The whole attitude towards time is very similar to Africa. “Solomon Time” seems to be very fluid and most people have no idea when you ask them how long something will take or what time something arrives.
An excellent example is my flight to Munda. I was concerned that they might give me trouble over the weight of my bags so decided to go to the airport about 70-90 mins before the plane was due to leave. However, after standing around for 5 mins looking for someone official to try and check-in with, a person in the crowd came over and asked me where I was going. So I told her and then she said – “Oh, your plane leaves in 10 mins, they’ve made it early [by and hour!]” Then she found someone to take my name and accept my bags. They didn’t ask for a single piece of ID, and barely even looked at my baggage, just writing down the weight. I did notice that they made one rather large man step on the scales
At the same time, there was an Australian girl who had been told her flight was cancelled. Still, unlike some places, they did pay for another night in her hotel and took her back (surfboard and all) in a taxi.
As there were no departure boards of any kind, I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t know when to go through to the plane. However, I needn’t have worried, because someone must have told someone else, and suddenly the crowed surged towards the ‘departure gate’ (a tiny room to the side). I then saw the size of the plane (a Dash8 apparently), looked at the group of people gathered, looked back at the plane and started to worry again. I was having visions of all of us rushing to get seats, and wondering how we were all going to get on there. As it happened, it turned out that anyone going on the plane had about 15 people seeing them off so it wasn’t any problem.
The flight was fairly uneventful and we landed in Munda an hour early. Luckily one of the hospital doctors had heard the plane landing so came down to pick me up. He and his wife are from the UK, and offered to give me some food that evening because all the markets had closed. They also took me out for a swim which was lovely although I’m not sure I’ll be going out again. That’s because when we got all the way out, Dr Jenny (apparently doctors are addressed by their first names here) warned me to keep a look-out for crocodiles which have been seen in the area. Needless to say I was hypervigilant after that and made sure I was between the 2 of them for all the way back.
After dinner, it was completely dark, so Dr Graham walked me back by torchlight. I’m going to have to figure out what time sunset is here because after that, walking around is going to be VERY difficult, even with my little torch.
This is the road from the town to the hospital - right along the seaside
No comments:
Post a Comment