He heads for the cloud-covered peaks of central Kwaio. As the market winds down, some of the more adventurous parents who have come down from the mountains allow their small children to be vaccinated at the hospital against a range of killer diseases. Things are changing, albeit slowly. Drying clothes sometimes disappear off lines on market days. But if, as some suspect, central Kwaio people are responsible, they get only occasional subsequent use.
Life here seems a long way from the fast-food bars, banks and trade stores of Honiara.
But the political and ethnic conflict is nonetheless having an impact. Government financial support for the hospital has ceased because the national treasury has closed down amid the uncertainty. Loyal staff have willingly accepted big pay cuts. Despite at times fractious relationships with the interior people of central Kwaio, there remains a great deal of understanding for the doggedness with which they defend their ways and beliefs. Privacy Policy Copyright 2000.