MAVIS BECKLES: God spare we another year

Every single year I does have tuh talk ’bout this, and I ain’t gine stop talking ’bout it neither. Ya see, I am one o’ the people in Barbados who is so grateful and who does let evahbody know how I feel when the hurricane season pass and we ain’t get suh much as a tree branch blowing down.
You could imagine dat a whole six months o’ tropical depressions, tropical waves, tropical storms and hurricanes pass we by and not one o’ dem ain’t affect we in nuh kinda way at all? You could imagine dat we right here, the first piece o’ land across the Atlantic Ocean from the African coast and all we get fuh a whole hurricane season is a couple hours o’ rain at a time?
Boy I will never understand how it does happen year after year, but I gine tell ya this, I ain’t need tuh understand nutten hear? I ain’t know ’bout you, but all I know and am more than grateful for, is dat nutten ain’t happen tuh this li’l rock during this entire hurricane season and fuh dat I thank God.
One o’ the places I does feel sorry for is Haiti. It looks like most o’ the systems dat pass through here does give Haiti a li’l touch up, it ain’t look like if Haiti gine evah catch itself; but I know dah ain’t true, it ain’t gine be always so, dem people resilient, one day things gine turn around and duh gine bounce right back.
But talking ’bout bouncing back, up tuh now duh got hundreds if not thousands o’ people up in the United States who got a lot o’ bouncing back tuh do; duh ain’t know if duh standing or if duh sitting ’cause up tuh now duh still got people out there wid out power and look at the time o’ the year it is: it going in tuh winter and you and I would know dat it getting real real cold.
You could imagine Sandy though? Sandy left all the way off the African coast, wind she way all pass the Caribbean chain o’ islands, went and do as she like and take out some people in Haiti, Jamaica and then Cuba; she then find sheself all the way up in New York, New Jersey and a good few other places up in America dat doan normally be looking out fuh this sort o’ weather when the year come.
She dumped nuff nuff water and flood out where evah she touched down, she left all kinds o’ houses in shambles; she knock down and uprooted big able trees, break down power lines and caused hundreds o’ people tuh not only run fuh duh lives but up tuh now, be widout electricity and somewhere tuh call home.
Sandy is a boss lady, she stop a whole election campaign from taking place up in the states wid Mitt Romney and Barack Obama; she let dem know who was really in control. But Sandy ain’t easy though, wid a name like Sandy ya would expect her tuh be a li’l more passive, ya even expected her tuh fissile out after travelling suh far and doing suh much damage tuh Jamaica and some o’ the other bigger Caribbean islands.
Ya might have thought dat she would have by then not be suh strong and powerful wid all o’ dat water, and dat she would have petered out and gone back tuh a tropical wave or depression.
But no soul, Sandy decided dat she gine be a rebel and do as she like all the way up in the states and not a boy couldn’t do a thing ’bout it, then cool cool so, she decided tuh fizzle out leaving evahbody she touched lost and confused.
It nevah ceases tuh amaze me when I hear people talking ’bout these storms and hurricanes. Look, I does listen tuh all sorts o’ weather people predicting this and the other, what and what ain’t gine happen but I gine tell ya, wid all the lot o’ knowledge and power duh got, not a boy ain’t know nor cahn predict the extent o’ the damage these systems gine cause nor duh cahn turn dem back nor do a thing ’bout dem.
As I said earlier, I ain’t know ’bout ya’all but I am truly grateful fuh coming through another year o’ all kinds o’ weather systems big and small and not be affected by any o’ dem, thank God fuh sparing we again.
• Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.