Sadam Gully goes green
Published:Saturday | April 13, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Paul H. Williams, Gleaner Writer
MANDEVILLE, Manchester:
AT THE back of the SuperPlus Centre/Bankhouse Mall complex in the heart of Mandeville, Manchester, there is a deep opening called 'Sadam Gully'. It's said to be owned by the Manchester Parish Council. Whenever it rains, water rushes to this gully that people would stare into, and what they were looking at wasn't a sight for sores eyes. Garbage was everywhere!
When Lisa Lue Yen, the then new property manager of the complex, saw what they were really staring at, she thought she would give them something more pleasant on which to feast their eyes. "The gully was an eyesore, like any other gully, filled with garbage, horrible, terrible, stink," she recalled. So in March 2012, Reliance Investments, which manages the complex, began to transform Sadam Gully into a thing of beauty, a thing to behold.
Coexisting in 'Eden'
Now, one year later, among the banana and other trees are a variety of fowls and other creatures coexisting in 'Eden', still in the making. There are peacocks, a turkey, guinea fowls, guinea pigs, geese, senseh fowls, common fowls, ducks, and rabbits that live in a burrow that they made themselves.
On the east and west walls, colourful, old wooden windows and doors are attached, as well as nesting boxes, with the intention of attracting birds. On the far wall, there is a mural painted by a student from Knox College and a past student from Manchester High School. Beside it is a painted wheelbarrow.
There is also a bird bath, and two bathtubs-cum-lily ponds for the fowls to bathe and swim. The gully is brightly lit up at night and is not easily accessible as there are no steps or openings. The workers have their way of getting down there.
On Wednesday, April 3, when Rural Express visited, many people stopped by, some expressing awe at the transformation and the inhabitants below. There was no gully god, no gully queen, no gully creeper, only the creatures who are part of this marvelous place in Mandeville.
The beautification of Sadam Gully is a work in progress, as intimated above. Lue Yen is thinking of getting some Russian pigeons to put on their usual shows in the air, and some pheasants, preferably by way of donation, to add to the lot. A by-stander even suggested the placement of monkeys in Mandeville's newest attraction.
It's actually part of the Marvelous Mandeville Tour, a new concept in community tourism, in collaboration with Diana McIntyre-Pike of Countrystyle Community Tourism Network. The SuperPlus Centre/Bankhouse Mall is one of the stops on the tour. "The whole thrust is to become far more environmentally friendly, and Lisa has done that naturally here. It's very different from what it used to be. It wasn't a place you would have been attracted to," McIntyre-Pike said.
On the lookout gallery for the gully, there are seats for hanging out and relaxation. A gentleman who stood for several minutes at the wall looking down, as Rural Express spoke with Lue Yen and McIntyre-Pike, said, "This is my second time here. I was walking around and the painting attract me, so I just come and take a peep, and a say 'Wow! Over there lovely'... Mi go home and tell mi family dem bout it, so mi a go bring dem one evening."
Photos by Paul Williams