The deluge

October 21, 8 am: The south-bound lane is filling up but I am yet unaware of the extent of the deluge that would follow. The traffic is crawling and I am already late for my classes. Vehicles make a detour onto the north-bound lane so by now I know that things don’t look good. As I make the detour with other drivers, I decide it’s time to return home. In the short moment that it took to make that decision one portion of the north-bound highway had already begun to fill with water. The police officer stopped a line of vehicles and advised us all to turn back and head south. A man argued persistently with the police officer, perhaps trying to make sense of what was happening, saying he needed to go north. He didn’t want to go south. Eventually, he was firmly advised to park on the side and wait there because there was no way he could head north. People were already getting stranded in the water. I could see the gushing waters from where I sat in my vehicle. On any other day I would have probably laughed out at the confusion on the man’s face as he tried to reason with the police officer who kept insisting that he head back south. Today, however, everyone was confused. In the two minutes that it took me to turn around to head back to Chaguanas, the water on the north-bound heading to south just before the walkover close to Munroe Road had also begun to rise, permitting only larger vehicles and some brave souls with cars to pass through. It was at least 9 am by then. I pulled aside.

I had fortunately parked on the bridge over the river where I had a clear view of the south bound highway. I phoned my parents and my tribe to inform them of my situation. Of course there was laughter and mocking comments from the sensitive souls that they all are. I didn’t expect less.

“See! We tell you to cancel the class! But no. Next time, cancel the *bleep bleep* classes and stay your tail home where I can see you,” said one friend.

My mother in true form, laughed and remarked in that dry way of hers that there was no doubting my stupidity while my brother reported that my father was walking around the house looking like "fish out of water" worrying that I might have to overnight on the highway, and was plotting some way of getting me out. I reassured them all, that I was fine and was in fact enjoying the experience.

In addition to which, this was my opportunity to practise my mindfulness exercises.

I stared around me after settling in to the idea of holing up on the side of the highway for at least a few hours. One police officer checked on me from time to time. I must comment, that the police service handled the situation in the best way that they could have done on that day.

Cows in the distance on the south-bound side of the highway looked quite confused. One of them, a particularly active one, made sudden gallops in the water that was reaching her chest. She kept pacing back and forth and then looked on with confusion as a large black barrel came floating down towards her. I wished that I could have helped. Thankfully some men came along in a boat and eventually drove them off, more than likely to some bit of dry land. I wasn’t able to see where they had headed. Only one was left standing forlorn on a concrete height for the entire time that I spent on the highway. There was no way to move, neither left nor right. It just stood there, a point of focus whenever I looked across the highway.

Around 5.30 pm, food boxes began to make an appearance. Some citizens appeared with boxes of hot pelau and a case of water sharing out to those of us who had been stranded there. People by then had formed friendships and were hanging around on the sides. Kiss cakes and sandwiches from Kiss trucks came flying through the truck windows to those who had asked. It was an indication of the days that would follow.

As one friend said, it takes only two per cent of the population to come together to start changing the vibration of the space. And if this flooding was any indication of the solidarity and kindness that still exist among our people, then there is much to hope for. And it should also say to us that, should we come together, as citizens, we have the limitless ability to make the changes that we seek.