Formerly called Johanna Cornelia, Blake is home to a population of approximately 60 people, most of whom farm and vend. Blake is surrounded by beautiful beaches leading to the Essequibo River, acres of farmland and the villages of Roden Rust and Unity.
To get to this neighbourhood one can take a 15-minute bus or car ride from the Parika Car Park along the Parika/Hubu/Unity Road, at the cost of just $100 or $500 if you want to be the sole occupant of a taxi.
“Blake was a Dutch plantation that was first named Johanna Cornelia,” Seenarine Bhukhan, better known as Sir Mike, explained. “There were two sisters, Johanna Cornelia and Johanna Cecelia. Johanna Cecelia is the next-door village, now called Unity.
“Blake was also called Cocheteria. These were all sugar plantations. During the sugar plantation time when the Dutch were removed from here by the British, it was rumoured by the older folks that there was someone by the name of Captain Blake. It was said that Captain Blake landed at the beach out there, but it was later learnt that he landed at Roden Rust and not Blake. However, the village was named Blake after the captain and has been named so for some 90-plus years.”
Almost of half of Blake was at one time owned by a Chinese national, called Frank Hughes, said to be the largest peasant farmer in Guyana owning 750 rods, all of which were planted with sugar cane. Hughes also owned a sawmill in Blake. Today, remnants of this mill still stand tall.
Many of the residents of Blake arrived from different parts of Guyana to work on Hughes’s sugar plantation and at the sawmill. This section of Blake was later sold to Stanley Ming, who has been clearing the area for some years now in preparation of opening a housing scheme.
With Ming having cleared portions of land, residents of Blake and nearby villages cleared their ballfield and play cricket in the afternoons.
One of the most notable landmarks in Blake years ago was the thatched-roof school which was said to have been in existence for 85 years. Though the structure has changed, the school remains a landmark. In fact, Blake begins where the school is located.
Once considered one of the weak schools in the country, Blake Primary has been climbing in its performance. Some of the 150 pupils travel from other villages, like St Lawrence and Lookabu, despite having schools in their villages.
“Our school produced a lot of distinguished people,” Sir Mike said. “Some have gone on to become doctors and lawyers. As a matter of fact, there was a man who attended this school as a boy, his name is Ronald Singh and he was a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Guyana. There is also the late Mr Rahaman who was at one time the training officer for the Bank of Guyana.
“We have some who are now head teachers. This school has produced plenty of teachers, in fact. There is also a magistrate in Trinidad who came from this school, a guy name Jainarine Prakash. There is also Fazul Rahaman who moved to the States and became a vice principal for one of the senior schools there. Blake Primary has produced people of calibre. The basic aim of education is to create an individual to live and to live with.”
At this point, all the neighbourhood dogs began barking wildly. The man explained that the music from the popsicle cart always drives them crazy and they do not stop until it is gone.
A native of Hubu, Sir Mike attended Blake Primary School, went on to teach at the school then later moved into the village so that his children could be closer to school. Now a retired headmaster, Sir Mike was also a senior master at Blake Primary, before spending two years at Eastern Hog Island Primary. A year and a half later, he returned to Blake, but left again for Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary, where he was deputy headmaster. He went to Stewartville Primary as headmaster and finally to Greenwich Park Primary until he retired in 2006.
Later that same year, he joined the Ministry of Education’s Basic Education Access and Management Support (BEAMS) programme in Georgetown. When BEAMS ended in December 2009, Sir Mike was appointed Regional Literacy Coordinator for Region Three. He revealed that while he was in charge of the literacy programme, the region climbed from eighth place to third in the nation. Because of his contribution, he was presented with a plaque by the National Literacy Unit. “My work was tremendously satisfying. If I had to live my life again, I’d become a teacher. It offers us an opportunity to really help the younger generation…,” Sir Mike said.
Pointing out some of the modern homes in Blake, he shared that they come at a price as the people who live in them work tirelessly. Many of them leave home in the wee hours of the morning and return at night after a long day. Some spend their days in the farms, some are vendors at different markets and others do both. One particular family, he said, leaves home at 11 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to set up their wholesale business at the Stabroek, Bourda, Parika and Mon Repos markets.
“What I like about this community is everybody is doing something to improve themselves whether they have the academics or not and one of things I can say for sure is all these guys did well not because any government give them help,” Sir Mike said.
“It was done on their own business acumen. They were smart people and they knew how to get their money. They went to the banks and got their loans and invested wisely and they are here today. They worked their way up and today they are very successful people. Some of them started working at sawmills and operated the saws… These people they put a lot of effort in, even when people are sleeping, they get out and they gone,” he added.
One of the improvements he wants to see for his community is a wider road. Currently, drivers have to negotiate who goes first when passing each other. With the road being narrow and knowing that there are drivers who can be reckless, parents dislike the idea of children having to stand out on the road in the afternoons waiting for transportation to get home. A man by the name of Lakhram, who lives outside of the village, took it upon himself to provide the school with materials for a bus shed. He then sent his own employees to build the shed, Sir Mike said, and it was completed within a day.
Every school day, Sir Mike opens the bus shed in the mornings and closes it in the afternoons. While he insisted that the village is relatively safe, he takes the precaution of locking the shed to prevent anyone with evil intentions from using it for stakeouts.
To make the environment as safe as possible villagers also inserted two sleeping policemen (speed humps) in the vicinity of the school. Sir Mike said that the residents of Blake live in such harmony with each other that they often take it upon themselves to fix whatever needs fixing in the village instead of waiting for any government to do it. Not so long ago, Sir Mike’s son and some other residents fixed some potholes. However, the contractors responsible for fixing the potholes showed up not long after, dug out most of those that had been done by residents and then refilled them. According to Sir Mike’s son, who stood nearby, that was surprising as well as the fact that several months later the holes the contractors filled needed fixing again, while the ones they had not touched were undamaged.
Sir Mike also pointed out that the Salem/Blake façade is in dire need of cleaning and added that whenever it is done, only about six feet of the canal is cleared to allow for the water to run. However, because it isn’t properly cleaned, boats cannot traverse it. Part of the canal can be accessed by boat, but only because Sir Mike’s son had it cleared. He contacted the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) and had them use their machine to clean where he farms. The NDIA helps farmers clean their internal drainage at no cost, but, according to them, they do not have that mandate to clean the main façade, which falls under the regional administration.
Dharamdeo Sookram was born in Blake. A fisherman, Sookram has been plying this trade for decades now. For a part of his life, he lived at Hubu with his parents who worked really hard in the farms. Sookram, who was attending Blake Primary School at the time, said because his parents left for the farm early in the morning, they never realised that he and his brothers were skipping school to play cricket and make canoes.
Later, with the passing of his grandfather, he returned to live in Blake with his aunt and there was no getting out of attending school. His aunt’s husband worked at sea at that time and she kept the house, and therefore was always around to see that Sookram attended school. His aunt was also on good terms with the teachers at the school and they visited her from time to time. The man said while he disliked the constraints placed on him by living with his aunt at the time, today he could not be more grateful.
Sookram fishes in the nearby Essequibo River where he catches Basha, Kuma Kuma, Highwater, Shad and Lou Lou. Though there are other smaller fish like Mullet and Silver Bait, Sookram explained and to catch them one would need the Chinese seine that has smaller holes. “I prefer to catch the bigger fish though. We have the market for them. Kuma Kuma is like $50, Highwater is $35 and Basha is $315 wholesale, so we rather catch the Basha. I don’t always go out on the river because today you get and sometimes tomorrow you don’t get because they gone. With the raising of the spring tide, when the water get too high, you don’t see them anymore because the water would end up flooding the bush and they would be in there. Sometimes they scatter because of the height of the water or because here we working the sweet water but when the tide raise and if rain is not falling the saltwater come in and they swim away from that. At those times we cannot work; if we work, we catch like Catfish or Banga Mary but not much because this seine is four-inch holes so sometimes the Banga Mary pass through and the couple you catch, it can’t pay. Sometimes I go up Lallaballie, Bartica side, looking for the sweet water fish,” Sookram said. Once he comes back from the river, he sells the fish in Blake and in the nearby communities.
Sookram is a devout Christian who attends the Unity Full Gospel Church. He also plants cash crops.
Patria Ferreira, who grew up in Pomeroon, lived in different villages in Region Three, Venezuela and Region One, before settling in Blake in 2005.
She rents a house where she lives with her daughters, son and grandsons. She said the family depends on her son who works in Linden; they see him every fortnight or three weeks when he visits. He was at home with them during my visit. Life in Blake, she said, is simple and peaceful. Compared to some of the places she has lived, Blake is more convenient since the market where she buys her groceries and vegetables is only 15 minutes away.
A normal day finds her cooking, cleaning and spending time with her grandchildren. On Sundays, they visit the Unity Full Gospel Church.
Ferreira said that while she likes living in Blake, it is not possible for her to stay since the house where she is living is not hers. She hopes to have her own place soon.
