Lots of Islands

The Solomon Islands, as the name suggests, is a set of islands- over 100 islands.* The first person I met here was the UNDP driver. He is a very lovely man. His island is a two-week boat ride away. “Two weeks?!?”, I asked.

“How is that even possible?  I would go crazy!” my Dutch colleague said when we talked about it a few days later.

“Two weeks?” I tried to verify.

“Yes, two weeks on a boat and it gets very difficult with everyone on the dock with all their bundles and bags. You often don’t really have room to even lay down,” he confirmed. “We should be a part of Vanuatu, we’re only a day boat ride from there. Or the government should provide or ensure better boats.”

People say Honiara isn’t the Solomons. I can believe them. Obviously, it is one aspect of the Solomons, but not for the majority who live in areas only accessible by boat and canoe, whose access to government and markets and products from the outside is very limited. That is a Solomons I will unlikely to have access to in my short time here and although you can never fully understand a place as an outsider and everyone, even locals have a different experience of life, I realize how limited my experience is.

*63 languages and 9 main islands.

View of downtown Honiara from Koala Ridge.