Life in Moraikobe

By John Richards and Lakhram Bhagirat with photos by Anjuli Persaud and John Richards

This week we asked the residents of Moraikobe village, Mahaicony Creek  to tell us what life is like in Moraikobe as well as what are some of the difficulties they face and how they think life in their village can be improved. They were also asked to share what they would like to see happen in their village. Their comments follow:

Salome Calistro – Head teacher of Moraikobe Primary: ‘Moraikobe is a lovely community and I can boast of the cooperativeness of the people. Though everyone here is of average education standard they all pitch in to get things done. However, being the type of village that we are, many of our youths are unemployed and earn a living by helping out in the farms. One of our main problems is the transportation of our goods and persons. The cost of the transportation is very high. It is $3,000 one-way passage and $70,000 to hire a boat. If we had more boats it would be better.’

Rudolph Trim – primary school teacher: ‘Life in here is good, we enjoy living in here but sometimes things do not go the way we think it should go. For example, when it rains like it is doing presently we get flooded and persons are forced to adapt to the conditions. Farmers now need to turn to fishing. The main work in here is logging and when we have this much rain the operation is ceased due to a flooding out of the road to Linden which becomes inaccessible. I enjoy playing dominoes and going to church. It is also a pastime for me to look at the youths playing cricket and volleyball.  It has been a while since we have received gifts from the government and we need more of that. We are currently in the process of constructing a library and a computer lab for the youths to go and upgrade themselves. The Toshao and council are doing an excellent job making Moraikobe one of the indigenous villages which press ahead. I’ve lived here for over 20 years and once I got to understand the way in which the persons here live it became very much to my liking. In general we know what we are doing, and when we work together we continue to move forward.’

Ravina Charles – food vendor: ‘I was born and raised in Moraikobe and life here is normal but hard in various ways but you have to make it easy for you. I would say that transportation is our biggest problem. Not everyone in the village has their own transportation so many persons have to hire a boat to get in and out and the road leading to Linden is a sand road and needs to be built up. When the road is dry it’s about a two-hour drive but with its present condition it can’t be used. I think we just need to improve our transportation system.’

Darrole Daniels – logger: ‘I’ve been living here for 13 years now and when I first moved it was more bush than people. It’s been like nine years since we are getting electricity and we worked hand in hand to get it. We are pressing to get up to date with the technology so that when we go to the outside world we are up to standard. The farmers are the hardest hit when the place floods apart from the pine farmers who plant on high ground all of us plant on the muddy low ground. I think our main problem is communication. We only have one village phone which is not private. Cell phones don’t work here and the village phone is a phone — which you need a phone card to make a call —crosses over the radio frequency. So when you are on the phone persons listening to their radio can hear your conversation. So sometimes if someone gives you a phone card number over the phone and you use it one time when you go back to use it somebody has already used it for you. I think that if we get a phone or two more it would be better. Or if we could get to use our cell phone in here it would benefit us a great lot.’

Miranda Daniels – nursery head teacher: ‘I like living in Moraikobe and as a teacher I think the village has great potential. The only thing I think we need here is more trained teachers.  At present most of our teachers are untrained and need the opportunity to be able to upgrade their educational status. If we are provided with that opportunity there are persons ready to upgrade themselves and attend the teaching college and come back to Moraikobe to teach the children. The other issues like flood and transportation affect all of us but we are coping with it.’

Lindya Smith – student: ‘Life in Moraikobe is good. I think we need to have more places for us to play and study. I like coming to school. My friends come from far and some of them come with boat while some walk like me. My mom is a teacher and my dad is a chain saw operator. When I grow up I want to be a teacher and teach the children in Moraikobe.’

Ceceline France – village councilor: ‘Life in Moraikobe is great. Why? Because it’s peaceful despite your goals and struggles. If you face hardships at the end of the day you can still relax. There is room for development because we can become a tourist destination. For that to happen the transportation and our guest house needs to be upgraded. The transportation system can be regularized so that persons can travel more often and the guest house can be modernized. Also if the Linden road is developed it would make the transportation of goods and persons cheaper and thereby reduce the cost of goods in the supermarket. The issue with the phone and radio crossing has been brought to the Toshao’s attention and he took it to the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs but if nothing changes we will have to lobby it to the president, because we hope to have the village more developed soon.’

Shemroy Miller – Medex: ‘I am very comfortable here in Moraikobe even though it is kind of isolated the people here are very nice. I have been here for 16 months and the only thing I think bothers me a bit is that things in here are a bit expensive. I have asked the government for the things I need to run the health centre efficiently and I think that I can look forward to it. I generally don’t have any issues because I have learnt to work around the issues like transportation.’

Indranie Smith – Living in Moraikobe for 31 years: ‘Life in Moraikobe is good at times and hard as well but we all look out for each other and live as one. This settlement can be improved by residents making meaningful contributions to it so we can all better our lives. Well one of the main issues affecting this village is the lack of a police station, never mind we don’t have much crime. And residents need to concentrate more on developing themselves rather than consuming alcohol.’

Brian Joseph – Living in Moraikobe for 43 years: ‘Sometimes it easy but life in Moraikobe is hard most time. Transportation makes life here the hardest because to get things in and out of here is real hard. Rain is also another one because it usually floods our farms and wipes out our crops. For development to occur in Moraikobe, villagers have to work together and then the government also needs to pitch in as well because there are a lot things they need to do for us in this village.’