By Michel Outridge

RETIREE Colin Gibbons is one of many other Gibbonses who reside on Gibbons Avenue at Chance Village. The avenue has seven houses and all the people there are related and live in unity and peace.

Gibbons added that he lives between the United States and Guyana, but of recent he has been spending more time here than abroad, because of the cold weather and a few other things.

“You can say I am living my ‘golden age’ now and this is the place for me, my home. I born and grew up here and I feel comfortable here and there is no other place I would rather be right now,” he said.

When the Pepperpot Magazine met Gibbons he was in his hammock enjoying the country breeze while some men were cutting the grass in his yard.

He stated that it has been more than a year since he has been back home and he has done a lot, including filling up his yard with dirt and planting flowers and vegetables.

It was evident that a lot of work went into getting the yard to the standard it was when the Pepperpot Magazine visited.

Gibbons was a rice farmer before he migrated.

The Pepperpot Magazine also met another rice farmer, Winston Shepherd, a resident of #10 Village, Branch Road, Mahaicony.

Shepherd is working on family rice lands owned by him and other relatives, where a 75-acre plot is solely for rice cultivation.

“As you can see, we have a lot of land at the back here and almost everybody here related and we came together and do our farming and it is no worries at all,” he said.

The 56-year-old added that apart from rice farming, he is rearing some cows and is quite comfortable with his life, except that he has been a bachelor for the past 10 years.

With his children grown, Shepherd said he is looking for suitable companionship and is also a member of the village church.

He described life in the village as breezy and peaceful, but it involves a lot of hard work; it is a good life nonetheless.

“We have everything right here. I does go to the church too and we don’t have to walk far and we don’t have to worry about thief man and can sleep with the door open,” he said.

Shepherd, however, has a concern, stating that there is need for development of the ballfield for the youths to have a place for recreation, because as is, they are playing cricket on the road.

He noted that they have a community centre building, which is in disrepair; it is a large ground but it is overgrown with bushes and needs to be maintained.

When the Pepperpot Magazine met Shepherd, he was on his bicycle taking a bottle of oil for the engine of his tractor; he, however, was in no hurry to do so because he had some other stops to make.

The Pepperpot Magazine also spoke to Hamlet/Chance Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) Overseer Shondell Roberston, who reported that within Branch Road, Mahaicony, they have seen development.

She related that within recent times the main access road which is traversed by heavy-duty trucks going to and from the rice mills in the village, was paved and upgraded; however, a section that is closer to the backlands is yet to be re-surfaced.

Roberston added that the village has adequate drainage and along Branch Road, Mahaicony, they have a cluster of villages which includes, L’ Enterprise, Zeskendren, Hamlet/Chance, Perth, Fortitude, Spooner, Supply, Strath Campbell, Broomland, New Providence, Wash Clothes, Gordon Table, Mora Point, Felicity and Mortice, among others.

She noted that within that NDC they have recorded 1,500 residents, but along Branch Road, there are hundreds of villagers, especially in the more populated village of Perth.