This week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the hilltop village of Prosville, Wismar, Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice) to highlight the way of life of the people and the village.

Prosville is a picturesque hilltop village where the breeze is cool and the atmosphere is crisp and fresh.

It is one of those villages where you go and fall in love with the scenery and want to stay a bit longer than you should.

Prosville Village is a developing community where houses are still being constructed and the landscape is changing rapidly.

There are about 332 house lots with just over 200 residents of Indian descent, Afro Guyanese and some Amerindians.

The village has about seven internal streets which were freshly capped with loam about two weeks ago, because they previously had a dry-weather road and when it rained, the place became muddy and messy.

The village has electricity but is yet to benefit from potable water supply, which is a necessity. There is a wireless internet service provided by a Lindener, but there is no landline phone service.

Behind this community, there is another village, Andyville, a less developed place where dozens of people reside and in front is Wisroc and next door is Blueberry Hill.

Prosville is between One Mile and Wisroc villages and it is accessed from the Mabura/Kurupukari/Lethem trail.

It is the last village before the trail and it is the home of the food seasoning, fine leaf thyme, which is also used to make tea to get rid of impurities from the body and add flavour to the pot.

Fine leaf thyme can be found almost everywhere in this village and it is plentiful, growing on street corners and yards.

Prosville doesn’t have any government facilities, including schools, health centres or any other;those are accessed in nearby villages.

The village has a few shops, and essentials can be sourced within the community.

It is a peaceful, quiet neighbourhood where the people are friendly and respectful and are not nosey.

Prosville has some lovely little houses which look as if they are right out of a magazine, so picture-perfect and colourful, while there are other large houses, mostly flat concrete houses brightly painted and gated.

The village has many cul-de-sacs and dead ends and the streets are one-vehicle and go throughout the community, which is mostly uphill, high, and then one has to go downhill when they want to visit Andyville via a steep descent.

The people of Prosville are homemakers, self-employed folk, skilled workers, and those outside the village in both the public and private sectors.

Prosville was established more than 10 years ago and it is still developing.

The Village Leader
Monica Moore, called Stacy, is the known village leader who has been residing in the community for the past seven years.

The mother of four reported that she moved to Prosville after clearing the land abruptly because of family issues and constructed a little house out of sawmill waste wood (slabs) and lived in it for five years before she was able to build a better home.

Moore told the Pepperpot Magazine that she would clear land for a living; using a power saw, she and her husband would take on the task.

“We heard about squatting in the village from my brother whose plot we resided on and began living there since we had nowhere else to go,” she said.

Moore explained that her brother, who resides overseas, had the plot and he returned to Guyana and decided to give them the land since he had no desire to live here anymore.

The 49-year-old stated that they were the first settlers in terms of a family because a few others were living there, but not with families.

Moore disclosed that she heard of a meeting in the nearby village, Andyville, and she showed up and was told by regional officials that they need to form a group to get titles for the lands they are occupying and a Community Development Council (CDC) was formed in 2016.

She was elected vice-chairman of the CDC and was instrumental in mobilising the people for the cause.

Moore added that after the CDC was in place, things started to happen for them and the folk from Lands and Surveys came in and marked off the lots by boundaries after a month of surveys.

Prosville was regularised in 2018 and infrastructural development began in that community and more people moved in and began occupancy of empty houses.

The village benefitted from electricity in 2019 and the people were thankful.

“This is a nice place to live, it is quiet and we don’t have no problems with people and everybody do what they have to earn,” she said.