A scenic place with industrious people

This week the Pepperpot Magazine visited Half Mile, Wismar, Linden which is in Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice). This village is between Silvertown and Canvas City and it is a fairly large community with a four-corner where there are many shops, food places, a tailor, a joinery shop, barbershops, a salon and many other small businesses.

Half Mile Village goes uphill and downhill and it is a community with good roads, electricity, potable water supply, and internet and cable services. Like most villages in the region, the cry for help is job creation and many young people, who have completed secondary schools and university are without work as such, they have become idle with little or nothing to do.

This trend is very worrying for parents and elders, who have expressed their concern in having the young people engage in meaningful activities in the community but in some villages, there are no facilities. This village is managed by the Community Development Council (CDC) and comes under the Mayor and Town Council of Linden.

The village has a lot of internal streets which goes around the community and there are many nooks and crannies in these parts. The village grows its own food and there is a lot of greenery like most villages in Linden, the people are noted to be environmentally friendly and have lots of plants, trees, fruits and vegetables in their yards.

The people of this village do not buy coconuts since it is plentiful and it is everywhere. Half Mile Village is a scenic place where the breeze is cool despite the humid weather conditions and the people go about their daily routines in a quiet and peaceful manner.

Half Mile Village (Carl Croker photos)

It is a place where there are many familiar faces because the people know each other and they live very neighbourly and look out for each other, as such as, visitors would no doubt be spotted instantly as they set foot in the village. The people are friendly yet reserved and are very observant but would not hesitate to dialogue no matter who you are in the interest of the community.

The residents of Half Mile are teachers, nurses, and members of the disciplined services, skilled carpenters, joiners, masons, painters, taxi drivers, mechanics, small business owners, welders, bauxite workers and other professionals.

People use the taxis for short drops which is just $150 for a single drop and there aren’t many minibuses plying this route. There is a nursery and a secondary school at the rear of this village and the nearest primary school is in the neighbouring village.

The facilities of Silvertown are utilised for sports activities and the nearby health centres are frequented by the people of Half Mile. There are a few supermarkets and grocery shops where the villagers support and get their regular supply of groceries and other items that is necessary for the home.

In this village, the residents are mannerly and would greet you while passing. It is this village there are a lot of islanders- people from the Caribbean countries- and people from Berbice who have made this place their home.

A few of the islanders are still around while, some have passed away and others migrated but some Berbicians, in fact a lot are still residing in Half Mile Village. Desmond Welcome and his shop
The Pepperpot Magazine met a villager, Desmond Welcome better known as “Pin Head’ who is well-known and has a shop at the road corner for many years.

The 58-year-old stated that he is originally from Seafield, West Coast Berbice but as a teenager he left his home village and came to Linden to attend the Technical Institute to learn a trade. After he graduated at age 16 years old, he became fascinated with Half Mile and decided to stay.

He attended the Guymine Trade School and spend three years working with the company after which he left and went in the hinterland to work as a pork knocker. Welcome reported that at the same time, that was in 1983 he started doing a small business in the village, a shop which he has renovated over the years to an acceptable standard.

The father of three added that he had the help of his then child mother and the small business developed over the years. Today, the business is still standing and it is a grocery shop with almost every little thing and the locals supports this business.

Welcome was once a comedian and was featured in the local movie with the late Habeeb Khan titled “If Wishes Were Horses”. He is a friendly, down-to-earth man, who resides in Half Mile and has good relations with the people.

“I am here for the past 30 years or so and everybody knows me because of the shop and this is my home, a good place to be despite the challenges,” he said.