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Although the Demontange Saga is fiction, St. Lucia is a real place with a wonderful story of its own. We are psychotherapists with an intimate knowledge of psychological processes and motivations. The columns in this section provide insight into the settings, culture and characters in our works as well as perceptions about the writing process... We want to share this material and our perceptions with other authors but believe that many of our readers will find these columns of interest as well.
Recently we took back all our rights to A Dream Across Time and are now self publishing the Demontagne Saga. It is very gratifying to have the entire publishing process under our control.
If you would like to see what we have been up to and to see some of what we are dealing with as we move to self publish, go to our blog at http://letmedigress.blogspot.com. We want it to be interactive so join in. The columns from the Author to Author section will also appear in the blog.
At the end of the latest column, you'll find clicks for past columns.
Column 8
What's It Like Living in the Tropics II ?
Let's take a look at what Jamie actually confronted coming to this little tropical island in 1980. It was one year after St. Lucia gained independence from Britain. The island was poor. It was not just a matter of there being some poor people. The island was poor. It also has to be emphasized that it was above all an island.
Most things have to be imported and no one is going to import goods when there is no one who can afford to buy them. And you cannot go down the road to another town and find what you want. Things are often sold out or never existed in the first place. No neat bistros. No major shopping areas. No fine restaurants and no night life. Jamie mixed her own paint and used other survival skills she found she had. You had to be adaptive to survive.
When Jamie went to Castries with Barbara there were six hardware stores in the capital. It was necessary to scour back rooms and search under shelves to find what might be available. When you needed wood screws you could not buy a box. They didn't have a whole box. You bought each single screw you needed. When we set up our house we needed five toilets. We bought the country's entire stock of toilets in one day.
You have to make do. It is necessary to find ways to cope and be self sufficient and it is essential to be comfortable with yourself. And you better have a plan. Remember Paul? He had no plan. Jamie came to the island with the plan to make a home for herself and Paul, build her marriage and have children. When that plan fell apart, she was adaptive and made a new plan.
On an island like St. Lucia there is always the sun, the sand, the ocean and the mountains. And if you are really lucky there is the one you love or you start a mad passionate love affair which you can hope is not too ill-conceived. Its all quite sensual if you can cope with it.
Fast forward. It's now many years later and the tourists have come and have brought money. There are goods in the stores, some lovely bistros, shopping, fine restaurants and all those good things. Life is even better in this beautiful place as long as your plan for yourself is working out.
But there is always the need to adapt to scarcity. With more money on the island there are more things available. But scarcity remains an issue. It's possible you remember them calling out "de plane, de plane" on the TV show Fantasy Island. It's not "de plane, de plane" you watch for on a tropical island. It's "de container, de container". Containers bring almost all the imports by ship and that's most things.
Other than the fact that planes bring tourists and are the best way to get off and on the island, the plane is not important. It is the container that is important. On a tropical island there are what we have come to call "hatchings" from time to time. They come from the large shipping containers.
For example, there may be no plastic food storage containers on the island. They were "finished" some time ago and no one knows when they will return. Then comes a hatching. There are stacks of them in the stores. All shapes, sizes and colors. You buy lots of containers. Your other ones are largely gone. The plastic rotted. ( Its really strange but they do seem to rot.). The rats chewed them up. (Sorry. Fact of life in the tropics. Rats.) Whatever. They are gone. Oh, joy! Stacks of containers. And then they are finished again.
The next container brings what? WD-40? The hatching has brought shelves of it to the stores. You need a can. You buy six. You know it will be finished before long because everyone else is buying six. No wonder you begin to look at containers with reverence.
Sailors say that sailing is hours and hours of sheer boredom punctuated with moments of sheer terror. One might say the same thing about life in the tropics. Where does the terror come from? The weather. The local drivers. Your lover's husband or wife. Among other things.
But mostly the word which best characterizes island life after the initial excitement wears off is BOREDOM. Unless you have that plan for your life and are not still pursuing fantasy. And can just enjoy the sheer sensuality of it all.
Remember those luscious evenings we mentioned. They may be luscious or interminable. If you are a reader you can be in good shape. If you are a TV person and do not have cable in your area you are in trouble. The most powerful station on the island carries the Trinity Broadcasting Network and you may find yourself becoming engrossed in their hair and makeup. Then you know you are in trouble. Alternatively if you have just started a fabulous love affair you are in the right place and night is heaven.
It comes back again and again to recognizing that the fantasy has to be overcome. A tropical island can be a beautiful place if you are flexible, self sufficient and have a sense of humor. But if you plan to live a fantasy, you will find it isn't paradise. Of course, then, if you should happen to meet your Jamie or Andre...
Tropical Factoids
Snakes
Yes, they have snakes. But, forget the movie Anaconda. There is a boa the locals call Tête Chien (dog head). Sometimes you see them draped from someone's arm by the side of the road. He usually wants you to have your picture taken with it. For a fee, of course. But, we get amused by the thought that a tourist might buy it and show up at the airport or the cruise ship with one. But the lovely people at Air Jamaica can be very flexible. Then there is the fer de lance. Ugly and poisonous. They live deep in the rain forest valleys and we have never seen one.
Brutally Hot Summers in the Tropics
Not so. At least on the windward islands. It only varies five degrees winter to summer and stretches above 90 degrees are not common. In fact, at the height of summer it may be in the mid to upper 80s with a delicious breeze when it is a stifling 90 or over 100 in the States. And since most people assume it is hotter in the tropics they stay away and the islands are blessedly quiet.
Past Columns
Column 1 - St. Lucia
Column 2 - Jamie Elliott
Column 3 - Andre Demontagne
Column 4 - Paul and Danielle
Column 5 - Marcus Deroche
Column 6 - Bertille Deroche
Column 7 - What It's Like Living in the Tropics, Part 1
Column 8 - What It's Like Living in the Tropics, Part 2
Column 9 - Taylor, Clarisse and Barbara
Column 10 - How Does Our Writing Partnership Work?
Column 11 - Goal, Motivation, Conflict and Creativity
Column 12 - Family Life is a Saga
Column 13 - Toward A Circle of Dreams; I don't believe in ghosts.
Column 14 - A Book Walked in the Door
Column 15 - Every Woman Knows This Story
Column 16 - The Bridge
Column 17 - Why the Mystical Element in A Dream Across Time?
Column 18 - Gaia and myth in the Demontagne Saga
Column 19 - Carl Jung, Mythology and the Demontagne Saga
Column 20 - Carl Jung's Concepts in the Demontagne Saga
Column 21 - Martinique
Column 22 – Janine-Yvette Demontange (Yvie)
Column 23 – Anne-Clarisse Demontagne (Lissa)
Column 24 - Philippe Diamant Demontagne (Philippe)
Copyright© 1987-2006 Annie Rogers LLC dba Bivens and Jensen Publishing. All rights reserved |
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