A Sheildstown man shares his battles and wins

WHAT does it take to turn someone’s life around? Maybe it requires community and family intervention or years of self-discipline. Yogindra, of Shieldstown, Berbice, says turning his life around was unplanned and gradual. Going from a self-described troublemaker and drug user to a well-respected community and religious leader is not a story you hear every day. As a young man, Yogindra lived in countless places in Guyana, leading a somewhat nomadic lifestyle, moving as he or his family saw fit. Throughout his youth, he struggled with bad company and even worse habits. Most of his peers saw him simply as a lost young man. But Yogindra had deeper, braver ambitions to become the person he wanted to be. He ventured into a church one day, seeking simply to help with menial tasks. Soon, he became a major part of the church and an even bigger part of his community.

Yogindra ‘Parboy’ Seenauth
Throughout the community of Shieldstown and much of West Berbice, Yogindra Seenauth is known as ‘Parboy’. An oddly unique name. He shared that the title was given to him as a young man. The name came from a song his father would sing to him as a child, and after his father’s death when Parboy was just a few days old, the song was the only thing that could soothe him. Thus, the unusual name stuck throughout his life. “When I used to cry, my father had a way of saying ‘Parboy, Parboy’, and I would stop crying. So when he died, my mother and older sisters and brother and I were crying. My uncle took me and said the same thing my father used to say, Parboy. And so the name stuck.” The name is among the very few things that stuck, however, and as Parboy got older, his life went through unprecedented change. Going from his early years as a drug-using youth to the president of his church was no simple endeavour.

Growing up all around
After the death of his father, Parboy’s mother remarried. His stepfather was native to the mining town of Linden and moved the family across counties to the village of Moblissa, a community just outside of Linden. This was not their last move. However, as Parboy explained, the family moved constantly. The family of now four children moved around as their father sought out work in various communities around the country. Whereas this experience gave Parboy the opportunity to see Guyana, it also left him with very little stability. As he shares, “I would say I grew up all over. We used to live in Moblissa at first, and I would go to Linden to go to Coomacka Primary School. Then, I used to live in Old England. At that time in the ’80s, the Bauxite company was still running, and we would travel by locomotive.” Parboy has fond memories of his youth, but he also says there were challenges that he could not contend with, one of them being schooling. As he shared, “In my childhood days, I did not do too much schooling. I left school really early. I had too much company.”

The Turning Point
Many people struggle in their youth with various challenges. Parboy struggled with drug use at quite an early age. He became quite rebellious, grew his hair, and plummeted deeper into harder drugs. As he recounted, “I had long hair. I used dope and cocaine and other things. I was in a bad state. I was in a state where if I knew someone, I would ask them for $20 or $40 to buy drugs and roll up and smoke up.” It was at this point that his mother brought the family back to Berbice. Parboy stated that his mother brought him back home in hopes that the change of environment would help improve his condition; however, the effect was not immediate. After returning to Berbice, Parboy found a job and began working, still battling addiction.

During this time, he wanted to change and overcome his addiction, but he simply was not sure how to go about changing and fighting an addiction that had held him for so long. “People would tell me to change my life. I would see good people, men with girlfriends, and men with jobs, houses, and so on. And I would wonder how I could reach that stage. Even owning a vehicle was out of the question.” Parboy’s passion for change was present and evident. He knew he wanted to do more with his life; he said he was simply hopeless. That is until someone made a good suggestion. “One day, somebody said, why don’t I go to church? I was like, me? In church? What am I going to do in church?” Although skeptical, he went to church. At first, it was simply to help with mundane activities. Soon, his role in the church changed, and so did the way people saw him.

He began working with church members, helping with everything from plays and camps to record-keeping to setting up for services. He soon realised that the more time he spent in church, the less time he spent in the streets. It was not something that happened overnight. It took a long time for Parboy to both battle his addiction and become an integral part of the church and community. Today, Parboy is president of his church and a well-respected community leader. He reached a stage in his life he never thought he would and overcame battles he did not think he could win. Today, he lives a quiet life in Shieldstown, running a small poultry business with his wife and mentoring youths in his community. As he stated, “I changed, and I cut my hair. And people started to trust me. I became recognisable in the village. People began to trust me.”