St. Lawrence is the best place to live
A photo of Lionel Seepersaud’s mom and others when the first school was established by the missionaries at St .Lawrence Primary School.
A photo of Lionel Seepersaud’s mom and others when the first school was established by the missionaries at St .Lawrence Primary School.

Retired Headteacher, Lionel Seepersaud is a resident of St. Lawrence Village, East Bank Essequibo and is the owner of the GUYOIL Gas Station in the community.

He is better known as ‘Uncle Archie’ who is the father of three and is also a full-time farmer.

Giving historical background of the village, he stated that the boundaries of the village extend from the Hubu Koker up to St. Lawrence Primary School.

Originally, Seepersaud stated that the lands in the community were owned by two brothers, Henry and Samuel Lanferman.

Lionel Seepersaud called ‘Uncle Archie’ (Carl Croker photos)

Seepersaud’s mother is an offspring of the Lanfermans but she married into the Seepersauds. His mother is still alive at 96 years old but is bed-ridden and has lost parts of her memory, he said.

He related that in the years before 1953, there were no network of canals and the village had creeks going into the backlands and the place looked like a jungle.

Seepersaud added that years later the Hubu Koker was constructed after canals were dug and the place was excavated.

He added that the road was made out of burnt earth, some of which he still had to show the team.

The farmer stated that while growing up, they had a lot of ponds in the village because they dug it to source water and to make burnt earth for the road.

Seepersaud recalled that after the 1950s, the burnt earth was taken from the rubbish heaps to make roads in the village.

Home of Lionel Seepersaud

He disclosed that the women used to fetch the burnt earth in baskets on their heads while the men would cut wood.

Seepersaud said they only had a school at Blake Primary School, some distance away, which was established by the church after his sister fell into a creek while at school and almost drowned but she was saved.

This incident caused the missionaries to build a thatched roof school at St. Lawrence which had an earthen floor with the church next door for the children in the village to go.

The St. Lawrence School still stands and it has a new building which was constructed through the Social Impact Amelioration Program (SIMAP) and just next door they have a church.

Seepersaud is hoping to get permission to erect a shed from the school to the playground, for the children’s comfort whenever it rains or when it is too hot.
Seepersaud added that he grew up in Hubu Village and came to St. Lawrence when he was 16 years old.

Teaching
He recalled that his mother was the Sunday school teacher in the village for more than 40 years and he wanted to be like her so he went to Cyril Potter School of Education (CPCE) at Turkeyen and qualified as a teacher.

Seepersaud spent 23 years in the teaching profession at the primary level and also tried his hand at mining but would always returned to teaching over the years.

He began teaching in 1979 and served at several schools after which he went to Barbados to cut cane, went into the interior to do pork-knocking and did some wood cutting.

“These are dreams I had growing up and I wanted to fulfil all of these before I aged and I did and it felt good,” he said.

Seepersaud added that his father was a logger.

Even though he strayed away from teaching at intervals he would always return to his first love job as a teacher.

Seepersaud said he came up from a family of teachers and wanted to become a teacher at an early age.

He also manages the Hubu Burial Society and is a full-time farmer.

Even though Seepersaud has travelled abroad he had no intention of migrating since Guyana is his homeland.

St. Lawrence development
“Over the years, when strangers came into the village and bought lands and established sawmills it gave the community a boost economically,” Seepersaud said.

The saw millers used to use chainsaws after which they purchased more modern equipment and machines and now have large scale operations of which they have in their employ many villagers.

He recalled Lakeram Haridat was the first sawmiller in the village.

St. Lawrence has two sawmills, many shops, churches and is home to Sabina’s Farm and former Fire Chief Edward Spelling.

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