The more ya read and hear ’bout these caves in Barbados, the more frighten ya does get. The whole thing is dat nowadays ya doan really know what ya standing up pon until something like the collapse up there in Brittons Hill happens, or when an independent geologist like Professor Hans Machel come and start tuh explore.
I was reading the papers the other day and I saw a picture o’ the same professor standing up under a big able boulder in a cave and looking like a li’l midget down under there. He was saying dat he didn’t want tuh cause any kind o’ panic, but dat the Government should make haste and have geological testing done on it because, as he said, “an ominous pillar was holding up the roof of it”.
Well I ain’t gine tell you nuh lie. As my li’l people here by me would say, “Dat frightening as bird”. All o’ this come out while the man was giving evidence at the Coroner’s Court inquest into the 2007 Arch Cot building collapse when dat family lost duh lives just so.
I was reading the whole thing wid much interest as he went on tuh talk ’bout other caves around dat same area dat they have discovered over the past four years. Uh mean, at school we were always taught dat Barbados was one o’ the islands dat form from limestone while some o’ the others are from volcanic rock. They taught us dat our water was so good because it came through the limestone. But who woulda thought dat the same porous limestone had suh many dangerous big able cavities, as duh call dem?
Uh mean, when ya go tuh the Harrison’s Cave, put on ya hard hat, board one o’ the trains wid a whole lot o’ other people, set off pon a most beautiful journey inside the cave and feast ya eyes pon how beautiful it is wid the stalactites and the stalagmites, the pools o’ crystal clear water and underground waterfalls; when ya all the way down in there, travelling pon trains under the ground, ya does be suh captivated wid how beautiful it is dat yuh doan fuh one moment while ya under there be thinking nothing ’bout the people, the houses, the lot o’ buses, truck and heavy duty equipment nearby dat does be going to and fro above ya head.
But judging from what Professor Machel was saying in the article, the roof o’ some o’ these caves dat he explored recently, compared tuh Harrison’s Cave, like duh fairly thin. He was talking ’bout how he could see tree roots up there by Erdiston dat come down through the cave and dat would tell you how close the cave is tuh the surface.
Another thing dat was a little offsetting was when he say, quoting from a Government report, dat we in the Caribbean in 108 years had experienced at least 1 400 earthquakes; dat even in Barbados duh ain’t as rare as we may think. You could imagine dat? He talk ’bout the amount o’ rainwater dat could get into the cave and the damage it could do; so now, you see this sort o’ thing? You see why we people have tuh stop being suh dirty and try and stop littering the place, causing the water tuh back up and flood out whole neighbourhoods?
Look, what is sport fuh some people is death fuh a lot o’ others, ’cause you see water? When the rain start tuh tumble down like the other day and the drains get blocked up wid all sorts o’ garbage causing the water tuh find other courses, who is tuh say dat wid dat power it ain’t gine find another way and end up probably in one o’ dem same caves? And ya know wha’ could happen next? Well, only God could tell ya dat.
But as Professor Machel said, he ain’t want tuh frighten nuhbody, but as far as I am concerned, he ain’t got tuh try too hard. Just reading ’bout his findings is enough tuh frighten the pants off ya; wha’ I doan think dat there is one person pon this rock who would like tuh experience what happened up there in Brittons Hill again. I also pray against any kinda earthquakes in this place, ’cause judging from all o’ these caves and gullies, only God knows what will happen tuh us.
Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
