By Michel Outridge

This week the Pepperpot Magazine journeyed to the serene and picturesque village of Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara, where the team interacted with the locals, thus, highlighting their way of life.

Belle Vue is home to Guyanese of mixed race, Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese, who co-exist in harmony without any issues.

The village has two sections. The first is Belle Vue Pilot Scheme which was formed more than 50 years ago by 55 farmers, who left their places of abode in Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice and went there to start the co-op of cane farmers.

The other section is the Belle Vue New Scheme which has many modern houses and good infrastructure.

Belle Vue is French and it means “Pretty View” and it is indeed a pretty place to reside with lush cane fields, the Demerara River in the background and friendly people.

Belle Vue Village is sandwiched between Stanleytown and Good Intent.
The village is home to about 450 residents, who are cash crops, cattle and rice farmers, some private sector workers and some self-employed folk.

In every yard, there are fruit trees and thriving kitchen gardens to ease the pockets of residents. The village has a workshop, a church, a few shops, a few bridges which connect the village to the Public Road and a community centre with a large field for sports activities.

Sapna Muniram is a vendor and a resident, who was by the roadside selling farm-fresh pines. This resident is originally from Long Pond, also on the West Bank Demerara but came to Belle Vue after marriage more than 23 years ago. The union has produced six children, three grown and three school-aged.

Muniram told the team that she sells the produce from the farm and her husband does the tending to the crops. Collectively, they make ends meet to support their family with an income from daily sales when they have crops of cassava and pine.

The 40-year-old related that when they have crops she would go to the Public Road and set up her small stall to sell the pines from 08:00hrs to till about 18:00hrs.

‘‘This village is a cane cutting place where residents depend heavily on cane farming for a living but with the closure of the Wales Estate a few years ago were forced to do other jobs to support our families,’’ she said.

Muniram reported that her husband cuts cane at the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate on a part-time basis but with COVID-19 he has to rely on farming until things return to normal.

She related that they would do their shopping at either Vreed-en-Hoop, Sister’s Village Market and in the city.

‘‘Well you can’t sit and complain so we are doing what we can to make a living and I have to put up with the sun because this is my job and we depend on it,’’ she said.
Muniram stated that they have been into farming for the past two years and it is a patient kind of living because pines take 18 months just to bear flowers, then another five months to ripen.

‘‘Back dam work not easy and my husband does it and went already and is home taking a rest to return in the afternoon to tend to crops,’’ she said.

Muniram added that most villagers are related and know each other because they are descendants of the first 55 cane farmers that were the first settlers in the village.

She had company, her dog, named ‘Facebook’ because of his intense curiosity of social media. He was sleeping under the stall and would only get up when she is ready to go home, she said.