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Life in Paramakatoi is special
By Rustom Seegopaul
Persons living along Guyana’s coastline often take many things for granted; things like running water, electricity, vehicles and roadways. But just a few hours’ flight away from the coast, atop the mountains of Region Eight, in the village of Paramakatoi, many persons are happily living without many of these things.
The mountaintop village, home to some 1000 people, attracts many children from various parts of Region Eight to the nursery, primary and secondary schools located there. The schools’ total population is 500, with almost 300 of these students from Paramakatoi itself.
A little boy stands outside his home in Paramakatoi.
The remainder of the children stay in the dormitories of the school as they complete their education.
There are a few Paramakatoi students who walk for hours to get to and from school.
In this community, there is a total of seven medical personnel, including a new Cuban doctor, Amaury Marce, two midwives and a dentist.
According to one of the nurses stationed at Paramakatoi, they do not often get serious cases, but when they do, the patients are either flown to Georgetown on the scheduled flights to Georgetown, or, in real emergency cases, on a specially chartered medivac.
Added to this, the community has a good supply of medicinal drugs, which is bolstered every three months.
Paramakatoi is a closely knit community of almost 1000 people.
The produce and cash crops grown in Paramakatoi are of a high quality. Many of the vegetables are exceptionally large, and would fetch a good price in Georgetown could they be transported at a reasonable cost.
Previously, the colder climate was thought to be adequate for the cultivation of Irish potatoes, and this was tried, but the high cost of air freight to transport the potatoes did not allow for a lucrative business venture. As a result, the planting of potatoes has, for the most part, stopped.
“The air freight out of Paramakatoi is high, and there are no proper roads linking this mountaintop village to the rest of the country,” one resident noted.
Plans may be in the cards, sometime in the future, for the construction of a road linking the village to the lower-lying lands of Guyana.
Almost all of the residents of Paramakatoi make their living by subsistence farming and mining. In the entire village, there are only three shops, and the workers of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the District Education Officer’s (DEO) office and the staffers of the schools are among the only persons whose jobs attract a traditional fixed salary at the end of the month.
As such, most persons living in Paramakatoi barely eke out a living.
All of the teachers in the schools also partake in farming, and it has been noted that if they do not supplement their incomes with the produce from their farms, they will practically starve.
The people of Paramakatoi are pleasant, and as is usually the case in Amerindian settlements, everyone is extremely polite, greeting you as you pass.
One of the most shocking things about Paramakatoi is that there are no police officers and no police station. The village, for the most part, is built on trust of one another, and the residents do not see the need for law enforcement personnel. When problems arise, the Village Captain resolves them to the best of his ability.
If matters cannot be adequately resolved by the Village Captain, then police ranks are summoned from Mahdia.
There have been some reports of simple larceny and breaking and entering, most of which have not been solved.
This does not happen very often.
One of the reasons attributed to this low crime rate is that there are no shops in Paramakatoi which sell alcohol.
But while alcohol is not sold in public shops, persons can buy bottled alcoholic beverages and cigarettes from other establishments which pass beneath the radar of the community.
Added to this, most of the residents of the area make their own local alcoholic drinks, cari and piwari, made primarily from cassava.
Even though the alcoholic content of these local drinks is very high, open intoxication is not often seen.
However, on the other end of the spectrum, marijuana is said to be grown in Paramakatoi and its surrounding areas.
Picture saved in Server Sunday as PK and captioned as: Residents of Paramakatoi returning from their farms, laden with cassava and firewood.
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