Bees, snakes nor disability can stop Vow from farming

AN average person would stumble at least four times whilst trying to navigate their way through a mud-filled farm, but 62-year-old Vow, also known as “Fruit-man”, makes that strenuous task look easy, despite having just one foot.

Don’t get him wrong, the Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara native said. “I was not born that way.” It all happened five years ago when a venomous Bothrops atrox snake, popularly known here as the labaria, bit his right foot while he was preparing his crops for the season.

Recounting the incident brought tears to the eyes of the elderly man, but he managed to tell the Guyana Chronicle what had happened.
“After I get bite, dem boys (his farmhands) rushed me to Woodlands hospital… The doctors said how my kidneys failing, and in 24 hours I gon dead if dem ain’t cut off meh foot.
“As soon as they cut off the foot, the kidney went back up,” Vow said, adding that he left the hospital the day after his foot was removed because he was frustrated and felt like that was the end of the road for him.

Some of Vow’s produce being taken to Georgetown for sale (Photos by Adrian Narine)

He still counts himself lucky, because the labaria is known to search for rodents in coffee and banana plantations, and farmers oftentimes get bitten by the snakes, which can lie camouflaged for hours, nearly undetectable, and striking with lightning speed.
According to research, they are much feared because their venom is a hemotoxin that is particularly lethal and fast-acting. The fatality rate used to be high, but nowadays, treatment is usually possible if the victim receives medical attention soon enough. Venom yield averages 124 mg, although it may be as much as 342 mg. A fatal dose for humans is a mere 62mg.

ONE OF A FEW
Vow is one of the few people to have ever survived such an attack, but it left him bedridden for almost three months, and feeling like that was how he would spend the rest of his days.

As time went by, he became distraught, because he could not do what he loved best, which is planting his fruits and taking care of his acres of farmlands, which stretch from Number One to Number Two Canal, on the West Bank, and from Number One Canal to Hague backdam, on the West Coast Demerara (WCD).
Seeing his friends working and enjoying the excitement of “backdam life” was too much for him to bear, so Vow said he gradually found innovative ways to farm and get around the place.

Prior to losing his foot, he said he spent most of his time in “the backdam”, where he would work from morning to night without even eating at times.
“I tell myself if me nah run meh farm, nobody will run it,” Vow said. “So me went to the US, and my children who live over there help me buy an artificial leg for $8 million.
“But I couldn’t manage to use it when I going in the farm on the tractor or the ATV.”

After a while, he would put aside the artificial leg and find a way to use his machines to traverse every acre of his farmlands on a daily basis. He cultivates pineapples, pears, tangerines and other luscious fruits which he sells to make a living.
But as is the old saying, “Every day is not Christmas Day”, as life would again take a dramatic turn for Vow, who was finally getting back on his foot.

TRAGEDY STRIKES AGAIN
“One day meh went in de ‘backdam’, and ah feel this strain on my left side. And next t’ing meh know, dem boys had to rush meh to the hospital again!
“When ah reach Balwant Singh Hospital, de doctors tell me how I had a minor heart attack. But ah had a blockage, suh ah had to do surgery,” the farmer said, adding that he was again bedridden for more than a month before he could get back in the field.

“Fruit-man”, who has been living alone for a number of years, said he’s faced trying times, because all of his children are successful professionals in the US and he has no immediate family in Guyana to turn to when in need of help.
“My son tell me come over to Florida and he will buy land for me to farm and do what I love.

“But when I went up to get de artificial foot and suh, I stayed sixteen weeks over deh and realise that I can’t make it to live there; it is nothing like home,” Vow said, adding that he believes that the foreign food was one of the leading causes of his heart attack.

After realising that one of his major organs was in danger, his children hired a local nurse to take care of him here, but according to the farmer, he did not let the nurse stick around too long, because he wanted to go back to the farm.
As is another old saying, “When you don’t like hear, you does feel”. So Vow had another heart attack, but this time around, it was a near-death experience for him. And because the local doctors could not save him, he had to travel to the US to get a triple bypass heart surgery done.

Vow’s cleans a tractor after working on his farm(Adrian Narine photo).

Within a few months, Vow was well rested and ready to farm again. Asked how many workmen he has with him, the farmer said only two, and they only show up to work when they are sober, so most of the time he goes to the ‘backdam’ on his own.

THIRD TIME LUCKY
About three months ago, luckily on a day when the workers were sober, he said they were in the farm picking pineapples and he stayed back on one of the plots to remove vines. But, a few minutes later, he realised it was not the best decision, because he was attacked by a swarm of bees.

“Bhai! About 5000 bees attack meh! And ah start scream fuh dem boys… Ah battle with the bees for half-an-hour before the boys drove the tractor and picked me up,” Vow said, adding:
“They carried me to the health centre in the area, and the doctor gave me some medicine and I went home.”

Having one foot and two heart attacks has not stopped Vow from doing what he loves, so he said a few stings could not keep him down.
Aside from overpriced products and natural disasters like flooding, the farmer said he has been healthy and free from danger for a while.

“The old man trying man! Ah does drink four pints of milk a day, and eat my provision and greens,” Vow said, adding: “No man can stand up with me when it comes to work, buddy! And I will never back down, as long as I’m alive.”
The man believes that working is his happiness, so he will continue to be happy as long as he is capable of working.

Vow said he is well-respected by many businessmen and women around the country, contending that his produce can be found in supermarkets and fruit stands around the country.

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