FIFTY-TWO years is a long time for most things, but it is particularly a long time to live in a village. But Carville Persaud has managed to call Goed Fortuin home for more than five decades. As a young teacher from the Essequibo Coast, Carville found his place among the villagers of Goed Fortuin. And even today, he, his wife and his family have no intention of going anywhere else.

Carville, who is 81 years old, comes from the village of Zorg on the Essequibo Coast. He made the move to Goed Fortuin as a young man. He said the move was due to his need for a change, something new, an adventure. “I left Essequibo because of my adventurous spirit,” he said. The adventurous spirit took him all over Guyana before settling in Goed Fortuin.

Coming to the West Bank of Demerara, Carville made friends with a few people from Goed Fortuin, many of whom were also from the Essequibo Coast, forming a bond among them. They encouraged a young and vibrant Carville to settle down in the then-small Dutch village of Goed Fortuin.

“Coast landers have a sort of comradery,” Carville said. “Despite where you came from, once you are a coast lander, we bind ourselves together,” Carville shared. The camaraderie among friends quickly developed into love among a community.

Teaching is one of the oldest professions known to mankind and requires much patience and resolve. Carville was a teacher for more than 39 years. He stated that he initially joined the teaching profession because it was one of the only ways to become qualified at that time.

He stated,”The bottom line is on the Essequibo Coast, there were few opportunities. There were no secondary schools to begin with. If you wanted to be qualified, you would have had to come to Georgetown. And that called for money and so many other things.” In the late 1950’s Carville wrote the exam to become a teacher and has been educating young minds since.

In the years he has lived in Goed Fortuin, Carville stated that most aspects of the community have undergone some type of change. Whether it is the new houses, or improved roads, some things are not what they used to be. But the people, the respect, love and co-operation they have has never and hopefully will never change, says Carville.

Goed Fortuin can hardly be talked about without mentioning sports. Sporting activities have played such a big role in the village over the course of the years that the community’s sporting past is talked about as much as the history of the community is.

“Goed Fortuin has two sports grounds,” Carville stated. “We found that people living on the main road enjoyed football, while those in the scheme went for cricket. Most youths were very adventurous in those days.”

One of the things that made the village of Goed Fortuin stand out among its counterparts in its early years was the fact that it was one of the few communities that was ethnically diverse. Even today, the village of Goed Fortuin is home to all kinds of people from all kinds of places.

Carville shared that apart from some tensions of the past, Goed Fortuin was a safe and welcoming haven to all. He stated, “There was a time when you could not venture in certain communities because of their ethnic makeup.”

As a teacher, however, Carville was given various opportunities to work within all regions of Guyana with all types of people and taught all kinds of children. This experience taught him plenty about people and how to treat them. He stated, “I tried as much as humanly possible to treat everyone as a human being. And I think I succeeded. ”

He further stated that how he viewed and treated people was of even more importance to his students. Carville shared “As a teacher, I can change the whole mindset of a student. So, I tried my best to treat everyone equally. And I think I did well as a teacher in that regard.”

Today the village of Goed Fortuin is not exactly as it used to be, but it is not entirely different. Afternoons in the village can still find young men and women talking at local bars or community shops or grown men sitting with each other, sharing a story over a drink. Even with its new high-rise supermarkets, emerging businesses and increasing population, the village of Goed Fortuin is still as beautiful and welcoming as ever and it is more than a good place to live. It is the perfect place to call home.