In this Wheatake I am reflecting on the resilience of B. V. Islanders since the declaration of emancipation in 1834. I lived with my grandfather who was born in 1875 and my grandmother who was born in 1879. Both of the experienced the stresses of life which characterized the esrlier generations of freed slaves. When I listened to the stories of their struggles, I realized the resilience of our forebears. Those stories revealed to me the process and outcome of their efforts to adapt successfully to difficult or challenging experiences. Those stories reflected their mental, emotional and behavioural flexibility and their ability to adjust to the external and internal demands on their lives. The components which up their resilience include competence, confidence, connection, character, coping, control and conttibution. My grandparents illustrated these qualities through the story of their survival in the 1916 hurricane. They livcd on the side of a hill about five hundred feet above sea level and their nearest neighbour lived at sea level. They knew by the natural signs that a hurricane was approaching, but they had no way of knowing its direction, its strength or the expected time of land fall. In other word they tracked the hurticane by ý the birds and other land animals. During the landfall the hurricane grew stronger and my grandparents to travel through the hurricane to the house house at sea-level because their home was rocking too much and the believed it would collapse at any moment. They tied the family together wiih a piece of rope so that no one would get lost. They travelled through falling debris around them in darkness except for flashes of lightning. In the midst of the journey a heavy gust of wind took the baby from my grandmother's arms. The eventually reached the house at sea level. All the men decided to search for the child in the raging storm with cutlass and a flashlight the set out and searched for hours until they heard a faint voice like the cry of a child inside the wind. The made haste to locate the child cutting their way through fallen trees and debris. The found the baby unharmed except for wet clothes. There wss rejoicing in adverdity when they returned with the baby.
Another story which illustrated the resilience of our people was the loss of the "Fancy Me" in 1932. The boat was bound for St Thomas and was caught in a storm and was driven out to sea. The boat was lost and all thirteen men %from Long Look, from one extended family perished. What a weeping and wailing when the news reached the village. The bereaved grieved but they demonstrated the ability to overcome the pangs of the tragedy. They were able to strive within the stress. They faced the situation head on and did not allow the tragedy to get the best of them. A remarkable example of the resilience of our people.
These examples remind us that we can overcome the challenges we face today if we allow those seven components of resilience to take root in our lives. In 2017 we were faced with the ravages of two category five hurricanes. We were bruised but not crushed and were able to bounce back because of our faith gin God and our resilience.
Our redilience today is no less than in those past experiences and we will overcome the challenges of the CoI recommendations if we allow God to be our captain. We can come out of this stronger in faith and more resilient than before.
"The human capacity for burden is like the bamboo-far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance."
(Judi Picoult).
"For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may received what is promised."
(Hebrews 10:36).
