Story and photos by Joanna Dhanraj
Goedverwagting, East Cost Demerara is enclosed by Sparendaam, Ogle, farmland and the Atlantic Ocean in the north. The name is of Dutch origin and means ‘good expectation’.
The village begins at the Ogle/ Goedverwagting traffic lights and ends at Sparendaam. Goedverwagting is home to close to 1,000 residents and has a mixture of ethnic groups: African, East Indian, Chinese, Amerindian and Caucasian. The village is divided into three sections: the seawall to the public road, the public road to the railway embankment and the railway embankment to the farmland.
In the first section, there were huge houses that were each enclosed by high fences and gates with security alarm systems and surveillance cameras, dogs and security guards. One woman who answered when the buzzer on her gate was pressed, said she was a resident of the village, but declined to speak as she was busy.