The only thing I can think of writing about is that the weather has changed. Exciting, no? I’ll take it.

The weather plays with us on Quest. It changes our direction. The wind has entered from the south. We’ve all swung round to face it. Normally we face east. Sometimes a little north. Why south now? Because this is a tropical wave – a weather depression. With it, a big band of rain has hit us. Lots of lightning last night.

The rain began as Jack and I went into Speightstown for eggs yesterday. The ladies who sell eggs sit outside the fish market under its verandah. They are in love with Jack. He’s been in so many times on his own for eggs while I’ve been facilitating school, they know him well by now.

‘Why do you have to leave?’ they asked. There’s one lady and another lady and they both asked us. ‘Our eggs not good enough for you?’

We shook our heads vehemently. They are excellent eggs. Not refrigerated. Really fresh. You have to buy thirty at a time. Plus, they often sell these fabulous little peppers which you can put whole in almost any dish. They are a tiny bit spicy and flavoursome. Can’t get these peppers in the supermarket.

We had a laugh and joke with our ladies. Usually there are other people around, doing the same thing. Speightstown is a place you can go for both a chat and a shop. We’ll miss these ladies too. And as we were talking, it began to rain. Then it began to pour. We quickly packed away our thirty eggs. No peppers today unfortunately. Only mangoes since it’s definitely mango season. Mangoes are dripping off mango trees. Some people were talking them off a public tree by the beach.

This rain is definitely a good thing. Apparently, this is because Barbados is still too dry. Reading the news, still too little rain has fallen a month into the rainy season. We heard that it takes sixty days to filter down the limestone into the water table.

Tropical waves may be a little bothersome for us, rocking around in this unusual southerly swell, but the island wants it. Barbados will take all the nourishing rain it can get.