Photos by Joanna Dhanraj
Hampshire on the Corentyne, Berbice is situated 12.7 miles from the Government Buildings in New Amsterdam and is home to hundreds of residents; it is flanked on either side by Belvedere and Williamsburg. It takes nothing less than two and a half hours to get to Hampshire from Georgetown by car.
Many years ago, half of the village was said to be owned by a Portuguese man called ‘London’ the other half was owned persons named Reedy, Carpen, Henson and Butchie.
Hampshire is full of life; everywhere one looks boys can be seen: hanging out at the Hampshire ball field or the barbershop or riding along the streets. Youngsters were playing cricket on the field, while others cheered from the pavilion. In a corner, dozens of bicycles were braced against a fence and across the fence in the nearby lot which houses the Williamsburg Nursery School, older men looked on. Exactly what Sookram Budhram was doing from his hammock in the verandah of his house.
