Story and photos by Kenesha Fraser
The village of Lake Mainstay on the Essequibo Coast is a well-populated Amerindian village located about 25 minutes aback Anna Regina. When Sunday Stabroek visited the area, the sun was blistering hot and the loose sandy roads were dusty from the vehicles which were travelling to and fro. Mavis Toby and her friend Evadne Isaacs, residents of Hill Top Lake Mainstay, were sitting under a benab when we caught up with them.
“Where we are living, it’s about 5 miles from here. In Mainstay, there are different areas. We have Red Lock, Princeville Village, Hill Top and Whyaka Mainstay. I have been living in Hill Top most of my life and in the early years we used to walk to get to places,” said Evadne. Now the 8 families who are living in Hill Top are fortunate to have a bus service that works every day from Hill Top to Anna Regina.
“Where we are sitting here now was filled with bushes and big trees. When here started to clear up, we use to cross the lake in a boat and then we had to walk to reach the trail where a tractor use to be so the tractor could have take us out to [Anna] Regina. It used to be very hard because we use to paddle a long way,” Mavis said.
In the early years, the residents of Lake Mainstay planted pineapple, cassava and cash crops which they took to the Anna Regina