I WONDER if they would evah find a solution tuh the land slippage problem in St Joseph and St Andrew.
For as long as I could remember, evah single Government have been trying something or the other tuh get dat particular problem sorted out but up tuh now, the land still slipping away and poor people still living in fear of losing duh properties just so.
I could only imagine how the people in dem areas must feel when they have tuh look on and see all the years of toil and labour dem put in tuh build a nice comfortable house, breaking away and sliding down into nowhere. I gine tell ya: dat got tuh be hard and the worst part is, you cahn point ya finger or blame one soul fuh it – it is just what it is.
Look, if you ain’t got a good strong heart, the things dat happening in these times would send ya off one time, hear wha’ I tell ya. Look, you could talk what ya like ’bout the different parishes but you see St Andrew and St Joseph? Dem is two o’ the most beautiful parishes in Barbados, wid some o’ the most breathtaking sceneries and views ya could find anywhere. Dat is why tuh me, despite the danger, people still building and living in dem areas.
Well, apart from the fact dat most o’ dem people born, bred and grow up pon some o’ dem same spots dat now decide tuh fall away.
The truth is, I ain’t know how dem people does handle it at all, it is like the land does be saying, today fuh me, tomorrow fuh you. It like it is only a matter o’ time before another part o’ the earth start tuh break away and find somewhere else tuh go.
You could imagine locking up your house and going off tuh work evah single day tuh get money tuh try tuh make you and your family comfortable but during the day all you hoping for is dat by the time you get back home evahthing is still whole and intact?
Or you could imagine going tuh sleep every night and praying dat you wouldn’t wake up the next morning tuh find dat the whole backyard o’ the house slip way and gone long ’bout it business? Or you could imagine watching helplessly as your house dat you work years and years tuh build now complete and you and the family comfortable at last and now, all of a sudden, you could see the foundation start tuh crack up and break away and all you could do is watch helplessly?
My mother use tuh always say dat when you think you got it hard or bad, duh got somebody else out there who got it harder and going through worse than you, and dat is so true. It got tuh be hard fuh the people in these areas, who have lost duh homes and now gotta start from scratch somewhere else and just as hard fuh the ones who now going through a similar plight and desperate fuh some sorta help.
I could only imagine how the people in some o’ these areas was feeling recently when we had all dat rain. And then when some o’ dem see the amount o’ damage it caused St Vincent and some o’ the other islands, God only know the fear dat some o’ dem had.
I am writing this column fuh the people in the areas o’ St Joseph and St Andrew dat does slip, the ones who lost duh properties, the ones who beginning tuh lose duh properties and the ones who got things still intact and hoping dat it never happens tuh dem and I pray dat instead o’ living in constant fear, night after night, relief would come soon in the form o’ relocation.
Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.