RICH, dense foliage flew by on both sides of the road as the speeding minibus I was in jostled to overtake the many trucks laden with bags of rice and paddy quite recently harvested from the sprawling verdant countryside as I made my way to No. 7 Village, West Coast Berbice.

I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh country breeze and the almost mesmerizing view of sprawling pastures and coconut trees swaying in the wind.
I was truly anticipating interaction with residents of No. 7 Village, who were said to be contented, jovial, and very hospitable people. I considered the large chunks of mud left on the roadside by roving cattle and the many tractors and trucks that traversed the area evidence of the villages’ high-intensity agriculture activities.

First Impression
No. 7 Village is located some 83 miles from the city, and is populated predominantly by East Indian residents. A few years ago, a few persons of African ancestry began taking up residence in the village, and the ‘ethnic mix’ has become quite appealing. No. 7 Village has a beautiful aura of quaint and modest old world ambience; and its jovial people add more ‘cheery allure’ to the little but interesting village.
The village appears to be quite an attractive alcove with a large cluster of houses; a few shops; and a sea of smiling, jovial faces contentedly going about their business.

The old No. 7 Village
We were very curious to know what this village looked like in earlier times, and eager to tell us was 64-year-old Janet Ramdass, a housewife resident in the village for over 35 years. She said that, in her time, No. 7 Village was just a smattering of houses with dense bushes and lots of towering foliage. There were no street lights like the brilliant ones they have today, and getting to certain locations in the backlands was virtually impossible.
The village also had no bridges, and the few small trenches were always overgrown with weeds and high bushes. Getting to the sea beach close by was an extremely difficult task, made almost impossible by the bushes and swampy areas.
“All over was plenty bush and weed and tall grass. We could not get into the backdam nor onto the beach, unless we intended to brave the dangers of snakes and other reptiles in the tall bushes. There were no bridges or dams around the village, and there were only two stand pipes in the village, where everyone flocked to get water,” she said.
The village is now reasonably developed, and there are street lights, dams and a large drainage canal. Running water is now possible in every home, through efforts of the GWI, which has installed a pump station in the village.
The Larico Dam now also makes trekking around the village a much easier task.

Humble existence
There are only two grocery outlets in this village, but residents seem content to sit and chat as they wait their turn to fill their baskets with supplies; and I noticed a lone mandir and the single, somewhat sedate and quaint Resurrection Lutheran Church in the village.
Villagers just seemed contented to live in relative humility, untroubled by the lack of 21st Century luxuries.
There are two rum shops where the young men gather on weekends mostly to consume brown rum, and there are no nightclubs or elaborate discos. The only ‘nice time’ according to villagers is during the Easter celebrations and in August month, when the entire village would congregate on the beach for a massive picnic and kite flying. Then families would come out in large numbers with their barbeque grills and picnic baskets, and would engage in fun and family games accompanied by music and wild cheering as the village exhales and soak up the joys of such festivities.

Sport of the people

Berbice is known for hosting very exciting horse racing meets, and Nos. 6 & 7 Villages apparently become a hub of activity during that season. Horse racing is also kept at Bush Lot, Rising Sun and other villages, but Nos.6 & 7 seem to be the ‘central point’ for horse racing. The 2012 horse racing season was excellent, and all roads led to the Norman Singh Memorial Turf Club, in collaboration with the Winners Circle Pool Hall, for the grand One-day horse racing event.
Eight races were carded and a mammoth $8M in cash and trophies were up for grabs. And Mingles Sound Machine provided musical accompaniment to the exciting activities on that day.
The feature B class event was sponsored by beverage giant Banks DIH Limited, and saw five top horses in the country vying for the coveted Banks DIH trophy and accompanying $1.2M cash prize.
Horses that competed there were ‘The Message’, ‘Marathon Man’, ‘Grande De Roja’, ‘Who So Ever’, ‘Fresh Again’, ‘Miss Karina’, ‘Clever Cat’ and ‘Miss Orientate’. Also on the card were ‘Settle in Seattle’, ‘Technology’, ‘Swing Easy’, ‘Work Force’, ‘Damascus Dream’, ‘Captain Crook’, ‘Bridal Stone Corner’, ‘Super Cat’, and many others.
‘Night Crescendo’, ‘Top of the Line’, ‘Got to Go’, ‘Home Bush Baby’, ‘Majestic’, ‘Bailiff’ and ‘Face the Music’ are all top runners, and made the E and Lower event a clash to behold as they went after each other for the $400,000 at stake.
And there had been a ‘ding dong’ battle in a line-up that saw the likes of ‘Technology’, ‘Swing Easy’, ‘Work Force’, ‘Damascus Dream’, ‘Captain Crook’, ‘Bridal Stone Corner’, ‘Super Cat’, ‘Peace and Love’, ‘Awesome Warrior’, ‘Northern Dancer’ and ‘Sabrina’s Joy’ running for an encouraging  $400,000 and trophy.
The meets so far this year have been impressive, but the rainy weather seems to have put a temporary damper on all the fun and excitement, the people said.

Wishes of the people
Residents are appealing to the relevant authorities to have their access streets paved, and to have the dams that give access to the backlands properly maintained, since these are badly damaged by tractors and trucks using them during the rainy seasons. Farmers with large scale cultivation of rice and cash crops use the dams to gain access to their farms and rice fields.
Residents are also appealing to have telephone lines placed in the village, and land lines in their homes. Some said they had applied for land line service years ago, but are still unable to access any.

An unemployment crisis
Despite this being a thriving agricultural area, residents all around the village still lament a seemingly severe unemployment crisis; and 23-year-old Marcia Ramdass was very insistent that Central Government should do something about the situation.
“This village is a small area, but we have may qualified youths who have excelled at the CXC/GCE examinations but are just stuck here because of the severe unemployment crisis we face.
Students come out of school and are just left wasting time, because there is no job scope in the village at all! A few have become nurses and teachers outside of the village, but many of them do not have relatives in far places, so they can relocate elsewhere for employment. The Government should put in place initiatives inside the village to ensure youths are gainfully employed when they leave school,” she said.
Some youths liming at a cake shop explained that in their grouping of 11 persons, there was at least six who had successfully written the CSEC examinations but are without jobs.
Some explained that it is difficult to come to the city because many of them do not have relatives there, and the few who do are faced with the problem of over protective parents who just would not allow them to leave the village and work in distant areas. As a result, many of them will help out in the kitchen gardens that are seen in almost every yard, catch bush fish, or obtain temporary employment as labourers when the many farmers harvest their rice and cash crops, which include peppers, eschallot, celery, tomatoes, bora, and other items which in most cases are taken to the Rosignol Market for sale to consumers.
Some farmers would contact their many established private purchasers and they would arrive in their vehicles to collect the produce, ‘fresh from the doors of the farmers’.
Youths are also requesting that a playfield be made available with recreational equipment to facilitate their positively passing their leisure time.
Mothers are requesting a health centre in the area, to avoid having to travel to Fort Wellington and other areas to seek medical attention.
Many villagers have resorted to burning their garbage as a counter to the growing problem of effective disposal.
That aside, these people are just calm, cheery and contented.
And it seems like Government is already paying No. 7 Village some attention, as was evident with the kokers and culverts that were being built on the public road to assist with proper drainage, according to some villagers.

A village trifle
There seemed to be a trifle going on with resident Bashtie Younge, who alleges that the Village Council in the next village does not properly investigate before making sale of properties in the village.
She said she was a victim of this plight, and was shocked when surveyors arrived to survey her land to make it available for sale to outsiders.
She said that persons sent did not properly survey the plot intended for sale, and as such ended up selling land belonging to her and relatives; and no effort was made on the part of Village Office officials to properly examine her documents and ownership rights to the land before proceeding with their arrangements.
Her allegation was brought to the attention of the Village Council, and one official there dismissed her contention as “rubbish”, opining that she was just intent on making trouble and making their jobs more difficult.