By Michel Outridge

HAZRAD Subhan is a mother of two and is better known as “Lilly” in the village and she would usually take a half-day job to clean eschallot just to get money to buy groceries.

She explained that she fell on hard times when the disability benefit was taken away some years ago.

The 61-year-old stated that her husband, who was a sugar worker, died in a road accident when she was just 32 years old and it was after some time had passed that she started a relationship with Manohar Rattan.

They have been together for the past 20 years and he had to quit his job after he became a heart patient.

His wife passed away and he has four children too, but relocated to Bath Village when he met Subhan.

She used to work in the village as a domestic help, but after she got a stroke five years ago she is unable to do as such, took up the job of cleaning eschallot to bring money into the home.

When the Pepperpot Magazine met the elderly couple they were relaxing under their house; Subhan was seated on a chair, while Rattan was lying in the hammock.

They had just finished having breakfast of roti and boulanger choka.

Since they were fasting, in observance of Navratri, no meat, Subhan reported that she would be preparing dhal, rice and coconut choka for lunch.

She stated that she would have to journey to the Corentyne to see a specialist doctor and that would incur a cost; plus, she would have to buy medications and her husband would have to visit Fort Wellington Hospital often, due to his heart condition.

“We does try because the children all have families to maintain and that’s why I does work to ensure we have food in the house, but my neighbour does assist and my daughter would give whatever she has which is sufficient,” she said.

Subhan pointed out that if they did not have to buy medications for herself and husband they would have enough money for food and bills.

“Cleaning shallot isn’t easy, because it would burn your eyes and it is a time-consuming task that takes hours just for $500 or $1,000 for half-day,” she said.

Despite these challenges, this elderly couple seems to be happy and make do with what they have and are thankful for life and hoping they would continue to be blessed with good health.
The cattle farmer/milkman
Another villager, Pooran Manroop, a cattle and cash-crop farmer told the Pepperpot Magazine that he is also the village milkman, who goes around the community selling fresh cow’s milk at $100 per pint.

Manroop would get about two gallons of milk daily, which he would place in a bucket and sell in the community.

He goes around the village on his bicycle after milking and tending to his 30-head of cattle, which he rears on the old railway line within the village, since his yard doesn’t have space to accommodate that many cows.

In his spare time, he would tend to his cultivation of cash crops which he would use in the home and the excess would be sold.

Like almost every resident of Bath, he doesn’t have to buy greens because everyone plants and it is only other food items that are purchased.

Manroop disclosed that he was forced to sell off some of his cows because of limited space and is searching for some land to house his cows.

The 58-year-old added that he is also trying to resolve the name change on a land title, but has had no success despite seeking an audience with the authorities for many years now.

The father of three is very upset and would like the matter to be resolved quickly, since the landowner is elderly and resides overseas.

Concern for the youth

Ramrattan Persaud is a resident of Bath Village, West Coast Berbice and is one of the many elders in the community, who used to work with the Blairmont Sugar Estate.

The 60-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that presently he is not working because of an accident he had and became disabled due to the severity of the injury to his leg.

Persaud is receiving a disability benefit from the sugar estate and he is also trying his hand at farming, to bring in an income to the home.

He had to quit his job five years ago and underwent three surgeries on his leg and is slated to undergo another to replace the foreign object in it, which has stopped the healing process causing the leg to become infected.

The father of three stated that due to his health condition with his leg, he is unable to do much around the house or work as he would like and has to see doctors constantly.

He is originally from Cotton Tree, but relocated to Bath Village 35 years ago.

“Life here is how you make it, you can’t sit down and complain, instead, you have to get up and get going, to do something,” Persaud said.

He reported that due to the wanton abuse of drugs and alcohol in the community by some youths, it is alleged that in the night they would break into houses and go into yards and take away valuables much to the annoyance of residents.

So the people of his street pooled their money and bought street lights and paid to have them mounted on utility poles, but are upset that they have to pay for the use of electricity for those security lights.

Persaud added that most youths and the young people in the village are doing something for work while he believes a handful are up to no good and it would be a good idea to get them engaged in some lifeskills activities.

He stated that since schools closed a year ago, some youths have been liming at street corners and doing some unsavoury things in the village and it needs to be looked at before it gets out of control.