September 21, 2007

  • Trivia Break

    All the flights to Gizo were booked through Thursday, and so I was stuck in Honiara for a few days, which was good for getting my bearings. To make these entries easier for you to read (and me to write), I thought it might be good to explain a bit about the Islands as best I can, especially since I know many of you are American and you don't like, have maps, such as. So, question and answer time! Keep in mind that this is stuff I either gleaned from others or skimmed off Wikipedia, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of everything 100%

    Uh, the what Islands?

    The Solomon Islands are a chain of over 900 islands that neighbor Paupa New Guinea

    Yeah, that doesn't help me.

    West of Fiji

    ...

    Australia?

    Oh, OK. So, tropical?

    Yep. Hot and humid, although summer in Tokyo was worse.

    What are the people like?

    Although there is a significant population of Micronesians, Micronesians, a smattering of Chinese and Auzzies, and the occasional American Peace Corps volunteer who came in the 70's and simply never left, most of the population pretty much looks African. The people who live there that have traveled a bit and know this find it amusing. One of Roycie's aunts joked that she was going to sneak into the States, throw away her passport and live life forever undetected as an African-American.

    Actually, there is one island in the east where people are blond. Their skin is just as dark as everyone else's, but their hair is totally blond, nearly white. I thought this was the coolest thing I ever saw in my life. Everytime I saw a little girl with blond curls I started seriously considering adoption. These were the first of many baby-snatching thoughts I had over my two weeks there.

    By and large, sustenance living is the rule in the Islands, especially once you get away from the city. If you want food, you grow and cook it yourself. Even people who live in more urban areas still live this way, although they do make some money doing odd jobs that they use for things like clothes, petrol, and SolBrew, the Solomon's very own beer. The highest denomination of printed money, by the way, is 100 Solomon Dollars, about US $14. So that should tell you something. And, those bills are always crisp and clean, as opposed to the other bills which are practically disintegrated, so that should tell you something else.

    What language do they speak?

    Most people speak at least two languages: the language of their family (in the broad, tribal sense), and Pidgin English. Most people who have parents from different Islands speak or at least understand the language of both families, so some people can get along in as many as four or five different languages. The pidgin spoke in the Solomon Islands uses mostly English vocabulary plugged into the grammar of an indigenous language. It was developed in order to communicate with English-speaking traders, and also for the Islanders they hired as laborers to communicate with each-other. Most people seem to prefer speaking their own language, but it is considered extremely rude to speak a language that someone with you doesn't understand, so the language you hear on the streets is mostly Pidgin. English is the official language.