SPRINGLANDS STELLING

 SPRINGLANDS STELLING

Harry Bissoon 

The Stelling was built and owned by Guyana Rice Board(GRB). It was later sold to Alesie, the dutch company that bought the GRB operations in Berbice, Guyana. As an employee of GRB, in the 70's and 80's, part of my responsibility, along with other GRB officers, was to clear the passenger launches( Lily1 and Lily 2) for arrival and departure. These launches were owned and operated by Surinamese.

The Springlands Stelling was more than a cargo and passenger wharf! It was a meeting place, a point of social interaction.It was a place where people met to work and play, to reminisce, relax, rejuvenate and to find one's creativity and inner strength.It called out to us, entreating us to walk it's planks that stretched out into the silt laden waters of the mighty river that separated two nations, Guyana and Suriname, left over from the colonial era. 

We willingly gravitated to its greenheart structure, hard and sturdy, yet comfortable and unmindful, overwhelmed by other cares and concerns that brought joy and sadness, even death.

The late afternoons and early evenings were cool, calm and refreshing, offering utopian conditions, gently washed by the invigorating Trade Winds, ideal for creating and strengthening relationships. These conditions provided optimum stimulus for the clarity of thought, and assimilation of hard facts!

The mornings,  when the rising sun was peeping over the horizon, offered peace, tranquility and strength to face the new day. Many who could find the time went there to bask in the golden glory of the brilliant sun.

It was also a place of work and pleasure, bustling with travelers who looked for adventures beyond the banks of the river, seeking first to get to the land which sat on the opposite bank, Suriname. Trucks laden with rice, traversed the Stelling, dumping their cargo into waiting boats that took the rice to distant places. Farmers, visitors, loggers,  businesspersons, and curiousity seekers, boarded boats that carried them up the river, to places like Orealla and Siparuta.

Surinamese did likewise, flocking to the shores of Springlands and the nearby villages, for pleasure, shopping, and to make business deals.

The Springlands Stelling was never angry, but whenever it did, it did so reluctantly. Many of the disillusioned, depressed, disappointed, and unhappy walked the length of its greenheart planks, to where the Stelling embraced the depths of the river and contemplated jumping into the waters, ending a troubled life. A few jumped! Many did not, as if the Stelling itself stopped them at its edge. The few who did jump refused to listen to its call and comfort, a call to live and enjoy life and what it has to offer - a life of positive and negative vibrations, beseeching all to find the right balance.

Many came to this precipice to cry and vent their troubled feelings to the gentle, rushing winds, looking down at the angry waters below, as if to get answers from them!

The Springlands Stelling is gone. Those who know of its glory, still walk on the dying remains, reliving its greatness!

The attached picture shows what remains of the Springlands Stelling, several years ago, and it has further deteriorated since then, leaving only a skeleton of its greatness. It was a beautiful structure, and much wider, with rails, benches and layaways. It had a bond and customs and immigration offices. It was rebuilt/repaired and downsized by Alesie when they bought it, but has now been left abandoned!