Good Intent is a small village bordered by Spring Garden and Aurora Estate on the Essequibo Coast. The village is the fourth one from the Supenaam Speedboat Jetty and has less than 60 residents; members of the 13 families who reside there.
The people are reserved and peaceful. The main economic activity is farming, specifically rice and cattle. Many of the elders are from other villages.
Ramraj Chandrawattee sat on a bench across from his wife who was resting in a hammock. He hails from the neighbouring Aurora Estate. The family settled in Good Intent some 18 years ago. They bought land from the Persauds, said to be among the very early settlers, who purchased a large tract.
Chandrawattee works as a labourer on a rice farm. “Good Intent is one of the quietest villages on the Essequibo Coast and the coast is already quiet; here is quieter with lots of breeze,” he said. “People like to live here, personally me. No worries about whether you are safe here. We don’t have to put grills on our window. Sometimes we sleep with our windows open or leave our clothes outside on the line. Anybody who come to walk from town would always say the place is nice and quiet and they like how breezy it is.
“You can choose to go on the sea dam and fish from the river or go to the canals in the backdam. My son would throw he one, one line in the river but me, I prefer to catch my sweet-water fish. I would catch some hassa, patwa, hurri, sunfish… Then you might find a coconut that fall in the trench and you peel it right there and bring it home to add to your fish curry with green mango…
“You ain’t got to get your own farm; what me ain’t got and you got we share with one another.”
His family has a kitchen garden and rarely ever buys greens and vegetables. The village has no shops. However, his wife chimed in, five grocery trucks would pass along the Essequibo Road every day. In fact, while I was there, two of the trucks made their way through the village.
The villagers, the man further said, are hardworking including the youths even if it means doing jobs they dislike. Some of the men venture into the interior to work in the gold mines. Chandrawattee opined that a factory of some kind along the coast would benefit the residents. According to the man, wherever a factory is opened there will be persons eager to have a job, maybe better than the one they are doing or a job that does not require them being away from their families for long periods.
Though there are quite a few vacant lots in the village, they are all owned by someone. There is no park or playground, so residents make use of the ground in Hibernia, three villages away.
Reflecting on the past, Chandrawattee recalled seeing the ferry passing behind his home on the between 2.30 and 3 o’clock in the mornings. Those were the days when the boat ran the Adventure-Parika route.
Rampersaud Badawan arrived in Good Intent with his family when he was a mere 12 days old. He was born at Middlesex, but his parents hail from Cullen. His father Badawan (only name), he said, bought the abandoned Good Intent Plantation and rented the land to the persons who were already living there before later selling it. Prior to the jungle they met, Badawan said, they had learnt that estate was sugarcane.
While he was growing up, they did not have many neighbours. He attended the Aurora Church of Scotland School and tended cattle as well as keeping an eye on the bulls whenever they ploughed the fields.
“I was about 10/11 years when I started going with my father to the backdam,” he said. He added that the backdam life was not only about work but fun too especially when his friends tagged along, and they went swimming and picking fruits.
Now 76 years old, Badawan has never lived anywhere else in his life. “Compared to then, now you gah seh Good Intent ah wan city. Long ago was sheer bush and dem plimpla [thorny] bushes growing thick. In those days tiger [jaguar] come till at meh bottom house and kill a sheep. All behind here was jungle… the tiger stop coming eventually after the bush start cut down and the place start to develop. We used to use the trench water for everything, drinking too.”
Today the man and his wife live together in relative comfort; he is satisfied with how the village has turned out.
Fizul Hoosein moved here with his family ten years now; they came from the neighbouring village of Aurora Estate. “When I moved here, the place was just the same as Aurora Estate and here everybody know everybody, so it felt like home,” he shared. “Since me lil I used to come over at this place. The only thing that is a bit different is that this village a bit quieter because it barely got people living here.”
Hoosein is a farmer. He does rice farming and cattle rearing, as well as a kitchen garden for personal use. “We get some slow payment and so. Payments were due from the previous crop. We harvested around September/October so we paid in time for the holidays. I’m hoping that officials look into this as soon as possible,” he said referring to the sale of his paddy.
Since there is no place of worship in Good Intent, Hoosein, who is a Muslim, would visit the Masjid in Aurora on Fridays and for special occasions.
As regards development, he pointed out the Old Essequibo Road that runs through his part of the village stating that he would very much like to see the road repaired and streetlights installed.
Teacher Romena Singh hails from Danielstown. After getting married she settled in Good Intent with her husband. “It was really, really quiet compared to that end in Danielstown,” she said about the move. “It was boring here. I was kind of young, so I didn’t welcome the quiet atmosphere one bit. It’s been about 21 years now since I moved here. However, now I welcome the peaceful atmosphere; coming home to the quietness and relaxing environment. My husband’s uncle lived opposite us so only them I really knew. Just after I came here to live, I would return to visit with my relatives very often and most of my weekends were spent with them.”
She noted that the culture is different from the village she grew up in, adding the people she has come to call her neighbours may be reserved, but they made her feel at home.
The Aurora Primary teacher said she was not faced with any challenges. However, since she has two children, a boy and a girl, she would like to see the village get its own playground where the children can play and enjoy each other’s company.
