I would like somebody – anybody – tuh tell me what this chikungunya really is and where the France it come from.
It doan look like anybody could give you a straight answer ’bout this thing.
Whoevah ya talk tuh, since this thing breeze in tuh Barbados some months ago, telling you dat all dem know ’bout it is dat it brekking ya up and just doan pray tuh get it.
Wha’ how ya mean doan pray tuh get it? Now tell me, who the France in duh right mind gine want tuh pray tuh catch something dat evahbody telling ya gine brek ya up so? Something dat duh say does make ya feel like a cripple? Something dat does shut ya down one time. Something dat does make ya pray fuh sleep so ya could forget the pain? Something dat does have evah single bone in ya body hurting and evah joint stiff and swell up? Who in duh right mind want tuh have duh fingers bend outta shape like duh got severe arthritis?
But these is just a few things ya hearing ’bout this chikungunya.
Every other body ya talk tuh got a story tuh tell ya ’bout this disease, sickness, virus or wha’evah ya call it. Ya only got tuh miss somebody you accustom tuh seeing actually every day, and when you ask dem where duh went or if duh was outta the island duh does look at you strange and ask, “Overseas? Uh wish. Man, I had dat chikungunya thing and lemmuh tell ya, I thought I was gine dead”.
I hear a man say dat ya could run but ya cahn hide ’cause the chicken gine find ya and gun ya down. He say dat ya ain’t know which direction the chikungunya coming from, so ya cahn even shift, shun nor even dodge it. He say dat it does creep up ’pon ya and, before ya know it, ya does be lick up; cahn even get ya two eyeballs tuh move at times. Even dem does feel as though duh want tuh seize up, he say. Well, I tell ya.
Wednesday gone, I see a fella who I ain’t see fuh a good few weeks and when I ask him where he went and if he changed his route, the man looked at me and say, “Change route? Man, I had dah chicken thing. He like he pick me in every single part o’ my body and I couldn’t move some parts o’ my body fuh a whole two weeks. You think dah thing easy?”
He went on tuh tell me dat all like now so, after two weeks actually bedridden, dat parts o’ he body still hurting he real bad and the bottom o’ he foot still very sore. He say it is a good thing dat he does drive fuh a living; otherwise he would not be able tuh work if it involved a lot o’ walking or standing up.
The man also say dat he think evahbody in Barbados gine catch this chikungunya thing. He say dat he doan believe it is nuh mosquito dat spreading this thing like the medical people want ya tuh believe.
He say out by where he live in the country always used tuh have nuff mosquitoes and he nevah even had dengue fever yet. Now all of a sudden, the said same mosquito dat duh say does give ya the dengue fever, now turning around and giving ya the dreaded chikungunya. He say dat he ain’t believe in dat; it got tuh be more than these medical people telling ya.
I ain’t believe it myself. I believe it is something in the air and I was saying so from the time people start tuh come down wid this thing. Wha’ it is the same pocksy-foot dengue mosquito duh was showing ya pon the TV fuh all the years.
Suh far I ain’t hear ’bout nuhbody who dead from it – thank God – but it like it doing the men real bad.
I pray it doan get nuh worse and, better still, I pray it mek haste and guh ’long back where it come from ’cause we ain’t want he ’bout here – he too vicious, boh!
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.