well, and a ‘Policing Group’ which would be very helpful for the community. We are aware that learning and change take place in the mind not in classrooms but we would still like to see workshops and seminars put in place to enhance the lives of our children.
Editor, here’s a poem that we hope will motivate persons to respond positively to this appeal.
The Bridge Builder
An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”
Yours faithfully,
Yvonne Walcott Nicolette
Roach Dhillon
De Medonca
and others
Community Development Group
