By Michel Outridge
AT the start of Cuffy Dam, Friendship, East Bank Demerara, there is the home of Kevin Nedd, who lives just as you enter the village.

The father of one is a horse-drawn cart operator, a construction worker and also a farmer.

He has a plot of farmland aback the community and he has only a crop of coconut trees, due to the constant flooding in the village.

Nedd told the Pepperpot Magazine that he could not work that day because his newly acquired horse had an injury, so he had to allow the animal to heal before he can return to work at the lumberyard.

The local added that Cuffy Dam is a good place to live; it is the peace he appreciates a lot and the people are close-knit with little or no time to idle and cause trouble.

Nedd stated that most people are farmers, while others have jobs outside the village, consisting of East Indians, Afro-Guyanese, some Amerindians and a handful of Spanish people.

He pointed out that the Marfriends’ Co-operative Land Society is responsible for the farmers and they have a building and a body of members who reside in the village.

“I have a simple mantra that works for me, and it is ‘work, save and economise’,” he said.

Lauren Sinclair
Lauren Sinclair lives way down in the backlands section where there are both houses and farms.

The 34-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that she is a stay-at-home mother of four children and she is expecting her fifth child and does the chores, including cooking, as well as tending to the children.

Sinclair’s house is a wooden cottage with plenty of yard space on the side of a muddy dam, where there is no road and it takes a bit of walking to get there.

She reported that her daughter walked out to the public road that morning, it took her half an hour and she was unable to get any public transportation; as such, she was forced to return home.

The resident of Cuffy Dam reported that she is from the city and was residing with an uncle who has mental issues; living in the same house with him became traumatic and she had to relocate.

She was allocated a plot of land and she began living there about five years ago to escape paying rent.

“It is far, but this place is nice and quiet and there are no nosy neighbours and people around here don’t have time for nonsense,” she said.

Sinclair pointed out that they used to farm, but floodwaters destroyed most of their crops and her husband works in the city and he would do the shopping and bring it home.

She recalled the day she moved into the village; it was Old Year’s Day in 2018 and things have been fair since.

Bryan Itwaru, the construction worker
About halfway down Cuffy Dam is the home of Bryan Itwaru, who was in the process of completing the cement floor of his mother’s new house that is being built in the same yard.

The 24-year-old told the Pepperpot Magazine that he has been residing in the village for the past 20 years and has two siblings and his cousins living next door.

He reported that his mom is a policewoman and his dad is away at work.

“This is a nice place to live, no rowdy people, just simple living and it is breezy and quiet all the time,” he said.

Itwaru disclosed that in that section of the village, they have potable water supply but no electricity and they use a small solar system to power light bulbs, but they do have landline phones, but no internet service.