By Michel Outridge

THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the agricultural community of Hope Village, East Coast Demerara.

This village is divided into two sections, Hope Village and Hope New Housing Scheme. The community is tucked away in a mile and a half of all-weather road and is between Lowlands and Bee Hive, also on the East Coast of Demerara.

Hope is home to Hope Coconut Estate, an arm of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), which has an abundance of coconut plants for sale.
The place has potable water supply, electricity, non-functioning landline services, cellphone service and internet. It has a few shops and most of the residents are large-scale farmers and some have livestock.
Hope Village has predominantly Indo-Guyanese, while the nearby Hope New Housing Scheme has a mixed population.

The village has a Police Outpost, with a nursery and primary school that are housed in one building. The Pepperpot Magazine first went to the home of Pamela Boodhoo, she has a grocery shop in her front yard, providing basic foodstuff to villagers, all reasonably priced.

Boodhoo stated that she has lived all her 54 years in Hope Village, her parents were farmers and she grew up in the community.

In July this year, she will observe her 55th birth anniversary and is looking forward to that occasion.

The grandmother explained that she resides in an extended family setting where about 15 persons share a home, including her grandchildren.

“Things not like long-time, it’s different these days because goods are pricey and when you buy to re-sell, it’s not profitable, but we trying to stay afloat with this small shop,” she said.
Boodhoo has a kitchen garden and the produce is for their kitchen and they do their shopping outside the village to stock the shop.

“This village is the only place I have lived and it will remain that way because this is home for me and my family and we are here to stay,” she explained.

When the Pepperpot Magazine visited Boodhoo she was relaxing in her hammock with a grandson, just after breakfast and was thinking up a menu for lunch.

She related that the country life is simple, but it entails a lot of hard work to make ends meet and living as a family is best because they can look out for each other.

Boodhoo, the elder of her home, oversees the daily function of the business and ensures that all is well with the large family.

“Long time things were good, because almost everybody in this village used to work with the Hope Coconut Estate and those were the days when you worked right in the community and walk home after,” she said.

Boodhoo added that these days most villagers are planting the lands and they depend heavily on that to maintain their families.