Richmond, Essequibo Coast
who was originally from the village. He was eight years old when they moved and recalls anticipating the adventure even before his arrival. The first thing he remembers about those days was the loam road that stretched for miles and was a mess whenever it rained. “As a little boy going to school, when a vehicle coming, you had to run to catch the neighbour’s bridge else you were splashed with the mud. They hadn’t many vehicles then but the little that they had were these huge yellow buses and a few cars. The main mode of transportation was donkey and horse cart,” he said.
The man who is a part of the town council and also a member of the finance committee of the Regional Democratic Council said the village was once under the Three Friends Village Council but today its under the Anna Regina Town Council. This part of the village he noted has approximately 300 persons, but in the housing scheme there is triple that number.
As a boy he attended Anna Regina Primary and Anna Regina Multilateral. Afternoons after school and weekends were filled with adventure as he often accompanied his neighbours into the backdams. “We used to catch fish many times; sometimes they throwing a fish for you then next they say ‘catch this’ and before you know it, is a snake coming. I even learn how to work along with them. I would see them holding the bag to catch the paddy and I holding too. That’s when I’d learn there was a wrong and right way of holding the bag. I stand up downwind and holding the bag for the paddy and all the pickle catch me and I started scratching; I got it right the next time,” he added.
“Another thing about those days is the people... so different. I would go to your house and go through your pot and you’d come at mine and do the same thing; we lived like family no matter the race. You see when we going for a swim, it ain’t got boy or girl or colour, everybody jump in. That was the Richmond I knew.”
“Moonlight neva pass,” said Megan Christian who had been sitting nearby listening intently. She explained that there was never a moonlit night that they didn’t get together and play games until they ran out of games or grew weary of them. McLean and Christian then took turns reminiscing and listing some of the games they played decades ago: sal pass, cheers, ketcha, send for a leaf, Chinese skipping, hopscotch, gam and buck-top.
McLean said the advantages of living in Richmond include its proximity to the administrative centre in Anna Regina, the fresh sea breeze coming in from the Atlantic and the peacefulness of his neighbourhood.
Yet he believes that more can be done for the area and pointed out that the drains need proper cleaning. The drain next door the church, he said, houses reptiles and just recently he saw a caiman sunning on the church lawn before returning to the drain. He did note however that the cleaning of the internal drains has begun.
In a yard decorated wildly and beautifully with flowers, lives one of the oldest residents of Richmond, Ramsundar (his only name). He is 85 years old and still works very hard; he credits the life he had as a boy with giving him the strength and stamina he now has.
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