By Michel Outridge

THIS week the Pepperpot Magazine visited Circuitville, which is located on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.

This village is relatively large and can be accessed through the bus shed road which is situated right on the highway and there is a road which goes through the village to the South Dakota Racing Circuit.

Circuitville is an up-and-coming community with diverse peoples who came from as far as Region One (Barima/Waini) and settled there with their families hoping for a better life.

The people of this village live simple lives and they are welcoming and did not hesitate to engage in a conversation with the team.

Though the village does not yet have electricity, potable water and roads, some residents have small solar panels to power a bulb in the night, while others have generators.

Circuitville is a hillside community that goes uphill and downhill, a breezy and quiet place for families who don’t like the urban setting.

Some people have been residing in the village for more than 20 years and it was then overrun by thick foliage and bushes.

The place was cleared and more people began occupying the lands where houses were erected, and it became a growing village.

As years passed, the population grew larger and to there are 700 residents in Circuitville, which has many sandy tracks leading to cottage-like houses and many nooks and crannies.

There is a track in that village that is called ‘Wrong Turn,’ but it is quite safe to go there because the people are harmless and friendly.

This community is the home of coal miners. At a site in the rear of the community there is a section where coal miners utilise to burn wood to make coals.

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Rifle Range and Bulkan’s Timber Works Inc. and Superior Shingles and Wood Products Inc. are also in this village, on the Circuit Road which runs through the community.

Circuitville has a few shops, a snackette, two churches and 90 percent of the residents are coal miners, a handful of working professionals who commute from the village to their respective places of employment and skilled persons, who are carpenters, masons, miners and contractors.

Circuitville is located between Dakara and Haurauni and on the other side is the large community of Yarrowkabra.

This village has a Community Development Council (CDC) and is led by Melisa Mundo and other members from within the village.

The CDC was formed last year and Mundo was elected by the people as the CDC’s leader, who makes representation on behalf of residents.

The villagers are, however, calling for the community to be regularised so that they can benefit from the basic necessities for an enhanced life.

A lot of schoolchildren reside in the village and internet access is not affordable and they would travel twice a week to uplift worksheets and books to be marked.

There are a few elders in this community and they too, also work to support themselves while enjoying the serenity of the environment.

In this village, it is either you work at the sawmills nearby or become a coal miner, which is no easy task, but a few folk have their own small shops and are self-employed.

Within this village, residents state that there is a high rate of unemployment among the youths, who are engaged in some rather unsavoury hobbies, much to the annoyance of mature people.

The Village Leader

Meanwhile, the Pepperpot Magazine spoke to CDC Chair Melisa Mundo, whose house is in the centre of the village and she is well-known.

She stated that a year ago when more people began settling in the village, she was elected by the people to become the leader because they yearn for development in the village.

The CDC leader disclosed that they really need a well to get water, because it is difficult to source potable water.

Mundo added that with their limited internet access, they would like to have the daily newspapers to read to know what is happening in terms of news, because like the internet, the radio isn’t reliable.

The mother of three stated that they need the village to be regularised to get potable water, electricity and roads.

The 50-year-old reported that they desperately need water because the spring dries up fast in the hot season and they have to venture farther into the village to a creek for water.

Mundo related that from the age of 13, she left her home village of Aishalton, Region Nine, in search of a better life and came to the city, where she was adopted by Ina Khan and lived throughout her teenage years with that guardian and went to school.

However, when she attained the age of maturity, she began working in Bel Air Gardens where she met a young man who became her husband.

After years of moving from one rented house to another, Mundo became frustrated and money was slow in coming, so she decided to settle at Circuitville; back then there were only a few houses and a handful of people occupying the lands.

Mundo told the Pepperpot Magazine that her parents and two siblings still reside in Aishalton, the Deep South in the Rupununi and for the very first time they will be visiting her in Circuitville and she is looking forward to that family reunion.

It has been years since she has seen them and it would be a good occasion on March 8 to see her elderly parents, after such a long time.

Mundo stated that she has applied for a house lot but every time she checked with the ministry, she was informed that there is no application there for her and she could no longer afford to rent.

It was when her husband, a miner/diver, who used to work in the interior got sick and came out of the ‘bush,’ having suffered a stroke, he had to quit that kind of work and became a carpenter after his recovery.

“The husband is not too well, so he is trying with some construction work and two of the three boys are working; so it is just the last going to school and we are trying to rear some creole chickens and try with what we have,” she said.

Mundo added that annually in September she would get the villagers to come together to celebrate Amerindian Heritage Month in the village where there is an unfinished community centre ground with a stage.

She has been residing in Circuitville for the past eight years and they are hoping to form a women’s group and a youth group to foster skills training such as craft-making, sewing and other handiwork to empower both young people and others.