Dear Nesta,
How you, dear heart? Yuh frien’ hey cyhan complain, ’cause evah mornin’ when I open muh eyes an’ realise I still aroun’ to see de light o’ a new day, in spite o’ wuh I gine t’rough, I gi’e God all de glory. Consider de people in places like de Ukraine an’ we nighber, Venezuela, an’ den counk yuh blessin’s.
Well, we en lef’ de valley yet an’ ef we believe Moodys lates’ words, we still a long way from home! ’Ccordin to dah organisation, all de layoffs an’ cutbacks en do “squat” to mek wrong t’ings right, so we all still stumblin’ ’bout in de dark. Sixty-nine fires in two days lightin’ up de sky en de kin’ o’ “brightness” we need or want.
So we got to press on an’ remember de sayin’ – when de goin’ gets tough, de tough get goin’!
Dis is now de time to shackle out de “tares” from de “wheat”. As yuh know, we yoomans reack in all sorts o’ ways when disaster strike. Some o’ de layoffs gine stop home an’ moan ’bout duh bad luck – an’ keep on moanin’ ’til all duh settlement pay done, an’ den duh gine really got somet’ing to moan ’bout. Ethuhs gine cry fuh a short time, dry duh tears an’ sit down an’ study de nex’ step to tek (in a hones’ way, we hope) to try an’ keep body an’ soul togethuh.
A nex’ lot gine go out an’ “blow” any few cents dat might be in duh han’s, sayin’ tomorrow gine tek care o’ itself. But duh shun tek dat sayin’ tummuch to heart ’cause nine times outta ten, “tomorrow” don’ be as rosy as we expeck, as a frien’ o’ mine experience years ago when she receive quite a sizeable “settlement” an’ it went right t’rough de winder quick-so in Las Vegas, whey she went to celebrate an’ – so she say at de time – try to increase it. She cryin’ all like now.
For Sale an’ For Rent signs appearin’ all over de islan’, some in areas yuh won’ expeck to see in better times. Fuh any “speculator” wid ready cash, dis is a dream come true, but as mos’ o’ we only gettin’ nightmares at dis time, very few could indulge in dis “pipe dream”. People also tryin’ to “offload” cars an’ in true “ownway” Bajan fashion, placin’ dem fuh sale ’pon de shoulders o’ de highway, an’ wheyevah else duh feel like it, aldoh I onderstan’ advertisin’ vehicles in dis manner ’gainst de law. Duh got to be real desperate.
Flea markets, garage an’ boot car sales prevail ’pon weeken’s – sometimes I counk as many as ten in de papers – all tryin’, I suppose, to mek a hones’ (?) dollar. I ha’ to say so, ’cause nowadays, de way prices get “jack up” is onbelievable. Wuh used to cos’ ten or so dollars, now outta reach onless yuh shell out twice as much. Times hard, not only fuh some, but fuh evahbody, so nobody should feel it is dem right to fleece de firs’ person to come ’long. Chile, it is a “dog eat dog” worl’ out dey an’ “scammers” aboun’. Ef yuh don’ harden yuh heart to a lotta of de “sob stories” yuh hearin’ nowadays, yuh in bare trouble.
But when dis hard, dry period come to an en’, as come it mus’, wevver in one year, two or even four years – neffin does las’ fuhevah, good, bad or indiff’rent – an’ we see we way once agen, dis experience should serve we in good stead an’ bring we out as mo’ kin’, an’ hones’ towards one anethuh. As my mother always used to say – “Out o’ evil cometh good”!
Tek care o’ yuhself.
Yuh frien, Babsie.
