A quiet place for a good family-oriented life

This week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the quiet farming village of Lochaber, West Canje Berbice, to highlight the way of life of the locals.

THIS small agricultural community is located about 15 minutes from New Amsterdam and is bordered by Sandvoort and Vryheid villages.

With just over 150 residents, the people are familiar with each other and the locals are of mixed ethnicities, with the majority being East Indians and Afro Guyanese.

The people are humble and lead simple lives as rice farmers, cash-crop farmers, livestock and poultry farmers, some small-business folk and some private and public sector employees who work outside the village.

Lochaber Village has a Primary and Nursery School housed in one building, one the main access road which is about a mile long, is an all-weather road.

It has a Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) facility, a cellphone tower and a newly painted bus shed just opposite the school and some small shops. The village also has a community centre ground. Villagers reported that cricket is usually played there when the weather is good and people would utilise the wooden pavilion for comfort.

The nearest health centre is located a village away in Sandvoort and it has several churches, mandirs and a mosque.

Most of the adults are employed at the Blairmont Sugar Estate.

The village comes under the Wyburg/Caracas Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), which oversees three villages along that stretch of road.

Most of the women are homemakers and small-businesses operators and a handful are poultry, cattle and livestock farmers.

In almost every yard, the people grow their own fruits and vegetables and have gardens of bountiful plants and flowers.

Lochaber Village has two internal streets, several small alleyways, and a trench on one side.

The locals, most of them have lived their entire lives in the village and the people co-exist in relative peace and calm.

It is one of those villages where nobody is in a rush and things seem to move along in slow succession with the intermittent passage of roadside taxis and cattle that break the silence of time.

In this village, the cows and other animals such as sheep and goats roam the community freely, since there is no pasture for grazing.

Lochaber Village is a tranquil place to reside and the people seem very comfortable in that side of Berbice, where they go about their daily routines in an absolutely carefree manner with little or nothing to worry about.

It is a very safe village where doors are not locked, there are no strangers, and the people look out for each other and there aren’t any thieves.

Lochaber is tucked between several small villages along that stretch of road, which consists of Sandvoort being the last, Mount Sinai to the front, Rising Sun, Caracas, Vryheid.

The few small shops are fully stocked and vehicles vending goods and other supplies would visit to ply their trade in this village.

There is no shortage of fresh, organic vegetables and fruits in this village, but other goods are purchased in New Amsterdam, which is a 15-minute drive away.

The villagers are thriving for self-sufficiency and they rely on each other for support in terms of buying and selling greens, fruits and meat.

A handful of vendors reside in this village and they sell in the New Amsterdam Market and other parts of the Ancient County to earn.

Lochaber Village was a plantation and the Canje Sugar Estate had its operation there many decades ago before it was closed.

The people of this small village would catch fish in the trenches and canals in the community, and do other things to make a living.

It is a place where they eat fresh-caught fish, hand-picked vegetables and fruits and drink cow’s milk as part of their daily diet.

Lochaber Village is a good place for a quiet, peaceful family life and it is a place where the children can be seen playing cricket on the main access road.

The village has a potable water supply, electricity, landline and internet services.