Read Around the World April 2022 – The Solomon Islands

Map link

April and we visited another set of islands this time in the South Pacific so what did we learn?

Fun facts from this website

• The Solomon Islands are an island nation located in Oceania. They consist of approximately 992 small islands, atolls and reefs.
• Only 347 of the islands are populated. The six major islands are Choiseul, Guadalcanal, Malaita, Makira, New Georgia and Santa Isabel.
• The Solomon Islands are the third-largest archipelago in the South Pacific.
• The first European to explore the islands was the Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana in 1568. Believing that gold was present, Mendana named the islands after the legendary King Solomon’s mines.
• The Solomon Islands were colonised by the UK in the 19th century. The British Solomon Islands Protectorate was declared in 1893. The protectorate was informally known as “The Happy Isles”.
• Today, the islands are popular with scuba divers due to the numerous Second World War submarine, ship and aircraft wrecks.
• US President John F Kennedy kept a coconut shell in his Oval Office as a reminder of when he was marooned in the Solomon Islands in 1943. After his boat sank, he was rescued by two Solomon Islanders called Eroni Kumana and Biuku Gasa. The president, along with 10 other survivors, swam to the uninhabited Plum Pudding Island. It has now been renamed Kennedy Island.
• In 1976, the Solomon Islands became self-governing before achieving complete independence from the UK in 1978.
• The national flag consists of triangles of blue, which represents the importance of water, and green, which represents trees and crops, separated by a yellow diagonal stripe which represents the sun. In the upper corner are five white stars which stand for the original five provinces that initially made up the country.
• The Solomon Islands’ coat of arms is a shield framed by a crocodile and a shark. The motto “To Lead Is To Serve” is displayed beneath it. On the shield are an eagle, a turtle, a war shield and some fighting spears.

I chose to visit the Solomon Islands via Solomon Time by Will Randall. I was unable to find an own voices book so my choice was this autobiography of a man who gives up teaching in England to take over a project started by a dead Commander he has never met to enable the people of Mendali Village to be self-sufficient.

I am not really a fan of non-fiction but I enjoyed this light hearted look at how an inept white man manages (with a lot of help) to create two community projects that will bring in an income for Mendali village to be used for the good of all in the village.

I loved the descriptions of village life, of the people and of learning Pidgin English. The concept of Solomon Time would appeal to my hubby who always does everything in his own good time and not before.

Other readers visited in the following ways:

Currey from Litsy. Devil-Devil by Graeme Kent again not an own voices book but this detective noir was rated a pick.

Did you join us on this leg of our read around the world journey if so what did you read?

What are you planning to read for May when we visit the Czech Republic?

For a change I am already prepared and will be reading The Joke by Milan Kundera