In some villages you find the locals to be endearing, down-to-earth, hardworking people, who know how to economise and make ends meet financially and this can be said for fisherman, Gandran Rangasammy and his wife, Sabitrie Rangasammy.

This couple have been married for many years and have five children, who are grown and have their own families.

These days, the Rangasammys are earning by doing many things at their home to bring in an income.

Gandran is a fisherman, who has withstood the test of times, even after he was robbed at sea by pirates.

His wife, Sabitrie is always by his side and is a very supportive woman who is also tending to grandchildren and has a thriving flower plant business.

Their entire front yard is littered with potted plants and blossoming flowers.She would graph plants and place them in pots to sell.

It started as a hobby, caring for plants. She started to buy them casually, then as time progressed, she decided to start selling plants because she had so many and was running out of space to store them.

She also has a plot of land on the sea dam where she has some cash crops and the produce is sold at the nearby Rosignol Market.

That day when the team visited, Sabitrie had just returned home on her bicycle after selling her produce at the market and had bought two pails of gasoline for her husband’s fishing boat.

The 48-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is also rearing some meat birds in her backyard and has some cash crops there too. This is her ‘hustle’ and she doesn’t mind the hard work instead of sitting all day doing absolutely nothing.

“To get honest money you have to work hard and do things right from home because jobs are not easily available so I am making the most of being self-employed,” she said.

Sabitrie has been into plants for 15 years and would invest her earning in securing more to sell and as word began to spread of her small business people have been showing up to make purchases because her prices are as low as $300 per flower plant.

She stated that she is from Cotton Tree Village and when she got married they bought a plot of land and constructed a small house and as time went by, they saved up and built the very house they are in now.

Sabitrie described life in the village as good because there are things that can be done but one must have the right mindset before they can embark on having a small business that will eventually grow.

Meanwhile, Gandran told the Pepperpot Magazine that he started fishing as a boy, growing up he used to assist his father, who was a fisherman and he decided to become one after harnessing the skills, over time.

Gandran started fishing when he was just nine years old, and he began going out to sea.

He had just returned from an overnight fishing expedition that morning and had a catch of five baskets of fish, which was sold to a wholesale buyer that was at the landing area at the Three- Door Fishermen’s Coop Society with a refrigerated canter truck.

Gandran had left home at 02:00hrs. He is the captain of the boat and has a crew member. Together, they would go many miles within our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to fish via seine.
He disclosed that he doesn’t do any daylight fishing because that is not a good time to fish and at nights to early morning it makes a better catch.

“Well fishing right now is blows because it has seasons and right now we have to go very far to fish and that it is costly because gas prices have increased and I am operating at a loss,” he said.
The fisherman explained that fishing is very risky because of pirates and five years ago he was robbed and beaten by a group of men after he had bought a brand new outboard engine for his fishing boat.

He had gone out to sea as usual and suddenly a boat with some men brandishing guns came upon him and he had to hand over his $1 million engine and was left adrift but he was eventually rescued.

Gandran told the Pepperpot Magazine that on the other hand they have to compete with fishing trawlers for space and at times they would cut 200 to 300 pounds of seine and gone.
“And if we try to put up resistance these men would show us guns and cutlasses and there is nothing we can do to seek compensation. You have to get the license number of the trawlers and head to the city to sort that out which takes time and money,” he said.

The Cotton Tree fisherman reported that coupled with many expenses he has to pay money at the Three-Door Fishermen’s Coop Society to store his engine, seine and other things plus a landing fee and watchman fee/membership fee too which is often overwhelming.