By Michel Outridge
CHARITY is located on the Pomeroon River which provides a gateway to this part of Guyana’s interior and Venezuela.

Many Guyanese as well as non-nationals use this waterway to travel back and forth between Guyana and Venezuela where they work, ferry goods and trade.
Charity is the last village on the Essequibo Coast and the village sits on the edge of the Pomeroon River.

It is a central focus for the farmers who live in the riverine areas of the Pomeroon. They bring their produce to this location every Monday and from here it is trans-shipped to other townships such as Anna Regina and Parika, and to  Georgetown.

It is on Mondays that the place is transformed into a huge market area as vendors bring out their goods to sell, especially at the Farmer’s Market at the River’s Front and New Road, Charity.

There, plying his simple but honest trade is the father of four, Enoch Hoyte, a very pleasant man who was also very mannerly when approached by this reporter; even though he was busy ferrying bags and goods, he took a few minutes off to entertain this reporter’s questions.

He related that when he quit gold mining in the interior he was out of work and decided to create his own job, becoming self-employed as a metal push-cart operator at the Charity waterfront.

“I left the bush some years ago and I had no job waiting for me back in Charity and I knew I had to do something to support my family financially; and I came up with this idea of push-carting,” he said.

Hoyte added that he has been at it for the past eight years and it has been feeding his family since, but it is a discipline he had to get used to.

The 37-year-old resides at the Charity Squatting Area and described life there as fair but challenging at times, but one simply cannot give up.

Hoyte is one of many metal pushcart operators who do manual, hard labour daily at the Charity waterfront, fetching produce and just about anything else form one point to another for a fee of a mere $300 or more, depending on the weight and amount.
“I worked in the interior as a gold miner and because of the times and how things are, I quit that to be closer to my family and here I am,” he said.

Hoyte told the Pepperpot Magazine that he starts work from 04:00hrs and on Mondays, it is all-day work because it is Market Day at Charity; a day when all the produce comes out and goods go into the villages in the Pomeroon River.

He pointed out that depending on the people-flow, he would work up until 16:00hrs then make his way home which is within walking distance.

Hoyte stated that during the weekdays he would get work to load lumber boats that go to the city.

“I carrying these bags to another point from the waterfront to aback the stelling and it is not easy; in this heat so you can imagine how strenuous it is to push such heavy load on a daily basis,” he said.

Hoyte told the Pepperpot Magazine that every work has its challenges, but at least it is honest work and it puts food on his table and with that said he is not ashamed of it.
“This is very hard work; at least you have to do it because you cannot go and thief and I am doing this because of my family. This is my honest hustle, in this life you can’t get pride or you go hungry; so you have to do what you have to when it comes to work, because with a wife to look after, children to send to school and putting food on the table is a priority in every house and I am doing this for them,” he said.