SINDA-RITA Chindersain is the mother and father for her children and life hasn’t been kind to this mother of three, whose life has been filled with the pain of losing all the men in her household.

The 50-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is a single mother and took care of her children until they were mature enough to go on their own.

She had four children, but lost her son when he was just three months old. She reportedly took him for an injection and he did not survive.

“I was so poor, I used to daub bottom house with cow manure for a living and the people in the village helped to bury my son. They made a wooden box and placed him inside and took him on a bicycle to the cemetery for burial,” she said.

Chindersain told the Pepperpot Magazine that after she became a single parent, she was forced to work.

Her first job was as a ‘domestic,’ washing clothes for the neighbours and duabing their bottom house with cow manure.

Two of her three children are grown, but she has a daughter still in high school.

Chindersain stated that she began living in Gangaram Settlement at 10 years old and as she grew a bit older, her parents passed away.

She was of age and got married, but was separated and soon after, her husband died.

The Gangaram resident added that she lost her son-in-law, who used to assist her and he was living with her along with his wife and a baby.

He was killed in an accident in October last year. He had a baby boy after 10 years of marriage and was excited to watch his son grow, but his life was cut short, she said.

Today, she has to care for her daughter and her grandson, but she doesn’t mind because she would assist her in the home.

The baby is Nathan Appro and he is five months old. His widowed mother, Waheeda Appro, 27, is a stay-at-home mother.

Her daughter would assist in chores and that day, the baby was a bit irritable due to a cold, so they had some challenges making a meal of rice with stewed chicken.

A day in the life
For Chindersain, she doesn’t see work as being that for man or woman, but whatever is available, she would do to earn honestly.

She is a poultry and livestock farmer who also has a kitchen garden of cash crops; and she has a full-time job as a security supervisor, visiting locations all the way up to the Corentyne.

She has some meat birds, some ducks and creole fowls. She would use the greens from her garden to cook, if they are too much she would sell some produce such as pumpkins, as she did that day, at her small shop.

A huge pumpkin was on sale for just $500 and she said there were more in the backyard where her garden is.

She would sell off excess greens in her small shop, which has every little thing and is usually manned by her daughter when she is at work.

A typical day in the life of this resident starts at 04:00hrs, and she would first tend to her livestock and poultry before taking a bath and start cooking for her teenage daughter to attend school.

After seeing her off to school, she would ensure that the shop is in order and complete household chores before heading off to work, using public transportation to get to as far as Corriverton.

Chindersain is not the kind of woman who takes a break from work and in her spare time, which is not a lot, she would utilise her sewing machine to make hammocks for sale.

Chindersain added that life in the village is fair, but for one to enjoy a good quality of life, they have to do more than one thing to earn.

She has a full-time job as a security supervisor visiting job sites and she is also a farmer, who would pluck and sell her meat birds after they attain their full term of six to eight weeks old.

The local would also ensure that the yard is well kept and would de-weed the entire place when she can and would tend to her flowers and plants that survived the flood last year.