Early Thurs-day

Introduction 

Its 5Am in the morning, a loud bang on the door and suddenly it swings open, walking in the room, Ivory! Wake up and drop me off at the wharf, a stern command that arouse me like I was brought back to life from the world of dreams as my eyelids slowly opens to the reality of the moment another bright island morning and I am ready to share a piece of my Solomon island life with you.

1. Honiara Wharf

2. I left my uncle's house at Baranumba to drop off my Aunt ( Mum's Sister) at the wharf. She will be departing for Auki Malaita Province at 7am or 8am. She is boarding Auki Express a privately owned vessel by Franjti shipping a locally owned shipping company. It is the most luxurious and convenient vessel that people prefer much than other ships.

3. Auki Express has proper seats inside where people can be seated comfortably during the voyage. It is also the fastest.  It only takes 3 hrs from Honiara to Auki. Other ships however, the bigger ones took 6 hours compared to Auki Express. Hence, people find it easy and convenient to travel in Auki Express other than the other ships for comfort and convenience. This ship often makes 2 trips a day between Auki and Honiara which makes transportation or mobility between this two islands Malaita and Guadalcanal easier than before. I am also a fan of Auki Express. I love travelling in this ship. Given the fact that it is a locally owned company and was filling the gap of logistics between the islands, it would be great to see more local Solomon islanders venturing into this business as shipping is the main transport for all Solomon islanders between all the scattered island.

• Henderson 

1. After dropping off my Aunt, I came home and again requested by my uncle ( Mum's Brother) to drop him and his wife again at their destination.We drove up to Henderson one of the commercial sites in Honiara. Most of the businesses in Honiara have their factories and offices located here. My Uncle was fortunate to have also acquired a 46mx36m square land where he had a small cocoa dryer to ferment and dry cocoa for export. However, most of the land here were acquired and owned by Chinese business people. There were also ongoing developments taking place at current at several sites owned by the Chinese. It is abit concerning to see the drastic developments in building structures by the Chinese and whether their designs were done by professional firms and being verified for its architectural and Technical designs aswell as being passed by the building board at the Honiara city council (HCC). The Solomon Islands Building code was just recently passed by the parliament and there is more work to be done in terms of its effective enforcement in the infrastructure and development sector by the regulatory bodies both private and public like the Honiara City Council Building Board , Ministry of Infrastructure and Development (MID) and the private contractors.

Conclusion 

• Life in the Solomon Islands is beautiful in many ways, however being involved both in the private and public sector, I have seen there is weak enforcement of the law in many ways, increase in corruption infiltration in the public sector, acceptance of  bribes from the Chinese. 

• Solomon islanders should work hand in hand in protecting our beautiful country by all means or it will be dominated by the Chinese people in the near future.

• Thank you and looking forward for another island stories.

💬What are your thoughts? I would love to hear your voice in the comment section below.👇

• -Ivory Waki/ Solvoice

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