A farming community with a lovely landscape

LAST week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the remote villages of Big Biaboo (also called Martin’s Burial Ground) and Little Biaboo and several other smaller villages in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) to highlight the way of life of the residents.

These villages are located on De-Hoop Branch Road and are among the last villages on that long stretch of road in the Mahaica Creek/River area. The other villages include Grass Hook and Joe Hook.

The team encountered Vijay Nandram and his family. They have the last house just before the savannah which is utilised for the rearing of cows.

It is their weekend house and the land is used for farming. At the time of the visit, persons were there to clean up and do minor repairs to the building, which was damaged from the flooding last year.

Nandram is a furniture maker who has his furniture store at Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara but resides at Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara.

He explained that, during the floods, he lost his entire crop, and, after two years, he was there to restart his permanent crops.

Nandram had to re-paint, repair and clean the entire place and had brought in some plants to start his crops again.

His wife, children, relatives, friends and neighbours were there and they had brought a large pot of chicken cook-up rice and some cold beverages to spend the day at Big Biaboo to get things in order.

The furniture maker told the Pepperpot Magazine that he suffered a significant loss during the period of the flood. He lost more than 100 cherry trees, among other crops and after he allowed the land to fully dry it was time to re-plant his farm.

Nandram added that even the bananas and plantain trees did not survive the flood which lasted about three months on the land.

He reported that he inherited the land from his father, who was a farmer and he passed away in 2020 and he is carrying on the family tradition of farming, even though he has a full-time job.

The father of two stated that the house and land in Big Biaboo serve as a getaway for himself and his family because it is peaceful and a nice place for some much-needed relaxation and time away from the ‘hustle and bustle’ of everyday life.

Being the last house in that village and due to its remoteness, many people would visit to fish and have a day in the creek right in front of their property and he would often entertain them.

Nandram disclosed that from Big Biaboo, it is easy to reach St. Cuthbert’s Mission (Pakuri) via the creek and, at times, people would make the day trip.

The female farmer
Hemwattie Ramdeo is the closest neighbour to Nandram and when the team visited that day, she was there to support the family.

The 54-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is the mother of seven, four daughters, who are married and three sons, two of whom have since died, and the only surviving son is married with children.

She explained that one of her sons took his own life by ingesting a poisonous substance in October last year and he left behind a wife and two children.

They reside in a house next door and she would often watch the grandchildren and provide whatever support was needed.

Ramdeo stated that her husband was also a farmer, bu,t that day, he had gone with a friend to St. Cuthbert’s Mission to catch fish and birds, a pastime he was versed in.

The farmer related that she and her spouse would collectively plant bora, ochro, squash and corilla and would sell it to wholesale buyers, who often visited the community.

She is a native of Big Biaboo Village and had lived all her life there, and it was a place she would like to remain as long as possible because she liked the simple way of life as a farmer.

Ramdeo explained that her husband is also a local of the community and, when they got married, she was living in a different part of the village. She shared that life had been a bit bumpy with challenges, but they have always made a comeback somehow.

She added that last year the road was dug out and sand-filled with red loam, which has improved their lives significantly and she was awaiting electricity since the transmission lines had been installed.