Story and photos by Kenesha Fraser
“Westbury is the best village on the whole Essequibo Coast,” is the sentiment of Juliet Lall, a resident since 1960. When approached by Sunday Stabroek ‘Auntie Julie’ was sitting in the hammock under her house preparing seasoning to flavour the food she was about to cook for her family. “I moved to this village in 1960 when I was just 15 years old. My family came to live here and here is where we build our foundation. This part was very bushy and it only had a couple of houses and few people use to live here. I can remember that we use to walk with our buckets to the ‘mother pipe’ at the end of the village to fetch water to drink, cook and wash. In those days we didn’t know what was electricity. All we deh know bout was wall and hand lamp.”
Auntie Julie added that she was a shy girl while growing up and avoided mingling with other villagers. “I finish school before I come here so I never went to school in this village. It have a primary school in the village now but when I came to live here, that school was never there. The school in Dartmouth is where people use to send their children in those days.”
Even though she complained about noise nuisance in the area, she said that she is quite happy living in Westbury. “Over the years,
