Smoke rises up from the fire pit below in the valley – the locals prepare „motu“- meat prepared on hot rocks. Dense vegetation prevents me to see what is going on, but I hear. I hear pigs squealing, the Noisy Miner birds screaching and people shouting and laughing. During the night dogs are howling and the roosters start their concert already around 3 am.
On the dirt road on the bottom of the valley cars drive as slow as people walk – this is the rhythm of the islands. Everything is slow.
Something else the islanders share – the chewing of the Betel Nut. Like the Coca leaves or the Khat leaves in Ethiopia, the Betel Nut brings energy and makes people feel good. In mixing it with lime, the nut turns red and according to the locals, tastes delicious. This is the reason why often the teeth and lips of the locals and are colored red. They spit red saliva on the ground, which can be seen ( except in places were it is forbidden by law to chew).
Many little wooden booth sell the Betel nut beside the road. One Betel nut costs two Solomon Dollars.
The islanders are friendly, open and curious, especially women. The faces of older women are often decorated with tattooes. It shows the tribe to which they belong. People love to go barefoot. Their feet, especially the feet of men, are huge.
One peculiarity they share too – they seem to know everything about everyone. Talking about other people belongs to their culture. Lorenz and Ale told me that strangers once knew when they went to bed the day before.
Christianisation has left major footprints on the islands. On my way up to our house – a compound of several houses surrounded by barbed wire and watched day and night by a guard- a bunch of kids was walking with me. Their names were Mary, Julia, Albert, Wilhelm. They lost their native names, at least in Honiara. However, on the almost 1000 islands they speak 120 languages. The common language they use for communication is Pidgin – very funny and simply English.
On my way back to the house, those workers asked to be photographed. The house in the back is a typical house on stilts.
Before the explorers, missionaries and traders came to the islands, they were head hunters invading neighbor islands with their ships. As a sign of fierceness, the front of the ship was decorated with the god Ngugungzugung holding a human head. Later the head was replaced by a bird as symbol for peace.
All the gods have a strong gaze.
Beside excellent carvings made out of tropic woods, the women weave beautiful baskets.
In the art gallery of the Solomon islands, they show interesting paintings.. One artist painted the future effects of the brutal logging going on. Some of the logging effects I have seen already— hills totally stripped of any trees. It reminded me of the Easter Islands.
I would guess from the looks on the faces that the origins of the people of the Solomons is from Africa or India. But apparently the indigenous people have been there for thousands of years and only in the last millennium were “discovered” by Europeans. Is that right?
Yes, the people seem to have features resembling people from Africa but it is generally agreed that the islands were settled by Asian peoples when the ocean was 100 meter lower and there was more land.