By Michel Outridge
Meet Gwendolyn Hopkinson, a grandmother, who was taking care of two grandsons, while, tending to household chores and cooking when the Pepperpot team visited.
The 60-year-old related that before the coronavirus (COVID-19) she used to prepare home-made foods in the likes of black pudding, fried fish, channa and cook-up-rice with meats in front of her house for visitors utilising the beach area.
But these days, since the beach is closed for business, she has put a hold on her small business and is focusing on her kitchen garden where she has fine leaf thyme, broadleaf thyme, married man pork, lemongrass and some vegetables.
She has a striving flower garden as well and tries to maintain it as best as she can.
She is, however, upset about the state of a trench that runs along her property which is in dire need of cleaning which is over-run by thick vegetation and bushes causing the water to become stagnant.
“The drains and trenches in this village don’t be maintained or cleaned as such, the water don’t go anywhere and it stinks,” she said.
Although she is not well, Hopkinson stated that she tries to boil some ‘bush’ and make tea to aid in the promotion of good health because it helps.
The mother of three related that things are not nice right now but she is trying to stay positive and survive the coronavirus like everyone else.
In the meantime, she is selling some ice and icicles from home to offset expenses and gets assistance from her siblings abroad.
The Pepperpot Magazine also met John Raggobwer, he was at the time going home after visiting the mandir in Bushy Park, to observe Hanuman Jayanti (a Hindu religious ceremony).
“I am a stranger to the village but been living here for some years after marriage and life here is fair because most people here are self-sufficient with their small businesses,” he said.
He stated that most people don’t depend on government work and try their hands at their own businesses be it vending or farming.
Raggobwer is a vendor at Hydronie Market, selling fruits but with the coronavirus and the curfew things are not good for business and he is forced to close and stay home.
He is a dad of two and said he is bored at home and decided to go to the mandir to pray because with the coronavirus there isn’t much he can do but pray with the hope the virus passes on for normalcy to return.
“Right now we are living by the grace of God because of the pandemic we cannot do anything even make a living and look how this place like a ghost town because people are afraid to go out and mingle with others, you don’t know who has the virus,” he explained.
Raggobwer related that right now staying home is the best option because we want to flatten the curve of the virus and advise others to take heed to safeguard themselves when going out, to use a mask.
