– Says Tempie Villager

BACK in her younger days when she had good health and strength, Hanawati Angus of Tempie Village, West Coast Berbice, was one of the top-class mechanics alongside her male counterparts.

Today, she is not in good health, still recovering from two recent surgeries for her heart ailment compounded by diabetes and hypertension.

The 63-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is perhaps the only woman employed as a security guard. After she took a liking to fixing engines in the workshop section, she became one of the best mechanics for heavy-duty vehicles.

The mother of five added that she spent 25 years at the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary-Agricultural Development Authority (MMA/ADA) Mechanic Workshop at #27 Village, West Coast Berbice, which is no longer in operation and was retrenched 10 years ago.

“I was a guard and after the security boss and me was not on terms, I went over as a cleaner to the workshop department. There, I began to take an interest in the operations and quickly learned to drive and fix engines of Land Rovers,” Angus said.

She related that she also switched to the heavy-duty equipment section of the workshop after she mastered the art of fixing combines, tractors, and bulldozers, being the professional for fixing the injector and belt.

“Once you know about engines, you can fix it and it is also about your mindset and how you apply your skills. Anything is possible and there is no such thing as a man’s job or not. Women must take their place in society to earn where they feel comfortable and in any field they wish to pursue,” she said.

With her skill set, Angus was well-respected among the male population in the workshop and treated equally and really enjoyed that part of her life where her speciality was in demand.

Angus reported that she used to work at GUYSUCO for a year before she went to work at MMA/ADA and was residing at Bath Village.

The family had a shop, but due to her ill health, they had to close the small business because her children, Elroy and Odellie, having formally completed the school system as top students from President’s College, decided to pursue their careers.

Angus enjoys a quiet kind of country life these days and she is unemployed and is mostly at home recuperating with her family by her side.

Odellie Angus, the frontline worker
Odellie Angus is a nurse at the Fort Wellington Hospital while her son, Elroy Angus is a pharmacist at the same hospital.

Odellie told the Pepperpot Magazine that when she was in high school, she had no idea what she wanted to do for a job.

But when they had a career day and the people from Texila University visited the school and she learned about nursing, it piqued her interest and she qualified herself as a science student. It wasn’t difficult to apply herself.

After four years at the Georgetown School of Nursing, she became a registered nurse and first worked at the New Amsterdam Hospital.

“I finished school and was looking for a job and my neighbour told me that they wanted nurses and I applied just in time and was accepted and then my career as a nurse started,” she said.

So far, Odellie told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is enjoying her job and at first she had some issues like the sight of blood made her uneasy, but now she has grown accustomed to working in that environment where trauma and bleeding patients would be admitted.

“Everybody around here do something to earn and the people live closely but most of the young people go out the village for work and the rest of the population are either farmers or self-employed,” Odellie said.