By Shirley Thomas

THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine team visited the community of Bamia, located on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway in Region 10. Stories by Michel Outridge and Shirley Thomas.
The community of Bamia began initially as a settlement of indigenous peoples who had come from communities such as the North West District, Rupununi and the Pomeroon.
Bamia, whose first residents (a total of four families) settled on the outskirts of Linden more than 20 years ago, has as its main attraction a cool and fascinating dark-coloured creek, which streams beneath a gigantic concrete bridge separating Bamia and Linden.
The cool and inviting black water creek has an almost magnetic pull on persons beholding it. Even though the creek has the potential to become a tourist attraction and eventually become an income generator for the community, precious little has been done to promote the community in a positive light. However, as people come to know about the Bamia Creek, people are spending quality time on holidays, weekends and other free periods to journey down to the creek, where they engage in swimming, or simply submerge under the water for a refreshing dip.

The bridge is well engineered and constructed with steel reinforcements. Authorities have confirmed that close to 1,000 vehicles pass over that bridge on an average working day.
But ironically, many people who have travelled to Linden are abysmally unaware that a bridge is there, and so, miss the opportunity of beholding such a spectacular scenery beneath.

The Pepperpot Magazine recently visited Bamia and was taken on a tour of the community by residents who have either spent their lifetime there or would have lived there long enough and played a crucial part in development of the community. The four founding families cut into the deep jungle and set up small houses in the area. From there, they would walk to Linden and make their purchases of foodstuff or conduct whatever business they had to transact.

Land
However, to date, residents say that development is moving at a snail’s pace, but they were not comfortable occupying the lands and not having title to them. They said that despite repeated requests to the competent authority, they were just being pushed around.
One resident recalled that a few years after settling at Bamia, his mother indicated her readiness to pay for the land and to get her lease. “ My mom applied for title over 18 years ago and was always being pushed around. Now, with the heightened interest by all and sundry for land to buy on the coastland of Guyana, it is becoming increasingly difficult to access land. So we recently went back to pay and get our lease, only to learn that surveyor’s fee alone is shockingly high, let alone the cost for the land.”

The residents consider this grossly unfair, arguing that it was not their fault that the matter was not finalised 18 years ago. In the meantime, the population at Bamia, he said, has grown to about 70 families and it is much more difficult to access that kind of money.

Living off the land

At Bamia, there are no job opportunities; the residents do subsistence farming, planting cash crops such as fruits, greens and vegetables that thrive well in sandy soil.
“But the thing is that everybody in the community is doing the same thing, so there’s nobody to buy when we produce. Paying to take them out to Georgetown or other communities has another challenge. We, with our small quantities are up against much bigger producers and so find ourselves paying to transport the produce out of Bamia and paying to bring them back home,” one resident said.
But residents are even more concerned that after 20-odd years, the community does not have basic facilities such as a health centre or supermarket and most of all potable water supply, even though two communities on the same Soesdyke-Linden Highway just last year were provided with water and commissioned by the Guyana Water Inc.’s CEO, Mr Richard

Van-West Charles.
“We feel neglected and are asking the Guyana Water Inc to consider us the next time they come to the highway to deliver the service,” the residents implored. Residents want to set the record straight – noting that having a creek does not mean that the average resident has easy access to water, since the houses are built on the hill and the creek is deep down at the foot and virtually miles away.

“If somebody gets sick during the night when buses not running, how do we get to a hospital three miles away? What do you do, stand up at the roadside on a pitch dark night and hope that a bus will come up?” they reasoned.

Getting by

Residents feel that more should be done for a community that has been in existence for more than 20 years and has more than 70 families, including young babies. But thanks to the initiative of a former student of the Bamia School, Abiola Barron who operates a mini shop outside the school compound, school children can make purchases of snacks and beverages and even adults can find items they need. So far, the only things provided for the community residents say are:

• A building housing a community centre at the top and a primary school below which caters for their education needs only until they reach Grade Six, write their NGSA Examination then move on.

• A Church

• The disproportionate allocation of 10 acres of land to be developed into a cemetery in a housing area with 70 families, when there is a need for land on which to build houses or on which to build a supermarket.

However, thanks to the intervention of resident, Mr Edward Persaud who, very early recognised the need for the constant cleaning of the area around the creek. He opted to construct a building for himself and family, and has been keeping the environment clean, in addition to offering voluntary life guard service for persons swimming in the creek. In addition, another family member has set up a mini facility offering cool beverages for sale and a Bar-B-Cue grill on which he prepares spicy hot Bar-B-Cue just off the creek on swimming days.

Noting that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, residents are now beginning to come up with novel ideas for making Bamia exciting and a place worthy to live in.