By Michel Outridge

Selywn Rogers is a resident of Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara and he has a very thriving kitchen garden of fruits and vegetables.

When the team visited he was assisting his son with some homework, under their shed, in the back yard. The boy is being home-schooled with some online programmes since classes are out until further notice due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

The father of three has lived all his life in the village and when he is not at work, he is at church.

Rogers related that life in Belle Vue is good, a quiet area where people live in unity and peace.

“I put in some work in the kitchen garden when I have the time like now, I finished put down some seedlings and free some plants of weeds,” he said.

Zaheer Bashir is a villager of the New Scheme and an Uitvlugt Estate worker who said he was laid off due to COVID-19 and is hoping the virus passes on so he can return to work to upkeep his family.

“Right now I am not doing anything for work so I am living off some money that was set aside for instances such as this,” he said.

Since he is not into farming, Bashir said he will have to look for work until things return to normalcy. He also has a small kitchen garden and the produce is used for his kitchen.

Bashir added that life in Belle Vue is relaxed but one must work for a living since you cannot sit and get things at the ready.

“You cannot sit and complain you have to get up and do something to earn and I have to seek an alternative job soon,” he said.

Bashir was part of a group of men from the village, who hang out in the tray of the old estate truck on a daily basis to catch up on village chat.

“We convert this truck tray into a liming spot because sitting here you get the cool breeze and in the afternoon we come out to relax and unwind after a hard day of work,” he said.

Bashir reported that most men in the village used to be cane farmers but as time passed they went into other jobs.

He explained that the people in the village have established small businesses to earn and many are security guards.

Bashir disclosed that villagers were allotted two acres of land each to farm and some have utilised the plots to farm while others are yet to do same.

The village has shady trees under which makeshift tree truck was used as seating for residents along the roadside.