– Winiperu farmer revels in daily life on the farm

THE pumpkins that Earla Nibbie Bess reaped from her farm were huge. She’d fetch them one by one from the farm to her home in Winiperu and wait for the central logging company in the village to come and pick them up from her.

As you can imagine, hard work was required of Earla, now 78 years old, and all other farmers back in the days, especially at a remote location such as Winiperu, where certain peculiar challenges are presented.

With roots in Wakenaam Island, the mother of 11 has lived most of her life in Winiperu. When she first arrived in the village, she can still remember her conversation with the local pastor about how she needed land to build a house and farm.

The pastor directed her to the authorities in Bartica, where she subsequently went with her husband and children; she received all that she was hoping for.

“We did farming: cassava, plantain, banana, eddo, all kinds of things. I worked hard, you see me here. I was fatter, with 296 pounds. I used to work with my cutlass and my axe,” Earla reflected in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine last Monday. At the time, she was visiting the health post and chatting with the community health workers.

Even as he also worked on the farm, Earla’s husband worked in the village compound, weeding for the logging company. “We used to sell provisions to the company. One time we reaped six pumpkins weighing 135 pounds. I used to fetch it and put it under the house and then they would come with the loader to carry it,” she recalled.

As a young woman, Earla also worked with the company at the time, Guyana Timbers, helping the medic. “I got the cotton, made the swab and put it to warm. I also helped people to dress their cuts,” she said.

Easygoing despite challenges
Earla is among many others who’ve long expressed their concerns about the need for water, phone signals, electricity and other basic needs in the community. “You want a phone call, you have to walk distances. I am here and I can’t even call my family, my own children. We still have no electricity,” she said.

Transportation is also a problem in the event of an emergency.

Transportation is also a problem in the event of an emergency.

For water usage, she, like many others, has a black tank to store water. “When it is dry, my old man [husband] has to fetch water from the creek, a good distance away. Going down is hard for me, so I don’t get to help fetch. Before, when it was Guyana Timbers, there was a tractor and a trailer that will come in your yard. They will bring the water for you, and you will full in your buckets.”

These are some of the changes that Earla would love to see in the community, making life much easier for her and the other residents in the community.

She reminisced on how life used to be much more exciting back when the population was greater, and the community was busy with one activity or another. “Winiperu is a beautiful place. We had a lot of sports; cricket, rounders, football. People from Linden, Anarika, Rockstone, and Bartica used to come to play.

However, with many people moving out of the area for better access to work and school, the place became very quiet. “Life at work is nothing like what it used to be. But it remains an easygoing place. I get to enjoy my day. We have no problems with people. That’s why I love it,” she expressed.