After An Unexpected Storm…

They all were a little in shock. No one could tell them that the global climate was changing in such a way that while in the past hurricanes were very rare, from now on they would be as frequent for them as for the outer island. And after 200 hundred year or more of living a certain way, building a certain way and expecting the world to be a certain way, it was now bound to change. So our first impression as we walked through Hillsborough on our way to the Green Roof Inn where we were to stay, was how quiet, subdued, almost beaten everyone looked. Trees were down everywhere, the ocean rolled and tossed and whole streches of beach were missing. Some of them were never to return. Some of the trees we were told had stood for 100 years and then were gone overnight. The week we spent in Carriacou was constantly informed by this shock.

We were perhaps a little full of ourselves and maybe not so observant of the people and their mood as we perhaps should have been. We had nothing to recover from and even a few things to celebrate. I had just given notice at a job I had been at for almost 20 years. I was about to begin work as a programmer fro my friend and teacher Albert James and had fetched books about Oracle Database design and other non-tropical materials. I had extracted a promise from Bonnie that I was to be allowed to work. Sitting out on the resturant veranda, with my books and papers might have been as amusing sight for the other guests.