Senior Multimedia Reporter
radhica.sookraj@guardian.co.tt
In a breezy corner of Sudama Village, Fyzabad, along Petrotrin Field Road, 63-year-old Phoolwanti Ramsingh—better known as Aunty Doll—has recreated a way of life many Trinidadians have only heard about, but never experienced.
Step onto her property and the modern world fades. In its place stands a carefully crafted mud house—cool to the touch, smooth along its walls, and filled with the scent of delicious food.
It is here, at Doll’s Chulhas, that Ramsingh is quietly preserving the traditof East Indian indentured labourers who arrived in Trinidad between 1845 and 1917 and whose descendants shaped much of this country’s cultural identity.
Speaking to WE, Ramsingh said what began as a deeply personal way to cope with the 2016 death of her husband, Chandersingh Ramsingh, has now evolved into a business where she offers a glimpse into the past.
Recalling her journey, Ramsingh said she first built a mudhouse as an educational project.
“I just wanted to show my children what it was like a long time ago, how we used to live,” Ramsingh said. “Not just tell them—show them.”
A life built from earth
She said during and after indentureship, Indian labourers brought to Trinidad to work on sugar estates lived in modest dwellings constructed from whatever materials were available—mud, bamboo, grass and thatch. They passed on the knowledge of construction using traditional methods, which Ramsingh learnt from her Aajie (paternal grandmother) and her Nanny (maternal grandmother).
Back then, Ramsingh said floors were “lepayed” using a mixture of clay and cow dung, known as goobar, creating a sealed, smooth surface that resisted dust and insects. Thick mud walls kept interiors cool, while thatched roofs allowed air to circulate freely in the tropical heat.
For Ramsingh, this was not history in a textbook—it was her inheritance.
“I used to go by my nanny,” she recalled. “She had a dirt house. My father had one too. I used to help plant rice in the lagoon, pull the plants, bundle them and go back the next day to plant. That is how I learn.”
She said those memories stayed with her, so when grief threatened to overwhelm her after losing her husband, she turned to the past—not to escape, but to rebuild.
A love story in mud and bamboo
Ramsingh said back in 1978, just after their marriage, she and her husband had little money and needed a place to call their own.
“We were living by my mother, and he say he want to go on his own,” she said. “So he go in the back and build a house with bamboo and dirt—because he couldn’t afford anything else.”
It was a labour-intensive process.
They cut bamboo from the bush, stripped and measured it, and built a frame using rafters. Then came the hardest part—digging dirt, mixing it by foot, and throwing it onto the walls layer by layer.
“It take about three to four months to finish,” she said. “But we made a home.”
That home, built out of necessity, became one of her most treasured memories.
“Anywhere we went, it was always the two of us,” she said quietly. “Market, fishing, hunting—always together.”
When her husband died after battling cancer, Ramsingh said her world collapsed.
“Real hard, real, real hard,” she admitted. “The hardest part is when you go in your bed alone.”
For a time, she withdrew. But eventually, she found herself drawn back to the very thing that had defined their early life together.
“I say, you know what, let me build this and show them how long time people used to live,” she said.
With the help of her son, grandchildren and other family members, Ramsingh began constructing the mud house that now stands as the centrepiece of her yard. It took more than three months of steady work—cutting bamboo, hauling earth, mixing clay, shaping walls.
“I didn’t tell my children how I was feeling,” she said. “They’re right there helping me… and I just stay quiet.”
“This is where I find my happiness,” she said simply.
A living museum of memory
Today, the mud house is more than a structure—it is a story.
Inside, carefully arranged artefacts recreate a bygone era: a seel and lorha used to grind spices, a coal iron, a kerosene lamp, a black-and-white television, a traditional grater, and even a bailnah and chowkie. Each item reflects a time when life was slower, harder, but deeply connected.
“I have everything I could find,” Ramsingh said. “So when people come, they could see what we used to use.”
She also demonstrates old techniques—how to clean pots using ashes and coconut husks, how to cook over an open flame, and how to grind spices by hand.
“Long time people didn’t have what we have now,” she said. “They had to wait. They had to sacrifice.”
It is a lesson she believes younger generations need to learn.
“They must understand where we come from,” she said. “How hard life was.”
At the centre of Ramsingh’s work is the chulha—an earthen stove that once stood in almost every Indo-Trinidadian home.
Using a special clay, she handcrafts chulhas for customers across the country. She also cooks on them, offering visitors a taste of traditional dishes prepared the old way—curried chicken, dhal, channa and aloo, roasted bread, even pizza baked in a dirt oven.
“People say the food just taste different,” she said, smiling. “It real. No chemical.”
The experience has drawn visitors from across Trinidad and Tobago, as well as from the diaspora in the United States, Canada and Europe.
But for Ramsingh, it is not about fame.
“It makes me happy people appreciate it,” she said. “Because I start this from scratch.”
“People ask if rain will melt it,” she said. “But it hard like concrete.”
And like the house itself, her legacy is built to last.
Through her work, she is not only preserving history—she is living it, teaching it, and passing it on.
And in a small village in Fyzabad, the past is not forgotten—it is alive.
How to get to Aunt Doll’s mud house
From San Fernando, head south along the SS Erin Road toward Fyzabad. Turn onto Petrotrin Field Road and continue into Sudama Village, Branch Road.
Doll’s Chulhas is located along this stretch—ask for Aunty Doll, the “Chulha Lady,” and residents will point the way.
To reach Ramsingh, call 462-9146. You can see Ramsingh on Facebook @ Doll’s Chulhas and Fireside Cooking With Doll-Hot From The Chulha.
