Be prepared
This writer is no Boy Scout, but takes the adage of always being prepared very seriously.
It is a belief which has been developed over the years and much of it comes from watching more experienced people from within society and even within families grapple with issues which confront them.
That is why I always look back at my childhood growing up in rural St. George and seeing how people prepared for rainy and dry seasons.
It was as if they could read the turning of the seasons. Crop planting was timed to access the incoming rainy weather, so the tilling of the soil was done and planting set up to maximize impacts so that when the rains came in that the harvest was bountiful and continued over a period of days and weeks, ensuring that crops could be used at home and feed families.
My grandfather was a master of this approach. He loved lettuce, cabbage, chives and things like broad leaf thyme among other aromatics, which he could grow on cultivated soil beds, designed to maximize water flow. He would soak these beds at sunrise and then allow nature to take its course, therefore the growth of these crops would be significant in a short space of time.
My grandmother was even more adventurous. She would plant corn, sweet potato, field peas, and other crops. There was never any waste, since they raised chickens, pigs, sheep and goats who all looked forward to harvesting to get the ‘slips’ off the sweet potato crop.
That was their preparation in terms of ensuring that they kept a sustained food supply, but living in the country, they also prepared for all eventualities.
These included water outages, which were rampant in that area. I remember a time when the water was off for two weeks and because they caught rainwater and stored water in any container that they had, the home was not caught at a disadvantage.
That is the kind of thinking which must be a part of the national conversation with an active 2021 Atlantic Hurricane season forecasted. At the time of writing this, we had a brush with a weather vortex which caused roof damage and knocked out power in eastern, central and northern parishes, while the south of the island was largely untouched. Another strong tropical wave is forecast to affect the island from tomorrow.
Barbados has had some close brushes with systems within the last few years and the impacts have been severe in some cases, ranging from isolated wind damage, to flooding problems, primarily due to the volume of water with no place to go. We are still struggling to capture this water before it makes its way into the ocean.
The lesson involves the preparation which we must adhere to in an effort to not only maintain our way of life, but to ensure that we can continue that life after the system passes. We are prepared for rains and what we consider as bad weather, with the expectation that Barbados never experiences that weather for a prolonged period.
We exist in a zone where most systems are in the process of developmental flux when they meet our unique position. That means that most systems are in a cycle of either gaining or losing strength. We have had close brushes with these systems and seemed on a collision course, only to sharply past us.
We have had lots of rain and wind, but the Barbadian spirit always survives. Even as some lost rooftops in the most recent vortex, but still expressed optimism and hope in spite of this.
The notion is that you can rebuild a home, but you cannot replace your life once it is lost. Generations have observed this in their preparations to combat tropical trouble over the years and in the face of all other challenges.
The preparation of my grandparents was representative of the rest of the communities around them. Cleanup around houses was a regular occurrence, whether it be dry or rainy season and the objective was to clear drains and remove un-necessary debris from around homes. Trees were also trimmed in anticipation of rainy seasons.
That was information which was passed down from one generation to the other. The unexpected consequence of the days of volcanic ash dumped on this island from the erupting La Soufrière volcano in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, was that many Barbadians got the head-start to clean up their surroundings and drains around their homes to rid themselves of the ash which, when wet, was a hindrance and when dry caused respiratory problems.
Being prepared is a lesson for life. Life itself is precious and fragile and we tend to focus and have anxiety over work, family issues, personal relationships, how we will pay bills or fix things around the home.
The focus has to be on enjoying every moment that we have above ground, before people stand and look over your well-powered face in a casket and speak highly of you.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the globe and particularly in this country has shown how unimportant the things that we stressed over pre-pandemic, truly are.
The immediacy of the potential impacts of the Hurricane season, should come naturally to us, since we have endured restrictions, water issues and the like for the last calendar year.
We have learnt what is important and what remains as peripheral issues within our lives.
Once we accept those lessons, then we as a country can be prepared for anything.