L’Oratoire is a beautiful village in Canal Number One, on the Polder’s road. Fruit trees of all kinds line the parapets including coconut, cashew, mango and guava. When I visited the village was bustling with people tackling their respective jobs.
The village is home to more than 60 residents, one of them being Dexter Brisport. He was under a shed at the side of the road working on a carburetor. Brisport was born in Linden, where he lived in Christianburg and Retrieve for almost half of his life. However, when he moved to L’Oratoire, he was no stranger to the area as he had spent many of his holidays at his grandparents’ home in Canal Number One since he was five. He recalled looking forward to having access to fruits when he was a boy, specifically mangoes, as Linden did not have much of those.
His early adult life saw him working at the Demerara Bauxite Company in Linden as a mechanic, a job he did all his life. Nowadays he goes to Parfait Harmonie seven days a week for work, including holidays, because that housing scheme is big and there is always work there.
His first years at L’Oratoire, he recalled using mainly boats for transport, although there were a few cars that traversed the road every two hours.