Down the left bank of the Mahaica River between the populated villages of Supply and Cane Grove is the community of Strathavon, which is home to approximately 800 people. The village is located 42.5 kilometres from the city.
From the Mahaica Market, it costs $100 to get to the village by minibus and between $500 and $1,000 by taxi, depending on the time of the day.
A visitor is sure he or she has arrived because the community bus shed reads: ‘Welcome to Strathavon’. The community’s families mostly rely on farming for their livelihood; there are also mechanics, vendors, fishermen, drivers and public servants.
Though there are several shops in the Strathavon, many persons prefer to get their groceries at the S&S Supermarket in Mahaica. They claim that the supermarket’s prices are cheaper, and it has a wide variety of items.
Shirley Lall sat in her hammock contemplating her next move regarding her chores. Two puppies played at her feet and she held a piece of stick to keep them in check. The rain had poured heavily for most of the morning and the ground was soggy. The 74-year-old woman was hoping to do a bit of washing, but she could not fathom the idea of standing in the wet. A hearty chat with this reporter was much preferred.
She first set foot in Strathavon 57 years ago, when her new husband brought her to live with him and his family. Lall is originally from La Jalousie on the West Coast of Demerara. Her marriage, she shared, was arranged by a pandit living in Strathavon at the time.
“I think I was about 17 years then. It was very hard moving to live here because on the West Coast we had everything like current and water, everything. And when I come here, I had to be going to the trench here to get water for everything. Back in them days you used to get married through arranged marriage. You can’t say you like a boy or you watch a boy, or he watch you; he get licks. When I first come in here, we come with a car. They had one and two cars but then you know they didn’t have pitch road. The road was a dam. We didn’t get pitch road until the 60s, I think,” Lall said.
The widow shared that people’s friendliness made living in the village easier and it was not long before she considered herself one of them. Another of the advantages she quickly picked up on is the vast farming areas that are filled with both permanent and cash crops and as a resident of the community, that usually means, you are either reaping your own produce or getting freebies from the neighbours. Selling to neighbours is a rarity.
Lall farmed alongside her husband for 24 years. Their union produced 13 children; 10 boys and 3 girls. Many of them were born at La Jalousie as she returned there to have the assistance of her parents when she went into labour. With no nearby clinics, residents of Strathavon made trips to the city for vaccinations and such like. Today this is not necessary as there is a clinic in Cane Grove, a neighbouring village, though residents still need to take cars or buses to get there. Currently, Lall lives with her youngest son. Her remaining sons live in different parts of Strathavon, while her daughters live abroad with their families.
“A normal day for me, I basically take care of the house and do the laundry for two of my boys,” the woman said. She pointed to several pairs of jeans lying on the ground that she was going to put in the washing machine adding that gone are the days when she had to beat the dirt out of clothes or use a hard brush. Around the yard there are patches of green, areas that she planted vegetables in her free time.
“We get almost everything in this village from water, greens, groceries to fish and meat. One of my sons brought me some sweet water fish, so I don’t have to buy any fish for this week. Another son bring baigan [eggplant/boulanger] for me,” she said.
Asked whether she saw the need for any improvements, the woman said the village needed better drainage and irrigation. While her yard does not flood, there are other residents in lower lying areas who are severely affected. The canals always overtop when it rains.
One of Lall’s sons paid her a visit and as a farmer he had his fair bit to say. Narine Lall, though born in La Jalousie, grew up in Strathavon. He attended what was called a bottom-house nursery school then Cane Grove Primary; the name is misleading as this school is in Strathavon. With the secondary school being situated a great distance from the village, secondary education was not an option for him.
At 11 years old, Narine was already working in the backdam with his father and mother. At this young age, he operated the family’s tractor and cleaned drains. The life of the yesteryear was no bed of roses, the man said, but things began to improve in 1992. However, he opined that with the recent change of government improvements have come to a standstill. “We’ve been having issues with drainage and irrigation. It’s very hard now. We have a water user’s association and we’re having too much problem with those people. They are supposed to take care of the drainage and maintenance but because they have stop maintenance, farmers have stop paying rent. Like if rain fall tonight the farms and certain parts of the village duck but the farmers lucky that they already cut their rice,” Narine said.
He has been farming on his own for over 20 years. At one point he planted cash crops but now he solely plants rice in Strathavon and at Berbice also.
In addition to drainage, Narine mentioned that there are electricity poles which need immediate replacing. He pointed out a few that are leaning so far back, they could fall any minute.
At another house, Sharma Persaud and several men stood around a generator they were trying to fix. Persaud is the brother of Khemraj Persaud, who was at one time the second in command of the Guyana Defence Force.
Born and raised in Strathavon, Persaud grew up on the farm with his parents. He had fun memorable times in the backdam with friends and worked hard there as well with his parents. “You know when holiday time come that’s when I would get the chance to lime with friends. It used to be bare bush cook. Our parents use to let me carry one of the creole fowls for the bush cook,” the man reminisced.
His family planted mainly sweet and bitter cassava. The latter they sold along East Coast Demerara to persons who would use it to make starch and cassava bread. His mother sold the produce at the Mahaica Market also. By the time Persaud was 18 years old, he had started to do his own planting.
It had rained earlier that day and Persaud and his wife noted that their yard was flooded. During my visit the water had receded, but there were marks to show how high it was.
“What I like about living here though is that we have our farming areas and if want to plant, we can plant whatever it is we want to,” Persaud said. “I don’t like Georgetown. You see Georgetown, you got to buy everything you want, you know. In here you can plant everything you want in your backyard and make your living.”
The Persauds are Hindus and they attend a temple a short distance away. Strathavon also has a church and a mosque.
The main dam leading into his farm can get really messy when it rains resulting in him sometimes having to take a boat into the backdam when taking in bags of fertilizer. An all-weather road, Persaud said, would do him and other farmers good. With the fast-approaching rainy season, the road would have been of great assistance to the farmers of Strathavon.
With the crop season over, Persaud is usually at home with his family; he does nothing in the off-season. The man explained that whatever money he makes during the crop is saved and kept for when rice is not in season.
Khaman Persaud sat in his verandah as two empty beer bottles stood nearby and his wife looked out from behind their door. They settled in the village two years ago and agree that Strathavon is an easily likable place with some of the most hospitable people.
He does, however, miss Berbice, where he grew up in Number 70 Village. “You know when you born and grow up at a village, you would like the people there more than the village you come to live at. But you see with up here, you getting a lot of garden work. Me a do painting work and up here you hardly getting any painting work. Corentyne side you getting like painting work, carpenter work… used to be cane work but now with the factory them close down, you can’t say that is a work you can do there. For me though it got more jobs at Corentyne side more than here but up there at Corentyne side, the money side is lower. Up here you get less work but the money more high,” Khaman said.
Since moving, he planted a kitchen garden at the side of his house and plans to use up his huge backyard space to do more planting. Whatever he reaps, the man said, he shares the excess with his neighbour.
“We got everything here in Strathavon, but we need a few things like streetlights, and then there is a fine bridge the children from this side of Strathavon use to get over to the other side of Strathavon to school… the bridge need to be repair or replace,” he added.
