DHANDAI Bridgenarine doesn’t believe in sitting idly at home. As such, she has a garden of celery that she sells to make a living and is a lover of all plants and flowers.

After her husband passed away, she decided to do something to earn and started to plant celery in the yard space she had, and when she has a harvest, she would sell it.

She is a resident of Reliance Settlement, East Canje, Berbice, and is the mother of five.

Bridgenarine has a lovely, well-kept home and an equally nice flower garden, which adds a variety of colours to the surroundings.

The 51-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that life there is simple, providing you earn to upkeep a home and family.

She stated that the community is dependent on the sugar industry, but some people do other things to bring in a dollar to the home.

Bridgenarine is originally from Vryheid, but relocated to Reliance Settlement after marriage and has been residing in the village for the past 35 years.

She explained that of her five children, one died, and her husband passed away a few months ago and she is still trying to cope with the loss.

Bridgenarine is the grandmother of two and that day, one of them was visiting her after school.

She is a go-getter and doesn’t sit idly by but do things around the house and yard, such as, buying and planting flowers or tending to her crop of celery.

“I love flowers, it plant as a hobby and I would buy a plant if I like it and put it in my yard. Tending to plants brings me peace and joy,” she said.

Bridgenarine also has a kitchen garden of vegetables which is exclusively for home use.

One of her children is married while three others are still living with her. A son who works at the sugar estate is rearing 120 meat birds.

Kamo Baksh, wife of the wood moulding maker
Also in the same village, is the home of Kamo Baksh, a housewife and a mother of two, who is a local of Reliance Settlement, East Canje, Berbice.

The 57-year-old is a homemaker who came from a family of six siblings. Her father was a sugar worker and her mother was a housewife. Both parents have since passed away.

Her father was a part-time gutter smith.

Baksh recalled that life as a child was challenging, they walked to school and it was through a lot of mud and they had to fetch water from a standpipe in the village to their house every day.

She added that they were all tasked with household duties before and after school and their parents were strict.

Baksh remembered that back then, the estate tractor used to come into the village with a tank and they used to fill up water from it.

She is quite happy that they benefitted from potable water supply, electricity and internet service, but there is a need for her walkway, which is a mud dam, to be upgraded into an all-weather road.

Her husband, Raheem Baksh, is a wood mould maker and he is well versed at his job.

The 62-year-old doesn’t get steady work since mouldings are machine-made and not by hand.

Years ago, when he was much younger, he used to make furniture and supplied it to big companies.

Baksh added that he has been a wood moulding maker for more than 20 years and would get a few jobs at times.

The pensioner reported that he quit making furniture when prices for the materials became even more expensive and he could no longer garner a profit.

“I am taking things one day at a time; things are a bit slow at this end and I make do with the work I get sometimes. At times, months would go by without getting any orders for wood moulding but I can’t fight it,” he said.