Photos by Joanna Dhanraj
Greenwich Park is a village situated on the East Bank Essequibo. Some 7,000 people live in the houses running along both sides of the Public Road. Behind the houses on one side are rice fields and on the other behind the other, the massive Essequibo River. The island, Leguan is opposite the village and can be seen on the horizon on a clear day.
The Greenwich Park Primary School is eye catching and is believed to be the most beautiful primary school building in Guyana. The World Beyond Georgetown visited on a school day and was greeted with the happy sight of children playing and running carefree in the compound.
Through one of the streets and neatly displayed in a glass case on a table were egg balls, pholourie and plantain chips among other eatables but no vendor in sight. The vendor, Kamini Dindyal, lives one house away. Although a little shop stands between her and her little table of goodies, she maintained that she doesn’t worry about any going missing since that would be unlike the residents in Greenwich Park. She said customers wishing to make a purchase usually call out to her.
Dindyal moved to Greenwich Park from Canal Number Two Polder 18 years ago when she got married. She considers Greenwich Park to be one of the best communities in the country and the best on the West Coast. “You can leave you things out and people here won’t touch it,” the woman said. Many other residents seemed to share the same opinion since a number of yards remain unfenced.
Dindyal and her family are Muslims but since the village has no Mosque they walk over to the nearby village of Good Hope. Every Friday she visits the Mosque for “Jumma”; her husband and children go in the afternoons.
Dindyal travels to the Parika Market every Sunday to purchase groceries, fruits and vegetables to take her through the week. Whenever she runs out of something or the other she sends to one of the smaller shops around her.
As we spoke, police patrolled the area.
