Just like the water in Solomon Islands, being an expat spouse is sometimes calm and sometimes a little rocky. What does an expat spouse do in Honiara? This is a question I get a lot from friends and family back home. They often think that life on a tropical island is as romantic as the movies or travel agent brochures. While there are certainly elements of truth to this stereotype I do get a pedicure every so often as it feels totally awesome , this life of pure indulgence is mostly a misnomer.
Settling into life as an expat spouse has taken time. No manual comes with the position, no foolproof method to making it work for you and your partner. Those with kids generally have an instant community of school and play dates and so their networks are a little firmer at first.
Additionally, those who also work in the development world have kept themselves busy with networking and picking up short term contracts. So my thoughts below are exactly just that, my own thoughts and nothing more. Much of my time is spent running the house. I visit markets and butchers to buy our food no Woolworths here and adapt recipes to match what I can find.
I keep the house in order and the animals healthy. I fetch our drinking water from the other side of town and get our guards their meals. In this day and age of mortgage repayments and rising living costs, it feels like a rare opportunity to experience life as an old school housewife, although thankfully with the addition of a great washing machine.
Having come from a busy job in Australia, adapting to being a supporting spouse the label I much prefer rather than the insulting trailing spouse has been a slow and a sometimes emotional journey. Maybe my experience would have been different in a larger city, especially one with unlimited internet, but in Honiara entertainment and personal development options are limited, so finding meaning has been a challenge. In my first year in Honiara, many questions plagued my thinking.
