So, I left the bustling metropolis that is Honiara and boarded a small plane. The flight takes all of 25 minutes,up over the Central Province and down onto the grassy palm lined runway that is Auki.  I grabbed my bag out the back of the plane and jumped onto the back of an old truck, otherwise known as the airport shuttle bus. Clinging on for dear life whilst trying to look cool, the eight other passengers and I made our way, bumping over the potholes, into town. 

Auki is a pretty nondescript town set beside a u shaped bay, edged with leaf huts on stilts and backed by steep, jungle clad hills. The town tour takes barely an hour with only three main streets, all shops, a large market, two banks and three hotels. Sounds very cosmopolitan right? Wrong. It reminds me of an old town in the Wild West, or a forgotten part of outback Australia. The road just runs straight into the shops and the street turns into a slippery claggy clay whenever it rains. Which is three times a day! 

Unfortunately, I arrive on the day that the generator breaks. This is not an unusual occurrence, but one that is normally fixed in a couple of hours. However, this time, it’s really broken and it needs new parts. The rumour mill goes into overdrive with tales of shipping it in from New Zealand, Germany, Japan. It could be weeks, maybe months. Great. There is certainly not the outraged panic stricken code red reaction that you would get in Australia or the UK. Auki has only had power for the last 10 years, and even then, only sporadically. The rest of Malaita has none. Despite the hospital generator also failing (schools have none anyway), shops loosing stock as fridges and freezers fail and business just shutting down, there is only a slightly inconvenienced, mildly disgruntled feeling about town. This is island life. 

After a terrible first night spent in the Auki motel,  (Think windowless cell like room, paper thin walls, loud snores and heavy traffic deep into the night as the ferry arrived in port at 3am. Luckily I had enough charge on my kindle to keep me company). I spent the day house hunting. I had a all of two guest houses to look at (big choice) and settled for The Hill Top. It’s a great place, nestled in the trees, high above town. It has seven rooms and is owned by a lovely Australian couple. I have my own room on the corner with a large balcony that looks out into the jungle. I know there are houses out there, I just can’t see them. I am loving just sitting and listening to the sounds of children playing, fires being lit and saucepans clattering as the different smells waft in on the breeze. Later at night, the frogs and the insects lull me to sleep. 

Today is Sunday, and the power is back! Yay. I think I have coped remarkably well. I have studied and read and slept and sat. A great introduction to a simpler life. I have coped without a fridge, a shower, a kettle and lights. I have queued for hours to get my phone charged and I have come out smiling. Whether this would be the same if it had, indeed, lasted a month? I’m not sure. My confidence is growing daily. I have survived my first days at work (a whole different story and a work in progress). I have caught buses, shopped at the market, mi spikim pijin leetlebet (and have been understood). I have cooked great food and also made a couple of friends along the way. I even squeezed in a cheeky Friday night glass of (warm) vino. A shaky start but an optimistic end. Let’s see what next week holds??