OUR experiences would have varied each time we visited and explored the intriguing villages around Guyana; and in almost every case, our visit left us with lasting positive impressions.
In many cases, we have been awed by the mystical beauty of some of the locations, or thrilled by the warm hospitality of the people, or amused by the juicy gossip that surrounded them.

When we visited Land of Canaan on the East Bank of Demerara, we were confronted by a refreshing welcome of the kind we so enjoy, and we could not help but bask in the glorious realization of the solitude that seemed to surround the village,
Land of Canaan, in the Demerara-Mahaica Region 4, is located some 14 miles, or 23 km, south of Georgetown, the Guyanese capital. This time around, the journey had a few hiccups, in that I forgot to walk with weather gear, and therefore received a good drenching from the never-ending rain, since I was bent on completing my explorations, regardless of fair or foul weather.
And then, as I walked along the public road, I had the scare of my life as speeding sand trucks almost ran me over in their attempt to overtake each other on the wet road in their desperate quest to be the first to sell a load of white sand in the city. Keeping a safe distance on the curb of the road afterwards, I continued my wet and dripping trek around the village.
There hardly seemed to be anyone in the streets, save for a few huddled under umbrellas as they awaited vehicular transportation; or the few that were grabbing a light snack at one of the many fast food stalls in the village.
Gates were locked and everyone seemed to be indoors avoiding the rain; and I thought it would be such a strange task to be banging on doors for interviews whilst many were enjoying the warmth and comfort of their homes.
Thank goodness, the sun came out for a bit, and in some parts of the village, residents tumbled into the streets, intent on getting chores done before the next deluge came.

History
I was very impressed with the seemingly modern look that this village sported, and was equally surprised at the large amount of well established businesses that were there. But I wondered what the village was like before it got its modern turnaround, and there was the elderly Andrew Corlette, an old pork-knocker, who told the tale. Having lived in Land of Canaan all his life, Andrew explained, when he was a child, the village was mostly a dense overgrowth of bush and foliage, with a few scattered houses here and there. He said there was no electricity in most areas, and many sections of the village were pitch black after dusk had fallen.
He said that during that time, the area was plagued by a serious drainage problem, and farmers who cultivated cash crops in the backlands suffered immensely as a result of continuous flooding.
By the early 70s, the village began to show signs of development, and this started with persons beginning to erect a few small shops and stalls. Access roads were made to enter the village from various angles, and things began to look a little bright ‘around the gills’.
As the years rolled by, many other businesses sprang up; and in 1991, the Barama Company Limited came into play, offering extensive employment opportunities for residents of Land of Canaan and many surrounding villages. The erection of the Gafoor’s Manufacturing Complex in the village also greatly boosted its employment scope and took it another notch higher in the world of economic and social development.
Today, villagers can almost satisfy all their necessities in the village, since there is good water and electricity supply everywhere. As a matter of fact, Land of Canaan now boasts an artesian well which is manned by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).
The village also houses a very vibrant and active karate school, Igloo Fruit Flavours Ice-Cream Parlour, the A. Azamally & Sons Ltd Lumber Yard, and the Good Will Enterprises Inc. And, of course, there is the Boat House Sports Bar that offers fun and frolic and much leisure time pleasantries.
There is also a branch of Neal and Massey there, and an Internet cafe for browsing. Added to that, the Sears General Store has sprung up, as have a chain saw outlet and several halaal chicken outlets, and the A. Gonzalez & Sons Scrap Metal entity, which seems to be doing good business.
And for a little fun time, folks can trek down to Lazzo Disco on weekends to have a ‘lil drink’ and talk off their stress and worries over some good bottles of El Dorado five-year-old rum.

Employment giants
It appears that the well established businesses or ‘economic giants’ that are offering employment to villagers are the Barama Company Ltd, the Two Brothers Gas Station, the Guygas entity, and the Gafoor’s Manufacturing Complex. And from conversations with villagers, everyone is more than pleased that these businesses have come into the village.

Guygas
The Guygas Plant sits on a 23-acre site on the right bank of the Demerara River in the village of Land of Canaan. It is approximately 20km south of Georgetown on the East Bank Demerara Highway, the main access to Timehri, Linden, and other key locations in the forestry and mining landscape. The country’s main airport, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, is 5 km away.
The plant itself is modern and safe, complying with current NFPA 58 regulations for LPG operations, and featuring a computerized filling system capable of producing 700 9-kg cylinders of gas per hour. The supply and installation was done by engineering companies from the USA, South Africa and Trinidad. There is a conveyor system that allows for an efficient movement of cylinders during the various stages of production.
The size and location of the plant allows great flexibility and options for the future expansion of Guygas. Guygas has river access on the largest underutilised parcel of land closest to Port Georgetown.
A sprinkler system and fire monitor designed by their South African engineering consultant covers the entire filling and storage areas. It is supplied by a fire pump rated at 1250 litres of water per minute. Soon the company will be adding another fire pump connected to a network of piping and fire hydrants.
All of the plant’s internal electrical apparatus, including the security lights in the immediate area, are explosion proof. The entire plant is equipped with fire alarms and fire extinguishers of various sizes, as recommended by the Guyana Fire Service.

Barama 
This company is the leading forest resource and wood products company in Guyana. It is one of Guyana’s biggest employers, with approximately 1000 employees. Its core business includes the sale of hardwood logs and sawn timber, and the manufacturing of plywood, decking and flooring products.
Dubbed the largest ever event held in the 20-year history of Barama Company Limited, the company celebrated its 20th anniversary with much fanfare at its Buckhall site on November 03, 2011
Barama Company Limited, established in Guyana since 1991, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samling Global Limited. The company was granted a lowland mixed tropical forest concession of approximately 1.6 million hectares in the Northwest region of Guyana.
As a major contributor to Guyana’s forestry sector, Barama is mindful to adopt responsible forest management practices on the forest resources it has been entrusted. The company is committed to ensuring these resources continue to provide a balanced outcome in terms of economic, environmental and social benefits for Guyana.
The Guyana Forestry Commission’s Code of Practice for Timber Harvesting regulates the timber operations in the country. As good corporate citizens, the company carefully conducts itself according to the laws of the land; and like all other operators, it is kept in check through continuous monitoring by the Guyana Forestry Commission.
This business started with the extraction of logs for the manufacturing of plywood, and evolved to include veneer and sawn timber operation. In 1993, Barama Company established a plywood operation to add value to its forest resources. This was followed by the setting up of a sawmill operation at its Land of Canaan site in 1996, and two other such operations at its Buckhall site in 2006 and 2008. Both sites are complemented with kiln dryers and moulders to produce finished lumber.
One of Guyana’s biggest employers, Barama employs approximately 1000 persons across its operations. The company believes in investing in its most valuable resource (the staff) and has established wide ranging training programmes to develop the skills of its people, who come from all walks of life in Guyana and beyond. In addition, the company also places emphasis on the safety, health and welfare of the Guyanese people.
Barama is Guyana’s largest wood products company, contributing over 30 percent of the country’s timber exports. It has invested heavily in developing high-value products, creating downstream production lines, and building valuable infrastructure. Through these investments, Barama expects to increase its volume and variety of exports to the U.S.A, Europe, Central America, and the CARICOM region.
Barama continues to export logs to markets like China, India and Vietnam, as a means to introduce Guyanese species of wood to these emerging markets. The company is monitoring the usage of Guyanese wood species in these markets. When the demand and acceptance level for such products is established in these markets, Barama aims to invest in the appropriate manufacturing facility to produce these value-added wood products from Guyana to satisfy these international markets.
Barama harvests only premium logs for its sawmilling and plywood manufacturing facilities. Some wood species are unique and come in unusual colours. The sawn timber species are particularly suitable for applications such as decking and flooring, because they are harder than many other hardwood varieties and do not need to be chemically treated.
The company will continue to research the species in Guyana to explore other suitable applications for them. The Greenheart species, for example, has been identified as a suitable species for decking.
Their forest concession areas are managed and controlled under systematic Forest Management Plans, and in accordance with the regulations of the Guyana Forestry Commission.
Barama adopts reduced impact logging following training on these techniques by the Forestry Training Centre Inc., which is supported by Tropical Forest Foundation, a non-profit educational institute dedicated to the conservation of tropical forests through sustainable forest management.
The company has also partnered with the Edinburgh Centre for Tropical Forests in Guyana from 1992 to 1999, to assist in the development of its sustainable forest management model. This includes data collection and efficiency assessments of existing logging practices, in preparation for FSC certification.

Employer of Choice
Barama employs more than 1,000 persons across its operations. To reflect Guyana’s rich ethnic and cultural diversity, the company is dedicated to nurturing a diverse workforce, in which Guyanese and others are given equal opportunities to realise their full potential.
Barama is a long-term investor in Guyana, and has a vision to develop local skill-sets. Its foresters, land managers, manufacturing employees and other professionals work as a team.
This company believes in investing in employee training and development to give its employees a competitive edge for success in technical, non-technical, leadership and management skills. Initiatives include sending employees on overseas work exchange programmes to the company’s network of sister companies under its holding company, Samling Global Limited.

Satisfied people
The most endearing pleasantry about this village is that, despite its still transcending into ultimate evolvement and does have minor challenges like any other village, everyone is so pleasant and contented that it has left me awed and amazed.
The ‘differently able’ Martin Alfred, a squatter on the Five-door Sluice Dam, said life is beautiful, and vows that he would not give up Land of Canaan for anywhere else. “Land of Canaan is really a very quiet and nice village, and it’s my only home I have known for forty-eight years now. I have been happy here all these years, and have been living in quiet and peace, and will not trade it for anywhere else,” he said.
However, despite his jovial banter and good spirits, Mr. Alfred has one little problem, which he is daily praying and hoping will be solved. This jolly and ever smiling man, who works as s security guard with a private firm, has been squatting for over twenty-five years on the Five Sluice Dam; and while it is comfortable there, he still dreams of having a proper home of his own, and is therefore seeking financial assistance to build one. At present, he is residing with other family members.
“I am comfortable where I am, and I am being treated well by relatives. But each day I fall on my knees and pray to have my own home. I want a house of my own so bad that I cry sometimes when I think about it. I really want someone, somebody to help me with the finance needed to build my own home,” he pleaded.
Mr. Alfred and a few others are also calling on the authorities to pave the many access streets leading into the village, which becomes muddy and waterlogged during heavy rainfall.

Livelihood
Apparently everyone is employed in Land of Canaan, and the  majority seem to be attached to the Barama Company Limited and the Gafoor’s Manufacturing Complex. But that aside, many housewives are making a fast dollar from their fast food stalls rigged in front of their homes.  And they seem to be always busy frying or baking something or the other, filling the air with succulent aroma.
And, of course, there are some farmers who remain contented with their farming in the backland regions; and at least three of them related that even though the drainage has improved with the appearance of their Five-door Sluice, they still seem some form of flooding when it pours torrentially.
It was very apparent that these people were happy and certainly contented with their humble existence. Some even boasted of the exquisite ambience of the Canaan Village Inn, which over the years has been quite popular for its comfy ambience.
There is no garbage problem in Land of Canaan, as far as I could see. The people here are contented with burning or having the garbage trucks pick up their garbage.

Village gossip
Always looking for a little village gossip, I was lucky to hear three women talking about a bizarre occurrence that happened in the village just last year.
And they were lamenting the luck of young Faith Evelyn, one of the remaining four victims of the two-vehicle crash which occurred in the village last year. Their conversation was, of course, prompted by the reckless manner in which the sand truck drivers were speeding on the East Band Highway.
Evelyn, 19, of Mocha Village, East Bank Demerara, has been a patient in the hospital’s High-Dependency-Unit (HDU) for almost a month, nursing a broken right arm and injuries to her spine.
She was previously in the Female Surgical Ward for about a week, but her condition had turned from worrying to critical.
The 19-year-old and four of her friends were involved in an accident involving two cars on March 4, 2012. Evelyn and her friends were rushed to the GPHC. One of her friends, Marvin Wray, 27, who was driving the car, was instantly admitted to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he succumbed a week later.
According to the ladies, they were initially told that the driver of the car that collided with the one Evelyn was travelling in had escaped from the scene.
And as they stuck polouri into their mouths, they ranted on about another incident in which the body of a Land of Canaan man was found with a throat wound in May of this year.
The body of Thandu Singh, called Khemraj Singh, 22, of Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara, was found in a cottage with a wound to his throat, according to Sulsattie Sewnarain. Residents said Singh is believed to be one of the men who had been fingered in the shooting incident at Land of Canaan on April 20, 2013, when two men were shot and injured when a licensed firearm holder discharged several rounds at the duo.
They reported that a sibling of one of the injured men had openly threatened to end Singh’s life.
Villagers said that they do not know much about Singh, since he is relatively new to the area.
On April 20, 2013, police detained the licensed firearm holder, but he was later released pending investigations.
The victims, Courtney Moore, 30, and Ralph Paul, 43, both of Land of Canaan, were treated for gunshot wounds at the Georgetown Public Hospital and discharged.
They were each shot on their right shoulder when confronted by the home owner in relation to the alleged larceny of articles from his premises when an argument developed and several rounds were discharged.

Conclusion
It has no magnificent skyscrapers or towering majestic building, but what appeals to all who visit Land of Canaan is the soft, smiling contentment of its people; the alluring solitude that seems to encase the village like a warm and restive cocoon, and the remarkable journey of the village from being simple to fast becoming very impressive.