Honiara is a small typical Pacific nation capital. There are few buildings more than 2 storeys high and basically two parallel streets, one along the shore and one just inland. Behind these the hills rise very steeply. There is massive unemployment (one of the contributing factors to the recent troubles) and a very low average age (about 15 I think) For this reason the streets are quite crowded with homeless and unemployed young people just wandering around. The life expectancy is only in the 50's so old people are a rarity. I was greeted by an elderly gentleman yesterday and I asked him in my newly learnt pidgin "you how?" he replied "I'm getting quite old"
The weather is very humid with a constant smell of smoke - setting fire to the rubbish bins seems to be the standard method of rubbish removal. I don't like to impose my western values too much, but despite the incendiary rubbish scheme the place is filthy. Compared to towns I've visited in Fiji and Vanuatu it is much worse. Betel nut, a mild narcotic is chewed my much of the population. This involves chewing the nut with hydrated lime and spitting the bright red result EVERYWHERE! - walls, floors, footpaths, occasionally unfortunate passers by. Plastic bags, the cancer of the developing world, are everywhere.
In the centre of town on the seafront is the market. Its a fascinating display of all that is available locally, from flowers to fish. Last year it was the site of some nasty tribal revenge involving machetes and limb removal. Now it seems quite calm, although the ever present RAMSI patrols are a regular sight here.
My month here should be quite interesting. On the 13th the goverment is going to hold a vote of no confidence in the prime minister (who wasn't really elected anyway). We will probably go into "lock down" which involves moving from our hotel to the RAMSI base - GBR. Here we will be living in tents which I am not looking forward to. In my next blog I'll give a bit of a description of GBR and the medical base there.
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