Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get into this episode of Small Doses Podcast,
want to remind all my folks in the Tri State
area that you can catch a free performance of What
Would the Ancestors Say? My One Woman Show on Saturday,
May thirty first, six pm at the People's Forum on
thirty seventh Street between eighth and ninth in New York City.
Weaving historytelling and social commentary through stand up comedy, poetry,
(00:24):
song and characters, My One Woman Show imagines a new future,
keeps it real about the present, and gives voice to icons.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Of our cultural past.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Take advantage of this fabulous production that is being shown
and presented to you all on the free ski by
coming through on May thirty first at the People's Forum.
Go to Amanda Seals dot com for more details. All right,
let's get into this show. Remember that time I was
in a hurricane. Let's talk about it, Small said, don't
(01:00):
help from this small, small area. Small, It's so funky.
Welcome to this week's episode of Small Doses Podcast. It's
going to be a different kind of episode, y'all, because
I got to just really tell y'all about my experience
being in a hurricane, and I want to talk about
(01:24):
this because it's not just my experience, but there's a
larger story to this experience. And you know, I always
got to connect the dots on things. Your girl always
got to connect the dots on things. So this year,
on my forty third birthday, I was in Grenada and
Hurricane Barrel started barreling towards the island. Now, let me
(01:48):
just tell y'all, I had no idea that there was
even a hurricane in conversation, literally zero, Like, I was
just in Grenada.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And then my mom calls me. It's like, so you
worried about the hurricane. I'm like, I don't even know
what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
She's like, yeah, there's like a possible hurricane coming towards you.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And I'm like huh.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So then I'm walking to the beach and one of
the women who works at the hotel. We're very friendly,
so we're talking and she's Italian. She's like, we gona
get a dy for the hurricane. You know we dread
Now did you get the tropical storm? So we're not
really knowing like what's going to be, but going to
think posit. We going to think posic. So I'm thinking
it's just going to be a tropical storm. I'm not
exaggerating stress like that. So I was like, yeah, you
know what. I like how she's thinking. I'm gonna be
(02:28):
positive too. It's just gonna be a tropical storm. I've
been through having the tropical storms. I'm from Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We have tropical storms. Y'all have taco Tuesday. We have
tropical storm Tuesday. Okay, it's just met every day, regular regular.
What exactly is a tropical storm?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I mean, if we were going to do a formal
gem drop right now, the difference between a tropical storm
and a hurricane are very specific. Tropical storms and hurricanes
are denoted by the speed of the winds, and as
the winds pick up speed, it shifts from tropical storm
to a hurricane, and then it goes up a scale
basically the levels category one, two, three, four, five, and
(03:04):
the hurricane itself is something that I feel like a
lot of people can't even fathom, because a tropical storm
is also no joke. If you've ever been into a
tropical storm, it's doing some things, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
The wind is in the willows.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's shorts, the trees are blowing like in Orlando, we
would always have to come out the next morning and
pick up debris, pick up branches, pick up things that
have been you know, just tossed about, et cetera. So
a tropical storm is no joke. So the idea of
a hurricane is like a nahomon.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Now, but that's where the bar is starting, and how
do we even go up from here? Where do we
go from here?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So I'm over here like, all right, tropical storm. It's
a doozy, But I can handle a tropical storm. And
I go to the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
When they say that it's a calm before the storm,
they ain't lion, because the day before this hurricane was gorgeous.
The sky was clear, the waters were calm. I was
drinking a virgin peanut Colada. I'm on the internets, trying
to pretend like I'm not on the internet, but I'm
still on the internet because.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I have a difficult time disengaging. You know. It just
really was like, it can't.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Possibly be a hurricane coming, not when it looks like
this Monee well child. While I'm sitting there at the beast,
They're like, ooh, Beryl.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Decided to be a hurricane, y'all. I said, I'm sorry, what.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So the biggest issue with hurricanes and water is that
hurricanes pick up speed over water, and so that's why
they're always like, oh, you know, once it makes landfall,
it's gonna probably decrease because the reality is that with
the condensation and the barometric pressure and all the scientificals
of the hurricane, it requires the water in order for
(04:50):
it to get stronger. And I'm sure that there's like
a whole indigenous explanation for this, but the scientific explanation
is when that thing of a water, it's gonna pop off.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's gonna pop out on show notes. I mean, that's
really what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The other issue is that warm water makes the hurricanes
even more hurricane. And we have seen due to climate
change the elevation of the planet, and the planet elevated
like one degree. People were like, so, what big deal,
But those people were people like Marjorie Taylor Green you know, idiots.
(05:25):
So the scientists are like, it's not a small thing
that the planet is elevating by one degree.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
This is not supposed to be happening.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And it's happening because the amount of greenhouse gases that
we're using. It's happening because the amount of waste we're producing,
et cetera. I think it was Argentina I read recently,
Or you're what one of these South American countries is
like the first to just completely lose all its glaciers
as glacierless it had glaciers. Now we don't Why didn't
(05:54):
they have glaciers Amanda because it melted while glaciers melting Amanda.
Because we have oil refineries, we have toxic nuclear plants,
et cetera, that are constantly creating emissions and disrupting ecosystems
in ways that are deleterious and that have a number
of domino effects. So when we see these things happening,
(06:17):
it's not coming from nowhere. It's coming from these industrial
nations that disregard what's quote unquote the global South. Now
we hear at small Doses podcasts. The first time I
ever heard global South was on this podcast and was
when we had Selene Simon of the Slow Factory Selene
and Selene was talking about side of that climate change.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
She taught us so much in such a small amount
of time.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
She exposed so many false and half truths for us
that really helped to contextualize what climate change really means
versus what we're being told it is. And nine times
out of ten, the people, like individuals who be in
a house are the ones who are being told that
we need to fix our carbon footprint, when ultimately it's
(07:01):
actually large giant corporations that our carbon footprinting all over
And that's what the real issue is. Don't put it
on the individual people. Hold these people accountable. Now a
side note, the Supreme Court just ruled that with the
Chevron Exception, the EPA, which is one of the government
agencies that is included in the Chevron Exception, doesn't really
(07:21):
have the power anymore to make any rules without a
judge saying yes or no, whether.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
That judge is an expert or not.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So all of this connects, and when you're there in
these types of situations is when I think that you
start to see it in a real way. So many
of us in America have such a myopic and a
reductive point of view that we're really not able to
see how things that are happening globally affect us, and
oftentimes we don't get to see how the things that
are happening to us affect the world globally, because there's
(07:52):
just this constant effort to keep the blinders on and
to keep us sequestered in our own little bubble, and
what we don't know will hurt us. And also so
many of us are connected to, married to the family
of friends with do business with immigrants, and people who
live in other places that are also getting the result
(08:14):
of the lackadaisical efforts by these corporations to monitor the
way their which they're harming the earth. So when I'm
sitting here in Grenada hearing about a hurricane coming and
they start talking about how a hurricane has never come
from this part of the ocean since nineteen thirty three,
(08:35):
that's literally almost one hundred years. Grenada is situated as
the second to the last island of the Caribbean. It
sits nestled to the south of Saint Vincent, to the
north of Trinidad, to the west of Barbados, and to
the east of Venezuela. By nature of its placement, we
often miss hurricanes because typically what a hurricane will do
(08:58):
is it will form out in the Atlantic and then
it'll come and swing up the Caribbean and it'll actually
miss us because the way that the Caribbean islands run
is it's kind of like in the shape of a
lazy J. Think of it like that. So we're in
the lazy part of the hook of the J. So
oftentimes we don't get any of the bs.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Of course, countries like Cuba, countries like Jamaica, countries like
Puerto Rico oftentimes will because as that hurricane is coming
up the Atlantic Ocean, up the Lesser and Greater Antilles,
it picks.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Up speed speeds, speeds, speed speed, and then it hits them.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I was very frustrated to hear the way the news
was talking about this hurricane, because it was essentially saying
not essentially, they were literally saying, yeah, the hurricane is
going to hit some speed bumps before it lands on
america soil. They were referring to actual islands where people live,
where people are going to be affected, possibly harmed, as
speed bumps. Again, we must always remember that when we
(10:03):
live in these Western imperialist empire nations, they constantly use
rhetoric and language to minimize the lives of others. And
what it does in the moment may seem innocuous or careless,
but what it really does is. It creates this sense
that whatever's happening to those people is really not that deep,
and that then makes you a lot more willing to
(10:25):
accept the things that happen that cause things to happen
for those people, you know, like oil spills and all
the other fuck shit that these corporations do. So here
we have Hurricane Barrel. Now she was a tropical storm,
(10:45):
but then she said ah and said I'm about to
whip it up and come at you.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Up until June thirtieth, they was really like in me,
you know, I think it Mintun. You think it got Ton,
I think it Mentun. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I'm like, it's five o'clock. It's not turning, y'all. It's coming.
It's not turning around. Five o'clock is when they decided
to have the debriefing at the hotel. So I was saying,
at this hotel on Granite's Beach in the south west
of the island, no one really knew how this was
going to land, but people started recounting their memories of
(11:23):
Hurricane Ivan. Hurricane Ivan hit in two thousand and five,
and it decimated the island of Grenada. The hurricane itself
was larger than the land mass of the island. At
one point it was hovering over the island like a
dam hoverboard or a helicopter. Mom just relentless. And Grenada
(11:48):
is not a flat island. So if you've been to
places like Bermuda, Aruba, Barbados, those are islands that were
formed with like coral to my knowledge, but they're not
formed volcanically and thus they don't have tall peaks.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
They're pretty flat. Well.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Greened is a volcanic island, so much so that we
literally have a dormant volcano in the center of the
island and there's a national park around it that is
a rainforest and it's a Granitytinian Rainforest National Park. And
you're not allowed to swim in the lake because people
go in that lake and then they die.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And the theory is that there's a suction in the lake.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And then if your goal in the lake, there's suction
into the dormant volcano and spit you out on the
shares of the island. And if we really want to
go into it, you know, West Indians, it ain't a
dormant volcano is pulling you Winded.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I know? Yeah, or your gloom.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
AnyWho, so because of this, it allows for a hurricane
to pick up even more speed because they are able
to pull from the peaks of the island. They're able
to pull from the higher density of the island. And
when Hurricane Ivan came, it was like, I don't know
any Grenadian that was untouched with Hurricane Ivan. The first
(13:10):
time that I ever stayed in a hotel in Grenada
was because my uncle, who my grandmother left our house too.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
That's another episode.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
But my uncle, who our grandma, my grandmother, left our
house to like our family home, he did not replace
the roof. A year after the hurricane, he still had
not replaced the roof, and so we ended up having
to stay in a hotel. And that was the first
time that we did not stay in Memorris When we
went to Grenado and I was hot, and I called
my uncle and I was like, you know, I just
can't believe that you actually are the one who was
(13:39):
given this house and you're not even taking care of it,
and so now we got to stay in a hotel
because you didn't fix the roof. And he was like, oh,
fuck off, Amanda, and I said Nick, and I hung up.
So then I called my mom, and I told my mom,
And to this day, my mom says that I gave
my uncle a hip hop curse out.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Did get him a popcor sold Mines.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So Ivan is something that lives on the minds of
so many Grenadians. And I could see the fear in
some of the workers at the hotel's eyes of just
the concern that this would be similar to Ivan, because
when Ivan hit, it just took longer than I think
people expected to bunks back. But the thing about an
island is that you're not waiting on anybody to come
save you.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
The thing about an island is that you know that
all we got is us. So there was so much
community that came out of Ivan, and that a lot
of Grenadians learned about in terms of how to rebuild,
how to restore, and how to support and not just
even in Grenada, but in other islands.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
I think what people don't understand about the Caribbean is
that the Caribbean does work as a community, even though
there's different identities and different cultures on each island. And
we get frustrated when people act like all Caribbean islands
are the same, because they're not Dominica has an own
different flava than Grenada. Grenadad as a whole different flava
than Trinidad. And we also know that the Caribbean is
not consisting of just islands. Guyana's considered the Caribbean, Belize
(15:01):
is considered the Caribbean, and some even say, you know,
Panama is considered the Caribbean. And these are places where
a multitude of African people that were the descendants of
slaves and in some cases were free slaves and some
cases were escaped slaves, settled and created a community and
they're Caribbean. So what happened during Ivan was that I
(15:22):
think a lot of folks got to see that in
real time. And I was in the States when Ivan happened.
But one of the things that Ivan really did in
terms of devastating Grenada was our agriculture was really really
strongly affected. Like Grenada's main agriculture is spices, so much
so that we have a nutmeg on the flag, y'all.
And nutmeg, to my understand it, it takes like nine
(15:44):
years to mature and it decimated the entire nutmeg crop.
So they know how devastating a hurricane can be on
a multitude of levels beyond like just property damage, right,
it can be devastating in terms of even crop damage
and also think about livestock. So a lot of concern
was happening, and it's something that I don't experience here
(16:06):
in the States, right, like we're not existing with the
threat of hurricanes in the same way on a national level.
Everyone in Grenada knows about how a hurricane can go down.
For a frame of reference, Grenada has a population of
around one hundred and ten thousand people on the island,
which by the way, is like the size of Yonkers,
New York.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Now Here we are and we go to the debrief, and.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I just want to say that the people at Mount
Cinnamon Resort in Grenada, their staff deserves all of the
flowers out here. Even if they were concerned about the hurricane,
they did not let on. They had a confidence that
wasn't arrogance, and their confidence was in that they are
(16:51):
a team and that they are going to work together
and that they have the resources to take care of us.
There was about I would say, twenty five of us
staying in the hotel, and as the clouds started to,
you know, get a little gray, they said let's sit
down in the lobby and have a debrief, and they
walked us through every step of how this was going
to go. I was staying in a room that was, y'all,
(17:14):
basically a glass case.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
That day was like, so we're getting you out of there.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So I was removed from my room and I was
put downstairs in a room that's in like a cement block, okay,
And I immediately felt safe, like I'm in the cement block.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
There's a sliding glass door in my room.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
When I started, when they were taking me into my
room and I walked in, they was in the process
of boarding up my cement glass.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Then when we were at.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
The lobby's briefing, they were explained to us about food,
because you know, that's the first thing I'm thinking, like,
oh my god, fo water, water, food, Because what I'm
anticipating is that this could go a number of ways.
This could be a situation where we're knocked out for
a minimum of two weeks. I'm supposed to fly back
in four days, Like who knows that that's gonna happen.
I know people that were in the hurricane Hurricane Ivan.
(18:00):
I know people that were in Hurricane Katrina. I know
people that were in the earthquake in Haiti. Like, when
these things happen, it is so catastrophic and devastating, and
you absolutely have no idea what can be on the
other side of it, so you're just trying to think
about preparedness. And it was so weird to me when
people's number one thought of preparedness with the pandemic was
toilet paper, because I don't know as a Grenadia and
(18:24):
as somebody who was taught about hurricanes and preparedness for
things like that's never been a thing that people go
out and buy, like it's just water and food.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
But that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Now, let me just put a pause in there and say,
I was not taught this by my Grenadian mother. My
Granadian mother is the most unprepared person for a hurricane
that you have ever met in your life.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
She takes it so casually. And I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
She was literally in a Hurricane Janet like in the fifties,
but yet and still Anette Seals is not who you
want to call on when you're trying to prep for
a hurricane. All that because my mother loves a crisis,
like she really like a crisis, and so I think
that there's even a part of her be like, let
me just not even take this.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
That seriously so that when it does pop off, like
I got something to do.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
My mother was facing a hurricane in Orlando, and I'm
sitting in the Heathrow Airport in London, and I look
up and they're like, the hurricane such and such is
barreling towards Orlando.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I call my mom, like, is there a hurricane coming? Yeah,
But I ain't a big dealer ready. I'm like, I
don't know. It seems like kind of a big deal.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Like they don't really big up hurricanes in Orlando because
it's Central Florida. And like I said about the hurricanes
thinking of speed, they typically trust that by the time
it gets to central Florida, it's had to cross over
the land mass of Florida and so it will have
decreased speed by then and just be get a tropical storm,
which Central Florida is pretty you know, equipped to handle.
So I don't know if that's what my mom was thinking,
(19:44):
but the mediologists were definitely not saying that. They were like, na, no, no, no,
this is gonna be a problem. So I'm asking my
mom what she's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
She's like, wall probably let you up with a toe
under the door.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I got some yulegert, you got yogurt, you got like
the most perishable flo item possible, as like your food
to protect you, Diami, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I'm not really making no big thing about it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I was just like, and it's so frustrating anybody out
there who has parents that just refuse to listen but
then get mad because they say, like, you don't help them.
It's like, I'm trying to help you, and I'm telling
you what you need to do because I know what
you need to do.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
But then she was on some like, oh I really
don't need that. I really don't.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But I put her in a hotel and the hurricane
was a mess.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I also was able to get her house boarded up.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Shout out to Royce Read because Royce, who I went
to Darctorville High School with. I was like, I need
to night have bored my mom my house in Orlando,
and so she took care of my mom.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So shout out to a community. My mom's house got
bored up. Jeez, Louise, she went to a hotel.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
But I just say that to say that if you
find yourself concerned about how to get ready for a hurricane,
and you're like, oh, I ask the man his mom.
Because she's from Bernada, she's been a hurricanes, don't. She's
not gonna help you. She's gonna tell you to get
so perishable items and stand in front of a glass door.
Don't listen to her. You could listen to me, because
I'm a very sensible gal. That's why they call me
a common sense specialist. So speaking of sensible, I wasn't
(21:16):
playing with y'all. The shower in my hotel room was
craftily fashioned out of like cement, and it had like
an aesthetic to it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I'm not playing with y'all.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I made a bed in the shower, okay, And if
you follow us on Patreon, you'll get to see the bed.
I made a bed in the shower. People, I got
the cushions off the couch. The bed was cozy. The
bed was cozy. I charged up all my devices while
we had electricity. I charged up all my devices. Now,
(21:49):
when we was at this debreez, I told you that
they wasn't leaving no stone unturned, right, but you know
they I was gonna be a white lady who's like, but.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Did you check this pebble? Did you check under this pepper?
What about the snail? Shall you check into that? Bless
her heart?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
But there was this white lady there who apparently had
like beaten cancer and was treating herself to this trip.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I don't know about y'all, but I'd be like, yead, damn,
I've been canting again, get on to the hurricane. This
is a bullshit.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
So she had been worried for three days ahead of time,
they said, So when I would mind in my own
business not even know wing the hurricane was coming, that
lady had already started worrying about.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
This hurricane coming, This hurricane coming, this hurricane come.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
In a side note, I pulled up a video when
I was at this meeting saying the hurricanes coming on Instagram.
Do you know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
People were in the chat like, you should probably try
and get out of there. You should probably try and
get on a flight.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
One of the things that annoys me more than anything
in the world is people giving bad advice, Like unsolicited
bad advice makes me just want to explode. But this
lady's asking questions and I just got to give it
up to the staff. Because they were so calm and
they were so patient and understanding that she was just scared.
One of the questions she asked was she was like, okay,
so when the hurricane comes, do we know like how
(23:05):
long that will be here?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And the manager was like, no, can't see that.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I do.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
That's the thing about a hurricane. They're very unwilly.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Whereas that's why that's her job and that's not my job,
because my job would have been like, lady, how I
know about when a hurricane is gonna go? I'm no
that do I look omniptend to you. No, we don't
know how long a hurricane gonna be.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
There still a.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Question, next question. I'm also a strong believer that there
are dumb questions. I don't care when people say there's
no dumb questions.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
That's a lie. That's a lie. Don't listen to that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Don't let people trick you into asking a dumb question
by telling you that they ain't no such thing as
dumb questions.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
There are dumb questions.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So now the wind starts to picking up and I
start to see the rain coming. Honey, they said the
hurricane was gonna hit at two am. That's why I
slept in the shower because I'm like, if I fall
asleep and the hurricane hits, like, I want to be
already in case in safety.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
And when I woke up the next morning, it hadn't
hit yet. You know what. The next morning was my
birthday made Julio, July first.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
There's gotta be some type of astrological spiritual santadia something
about there being a hurricane on your birthday July first,
animal cancer. Come on, there's more to it. There has
to be, Yes, y'all. I was there coming into forty
(24:40):
three like a frost of nature. Yes, And all day
we waited for the hurricane. I can tell you that
it's a very similar feeling to waiting for a nigga call, which,
if you know that feeling is waiting for a nigative
(25:01):
call is the worst feeling. Which is why I've decided
in my adultness that I am not gonna live that
existence anymore. I'm not gonna wait for a nygai call
no more. If a nigatime he gonna call me, and
he don't call me in like a specific timeframe, We're done.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Don't have me wait for you to call.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It's a source of anxiety that I refused, and I
wonder if I had something to do with my father,
But I'm.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Just like, I don't feel like always ever waiting for
my father to call.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I knew that I think it was gonna call, So
I'm not sure, but I will tell you what I
am sure of is that waiting for a hurricane.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Same feeling, you like, what's going happen? Is it gonna happen?
Is it going to happen. What's gonna happen?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Is it gonna happen. If it doesn't happen, what's gonna happen?
But you know that it is gonna happen. Over the
course of the day, the wind starts picking up, the
water starts coming in under the side and glass door.
And these people at the hotel fed us that next
morning because remember we thought I was gonna hit at
two am. It didn't hit at two am. So the
(25:57):
next morning they drove around and came to each room
and gave us meals like in like little like foil tins.
And I gotta tell y'all, and I was a damn
good breakfast sausage scrambled egg crack because breck bean bigun.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
It was an English breakfast and it was delicious.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I gotta tell you, I never thought I would have
concier service in the hurricane.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I just I wasn't. And I'm not saying I no
like big, big, big, big luxury resort. That's not my flavor.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I like resorts that feel like they're a part of
the landscape, resorts that feel like they're a part of
the culture and community. If I want to be in
a luxury resort, I'll go to Vegas, you know what
I'm saying. Like, I'm not trying to feel like I'm
disconnected from the place that I'm at. I don't like
feeling like I'm at a Europeans place in a place
that's not European. And what I love about like es
Care in Mexico is that it is a luxury resort
(26:56):
that feels culturally Mexican, feels my in and elevated all
at once. So I was really impressed. And that also
started to say to me.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Like, Okay, whatever happens, y'all gonna be good.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I will tell you though, like I was by myself,
and I think maybe even as recent as like three
years ago, I would have been by myself feeling like, damn,
I probably wouldn't be scared if someone was here, or
I probably would have had a better experience if someone
was here, et cetera. And maybe it's because I've been
(27:35):
through having a long relationship and experiencing, you know, situations
and having someone there and then not even being helpful.
But I was like proud of myself for how not
scared I was, and also for how not alone I
was or lonely.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I should say, I didn't feel lonely.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I felt so empowered that I was alone in this scenario,
but I still felt strong, I still felt capable, and
I still felt protected and supported because the people of
the hotel had made it clear that we were a community,
but also because I myself have come through now situations
(28:20):
enough to be fortified and be solid. And yes, if
someone was there that would have been nice, I guess,
or helpful. It could have been bullshit. I think that's
the thing that we have to remember to ourselves too,
in those scenarios, like we have a fantasy that if
it were a certain way, it would be a certain way,
and it ain't always like that. It ain't always like that,
So whatever way it is, hold on to that, make
(28:42):
the best of it, and be present with that, because
that's what it is right now. Don't let your fantasy
lead you into something, because that's really what it is.
It's a fantasy, it's escapism, it's imagination, and that has
its place. But in the middle of waiting for a hurricane,
it don't. What did have its place was me and
(29:04):
my awareness of saying, how am I gonna make sure
that I'm safe. I'm gonna sleep in this shower. I
have my two flashlights, my computer is charged up, my
phone and my devices are charged up. They have like
a little window in there, and so I was able
to like tape the blinds closed so that if by
God's will the glash got shattered for some reason, like
the blinds would stop it. I also made sure to
(29:28):
have like my stuff in there, and my food and
all my snacks in there, so I was prepared to
be in there and be fine.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
The cancer in me was like this my shell, y'all.
I'm in my shell. I'm in my shell.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But during the day I ended up just being in
the room on Instagram making videos because we had service. Luckily,
even though we lost power around like eleven am we
still had service, and I just watched that wind pick
up and pick up and pick up and pick up
and pick up, and.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
It was really wild. It was really wild.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I could see the ocean from my room and Granted's Beach,
which is known for being so tranquil and so peaceful,
was laden with white caps, and you could see it
swelling with the power.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Of the wind.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And at some point the rain was so crazy that
I couldn't even see the ocean because it was blowing
in sideways, upside down, all the ways. The hurricane kept going.
We hit the eye about two and a half three
hours in. And when you're in the eye of the storm,
it's not to say that there.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Isn't still wind. I know, and cartoons it will look like,
you know, just like super tranquil.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
But what it is is that you're at the nexus
of the storm and the winds are all happening.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Around owned you.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
So you still don't know once you hit the other
side of the storm if you're going to be spared.
Just because you didn't get the craziness maybe in the
first part doesn't mean you're not gonna be apt to
receive it in the second part. So I was still
not out of the woods, and the hurricane kept going.
(31:24):
I kept watching the water's coming in under the glass,
all the windows. The water's coming in, and I'm just
trying to mop stuff up with the towels.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
And then the next thing, you know, it was done.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I looked outside the window and I could see some
of the workers by the pool. I could see my
Italian homegirl with her daughter by the pool. And people
started to venture out, you know, It's like they started
to crawl out from the cracks some of the crag
love the buildings. And by seven pm, what the lights
(32:02):
came back on. I couldn't believe it. I looked across
the oshan at Tongue and saw that the lights were
on in Tongue and I say, how the lights are
on and not on griands, And then the lights came
on in Grinance, which is where I was. So I
also want to pick up Grenada, because the Prime Minis
of Grenada spent the whole time during this hurricane not
(32:24):
a home with his family, but he spent it actually
at the office for disaster relief and really just manning
the phones and being present and watchful of where things
were going and how things were going to be, you know, happening.
The part of Grenada that took the strongest hit was
the northern part of Grenada and Saint Patrick, So that's
like setiad guav as well as the Grenada sister islands, Karaco, Petty,
(32:46):
Martinique kind of on.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
They really were devastated.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Ninety seven percent of the buildings on Karakou were completely
smashed as smotherines, no water, no electricity, and it's gonna
take time. It's gonna take time for things to be restored.
But within a week, Guyana said in things I saw
(33:11):
Saint Vincent's, Barbados and even islands who have their own
stuff going on. We're sending supplies And this to me
is really tantamount to being from the Caribbean. It's that
community element of no one's coming.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
To save us. All we got is us.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
And I just feel like here in the States they've
done such an incredible job of systematically working that out
of us as a community. And it's not to say
that there aren't people that still operate like that by
any means, but it's not a part of our culture
in America in the way that it is in the Caribbean.
So for our Patreon Bonus of the week, I am
(33:50):
going to list natural disasters that we are experiencing and
why and what can go down and which ones I
don't want, And that's what we're gonna do, because listen,
if you think that this is just kind of a
random happening, you got it fucked up.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Beryl went on a route.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Not only that hasn't been done since ninety three, but
it also started earlier then hurricane season ever starts, which
leads us to believe that these natural disasters, these extreme
weather formations, they're coming and they about to get even
more real.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Let's go over to the sale squad and talk about it.
The last.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You'll be able to donate to Karaku's rebuilding efforts and
Saint Patrick's rebuilding efforts with the links that will put
here in the caption. But I just want everyone to
know that it really was a surreal experience.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Like I realized in that moment when I was asking, like,
there's got to be a purpose for this, It's got
to be a purpose for.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
But I came up with my own meaning for it.
You know, this year for me has been a year
of great disruption. However, not in a way that feels
like the chaos of mania, but in a way that
feels like the shakeup that you need to do to
see where you need to go. And what happens with
a hurricane, unfortunately, is that it basically creates such a
(35:24):
path of destruction that you have to rebuild. And the
idea is that when you rebuild, you rebuild stronger. The
idea is that when you rebuild, you rebuild with pure vision,
and you rebuild new, knowing that the hurricane can come again,
but knowing that the next time it comes, you're going
to be ready, and you're going to be focused because
(35:45):
you've already done it, and you're going to be confident
because you made it through the first one. That's what
life feels like for me right now. I feel like
I've been going through a hurricane, and on the other
side of it, I'm feeling focused, I'm feeling stronger, and
I'm feeling confident
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Know that I've been through it, and then I'm going
to get through it.
Before we get into this episode of Small Doses Podcast,
want to remind all my folks in the Tri State
area that you can catch a free performance of What
Would the Ancestors Say? My One Woman Show on Saturday,
May thirty first, six pm at the People's Forum on
thirty seventh Street between eighth and ninth in New York City.
Weaving historytelling and social commentary through stand up comedy, poetry,
(00:24):
song and characters, My One Woman Show imagines a new future,
keeps it real about the present, and gives voice to icons.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Of our cultural past.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Take advantage of this fabulous production that is being shown
and presented to you all on the free ski by
coming through on May thirty first at the People's Forum.
Go to Amanda Seals dot com for more details. All right,
let's get into this show. Remember that time I was
in a hurricane. Let's talk about it, Small said, don't
(01:00):
help from this small, small area. Small, It's so funky.
Welcome to this week's episode of Small Doses Podcast. It's
going to be a different kind of episode, y'all, because
I got to just really tell y'all about my experience
being in a hurricane, and I want to talk about
(01:24):
this because it's not just my experience, but there's a
larger story to this experience. And you know, I always
got to connect the dots on things. Your girl always
got to connect the dots on things. So this year,
on my forty third birthday, I was in Grenada and
Hurricane Barrel started barreling towards the island. Now, let me
(01:48):
just tell y'all, I had no idea that there was
even a hurricane in conversation, literally zero, Like, I was
just in Grenada.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
And then my mom calls me. It's like, so you
worried about the hurricane. I'm like, I don't even know
what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
She's like, yeah, there's like a possible hurricane coming towards you.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And I'm like huh.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So then I'm walking to the beach and one of
the women who works at the hotel. We're very friendly,
so we're talking and she's Italian. She's like, we gona
get a dy for the hurricane. You know we dread
Now did you get the tropical storm? So we're not
really knowing like what's going to be, but going to
think posit. We going to think posic. So I'm thinking
it's just going to be a tropical storm. I'm not
exaggerating stress like that. So I was like, yeah, you
know what. I like how she's thinking. I'm gonna be
(02:28):
positive too. It's just gonna be a tropical storm. I've
been through having the tropical storms. I'm from Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
We have tropical storms. Y'all have taco Tuesday. We have
tropical storm Tuesday. Okay, it's just met every day, regular regular.
What exactly is a tropical storm?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I mean, if we were going to do a formal
gem drop right now, the difference between a tropical storm
and a hurricane are very specific. Tropical storms and hurricanes
are denoted by the speed of the winds, and as
the winds pick up speed, it shifts from tropical storm
to a hurricane, and then it goes up a scale
basically the levels category one, two, three, four, five, and
(03:04):
the hurricane itself is something that I feel like a
lot of people can't even fathom, because a tropical storm
is also no joke. If you've ever been into a
tropical storm, it's doing some things, all right.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
The wind is in the willows.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
It's shorts, the trees are blowing like in Orlando, we
would always have to come out the next morning and
pick up debris, pick up branches, pick up things that
have been you know, just tossed about, et cetera. So
a tropical storm is no joke. So the idea of
a hurricane is like a nahomon.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Now, but that's where the bar is starting, and how
do we even go up from here? Where do we
go from here?
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So I'm over here like, all right, tropical storm. It's
a doozy, But I can handle a tropical storm. And
I go to the beach.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
When they say that it's a calm before the storm,
they ain't lion, because the day before this hurricane was gorgeous.
The sky was clear, the waters were calm. I was
drinking a virgin peanut Colada. I'm on the internets, trying
to pretend like I'm not on the internet, but I'm
still on the internet because.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I have a difficult time disengaging. You know. It just
really was like, it can't.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Possibly be a hurricane coming, not when it looks like
this Monee well child. While I'm sitting there at the beast,
They're like, ooh, Beryl.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Decided to be a hurricane, y'all. I said, I'm sorry, what.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So the biggest issue with hurricanes and water is that
hurricanes pick up speed over water, and so that's why
they're always like, oh, you know, once it makes landfall,
it's gonna probably decrease because the reality is that with
the condensation and the barometric pressure and all the scientificals
of the hurricane, it requires the water in order for
(04:50):
it to get stronger. And I'm sure that there's like
a whole indigenous explanation for this, but the scientific explanation
is when that thing of a water, it's gonna pop off.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
It's gonna pop out on show notes. I mean, that's
really what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The other issue is that warm water makes the hurricanes
even more hurricane. And we have seen due to climate
change the elevation of the planet, and the planet elevated
like one degree. People were like, so, what big deal,
But those people were people like Marjorie Taylor Green you know, idiots.
(05:25):
So the scientists are like, it's not a small thing
that the planet is elevating by one degree.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
This is not supposed to be happening.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
And it's happening because the amount of greenhouse gases that
we're using. It's happening because the amount of waste we're producing,
et cetera. I think it was Argentina I read recently,
Or you're what one of these South American countries is
like the first to just completely lose all its glaciers
as glacierless it had glaciers. Now we don't Why didn't
(05:54):
they have glaciers Amanda because it melted while glaciers melting Amanda.
Because we have oil refineries, we have toxic nuclear plants,
et cetera, that are constantly creating emissions and disrupting ecosystems
in ways that are deleterious and that have a number
of domino effects. So when we see these things happening,
(06:17):
it's not coming from nowhere. It's coming from these industrial
nations that disregard what's quote unquote the global South. Now
we hear at small Doses podcasts. The first time I
ever heard global South was on this podcast and was
when we had Selene Simon of the Slow Factory Selene
and Selene was talking about side of that climate change.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
She taught us so much in such a small amount
of time.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
She exposed so many false and half truths for us
that really helped to contextualize what climate change really means
versus what we're being told it is. And nine times
out of ten, the people, like individuals who be in
a house are the ones who are being told that
we need to fix our carbon footprint, when ultimately it's
(07:01):
actually large giant corporations that our carbon footprinting all over
And that's what the real issue is. Don't put it
on the individual people. Hold these people accountable. Now a
side note, the Supreme Court just ruled that with the
Chevron Exception, the EPA, which is one of the government
agencies that is included in the Chevron Exception, doesn't really
(07:21):
have the power anymore to make any rules without a
judge saying yes or no, whether.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
That judge is an expert or not.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So all of this connects, and when you're there in
these types of situations is when I think that you
start to see it in a real way. So many
of us in America have such a myopic and a
reductive point of view that we're really not able to
see how things that are happening globally affect us, and
oftentimes we don't get to see how the things that
are happening to us affect the world globally, because there's
(07:52):
just this constant effort to keep the blinders on and
to keep us sequestered in our own little bubble, and
what we don't know will hurt us. And also so
many of us are connected to, married to the family
of friends with do business with immigrants, and people who
live in other places that are also getting the result
(08:14):
of the lackadaisical efforts by these corporations to monitor the
way their which they're harming the earth. So when I'm
sitting here in Grenada hearing about a hurricane coming and
they start talking about how a hurricane has never come
from this part of the ocean since nineteen thirty three,
(08:35):
that's literally almost one hundred years. Grenada is situated as
the second to the last island of the Caribbean. It
sits nestled to the south of Saint Vincent, to the
north of Trinidad, to the west of Barbados, and to
the east of Venezuela. By nature of its placement, we
often miss hurricanes because typically what a hurricane will do
(08:58):
is it will form out in the Atlantic and then
it'll come and swing up the Caribbean and it'll actually
miss us because the way that the Caribbean islands run
is it's kind of like in the shape of a
lazy J. Think of it like that. So we're in
the lazy part of the hook of the J. So
oftentimes we don't get any of the bs.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Now.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Of course, countries like Cuba, countries like Jamaica, countries like
Puerto Rico oftentimes will because as that hurricane is coming
up the Atlantic Ocean, up the Lesser and Greater Antilles,
it picks.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Up speed speeds, speeds, speed speed, and then it hits them.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I was very frustrated to hear the way the news
was talking about this hurricane, because it was essentially saying
not essentially, they were literally saying, yeah, the hurricane is
going to hit some speed bumps before it lands on
america soil. They were referring to actual islands where people live,
where people are going to be affected, possibly harmed, as
speed bumps. Again, we must always remember that when we
(10:03):
live in these Western imperialist empire nations, they constantly use
rhetoric and language to minimize the lives of others. And
what it does in the moment may seem innocuous or careless,
but what it really does is. It creates this sense
that whatever's happening to those people is really not that deep,
and that then makes you a lot more willing to
(10:25):
accept the things that happen that cause things to happen
for those people, you know, like oil spills and all
the other fuck shit that these corporations do. So here
we have Hurricane Barrel. Now she was a tropical storm,
(10:45):
but then she said ah and said I'm about to
whip it up and come at you.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Up until June thirtieth, they was really like in me,
you know, I think it Mintun. You think it got Ton,
I think it Mentun. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
I'm like, it's five o'clock. It's not turning, y'all. It's coming.
It's not turning around. Five o'clock is when they decided
to have the debriefing at the hotel. So I was saying,
at this hotel on Granite's Beach in the south west
of the island, no one really knew how this was
going to land, but people started recounting their memories of
(11:23):
Hurricane Ivan. Hurricane Ivan hit in two thousand and five,
and it decimated the island of Grenada. The hurricane itself
was larger than the land mass of the island. At
one point it was hovering over the island like a
dam hoverboard or a helicopter. Mom just relentless. And Grenada
(11:48):
is not a flat island. So if you've been to
places like Bermuda, Aruba, Barbados, those are islands that were
formed with like coral to my knowledge, but they're not
formed volcanically and thus they don't have tall peaks.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
They're pretty flat. Well.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Greened is a volcanic island, so much so that we
literally have a dormant volcano in the center of the
island and there's a national park around it that is
a rainforest and it's a Granitytinian Rainforest National Park. And
you're not allowed to swim in the lake because people
go in that lake and then they die.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
And the theory is that there's a suction in the lake.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
And then if your goal in the lake, there's suction
into the dormant volcano and spit you out on the
shares of the island. And if we really want to
go into it, you know, West Indians, it ain't a
dormant volcano is pulling you Winded.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I know? Yeah, or your gloom.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
AnyWho, so because of this, it allows for a hurricane
to pick up even more speed because they are able
to pull from the peaks of the island. They're able
to pull from the higher density of the island. And
when Hurricane Ivan came, it was like, I don't know
any Grenadian that was untouched with Hurricane Ivan. The first
(13:10):
time that I ever stayed in a hotel in Grenada
was because my uncle, who my grandmother left our house too.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
That's another episode.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
But my uncle, who our grandma, my grandmother, left our
house to like our family home, he did not replace
the roof. A year after the hurricane, he still had
not replaced the roof, and so we ended up having
to stay in a hotel. And that was the first
time that we did not stay in Memorris When we
went to Grenado and I was hot, and I called
my uncle and I was like, you know, I just
can't believe that you actually are the one who was
(13:39):
given this house and you're not even taking care of it,
and so now we got to stay in a hotel
because you didn't fix the roof. And he was like, oh,
fuck off, Amanda, and I said Nick, and I hung up.
So then I called my mom, and I told my mom,
And to this day, my mom says that I gave
my uncle a hip hop curse out.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Did get him a popcor sold Mines.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
So Ivan is something that lives on the minds of
so many Grenadians. And I could see the fear in
some of the workers at the hotel's eyes of just
the concern that this would be similar to Ivan, because
when Ivan hit, it just took longer than I think
people expected to bunks back. But the thing about an
island is that you're not waiting on anybody to come
save you.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
The thing about an island is that you know that
all we got is us. So there was so much
community that came out of Ivan, and that a lot
of Grenadians learned about in terms of how to rebuild,
how to restore, and how to support and not just
even in Grenada, but in other islands.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
I think what people don't understand about the Caribbean is
that the Caribbean does work as a community, even though
there's different identities and different cultures on each island. And
we get frustrated when people act like all Caribbean islands
are the same, because they're not Dominica has an own
different flava than Grenada. Grenadad as a whole different flava
than Trinidad. And we also know that the Caribbean is
not consisting of just islands. Guyana's considered the Caribbean, Belize
(15:01):
is considered the Caribbean, and some even say, you know,
Panama is considered the Caribbean. And these are places where
a multitude of African people that were the descendants of
slaves and in some cases were free slaves and some
cases were escaped slaves, settled and created a community and
they're Caribbean. So what happened during Ivan was that I
(15:22):
think a lot of folks got to see that in
real time. And I was in the States when Ivan happened.
But one of the things that Ivan really did in
terms of devastating Grenada was our agriculture was really really
strongly affected. Like Grenada's main agriculture is spices, so much
so that we have a nutmeg on the flag, y'all.
And nutmeg, to my understand it, it takes like nine
(15:44):
years to mature and it decimated the entire nutmeg crop.
So they know how devastating a hurricane can be on
a multitude of levels beyond like just property damage, right,
it can be devastating in terms of even crop damage
and also think about livestock. So a lot of concern
was happening, and it's something that I don't experience here
(16:06):
in the States, right, like we're not existing with the
threat of hurricanes in the same way on a national level.
Everyone in Grenada knows about how a hurricane can go down.
For a frame of reference, Grenada has a population of
around one hundred and ten thousand people on the island,
which by the way, is like the size of Yonkers,
New York.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Now Here we are and we go to the debrief, and.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I just want to say that the people at Mount
Cinnamon Resort in Grenada, their staff deserves all of the
flowers out here. Even if they were concerned about the hurricane,
they did not let on. They had a confidence that
wasn't arrogance, and their confidence was in that they are
(16:51):
a team and that they are going to work together
and that they have the resources to take care of us.
There was about I would say, twenty five of us
staying in the hotel, and as the clouds started to,
you know, get a little gray, they said let's sit
down in the lobby and have a debrief, and they
walked us through every step of how this was going
to go. I was staying in a room that was, y'all,
(17:14):
basically a glass case.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
That day was like, so we're getting you out of there.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So I was removed from my room and I was
put downstairs in a room that's in like a cement block, okay,
And I immediately felt safe, like I'm in the cement block.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
There's a sliding glass door in my room.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
When I started, when they were taking me into my
room and I walked in, they was in the process
of boarding up my cement glass.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Then when we were at.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
The lobby's briefing, they were explained to us about food,
because you know, that's the first thing I'm thinking, like,
oh my god, fo water, water, food, Because what I'm
anticipating is that this could go a number of ways.
This could be a situation where we're knocked out for
a minimum of two weeks. I'm supposed to fly back
in four days, Like who knows that that's gonna happen.
I know people that were in the hurricane Hurricane Ivan.
(18:00):
I know people that were in Hurricane Katrina. I know
people that were in the earthquake in Haiti. Like, when
these things happen, it is so catastrophic and devastating, and
you absolutely have no idea what can be on the
other side of it, so you're just trying to think
about preparedness. And it was so weird to me when
people's number one thought of preparedness with the pandemic was
toilet paper, because I don't know as a Grenadia and
(18:24):
as somebody who was taught about hurricanes and preparedness for
things like that's never been a thing that people go
out and buy, like it's just water and food.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
But that's it.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Now, let me just put a pause in there and say,
I was not taught this by my Grenadian mother. My
Granadian mother is the most unprepared person for a hurricane
that you have ever met in your life.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
She takes it so casually. And I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
She was literally in a Hurricane Janet like in the fifties,
but yet and still Anette Seals is not who you
want to call on when you're trying to prep for
a hurricane. All that because my mother loves a crisis,
like she really like a crisis, and so I think
that there's even a part of her be like, let
me just not even take this.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
That seriously so that when it does pop off, like
I got something to do.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
My mother was facing a hurricane in Orlando, and I'm
sitting in the Heathrow Airport in London, and I look
up and they're like, the hurricane such and such is
barreling towards Orlando.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
I call my mom, like, is there a hurricane coming? Yeah,
But I ain't a big dealer ready. I'm like, I
don't know. It seems like kind of a big deal.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Like they don't really big up hurricanes in Orlando because
it's Central Florida. And like I said about the hurricanes
thinking of speed, they typically trust that by the time
it gets to central Florida, it's had to cross over
the land mass of Florida and so it will have
decreased speed by then and just be get a tropical storm,
which Central Florida is pretty you know, equipped to handle.
So I don't know if that's what my mom was thinking,
(19:44):
but the mediologists were definitely not saying that. They were like, na, no, no, no,
this is gonna be a problem. So I'm asking my
mom what she's gonna do.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
She's like, wall probably let you up with a toe
under the door.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
I got some yulegert, you got yogurt, you got like
the most perishable flo item possible, as like your food
to protect you, Diami, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
I'm not really making no big thing about it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
I was just like, and it's so frustrating anybody out
there who has parents that just refuse to listen but
then get mad because they say, like, you don't help them.
It's like, I'm trying to help you, and I'm telling
you what you need to do because I know what
you need to do.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
But then she was on some like, oh I really
don't need that. I really don't.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But I put her in a hotel and the hurricane
was a mess.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I also was able to get her house boarded up.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Shout out to Royce Read because Royce, who I went
to Darctorville High School with. I was like, I need
to night have bored my mom my house in Orlando,
and so she took care of my mom.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
So shout out to a community. My mom's house got
bored up. Jeez, Louise, she went to a hotel.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
But I just say that to say that if you
find yourself concerned about how to get ready for a hurricane,
and you're like, oh, I ask the man his mom.
Because she's from Bernada, she's been a hurricanes, don't. She's
not gonna help you. She's gonna tell you to get
so perishable items and stand in front of a glass door.
Don't listen to her. You could listen to me, because
I'm a very sensible gal. That's why they call me
a common sense specialist. So speaking of sensible, I wasn't
(21:16):
playing with y'all. The shower in my hotel room was
craftily fashioned out of like cement, and it had like
an aesthetic to it.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
I'm not playing with y'all.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I made a bed in the shower, okay, And if
you follow us on Patreon, you'll get to see the bed.
I made a bed in the shower. People, I got
the cushions off the couch. The bed was cozy. The
bed was cozy. I charged up all my devices while
we had electricity. I charged up all my devices. Now,
(21:49):
when we was at this debreez, I told you that
they wasn't leaving no stone unturned, right, but you know
they I was gonna be a white lady who's like, but.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Did you check this pebble? Did you check under this pepper?
What about the snail? Shall you check into that? Bless
her heart?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
But there was this white lady there who apparently had
like beaten cancer and was treating herself to this trip.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
I don't know about y'all, but I'd be like, yead, damn,
I've been canting again, get on to the hurricane. This
is a bullshit.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
So she had been worried for three days ahead of time,
they said, So when I would mind in my own
business not even know wing the hurricane was coming, that
lady had already started worrying about.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
This hurricane coming, This hurricane coming, this hurricane come.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
In a side note, I pulled up a video when
I was at this meeting saying the hurricanes coming on Instagram.
Do you know.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
People were in the chat like, you should probably try
and get out of there. You should probably try and
get on a flight.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
One of the things that annoys me more than anything
in the world is people giving bad advice, Like unsolicited
bad advice makes me just want to explode. But this
lady's asking questions and I just got to give it
up to the staff. Because they were so calm and
they were so patient and understanding that she was just scared.
One of the questions she asked was she was like, okay,
so when the hurricane comes, do we know like how
(23:05):
long that will be here?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And the manager was like, no, can't see that.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
I do.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
That's the thing about a hurricane. They're very unwilly.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Whereas that's why that's her job and that's not my job,
because my job would have been like, lady, how I
know about when a hurricane is gonna go? I'm no
that do I look omniptend to you. No, we don't
know how long a hurricane gonna be.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
There still a.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Question, next question. I'm also a strong believer that there
are dumb questions. I don't care when people say there's
no dumb questions.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
That's a lie. That's a lie. Don't listen to that.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Don't let people trick you into asking a dumb question
by telling you that they ain't no such thing as
dumb questions.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
There are dumb questions.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
So now the wind starts to picking up and I
start to see the rain coming. Honey, they said the
hurricane was gonna hit at two am. That's why I
slept in the shower because I'm like, if I fall
asleep and the hurricane hits, like, I want to be
already in case in safety.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
And when I woke up the next morning, it hadn't
hit yet. You know what. The next morning was my
birthday made Julio, July first.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
There's gotta be some type of astrological spiritual santadia something
about there being a hurricane on your birthday July first,
animal cancer. Come on, there's more to it. There has
to be, Yes, y'all. I was there coming into forty
(24:40):
three like a frost of nature. Yes, And all day
we waited for the hurricane. I can tell you that
it's a very similar feeling to waiting for a nigga call, which,
if you know that feeling is waiting for a nigative
(25:01):
call is the worst feeling. Which is why I've decided
in my adultness that I am not gonna live that
existence anymore. I'm not gonna wait for a nygai call
no more. If a nigatime he gonna call me, and
he don't call me in like a specific timeframe, We're done.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Don't have me wait for you to call.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It's a source of anxiety that I refused, and I
wonder if I had something to do with my father,
But I'm.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Just like, I don't feel like always ever waiting for
my father to call.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
I knew that I think it was gonna call, So
I'm not sure, but I will tell you what I
am sure of is that waiting for a hurricane.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Same feeling, you like, what's going happen? Is it gonna happen?
Is it going to happen. What's gonna happen?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Is it gonna happen. If it doesn't happen, what's gonna happen?
But you know that it is gonna happen. Over the
course of the day, the wind starts picking up, the
water starts coming in under the side and glass door.
And these people at the hotel fed us that next
morning because remember we thought I was gonna hit at
two am. It didn't hit at two am. So the
(25:57):
next morning they drove around and came to each room
and gave us meals like in like little like foil tins.
And I gotta tell y'all, and I was a damn
good breakfast sausage scrambled egg crack because breck bean bigun.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
It was an English breakfast and it was delicious.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
I gotta tell you, I never thought I would have
concier service in the hurricane.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I just I wasn't. And I'm not saying I no
like big, big, big, big luxury resort. That's not my flavor.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I like resorts that feel like they're a part of
the landscape, resorts that feel like they're a part of
the culture and community. If I want to be in
a luxury resort, I'll go to Vegas, you know what
I'm saying. Like, I'm not trying to feel like I'm
disconnected from the place that I'm at. I don't like
feeling like I'm at a Europeans place in a place
that's not European. And what I love about like es
Care in Mexico is that it is a luxury resort
(26:56):
that feels culturally Mexican, feels my in and elevated all
at once. So I was really impressed. And that also
started to say to me.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Like, Okay, whatever happens, y'all gonna be good.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I will tell you though, like I was by myself,
and I think maybe even as recent as like three
years ago, I would have been by myself feeling like, damn,
I probably wouldn't be scared if someone was here, or
I probably would have had a better experience if someone
was here, et cetera. And maybe it's because I've been
(27:35):
through having a long relationship and experiencing, you know, situations
and having someone there and then not even being helpful.
But I was like proud of myself for how not
scared I was, and also for how not alone I
was or lonely.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I should say, I didn't feel lonely.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
I felt so empowered that I was alone in this scenario,
but I still felt strong, I still felt capable, and
I still felt protected and supported because the people of
the hotel had made it clear that we were a community,
but also because I myself have come through now situations
(28:20):
enough to be fortified and be solid. And yes, if
someone was there that would have been nice, I guess,
or helpful. It could have been bullshit. I think that's
the thing that we have to remember to ourselves too,
in those scenarios, like we have a fantasy that if
it were a certain way, it would be a certain way,
and it ain't always like that. It ain't always like that,
So whatever way it is, hold on to that, make
(28:42):
the best of it, and be present with that, because
that's what it is right now. Don't let your fantasy
lead you into something, because that's really what it is.
It's a fantasy, it's escapism, it's imagination, and that has
its place. But in the middle of waiting for a hurricane,
it don't. What did have its place was me and
(29:04):
my awareness of saying, how am I gonna make sure
that I'm safe. I'm gonna sleep in this shower. I
have my two flashlights, my computer is charged up, my
phone and my devices are charged up. They have like
a little window in there, and so I was able
to like tape the blinds closed so that if by
God's will the glash got shattered for some reason, like
the blinds would stop it. I also made sure to
(29:28):
have like my stuff in there, and my food and
all my snacks in there, so I was prepared to
be in there and be fine.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
The cancer in me was like this my shell, y'all.
I'm in my shell. I'm in my shell.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But during the day I ended up just being in
the room on Instagram making videos because we had service. Luckily,
even though we lost power around like eleven am we
still had service, and I just watched that wind pick
up and pick up and pick up and pick up
and pick up, and.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
It was really wild. It was really wild.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
I could see the ocean from my room and Granted's Beach,
which is known for being so tranquil and so peaceful,
was laden with white caps, and you could see it
swelling with the power.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Of the wind.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
And at some point the rain was so crazy that
I couldn't even see the ocean because it was blowing
in sideways, upside down, all the ways. The hurricane kept going.
We hit the eye about two and a half three
hours in. And when you're in the eye of the storm,
it's not to say that there.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Isn't still wind. I know, and cartoons it will look like,
you know, just like super tranquil.
Speaker 1 (30:54):
But what it is is that you're at the nexus
of the storm and the winds are all happening.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Around owned you.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
So you still don't know once you hit the other
side of the storm if you're going to be spared.
Just because you didn't get the craziness maybe in the
first part doesn't mean you're not gonna be apt to
receive it in the second part. So I was still
not out of the woods, and the hurricane kept going.
(31:24):
I kept watching the water's coming in under the glass,
all the windows. The water's coming in, and I'm just
trying to mop stuff up with the towels.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
And then the next thing, you know, it was done.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
I looked outside the window and I could see some
of the workers by the pool. I could see my
Italian homegirl with her daughter by the pool. And people
started to venture out, you know, It's like they started
to crawl out from the cracks some of the crag
love the buildings. And by seven pm, what the lights
(32:02):
came back on. I couldn't believe it. I looked across
the oshan at Tongue and saw that the lights were
on in Tongue and I say, how the lights are
on and not on griands, And then the lights came
on in Grinance, which is where I was. So I
also want to pick up Grenada, because the Prime Minis
of Grenada spent the whole time during this hurricane not
(32:24):
a home with his family, but he spent it actually
at the office for disaster relief and really just manning
the phones and being present and watchful of where things
were going and how things were going to be, you know, happening.
The part of Grenada that took the strongest hit was
the northern part of Grenada and Saint Patrick, So that's
like setiad guav as well as the Grenada sister islands, Karaco, Petty,
(32:46):
Martinique kind of on.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
They really were devastated.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Ninety seven percent of the buildings on Karakou were completely
smashed as smotherines, no water, no electricity, and it's gonna
take time. It's gonna take time for things to be restored.
But within a week, Guyana said in things I saw
(33:11):
Saint Vincent's, Barbados and even islands who have their own
stuff going on. We're sending supplies And this to me
is really tantamount to being from the Caribbean. It's that
community element of no one's coming.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
To save us. All we got is us.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
And I just feel like here in the States they've
done such an incredible job of systematically working that out
of us as a community. And it's not to say
that there aren't people that still operate like that by
any means, but it's not a part of our culture
in America in the way that it is in the Caribbean.
So for our Patreon Bonus of the week, I am
(33:50):
going to list natural disasters that we are experiencing and
why and what can go down and which ones I
don't want, And that's what we're gonna do, because listen,
if you think that this is just kind of a
random happening, you got it fucked up.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Beryl went on a route.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Not only that hasn't been done since ninety three, but
it also started earlier then hurricane season ever starts, which
leads us to believe that these natural disasters, these extreme
weather formations, they're coming and they about to get even
more real.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Let's go over to the sale squad and talk about it.
The last.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You'll be able to donate to Karaku's rebuilding efforts and
Saint Patrick's rebuilding efforts with the links that will put
here in the caption. But I just want everyone to
know that it really was a surreal experience.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Like I realized in that moment when I was asking, like,
there's got to be a purpose for this, It's got
to be a purpose for.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
But I came up with my own meaning for it.
You know, this year for me has been a year
of great disruption. However, not in a way that feels
like the chaos of mania, but in a way that
feels like the shakeup that you need to do to
see where you need to go. And what happens with
a hurricane, unfortunately, is that it basically creates such a
(35:24):
path of destruction that you have to rebuild. And the
idea is that when you rebuild, you rebuild stronger. The
idea is that when you rebuild, you rebuild with pure vision,
and you rebuild new, knowing that the hurricane can come again,
but knowing that the next time it comes, you're going
to be ready, and you're going to be focused because
(35:45):
you've already done it, and you're going to be confident
because you made it through the first one. That's what
life feels like for me right now. I feel like
I've been going through a hurricane, and on the other
side of it, I'm feeling focused, I'm feeling stronger, and
I'm feeling confident
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Know that I've been through it, and then I'm going
to get through it.
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