COOKING is part of Chitra Candy’s life and she would not have it any other way, so she started a small business. In this canteen, folk can get a variety of delicious, wholesome foods every day at the Windsor Estate canteen.

Being self-employed is also empowering for the mother of two, who would get up at 02:00hrs in the morning to prepare meals for the canteen.

Candy likes variety and she would ensure there are more than three different dishes on the menu daily, so customers can make choices and almost everything goes with fried chicken, baked chicken and baked fish.

She is a talented cook and she makes use of her skills and experience to cook good foods daily to serve to customers and it is indeed a rewarding job to put smiles of the faces of people, looking for a tasty, affordable meal, be it breakfast or lunch.

“I am an independent person and I know about working for my own money and I am using my skills to earn and it feels good being good at something that provides an income to the home,” she said.

Candy is a pleasant and warm person who doesn’t waste time on idle chatter and uses her time wisely to cater to her customers, her canteen and home.

“Working is essential to have a good life and you cannot just sit and expect to get things out of thin air, but hard work produces whatever you need in life [and] is often possible,” she said.

Candy added that being a full-time mom and a self-employed person is often difficult, but life is all about making sacrifices and she is willing to walk the long aisle to success.

She is a resident of Coghlan Dam, Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara and has a nice house and likes her village.

Candy is originally from the Essequibo Coast, but she relocated to Coghlan Dam 30 years ago after marriage.

She explained that she used to work and live in Barbados and after some years, they acquired some money and returned to Guyana and constructed a house and has been here since.

“I am always busy at work and hardly ever at home, so I don’t really mix, but life is peaceful here and I like it that way,” she said.

Candy is doing an office administration course offered by the current government and she is grateful for it, because being able to study at her age and point in life is something she has been meaning to do for a long time.

She related that growing up she had a simple life and tertiary education wasn’t possible then, so she is making use of her time to do some studies to build her resume.

Candy is willing to try other jobs and she is doing that just by qualifying herself to become marketable.

She has a supportive family who pitch in to assist her in her canteen business and for that she is very pleased.

Sarah Candy, the teacher
Candy’s daughter, Sarah Candy, is a teacher at the West Demerara Secondary School who currently doesn’t do any face-to-face teaching owing to the pandemic.

She is involved in online classes five days a week with her students.

The 25-year-old is active in reaching out to her students via online classes and that day she had nine students in her hour-long Mathematics and Science classes.

Candy is also interested in photography and plans to enrol in a class, but has since bought a camera and is gaining experience through the lens by taking photos when she has the time for a hobby.

“Teaching is fun once you are passionate about it, but you must have a pastime to be able to do something in your spare time and apart from having five poodles, I like photography, which is intriguing to me,” she said.

The school teacher told the Pepperpot Magazine that she began teaching in February this year after completing her studies at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE).

She is very proud of herself, because she is a teacher at the same secondary school she attended.

Candy said she wasn’t a slow learner, but saw how some students were treated by some teachers and she wanted to change that trend.

She became motivated to become a teacher because she wanted to help students and treat each of them with respect and attention, without being partial when imparting knowledge.

Candy stated that she treats all her students the same way and doesn’t have any favourites or show any partiality; and that feels good because every child deserves the same.

Although she prefers face-to-face learning with the pandemic, they were forced out of school and had to resort to online teaching which is very challenging.

Candy dedicates two hours daily from Mondays to Fridays for online classes with Grades eight and nine students.

Even though she has more than 100 students, some do not even log into the classes but are online.