Have a look at life in Trinidad from my man Nicholas Stix, visiting his wife’s family there from Queens, a la R.K. Narayan.

Take this opener, from Somewhere in South Trinidad, picking up on an earlier item’s reference to Hindu-prescribed prayers for the dead 11 months after the funeral, in this case for his father-in-law:

We got through prayers for Pa without a hitch, except that hardly anyone showed. Over 150 people had showed for his funeral, in spite of the fact that it was held on a work day, but fewer than 30 for his prayers. Although The Boss [Nicholas’s wife] and her sister from Long Island traveled over 2,000 miles to come, only two of his four daughters living in Trinidad were present for prayers.

Water is a problem:

I’ve been coming since 1999, and the federal water authority, WASA, has locked off the water for hours (i.e., all day, until most people are in bed asleep) and days at a time, since long before that. That’s why everyone on the countryside has to have huge tanks holding up to 500 gallons of water. Most such tanks today are made of heavy-duty plastic, but Pa has two made of steel and concrete, weighing at least 300 pounds empty, in back of the house, and in front, facing the road. When the water locks off, you fill big, plastic paint barrels full of water, and schlep them in the house for bathing and washing dishes. We fill dozens of empty, two-liter Coke bottles with water for washing hands and drinking water.

He has more about the island here, including this:

Trinidad & Tobago [full name] really is a lush, island paradise. It is hot (86-95 degrees) year-round, mosquitoes, flies, and ants are plentiful, the soil is fertile, and most people are poor, by American standards. But though it produces bananas (called figs by the locals) that are sweeter than most youll find in the States, T & T is no banana republic.