There is nothing better than neighbours

Jan 30, 2011 Features / Columnists, My Column

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By Adam Harris

You wake up in the morning and you call out to those of your neighbours who you may see and the day begins. You feel that people barely notice you because they do nothing special. Each day is the same thing. A ‘hi’ here and a ‘hello‘ there and you continue on your way.
During the day you get the usual telephone calls, share light banter with your colleagues and then it is night. You go home to start the day all over again. A routine continues. But let something happen and you would be surprised that the very neighbours who appear to barely notice you actually do and look forward to that simple greeting when the morning comes.
I cut my hair the other day and sparked a round of laughter. A haircut changes one’s appearance and people do notice that change. I walked home from the barber to the sound of laughter and a lot of teasing. My neighbours had noticed the change. They were always looking out for me but I did not realize this.
When a young man entered my home and helped himself to some of my things, the neighbours helped me identify him. They didn’t see him enter my home, but they saw him try to dispose of the things and quietly informed me.
It was the same with my haircut. I went to work and reduced the entire office to helpless laughter. I had been provided with a media pass that had the photograph of a man who was ugly beyond recognition. My office colleagues, to a man, decided that I now looked like the person on that identification card. Had I gone out of my way to attract attention I could not have done a better job.
That is why I cannot understand how crimes can occur in neighbourhoods and people would insist that they knew nothing. I also cannot understand warring neighbours when these are the people who would be the first to rush to your aid in times of distress.
At this moment, the Child Welfare Department of the Ministry of Human Services is very busy because neighbours have come to the aid of some abused children. In one case there was this man who made himself merry with his young son and his even younger daughter.
Neighbours have also come to the aid of so many other abused children because they do care. They recognize the need to look out for the people around them. These are the people who would rescue an ailing person who lives alone. And there are many such people these days. If people fail to see someone, they call out and eventually try to force their way into the person’s home. They have saved so many lives that way.
Indeed, the days when these very neighbours ensured a stable community are all but gone. As a boy growing up the people in the village of Beterverwagting, people knew every child, and this meant that the children were not allowed to get away with anything unfavourable. It was this that helped keep crime down in the communities, because the very neighbours had become status symbols.
Where I live, the community is relatively tightly-knit. I have known them to respond to cries from the neighbourhood, and they actually dealt condignly with the person who dared to invade their privacy. It also happened in some East Demerara communities and others in various parts of the country. In an East Bank Berbice community some thieves were bludgeoned.
The police came and attempted to identify the perpetrators with a view to charging someone for the use of excessive force. The community clammed up. The case died a natural death.
But neighbours are also there for some comedy relief and everyday one can find some. For example, when I was a boy there was a man who was all macho. He would be on the road regaling his friends with his dominance in the home. As fate would have it, one holiday I happened to be in a house next door to his.
I had spent the night with friends at one of the neighbours on the night before the Mash Day celebrations. Beterverwagting is a quiet village, but when it comes to a party the people could really do so. That is how we spent the entire night drinking at this friend who lived near to this manly man.
Outdoor toilets were still very common in those days. Electricity came to the village in 1965 and water was piped to homes around the same time. So there it was that this man was taking out the chamber pot, something that is reserved for the women. We did not talk about domestic abuse in those days, so when a woman bullied a man it was something funny.
The man emptied this pot of night soil and he had to wash it. Loud and clear, there was this wife of his ordering him to put his hand inside to properly wash it out. We laughed and nearly sparked a riot in the village.
Then there was Conan and Chamar. The latter was known for his prowess in climbing coconut trees and other people’s fruit trees. So it was that Conan saw him in one of the trees and ordered him down. “If you don’t come down I gun pelt you down.” Chamar refused and duly informed him, “Nah pelt me down. Shake me down.”
The stones followed him all the way up the tree and he came down in a hurry to some good lashes with the broadside of a cutlass.
And of course there was Bar, who stole pigs, until he got caught one midday because he happened to choose the time when school was let out and children were around.
But the best was Johnny Pinky and Johnny Bogo, two cousins. They were always at war. One night Johnny Bogo decided to hide under Johnny Pinky’s step to assault the latter when he came home. The mistake was that he fell asleep and snored. The snoring alerted Pinky that something was amiss so he peeped under the step, saw Bogo, went upstairs for a mallet and dealt Bogo a blow to the ribs.
He raised Bogo’s arm and found the sweet spot. Bogo flew out from under a low step like a rat out of a hole. I am not sure when he stopped running.
It was the same with my neighbour who always warned his son about walking late, but the boy would not listen. So one night the man decided to wrap himself in a sheet and hide under his steps. He was going to be a ghost that night.
Unfortunately, his monkey copied his antics and did the same, unknown to him and hid under the same step behind him. The son came home, the father decided to make his move; the son screamed and started running back from whence he came.
The father in glee gave chase, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a white object running behind him. All hell broke loose that night. There was the son running and screaming and the father doing the same adding to the fright of his son who literally flew down the road.
Beterverwagting spoke about that episode for years. We loved our neighbours.

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