As it approaches two months since the implementation of the countrywide lockdown and a restriction on non-essential services enacted on April 3, residents of Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara are worried about what they will be having for their next meal while others are anxious about how long their meagre savings will last.
Seventy-one-year-old widow, Amoutie Alli lives with her grandson who some months ago could have supplemented her old age pension with the little money he made from doing odd jobs around the community, but for the last two months, no one seems to have any work for him to do. Her grandson was raised by her from a young age after his mother (her daughter) passed away.
With concrete covering most of the yard, there isn’t much soil left to plant in but she does a bit of gardening with the little that’s available. Her daughter, husband as well as another grandson who lives in a small apartment attached to the house she said, are facing the same dilemma. Her son-in-law is also without a job and she tries to help them all with whatever little she has.
Tears streamed down her face as she shared that things had gotten so bad that sometimes she doesn’t know what they would do. “Me got to try. When me gon can’t get, me gon got to find somehow. The light bill ah come more than anything”, Amoutie lamented. Her light bill comes to no less than $13,000 a month she said, adding that all that she has is a fridge.
Mangrie Lakhan, a domestic worker, was in the company of her son and daughter-in-law while her grandchildren chatted just outside of their fence. Since the lockdown, she has been without a job. She keeps a kitchen garden which helps to sustain the family somewhat when it comes to meals. However, she still needs money and would sometimes have to sell her vegetables.
Two of her sons live with her. One works as a taxi driver with the taxi base in the community and the other as a barber. Because many persons are confined to their homes with nowhere to go, her son, the driver, is often parked at home. Meanwhile, her other son who works at the barbershop in the community is many days without work as his job is not considered to be essential. Most days he is at home though she admitted that there are days when he would still try to discreetly work at the barbershop but on several occasions he has had run-ins with the police.
Lakhan said many of their meals have no meat in it as they are unable to afford it, adding that she tries hard to stretch whatever little they have. Asked about her grandchildren’s schooling at home, the woman explained that though she’s heard that work is being sent online, paying for the internet is a luxury her family cannot afford at this time.
McGill Super Stars
Famous McGill Super Stars cricketer, Kheshram Seyhodan lives in Canal Number Two. Outside of cricket he works as a barber in Georgetown but has been without a job since the beginning of April. Seyhodan, who lives with his parents, fortunately has them for support but added that at the end of the day, he prefers to earn his own money.
Up until the lockdown, he practiced at the Kawall Primary School four times a week. If he had to choose between getting a job and playing cricket, he says his priority would be cricket. It’s part of who he is, a life that has been embedded in him since he was a boy and one he’s not sure he can be away from for much longer.
Jasmin Singh was taking a rest and looking through clothing she had bought only an hour before when she had gone shopping in Georgetown. She is one of several clothes vendors in the area who would a few times every week, walk around to the different villages to conduct her business. She has been doing this trade some fifteen years and has her regular customers, but owing to the pandemic, they are unable to support her business in the way they are accustomed to.
With not many persons purchasing clothing, she has focussed on buying mostly men’s and women’s undergarments, some of which she has given to some of the less fortunate persons in her village. Her sharing nature has always been there, helping to provide clothing for children especially and now during this crisis she is trying to do more.
Singh who has a son and daughter living with her, said they don’t know how much more of the lockdown they’ll be able to handle if business doesn’t pick up.
Hectic
Owner of the pharmacy in Belle West, Amir Ali, said that owing to the pandemic, business has been hectic which has put a mental strain on him. He recalls that at the start of the crisis persons were panic-buying, disclosing that there were persons who turned up to buy ten bottles of hand sanitizers or all the vitamin C tablets they could. However, he told them there was only so much he would sell them and no more, as he needed to provide for his other customers. In fact, the owner said that having an understanding of his community’s financial situation at this time, the hand sanitizers that he purchases at $800 a bottle are resold for the same price and therefore he’s not making a profit on it.
Ali said of all the years he’s been selling at the pharmacy, he’s never run out of vitamin C tablets until the pandemic. Outside of coming to his pharmacy for medication, people also come seeking information and after some research, he has pasted up posters with bits of information on the coronavirus that have been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the Ali, he began noticing after sometime that he was not seeing some of his regular customers and when they finally did show up he learnt that they are out of jobs or their salaries have been cut. Having learnt this, he took it upon himself to lower the cost of a number of items at his pharmacy and realising how bad it has really was, with the help of some friends and family, was able to put together food hampers for sixteen families in his neighbourhood. He has also been providing free vitamin C tablets to families who cannot afford them.
Several colourful cloth masks in a clear plastic bag stood out front on his counter which he explained he is helping to sell on behalf of a tailor in Belle West.
Typist clerk, Shonette Xavier, who is employed at the Transport and Harbours Department shared that since the lockdown she has been one of the fortunate ones to still have a job. She still receives her normal salary but because of the need for social distancing in the workplace, a shift system was implemented allowing only a percentage of persons to be present at work on a daily basis. Xavier’s regular Monday to Friday work schedule has since turned into working every other day. Last week she worked on Tuesday and Thursday while this week she was required to work the other three weekdays. Aside from the days being cut, the amount of hours she works a day has also been tapered. This has made her work load even more onerous as what she spent an entire work day completing now has to be completed in a matter of hours.
Xavier gets off from work at 1pm but there are few Canal Number Two buses that work now, as most prefer to work the 4 – 5 o’clock hour to facilitate those getting off from work at regular hours. This makes getting home even more challenging and she is required to take two cars and a boat to and from work every day, which means having to find more money for transportation.
Sending lessons
Her fourteen-year-old brother who lives with her also presents challenges as far as his schooling is concerned. His teachers have been sending lessons via WhatsApp but he has no other device except for her phone so the lessons all come to her. Whenever she’s at home he is able to get the lessons otherwise he has to wait until she gets home which can be hard on him as he is expected to complete his work by a given time, have it photographed and sent to be marked.
With the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) estimating light bills, Xavier said her light bill recently came at $17,000, double what the normal bill is, which led to her taking a photo of her meter and presenting it to the company’s query department to have the amount rectified. The woman said that while GPL may not be doing disconnections at this time, this is not a situation she can afford to have repeating itself. “What happens if this is what my bill looks like after the lockdown,” she had voiced, adding that she’d surely be disconnected if they keep making incorrect estimations.
Rohini Mahase, a sixty-year-old resident, lives with her son, daughter and son-in-law. Her son-in-law works in construction but his work is coming to a close and she worries about how the family will make it when this happens. She works only one day a week, cleaning at the pharmacy. Her daughter doesn’t work and her son is unable to as he is disabled.
Already the situation has taken a toll on the family, and friends and members of the church they attend have provided them with food hampers in recognition of their plight. “I don’t know what we gon do if this got to continue. I wish we can get some help”, said the woman.
Play school teacher, Yashodra Jaikaran has closed her school doors since the start of the lockdown. This is her main source of income and also the main support for her husband who has a job in construction. Together the two have three children. However, owing to the country’s current economic crisis, he can only get work twice a week.
The family has relied on their savings so far to pay the bills and provide for their necessities. Jaikaran said that her parents who live two lots away, share the lot in the middle with her which they do a bit of gardening on. She plants more of the seasoning plants along with pepper, calaloo and carilla while her mother plants other vegetables which they share among themselves. Yashodra also rears meat birds for home use.
Restless
School lessons she said, come through her WhatsApp for all three of her children, the oldest who will be sitting the National Grade Six Assessment Examinations (NGSA) in July. As a qualified former secondary school teacher as well as a grade five and six teacher, her daughter is in good hands and is prepared for the exams which she hopes can be written and done with as the child is anxious about the approaching event. Her children she said are restless being at home all the time so sometimes they spend time with their grandparents. The garden lot allows the children to walk from one house to the next without having to take the road.
Outside of homeschooling and her other duties at home, Jaikaran has a WhatsApp group where she tries keeping in contact with her parents at least once a week as well as checking to ensure that her preschoolers are still learning at home.
Nalini Sookram, a mother of seven, along with her husband, has quite a task on her hands in providing for their large family. Their oldest child, an eleven-year-old girl, will be sitting the NGSA exams in July. Her daughter remains at a disadvantage as the family is unable to afford the internet for her to get her lessons on WhatsApp. Sookram said she has purchased past examination papers for the child but as a parent she doesn’t know much to explain to her daughter when she doesn’t understand a topic.
Her husband is employed as a labourer at the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate but since they are in the out-of-crop period, there isn’t work for him. Currently he depends on private farming where he ‘shies’ paddy but there isn’t work available every day. The woman said that the work he does now pays less than the sugar estate. “Right now things difficult all round so you got to try because where you gon run and go if you need help?” she queried.
Retired worker of Wales Sugar Estate, Cecil Toonoo, lives with his son, his daughter-in-law and their three children. At fifty-nine Toonoo is sickly and unable to work. He receives a pension of approximately $30,000 a month which would have been a reasonable sum to take care of himself but now he is forced to share it with his family. His son he said was employed with the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate two years ago but was disqualified after he had gotten sick and was unable to work for some time. His son he said would ‘catch his hand’ whenever the crop was on with the private farmers and whenever crop is out like it is now, he would do odd jobs but owing to the lockdown he has been unable to find work since.
Out of his pension he has two months’ light bill to pay which comes up to $8,000. “Right now we’re depending on a little savings. Since the lockdown his son cannot even go out to look for work. Presently we got the final rice left in the bag to cook for tomorrow. Once that finish I will have to go to the shop people and hope that they credit me again because I still have an outstanding balance owed to them. I get WiFi on my phone from my neighbour and I see a lot of news on my phone and how these other countries are providing for their unemployed people but our government here is not doing that for our people. I don’t think the present administration would render any assistance to us. We could use some assistance with our bills and some food stuff….” Toonoo remarked.
