MAVIS BECKLES: Rain in paradise

WELL, let me tell you, if you think we had potholes before, think again. After dah rain from Monday night all the way in tuh all day Tuesday, what used tuh be potholes are now craters or wells and the places where duh ain’t even had nuh potholes now got. 

I ain’t know how the Government gine handle this new expense ’cause all o’ we hollering fuh bare murder a’ready because o’ the amount o’ money we gotta fork out evah single month fuh mortgage, rent, food, medicals, insurances and more taxes evah single year.

I ain’t know how we gine get these roads fixed now, hear? One o’ the positive things I could say ’bout the large cracks and holes in the roads is dat it gine stop a lot o’ dem people who does drive dem big trucks from running ya off the roads ’cause duh now gotta slow down.

Duh ain’t want tuh mash up duh big ride. You would believe dat the roads belong tuh dem, like nuhbody else doan pay road tax.

Earlier up in the week I was reading the column by Roy Morris and he was talking bout an area called Drax Hall Woods dat he tried tuh get in tuh. He talk bout how bad the road is and how difficult it is fuh dem people tuh get in tuh their homes. Well you would know dat if the road was bad before, it gine be much worse now wid the kind o’ rain dat we had ’bout here the last couple o’ days.

Look I cahn remember the last time I see rain falling so. In the first part o’ the rainy season, we ain’t see much rain at all, it was bare heartache fuh a whole lot o’ people even from last year Christmas when some people in St Joseph didn’t have water. It was so hot and dry ’bout here in the earlier part o’ the year and evahbody was sweating like a pot cover. 

Evahbody was crying out fuh li’l rain and, boy, did it come. It come down, like the old people would say, in buckets a drop. In less than two hours wid the rain falling so, the whole place was flooded.

I hope the people in the affected areas especially the ones wid empty water tanks get duh tanks full up. I hope the people at the water authority, from the time dem get the news ’bout the weather system had dem tanks, vats or wha’evah ya does call dem open wide tuh catch some o’ dem gallons o’ water dat pelt down bout here Tuesday gone.

Somebody send me a clip wid water pouring down in a restaurant kitchen and all I could do was put my hand ovah my mouth. I could not believe the amount o’ water dat was gushing down in dat place. Boy leh muh tell ya: water will find a way; it moves away any and evahthing in it’s path tuh get by; but talk bout damage? 

I feel fuh the people in dat restaurant ‘cause wid the amount o’ water dat was gushing down dem steps and mashing up the very ceiling, it look like it gine take a good few dollars tuh get things up and running again.

Look, dat rain ain’t only uproot trees and cause dem tuh fall and mash up people taxis or mash up the roads or mash up people properties, it mash up the Independence celebrations too and duh had tuh push back evahthing and hope fuh the best.

Of course, it rained on my parade ’cause I doan miss a Independence Day parade and I was so looking forward tuh the one this year; I know it was going tuh be special. Well, thank God it held up lil bit fuh the functions tuh take place. 

But I gine tell ya: evahbody was praying fuh rain and as the old people would tell ya, be careful what ya ask for. we get more rain than we bargain for.

• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.