PROSTITUTES always seek fortune, but many times they have an unfair distinction in the bracket of ‘womanhood.’ This is all because of the kinds of things labeled as work in the sex market.

Many times women and girls in such illegal business line the trails of hinterland districts at landing stops and entertainment spots preying on the pockets of men suspected to be stocked on minerals and money, some of whom are willing to participate in the illicit trade.
But the lives of such girls are never easy and even though many times they seem not to care, realistically they too experience hurt.

Screams of ‘murder’ from a feminine voice penetrated the midnight calm but though her genuine cries for help indicated she was in much distress, nobody responded as the clock ticked on.
That December night, celebrations reigned in the Mazaruni backdam. Women donned glittering cocktail dresses and ‘white and neon’ to attend a ‘glow party’. As bottles emptied of alcoholic drinks, fell to the ground empty cases were being refilled and delivered to revelers as the scent of marijuana saturated the atmosphere.

Young women and girls from several geographical locations were present for the affair. According to a Human Rights Report medical workers treating women and girls involved in prostitution reported that recruitment of girls into Region 7 is largely from other regions, especially with Bartica girls being recruited into Region 1 (Barima/Waini).

It said shop owners, in many cases females themselves, traffic girls ostensibly to work in shops, but they end up working in roughly constructed brothels called ‘caimoons’.
On the landing, two teenage girls from another region danced the night away. The more curvy of the two was just 16, and it was said that she lived under unstable conditions, moving from one home to another after being ‘thrown out’ from her own family’s home. Before she travelled to the Region 7 mining area she stayed with the older girl’s family.

That night after the party was over and everyone returned to their dwelling places, the loud screams were heard coming from a ‘caimoon.’ Two of the four rooms at the rugged guest house were occupied by the 16-year-old and her 18-year-old friend.
The life of the younger girl was at the mercy of a man in his late 60s. After about half-hour of screaming, residents and visitors on the landing finally ran to the rescue of the defenseless girl.

From inside the ‘caimoon’ the man was heard repeating “ah gon kill yuh” with expletives added to his exclamation, and the young lady’s voice weakened in a lower cry for “help, he gon kill me. Ow he gon kill me.”
Another man threatened to kick the door open after failed calls on the room’s occupants to open. Suddenly, a click on the lock signaled that the door was opened and the young girl, enveloped in a white towel, anxiously ran outside panting for breath.
“He say he gon kill me. I ain’t thief no gold,” she cried as if to convince a judge.
The heavily built dark-skinned man emerged from the room after taunting prompts from a reasonably sized crowd.

“Is you big man? Wha you doin sayin but yuh killing this lil gyal and yuh geh yuh wife and children home?” one man expressed with much disgust.
“She thief me gold,” he responded quietly.
His story was that he had two and a half pennyweights of gold (valued at the time at $37,500) in a pocket on his rugged pants. The goal was set aside for the teen’s payment in an oral prostitution agreement. While he was in her ‘caimoon’ the teenager asked to be excused to use the outdoor washroom and after she left for outside, he discovered the gold missing.

When the young woman returned, she received a beating during which the man repeatedly choked her and threatened her life.
The event took a turn when the landing’s assigned police arrested the teenager, handcuffed her, placed shackles on her feet around 2:00 hours that Monday morning and sent her away from the ‘bush’ on the first truck, which left that mining community at 6:00 hours.
Her bitter cries faded as the vehicle disappeared, heading in the direction of Bartica.
Life went on for that ‘big man’ who remained freely still as a pork-knocker in the Backdam.
No one knew where she went, but the Guyana Chronicle later learnt that the teen was one of those girls who had no fixed place of abode.