WELLINGTON McPherson is a resident of Hopetown, West Coast Berbice and he is a busy man being a farmer of livestock and ground provisions, rice and bananas.

The 53-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that life has its ups and downs but he has designed his life to be comfortable as a self-employed person.

McPherson is utilising the backlands of Hopetown to cultivate crops of rice, ground provisions and bananas and is rearing goats.

He, like many other villagers, use the vast back lands to rear pigs, goats and other livestock on a large scale and also to farm.

When the Pepperpot Magazine met the father of seven, he was on his bicycle on his way to guide a flock of goats to the backlands to graze.

McPherson reported that he was at his farm earlier this week and will return this weekend to tend to his crops.

“Life in Hopetown good, like the village name, there is hope here and we are not lazy people and we make a living using the land to do many things,” he said.

During the walk through the village, the team also met a group of men who were engaged in a chat.

One of the men, Alban Isaacs told the Pepperpot Magazine that he has spent all his life in the village.

He added it is a place where people come together to do things like cleaning the cemetery which is located aback the community.

The 56-year-old told the team that in Hopetown they have ancestral lands and every villager has a piece of land allocated to them for burial.

He explained that there are no strangers in that village because everybody is related and they wake up early every morning to do chores and at sundown, they are at it again.

“In the countryside, you are told by elders not to let the sunrise on you in bed and we grow with that, the olden ways of life and it is good because we do all our farming early in the morning,” he said.

The Pepperpot Magazine also met Kellwen Bennett, who was home, briefly for lunch and was expected to head back on the road, in his minibus to transport school children from schools to their homes.

The 38-year-old said he is a minibus driver, as well as, a livestock farmer of cows, sheep, pigs and horses and is also into cash crops farming.

He has several acres of land aback Fort Wellington village and describes his life in Hopetown as busy and rewarding since he has no time to spare to engage in idleness.

“Nothing don’t bother me because I work all the time and I don’t involve myself in nonsense and there is no time to waste with a family to maintain,” he said.

The father of three stated that Hopetown is a good place to settle and lead a happy family life since there are things to do to make a living and one hardly has to leave the village to earn.

“As you can see, I now home to eat something then back on the road to collect school children and this is twice daily and after that, I do my farming and tend to my livestock,” he said.