By Shirley Thomas

BAMIA Creek, a small body of dark-brown water, safe for swimming and passing virtually under a bridge that links that community with Linden, is gaining much attention and is fast becoming a place where quiet and peace-loving persons would prefer to be on holidays, weekends and for retreats.

And what’s more? It can ideally be used as a venue for healing broken relationships and likewise for tying the nuptial knot. But all that would be dependent on just how soon a team of stakeholders can give the venue a much-needed facelift, which would entail a bit of painting and sprucing up; planting flowering herbs; providing beach chairs or other facilities meant for relaxation.

Not least, there should be a substantial bar to complement the small bar that is currently there, as well as cuisine to complement the Bar-B-Que occasionally provided, making week-end much anticipated. All in all, a day or afternoon at the Bamia Creek should be sort of relaxing after a hectic work week and more so, now that the days are inclined to be extremely hot. But all this would not be complete without offering a meal of Bamia for sale.

What’s Bamia?
Wondering how Bamia got its name? Well, simply Bamia is an amazing Middle Eastern dish containing okra with tomato sauce and wonderful spices. For a vegetarian dish, you can choose to omit the steak completely or substitute with nutritious pigeon peas and serve as a sauce with delicious home-made whole wheat bread or brown rice.

It was said that during the time that persons first began taking up lands along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway, it was in the midst of a grow-more-food campaign and foods such as pigeon peas, okra and pineapples were thriving well in the soil. In time, persons came to know about the dish and since okra was easily perishable, compared to peas and beans, there was always a rush to utilise the okra first. So when it was not fried okra it was okra in bamia.

And because of the frequent usage of the bamia dish, it eventually became a household name and so widely was it used that the tiny emerging village was named ‘Bamia.’
The village of Bamia, settled over 20 years and ever since, the creek has been growing in popularity for persons who hold swimming as a hobby. “It’s amazing, the fascination people hold with this creek. It’s cool, serene waters, the natural beauty, the silence, interrupted only by speeding vehicles whisking across the majestic bridge high overhead,” all make it a pleasurable place to be, residents say.