![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/joannah-irvin.jpg\" "\\"joannah-irvin\\"")
Marvin Hunt, a professor in English, described being in the Family Islands as \u201cbeing in paradise.\u201d His book, Among the Children of the Sun: Travels in the Family Islands of the Bahamas, published last year, describes these Islands as a part of the Bahamas that few ever visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote stories about love, lust and death. I had real adventures, dangerous close calls and met great people,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n
In the book, Hunt records his journeys and the life lessons that he acquired while traveling through the Family Islands such as Eleuthera, Cat Island and Long Island. They are called Family Islands because most of the residents in Nassau, the capital and largest city of the Bahamas, can trace their family back to these islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 15 years that the book covers, my office-mate died of cancer, my brother died and so I was going through life changes. Each time I went to a new island, I was different. I came to terms with my own life as I was coming to terms with their lives. It was a great place to think and reflect,\u201d Hunt said.<\/p>\n
Hunt has traveled to the Bahamas over 40 times. His first journey to the islands was in 1994 with his friend to Eleuthera for geological research.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see these islands the way that most tourists did,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cI saw them as the life of the people…. [My friend and I] would walk through these little settlements and people would just invite us into their homes\u2026.They were so friendly, outgoing and hospitable that I decided I wanted to know more.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1995, Hunt returned and traveled to the island of San Salvador. While on the island, his respect for the lives of the Bahamians grew from listening to stories that the old women would tell of survival, adventure and lives without modern-day conveniences such as electricity.<\/p>\n
Some of the most compelling aspects of the Islands to Hunt were the people and the history. Hunt\u2019s book follows several historic figures that he felt personal connections to.<\/p>\n
For example, Hunt\u2019s book explores the life of Jermone Hawes, a deceased Franciscan monk and church architect, who Hunt said captured his interest since his first visit to Hawes\u2019 hermitage on Cat Island.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing this man\u2019s ghost, walking around and seeing where he was, seeing what he built with his own hands, was the most rewarding thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marvin Hunt, a professor of English, discusses his latest work on the Bahamas. “In my book, I look at the history, social economics, and culture of the people there outside of the tourist industry”. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[54,44,59],"class_list":["post-31360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-books","tag-history","tag-islands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31360\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}