By Shauna Jemmott
“UNITED we stand, divided we fall!” Ann’s Grove has for long been a community drifting between standing and falling, maybe gone halfway down, but it’s bent on taking flight this time around with a highly productive citizenship and vibrant community developers ready to take control.

Ann’s Grove is easy to find. It is the only community along the East Coast of Demerara with a distinct lime-green bus shed along the public road. The shed has for years been a home to a few, but in times past friends sat within for a good conversation while enjoying the sea breeze and the sounds of the waters whenever there was high tide. The road just opposite the shed leads to many villages – Bee Hive, Clonbrook, Ann’s Grove, Two Friends and Douch Four – Ann’s Grove being the most popular and in the center of them all.
A malfunctioning Koker right outside the roadside canal stands before the outstanding village label erected along the public road, and as one drives along the road leading into the village, you will find on your right, a recently developed housing scheme that takes you halfway in. The homes of unique architecture display an interesting blend of warm colours. That area is Ann’s Grove Housing Scheme. Beyond the train-line boundary, on your right hand is the central part of Ann’s Grove.

NEVER SLEEPS
A bubbling community that never sleeps, every child is familiar with the other and catch up on a regular basis playing dog and the bone, ‘Sal-out’ or street football, while pork-knockers wives meet to discuss husbands and “bush” business as market vendors bargain with farmers for the best price per boat-full of mangoes or green plantains.
Then you’ll find bakers defending the decreased size of a $500 cassava-bread package, revellers talk about the next party place and fashion for the night, while religious women hold worship, praise and prayer meetings believing for righteousness even in the midst of a few fist fights, some gambling and occasional blood-fights.
In the midst of it all, young men who cried joblessness are travelling up the Cuyuni to look for gold, yet a significant number gamble,

argue and laugh under the scorned market structure while a majority of young women who have gained CSEC subjects head to Qualfon for an interview.

‘GREEN SPACE’ POTENTIAL
Ann’s Grove has quite a number of professionals and producers and has potential to become one of the green spaces which the government is pushing for, with fertile soil and a vast expanse of farmlands, a quarter of which is lost to owners and overtaken with weeds and tall bushes.
The Village Office is located right after the bus park, around the market square, the central part of the community, and with freshness in the political atmosphere, motivation has come and many are walking into the village office to locate their beds to up the community’s rank in farming, maybe to as high as that of its vendors owning blocks or stalls at Bourda and Stabroek Markets in

Georgetown.
When the Guyana Chronicle visited Friday it was business as usual in Ann’s Grove. Around 08:30 hrs, children were in school and food shops open for business dotted the parapet over the old train line road and extending into the bus park, which has become a booming business area complemented by a basketball court.
Though Ann’s Grove itself does not have a dedicated Health Centre, Post Office or Police Station, it is served by the Clonbrook Health Centre, Police Outpost and Post Office, located along the same road. The village has a government nursery, primary and secondary school and two private pre-schools to serve its children and four Christian churches – with the Ebenezer Congregational built by African slaves, being the oldest.
Alexander Bradshaw, the craftsman and shoemaker known as ‘Alek’ is at his small blue shop around Market Square. Daily he opens for business, producing and selling leather craft footwear, bags, belts, fixing broken shoes, and fulfilling orders by overseas customers.
Ann’s Grove Methodist church just opposite his shop advertised on a banner that it is celebrating 160 years this year under the theme, “Honouring my church according to God’s Word”.

Mr. Osman Mason, a retired senior policeman, community and religious leader said though the village’s youths have great potential, they lack the enthusiasm to develop and use their talent wisely.

GOLDFIELD TREK
“Ann’s Grove has potential for development, but there is some lack of enthusiasm by some of our youths to go after what they desire. Many of our youths, some even leave school to go into the interior hoping to find fortune. The goldfields are just for a time when things are not flourishing they come back home and there is nothing to do. If they could get themselves together, think progressively, we all can do something… our talent is what He (God) has blessed us with.”

TWELVE KIDS AND MORE
Aunty Madeline Billey who lives on Main Street is the mother of many. Her husband died in 1985 leaving her to the responsibility of being both mom and dad. She stripped brooms, cooked black pudding and souse, and did many jobs to ensure her 12 biological kids and few adopted ones were fine, and with son Dwayne passing two years ago, two grand-daughters are now in her care while many others surround her daily.
Aunty Madeline seldom has relaxation time, but with her children combining and constructing a bigger house she proudly tells a story reflecting her work has paid off. Most of her sons are pork-knockers while the eldest manages a medium-scale farming business with a close accomplice.
Along Middle-Walk Dam, a smile lit the face of Mr. Sydney Dundas as the Sunday Chronicle crew entered his home. He is one of the community’s oldest citizens, and a man much loved by all there. Dundas is 95-years-old, and though he moves around using a wheelchair, he is considered a strong man. Socialising is something he still does but by wheeling himself to the porch to look out, and his home is frequented by quite a few persons daily while relatives also live with him.
The surviving three of his five children are all U.S. citizens, but he is cared for by “many of the women in the community” since the majority of them are his family.
The senior villager was in his youth was a ‘porknocker’ travelling miles into the goldfields to extract the precious minerals – gold and diamond – proceeds from which he managed to build a decent and fairly comfortable life. Television and a stereo keep him up-to-date with current affairs, and he told Sunday Chronicle that Ann’s Grove has a very good community. “They (citizens) unite properly.“If something goes wrong with ‘A’, just like if something goes wrong with ‘B’,” he explained.
Amid jungle-like backlands a few farmers endured challenges and have kept agriculture alive, while many of the younger men are going up the Potaro, Mazaruni, North West or Cuyuni, searching for fortune within the mineral rich sand and rocks in the hinterland.
Just outside his house, Miss Grace runs a greens stand that has been booming for years. It is the most popular stop for vegetables and “everybody” shops there. Grace said she grew up in Bartica with a vending grandmother and while her siblings loved selling she hated the business. Now that they have grown, she has become the only one to adopt her grandma’s trade to make a living.
Drifting closer to the backlands, we met Nemhle Jones a certified nurse who has given up her for family and business. She is the chief “broom” producer in the village, stripping at least 43 brooms from coconut branches weekly and marketing around the village, in ‘Big Market’ at Stabroek in Georgetown and as overseas customers place orders, she is ready at all times to deliver the compact pointer brooms at a reasonable price.
One Doctor’s Office – Dr. Nichole Nedd-Jerrick – is located within Ann’s Grove, opening on Sundays, but the office of Dr. Saska Sertimer in neighbouring Two Friends Village opens nightly, along with two pharmacies, and a Dentist Joy … grocery stores are plenty and coconuts are mostly free from any good neighbour.
Tony is the cassava bread and casareep man and a man known to all. He is always available for village support and is dedicated to the Congregational Church which is led by Reverend Noel Holder.
With various development groups – sheltered collectively under the Ann’s Grove United Action Group, cooperative young leaders in the likes of the Waterman siblings, James Gulliver, Ossie ‘O’ Nedd, Elisa Hamilton and Candacie Holder just to name a few, and a gospel ministry moving to empower, the village is set to climb.
Ann’s Grove was in 1817 a joint plantation with Two Friends which were both called Two Friends. In 1847, Two Friends became the property of John Croal, an Englishman who named the eastern portion of his estate, Ann’s Grove, after his sister Ann. The present Croal Street in Georgetown was named after the same Croal who was proprietor of the villages. Croal then made over by transport the eastern portion of his estate to seventy-six freed slaves who bought the section of that estate for $7,000, pooling their monies for the major purchase. It is a place where the cock crows at any time of day.