Hiroshige’s ‘Fifty-Three stages of the Tokaido Highway: A Shower at Shono’

LAST TUESDAY afternoon, the rain pelted down by the buckets-full in St Michael parish in Barbados. It kept on for two to three hours steady; I had to drive through it. Somehow, sitting in waiting traffic with the pounding on the car roof, it got me thinking that day more about the weather.

Rain! In the eyes of a Bajan, rain is synonymous with Guyana. Talk cricket, and I am frequently asked: “Bourda gon get flood out again?” I remember a friend of mine in Barbados took a month’s leave from work to spend December in Georgetown. It rained every day except two days, she moaned, when she came back. And then there was the ‘Great Flood’ of January/February 2005, where several parts of the coastland area were under several feet of water for days, causing deaths and injuries and millions of dollars in damage to the economy.

On Tuesday afternoon, somehow, everything seemed different. Barbados in August is typically hot. The downpour was a welcome cooling. As I drove down Green Hill (near The Price Mart Discount store for those Guyanese who know Barbados), the rainwater flowed down the hill. Passing vehicles going the other way splattered it up against your windshield. Further down, as you neared the capital, Bridgetown, the water settled, perhaps where the drainage couldn’t handle the volume. It was a foot deep in places. I knew the water was reaching my engine, but I pulled through. I passed a number of stalled vehicles.

It was expected. June to November is Barbados’ rainy season. The island gets an average of 1525 mm (206 mm in November highest, 28 mm in February). Every now and again, the island gets a really big downpour. In September last year, the heavens opened up and dumped 114.3 mm (4.5 inches) in three hours. The island’s Department of Emergency Management (DEM) sent out bulletins in the media. The Barbados police, Fire Service and even the Barbados Defence Force personnel had to rescue persons stranded in homes surrounded by water.

June to November is also the hurricane season, as the DEM frequently tells the residents. Somehow, the destructive storms blowing in from the eastern Atlantic swerve to the north shortly before they hit Barabdos. The last direct hit on was in 1958, when Hurricane Jane devastated the island.

Following the September 2008 flooding, the Barbados government of Prime Minister David Thompson two months later, in November, created a newly renamed Ministry called the Ministry of Environment, Water Resources and Drainage.

ts work will not be as wide-ranging as its counterpart in Guyana. Not only because of the size of the country (Barbados is only 21 miles long by 14 miles wide), but because the water soon drains off. This is because the island is of coral formation: The water can percolate through the porous rock material.

As I drove into the Bridgetown suburbs, I thought about this; it was a comforting feeling. The Barbados drainage system is also relatively good. Stopping at traffic lights, I looked sideways and saw the water gushing through the metal gratings by the sidewalks. I thought of Guyana and the memories of ‘The Great Flood’. This year, there was also a high level of rain — I read somewhere it was even greater than 2005 — but because of the effective remedial measures put in place by the government, damage and economic losses were, happily, minimal. Yes! And I tell my Bajan friends we have a new cricket stadium at Providence, with features to minimise rain delays.

Pedestrians in Barbados, as in Guyana, are very sensitive about being splashed by vehicles. And rightly so! The other day, a man was brought to court in Bridgetown for taking up a stone –Bajans call it a ‘rock stone’ or ‘big rock’ — and pelting it at a vehicle which splashed water on him when he was on the sidewalk. (The magistrate found him guilty, probably on premeditation grounds, in that he must have had the stone in his hand for such a quick aim and hit).

Last Tuesday, I witnessed several examples of drivers deliberately slowing down so that the people on the sidewalks wouldn’t get doused with the dirty street water.

Road etiquette in Barbados that day also extended to courtesies shown by drivers stopping and allowing others to exit side streets. Some drivers in Guyana need to learn some of these courtesies.

Three or four hours later, as I retraced my route, the rain had eased up, though the sky was still ‘set-up’. Most of the large puddles had gone. And the birds, like the knots of pigeons and wood doves you see dancing in the sunny skies, were once again flying.

Normally, whether in Barbados or Guyana, you like to be in the comfort of your home or even your office with the rain pounding on the roof. Somehow, though, last Tuesday I was glad to be out experiencing the changed weather. I was thankful that the authorities in Guyana and Barbados have got a handle on control measures; thankful for the good that rain can bring to farmers with their crops, and that the gods can be kind; thankful for nature and to be alive with it.
(NORMAN FARIA <nfaria@caribsurf.com> IS GUYANA’S HONORARY CONSUL IN BARBADOS)