Anyone from, in, or knowledgable about the Cayman Islands?

Question

I'm having a hard time finding info about death rituals, family organization& roles, and general details about the culture for a Healthcare and Culture class that I'm in. It seems like there is only travel guide type info and vague statistics. I know there is a blend of religious communities, but can anyone provide personal perspective? I'd greatly appreciate it!!

Answer 1

http://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Cayman...

Answer 2

I used to live there and I have some experience of funerals. These are attended by all and sundry and the coffin is left open so that one can see the face of the deceased. There are many private burial grounds all over the islands. An alternative is to be buried at sea, which means hiring a boat and a pastor and holding a service on board.

Caymanian families are typical Caribbean families, complicated by the fact that there are many marriages with foreigners. Sometimes the Caymanian spouse will turn nasty and complain to the Immigration Board about the non-Caymanian spouse in order to secure his or her deportation. Where couples are not married, the woman will often have to go to court to obtain maintenance from the father of her child and there have been too many cases of men avoiding their responsibilities by getting the girl deported.

I may get thumbs-down for saying all this and I would like to emphasise that most marriages are stable and the spouses treat one another properly.

A further aspect of family life is the fact that foreign mothers and children are often separated. There is a great deal of discrimination here: Jamaican mothers, for example, may not have their babies with them for more than six weeks before they have to be sent away, whereas mothers from other countries may keep them for a year. I knew of a sad example of a girl from Honduras who was pregnant when she arrived in the Cayman Islands and who was convicted and imprisoned. She had to give birth manacled and it was a hard childbirth. She had no financial resources and wouldn't have had anything at all to clothe her baby with (not even nappies/diapers) had it not been for the kindness of a local church. For the first few days of the baby's life she was pestered by Immigration as to when the baby would be removed -- yet her relatives in Honduras could not get visas to come over and collect him! Eventually an aunt came all the way from Italy, having acquired EU citizenship by being married to an Italian, to collect the baby and take him to Honduras.