“You had to learn the job in the GPF from scratch because country girl come to town, you don’t know Georgetown and you have no relatives here so I had to live in the Bark Room which was near to where I worked.”
EACH and every one of the ten children was given a small bag with rice to distribute to the needy following the reaping of the ‘big’ crop in September and perhaps this act of kindness is responsible for the job that Lynette Carter eventually took up in her life.After retiring from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) with 36 years of service, she finally found what it was that she really wanted to do with her time. She is currently the Administrative Officer of the Guyana Relief Council (GRC).
She sent out several applications as a youth, but only the GPF would respond to her and so she took what came her way. Not to say that she regrets her years in the Force, but now she is doing something that brings meaning to her life each day.
Ms. Carter, 67, grew up on the Island of Leguan in the Essequibo River but moved to Georgetown to attend secondary school at the Guyana Oriental College. Before moving to Georgetown, she attended what is now the Success Primary School in Leguan, formerly known as the Canadian Mission (CM) School.
After successfully completing her secondary school studies, she returned home and wrote several applications for work to agencies in Georgetown as Leguan, being primarily a farming community, did not have the opportunities.
She was accepted in the GPF in 1966 and worked there until 2002. “You had to learn the job in the GPF from scratch because country girl come to town, you don’t know Georgetown and you have no relatives here so I had to live in the Bark Room which was near to where I worked,” she recalled.
She was promoted until she reached the rank of sergeant. But things did not go too well in the Force at this time, she said, and so she had to remain a sergeant for quite some time. After being there for so long and not being promoted, she decided to pursue Industrial and Social Studies at the Critchlow Labour College which subsequently allowed her to gain entry into the University of Guyana (UG).
“I did a degree in management and I can safely say that I was the first police woman to get a degree in those days because the opportunities were there but you had to go out and take them.”
To facilitate the studies at UG, she recalled that a Government of Guyana Scholarship aided her so that she was able to attend the university fulltime.
“Fortunately for me, I did not have to do national service so I finished the degree in four years. I went back to the Force and was given accelerated promotion from a sergeant to an Assistant Superintendent,” she said.
This led to her working in different areas across the country. She was second in charge of the ‘E’ and ‘F’ Division (Interior), then she became Commander of the ‘G’ Division (Essequibo), and then Commander of ‘D’ Division (Leonora). When it was about time for her retirement, she came down to the Department of Development at the Force’s headquarters.
Being the ambitious person she is, Ms Carter began pursuing law even before she left the Force. She managed to obtain a degree in 1997 but could not make it to Trinidad because of financial constraints. “So I have the first degree. I’m waiting until they get the law school here and then I might probably be the oldest one going to finish off law,” she said.
Ms Carter said she appreciates mostly the discipline that comes from working in the Police Force; something that she said remained with her to this day.

‘You must give back’
After her retirement, Ms Carter decided that she wanted a job that would allow her to contribute more of herself to society. She heard about an opening at the GRC and successfully went after it.
“In life, you have to give back something to society; your time, your money, or your goods.”
Being high in praise for the organisation, she said working at the GRC is not challenging but satisfying.
“You feel comfortable that you are able to help persons in disasters and talk to them during this time. Sometimes they just want someone to talk to and knowing that you offered some comfort to someone allows you to sleep quite comfortably at night.”
Ms Carter believes in honesty, respect and contentment and advises: “Whatever you earn let that be sufficient for you.”
She is thankful for the spirit her now deceased parents instilled in her and her nine siblings; that of showing concern for the needy. “If you didn’t have this kind of background, you couldn’t do this job.”
Ms Carter is the mother ofone son-Kevon.
By Telesha Ramnarine