Aunty Carla – a successful entrepreneur who made it through persistence, faith

Mar 19, 2017 News

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Carla Hopkinson, fondly referred to as “Aunty Carla”, is an Indigenous woman of Carib origin. This wife, mother and grandmother is from a small village called Dogg Point, in Bartica, Region Seven.

Aunty Carla makes cassava bread, cassareep, tuma, piwari, and craft items, among others for sale. This industrious woman believes that “no work is easy; the easiest work is sitting and doing nothing. These days everybody wants the right amount of money, and it is for both men and women working. Logging, farming- is not for men alone, it’s for women as well.”
Aunty Carla said that “she grew up (seeing her parents making the things that she now produces). She said that her parents were farmers and fishermen, so she learnt about this life from a very tender age.
Aunty Carla has been living in Bartica for 42 years. She is not a resident of the town by birth, and while being employed at the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) for 27 years her indigenous way of life was still very much alive in her heart and evident in the way she lived.
Her business is self-integrated; she has two cassava farms in Dogg Point village. The raw material for her cassava bread and all the other products are made from the staple that comes from her farm.
Materials for her craft items come from surrounding indigenous villages. Her cassareep in 24-ounce bottles are sold on ‘market day’ in Bartica which is on a Saturday, and when there is Village Day. Items such as the tuma and cassava bread are sent into the ‘backdam’ for sale.
In her line of work, her husband has an integral role. Mr. Hopinson takes his wife’s finished products to the market. He does all the transportation, she said.
Aunty Carla takes pride and joy in everything that she does; emphasizing her love for what she does. “If I have to grate cassava, I will get up at five and bathe and come over to my work area and begin to work. My lunch would catch me right in this area.”
She said that the process is long and sometimes tiring, depending on the quantity of the order. “You are in the smoke all day, and at the end of the day, you smell like a smoke fish. On a busy day, my house sees me till night. And the work does stop there because even though I have orders to take care of, I still have to take care of the home, ensuring that it’s clean and food is cooked among other things.”
Aunty Carla said that her children are her priority. She said that she has six children alive and educating them is at the top of the list for her and her husband. She would ensure that her children have food and all that is necessary to attend school. She would also ensure that her husband was taken care before heading off to work.
“I would ensure that his clothes are pressed, lunch is kept warm, and the house is clean because as you know men like to come home to clean house and a warm meal.”
She added; “I am proud of myself, from where I started to where I am now. It has not been easy, but God has blessed these two hands of mine and it would be selfish of me to go back to Him and not have done anything with them,” Aunty Carla said.
She told GINA that since the commencement of her business she has built her house, and added a grocery.
Like Aunty Carla said, her hands are blessed. She is also versatile in cooking such foods as fried rice, curried chicken and roti, dhal puri, phlourie, and cassava ball.
Her cassareep can last a lifetime; the process to make one bottle takes three hours. The cassava is grated, placed in the matapee where the juice is extracted. The juice is then place on the fire and the “cream” is taken off. That liquid is cooked for hours until it reaches the consistency of the cassareep.
Her craft items which are on display and for resale throughout the year include fans, matapees, graters, and shifters are completed at different times due to the size and quantity of the orders that are placed.
In terms of a market for her products, Aunty Carla said that if assistance was offered to her to have her products and work become more recognisable, she would accept. She said “Guyana has beautiful items to offer, not just internally, but on the international scene as well.”
Aunty Carla is also encouraging persons to be thankful for what they have and what God provides on a daily basis for them. This proud strong Carib woman entrepreneur encourages others, especially women, “to get up and get going and ask for advice.”
She noted that young people are not humble enough to ask for advice; however she would still like them to know that life is about learning. (GINA)

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