MOST mornings, Olinda Rampersaud captains the boat that takes the Children of Dora to school. Dora is a part of a few communities along the Demerara River. With an estimated population of less than a hundred people, Dora is among the smaller villages in the region. Olinda Rampersaud was born and raised in the farming community. Today, she plays a major role in Dora. During Olinda’s schooling days, she and her peers traversed among the dense trees to get to school and now, the community has changed a great deal. Although Dora has a long way to go, the people of the village are sure that their home is set to see greater times.

Olinda has called Dora her home for as long as she can remember. Unsurprisingly, she works with the community’s children, captaining the school boat. This is an important role in the riverain village of Dora. As she explained, it is not the most lucrative job, but it is what her father did, and she continues to do it. As she shared, “My father used to captain the boat. When he first started, we only had a few children at the school.Today, we have more children.”

Dora is what many consider a school community. The school is the focal point of the community, and the children are the village’s priority. As Olinda shared, Dora is home to a good school and a great health centre. These are newer additions to the community. During her time in school, Dora did not have roads. This made travelling to school a dangerous pursuit, but one that the children did with much enthusiasm. As Olinda stated, “Today we have a school boat. When I used to go to school, we used to walk, and we did not have roads. We would talk through tracks to get to school.”

An issue that Dora is still combating, however, is children pursuing higher education. Olinda is among a few people who did not get an opportunity to attend high school. As she explained, because her family stayed in the village, so did she. As she got older, she helped on the family farm and eventually took the position working as captain. As she stated, “I went to Primary school in the community. But I did not get to go to high school because my mother and father stayed here. So I stayed home and helped out on the farm.”

Logging and agriculture are the two main economic activities in Dora. Most men take to logging while many mothers farm an array of crops. However, a new and emerging venture is that of sandpits. As Olinda explained, the community is home to two sandpits. This industrious business has had countless impacts on the community, some good, others taking a toll on the community.

As Olinda explained, roads are a major issue in the community. She explained that, with increased vehicular traffic, the village’s sand roads are slowly deteriorating. “I think the sandpits are a good thing. The only problem is just the damage to the road and so on. The hole in the road just got bigger and bigger and bigger. Because it is sand and the sand gets soft.” According to the information given, however, work is scheduled to begin on roads in the community.

The community spirit is one of the most prominent and beautiful aspects of Dora’s culture. The close-knit community was developed by families looking to settle. This created a culture of togetherness in which everyone knew each other and had a profound respect for the other. “The relationship between people is good. Everybody lives good with everybody else. It was all right when I grew up. I was raised like that,” she shared.

Dora has come a long way in development as well, says Olinda. Looking back at her days in school, Dora was a much smaller community with far fewer facilities. She cited the school and the health centre as just a few of the changes. “The community has developed. First we did not have a health centre, but now we have one. We did not have a proper school. Now we have a good school. First, we used to walk to school. That was the only way to get to the school.”

As far as the community has come, Dora still has its challenges, with higher education being the biggest. Dora is miles away from any high school. Olinda is among the countless parents leaving the community to give their children a better education. Olinda explained that her child recently wrote exams and she is ready to leave Dora to send her children to school. She recently acquired a house lot, a great accomplishment and the first of many bigger steps.