Mes Delices, situated 12 kilometres from Vreed-en-Hoop along the Canal Number One Polder Road, is bordered by Geneve and Jacoba Constantia. It has a population of less than 100 people.
The name is of French origin and translates to ‘My Delight’.
On the day I visited, the rain had left the village damp and many persons were indoors; the village seemed empty of children. A few of the men gathered on the road however, savouring whatever sunlight they could.
Derick Gokul, dressed in tattered clothes with a cutlass in one hand, was making his way to the backdam. A security guard, he was about to turn in for his shift.
“I live in this village 54 years now. I born and grow here,” he said. He grew up with three brothers and three sisters. He fondly recalled walking to the Two Brothers Primary School with his siblings and neighbours. The road then was what he called a “mud dam. Going to school and coming from school was always fun. We played on the road when we going and played when we coming back. We played tag and marble, all thing we play, and we would stop and pick mangoes and other kind of fruits. Now ain’t like before. Before time you coulda gone at anybody or in the backdam and pick fruits for free. Now is something different; you got to ask or buy. Everything selling now. Now the people chop down the tree them to plant other crop. Mes Delices plant mostly citrus and pine.”
