26th February

Another day of constant amazement at the crew at work. Especially the ladies in the Nursery. We’ve moved on from the Soils Unit, and started doing propagation, and selecting mother stock for propagation.

At the moment we’re studying cuttings, soft/semi-hardwood/hardwood. The easiest way for me to show was to get a bougainvillea branch, with a soft tip, back to hardwood. The ladies wanted to know why we didn’t use the soft part for cuttings. In the 30 minutes from the time I took the cutting, to us talking about it, the ends of the branch had wilted, and even putting it in water didn’t revive it. Good demonstration, it stuck in their minds for sure. The Bougainvillea cuttings we took the other day and struck in the river gravel have started roots already, another week and we’ll be potting them up. Oh for a mist system for the shade house, we’d have cuttings to spare and more.

They got confused when I started talking about mother stock, so the best description I could give that they related to, was that our cuttings were the children, and if we looked after the Mother, the children would be strong, and grow healthy and quickly. Jennifer, Imelda, Annie and Susie are really good in the nursery. They work steadily, never complain, and are always thinking.

We had a bit of fun, the guys don’t like getting their hands in the dirt, working with the chainsaws, tools, bush knives, not a problem, play with the soil and mix? Not willingly. I mentioned it to the ladies while we were potting up, and Jennifer came back with, Men! we have the babies, cook, garden, clean, look after the children, feed the man, and all he does is laze around and go fishing, humph!

So I said, well, it’s hard work making babies, we have to rest up

All 3 of them threw clods of dirt at me, and chased me out of the potting area laughing.

Imelda and Annie spent the afternoon rubbing more coconut husks through the makeshift sieve we have, it’s just a piece of 10mm wire mesh from a building site, with a wooden frame. I’d love to get them to NZ or Australia to work in a well set up nursery, they’d be running it within 6 months, their work ethic is so good. That applies to all the crew we have.

My shipping finally arrived today. I’ve got towels! And sharp knives that don’t bend when you try to cut bread. And my fishing rods and reels! Guess what I’m doing this weekend?

Steve called out to the Gardens this afternoon to pick me and collect everything. He’d acquired a washing machine, with a bit of a problem, it could be broken drive belt, I should be able to fix it, so there goes the hand washing outside in the stone tub. I also scored a small benchtop electric grill and oven from him, he wasn’t sure if it worked or not, it didn’t, but it was only a broken wire in the plug, so that’s fixed now and all set to go.

Steve is the VSA Programme Officer for the Solomons, Bouganville, and Papua New Guinea, I’m just one of several VSA people he is responsible for. We were driving through Honiara, and he asked which areas we looked after. He said that he constantly sees our crews out in the town working, and looking happy as they work. It’s something I’ve noticed, all the crew take pride in working, who they work for, and doing a good job and trying to make Honiara look better.

I’ll let them all know what Steve said tomorrow morning, it ties in with what I constantly emphasize in class, and when I’m working with any of the crew.

There are a lot of unemployed youth in Honiara, it is the major problem here, and our crews from the gardens are the best advertisement for us. We get a constant stream of people looking for a job with us, because we have work, and also the fact we put them through Level 1 and 2 Horticulture certificates, which are a guarantee of employment here. We have to rely on donations for the cost of the courses, we need nearly $30,000 for each trainee to cover the costs involved, all of our assessments have to go to Brisbane for verification, although now I’m here we can do it internally. Thanks to the Assessors Certificate I got a few years back from Auckland University.

Most of the temporary workers, the ones that are on the Certificate course end up working for the large hotels, as gardeners on reasonably good pay, with constant work.

When there are people prepared to work as security guards for $4 an hour, at night, you realise there is a major problem looming. I’d be wanting $200 an hour, and my own AK47 to be a security guard at night here.

And a plane waiting ready to go for when it turned sticky.

I’ve unpacked everything, not that there was much, and got the fishing rods assembled and ready to go.

Printer works, and the scanner, so I’m all set up again.

There’s an old time revival meeting going on up the road at the Ba’hai School at the moment, a lot of shouting, clapping, Hallelujah, and singing. The main speaker is very heavily influenced by Billy Graham I think, with a mix of Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King. The music is good, and the singing, but not my thing.

I’ve got an early Bob Dylan cd on at the moment, actually not all that early, it’s Blood on the Tracks from 1975. Simple Twist of Fate, and Shelter from the Storm are the two tracks I like best on it.

A few more people reading this lately, Hi to Stef, Damian, Tarsha, Jesse and Kahu, Moira, Sally Kim, Christopher in Belize.

Realised today, I’m drinking 3 litres of iced coffee a day, and another 1.5 litres of water, and it’s barely going through my system. You really sweat out copious amounts of water here, walking breaks you out in a sweat, just standing outside is enough. You soon learn to walk and work at a steady pace all day, trying to rush is pointless, you get dehydrated so quickly. One good thing, I’ve lost 5kg since I’ve been here, still a few to go, but I’ll be down to 70 kg again soon.

Our swimming hole retaining wall is progressing well, the guys made a few more improvements to my suggestion, and now they are tying the tyres to each other, and putting an anchor tyre behind the front wall, and tying that to the others. Another load of steel reinforcing pins arrived from somewhere yesterday, I don’t ask questions, and don’t want any answers.

We’re getting more people coming out to see the gardens. The bush telegraph must be working well in town, a lot have not been to the gardens since the troubles, and they are really pleased with what has been done so far with the tracks, and the orchid house. I hope I can continue on with what Eric started last year.

I’m trying a sourdough bread recipe, I’ve got a very active starter going, from a really good website, http://www.joepastry.com/, if you like baking, and good advice, it’s the best one I’ve found. Tell Joe I sent you. Anyway, after following the recipe, and using a small plastic bowl, I’ve now transferred it to a large bowl, I get the feeling that 30*C and high humidity really make the yeast culture think it’s on steroids. It climbed out of the bowl and made a break for the floor before I noticed it. It will be ready to mix up tomorrow night, so I’ll have fresh sourdough bread for the weekend.

Pic for today is the coral hills around Honiara. I live behind the left hand end of the ridge going towards the sea. There are three distinct flat levels and possibly more, I’ll have to go for a drive further back one weekend, but I think behind the ones in the pic, it turns into volcanic and basalt base. There is a gold mine on Gold Ridge, I’m seriously considering panning the gravel in the stream when we start digging out the swimming hole.

The evening rain is back, not that it cools down much, but it does freshen the air

25th February

Our classroom doubles as the crew lunchroom, the lights have fused out from the damp, the overhead fan doesn’t, it’s more of a ceiling ornament at the moment. So about 9 o’clock this morning I gave up tying to see everyone in the gloom inside, it wasn’t till some of the darker skinned people smiled I could see them, and we went and sat on the river bank discussing soil types, sub surface strata, sand, silt, clay, gravel, composting.

It’s hard to describe clay here, there isn’t any locally. The land is too new to have developed clay sub strata, and once you dig through the top layers, you hit coral reef. It was funny watching the group, the girls actually dig into the silt/sand etc, feel the texture and get an understanding, the guys tend to try to keep their hands clean. It’s a good way of having class here, sitting in the shade of the trees, feet in the cool water, actually looking at what we’re discussing, and how the layers of soil build up over time.

6pm, and the power just went out. Thunder and lightning, heavy rain, Lovely!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll shut this off and wait a while, then continue with the battery if the power doesn’t come back.

Wasn’t too bad, only an hour and a half without lights. And fan. The native bush houses win out in that respect. Being made out of woven palm leaves, there is always a breeze coming through, ok, plus the occasional malaria mosquitos. And spiders. Geckos. Centipedes. Perhaps I’ll reconsider that.

Getting back to what I started today with, we’ve been talking about ideal mixes for propagating plants, I’ve mentioned Jennifer and Imelda making the decision to try the river gravel for cuttings, which are doing well, today the girls that went to the nursery for the afternoon with Jennifer and Imelda really blew me away.

We had been discussing ideal propagating mix, 50% peat, 25% soil, 25% sand, and the whys and wherefores of the various constituents. I went over to the nursery about 1.30, and found Doris, Annie, and Imelda busily rubbing coconut husks through our 10mm wire mesh sieve, Kennedy had been sent to the river to get some coarse sand and gravel, and they were mixing up a bagging mix to try with the soil. We’ve got a large heap of rotting husks, and the girls spent a good two hours rubbing the husks through the sieve, they ended up with a good couple of wheelbarrows full, which they mixed with the sand, and soil, and set about bagging the rooted cuttings.

It’s such a joy to work with people that want to learn, and put into practise what they learn.

I’ve mentioned Honiara as the perfect hell for all those OSH Inspectors before. Our tree cutting and pruning gang would be banned in any other country that I know of. We’ve got a few trees here at the Ba’hai Centre to fell, they are in a dangerous condition, one was dead with a large, about 600mm thick branch over the roadway, and they started with that one. I caught up with them just as they were starting to trim the top branches.

Andrew, barefoot, shorts and t-shirt, bandanna and chainsaw holding onto the main trunk with one hand, 20’ up, cutting branches one handed. Then straddling the branches and cutting through them. All the time with a face splitting grin. OK, the red betel nut stained teeth gave him a bit of a piratical appearance, all four of the crew clamber up and down trees with chainsaws and bush knives, hacking and cutting till all there is left is a short stub in the ground. I’ve got pics, but film only, till that gets developed I’ll have to wait to post pics.

One of the trees we have to fell is huge. There is no way our little chainsaw will cope with it. And we’ll need a rope and the truck to pull one of the branches away from the house it is over. I think a digital movie camera would be better sometimes. It is going to be interesting watching how they remove it.

I spent most of the afternoon calculating what size water pump or pumps I’d be needing for my grandiose waterfall. The smallest I can get away with is 4 x 550gpm pumps, feeding the header trough, to give me sufficient water flow for 60’ of waterfall, 30’ front and back. I’ll email a few suppliers in Australia and New Zealand tomorrow with the size of the waterfall and see what they recommend. So far, everyone thinks it is a great idea, I’m beginning to think I should never have opened my mouth about it. I’m meeting up with the wood carver tomorrow or Friday to discuss the carvings, well, to talk about the size, he can use whatever tribal pattern he likes. I may make it into 5 x 2m wide panels, with framing in between, getting timber in long lengths may be difficult.

The 2 pawpaw I bought Sunday, one is finished, the other was still green when I bought it, it ripened very well on the kitchen bench, so with luck it may last me another day. Huge pawpaw, about 350mm (a bit over 12”) long, and about 200mm(8”) thick. Not bad for a few dollars. SBD $5 , NZ$1

Checked my little garden earlier, in the rain. I’m going to be eating well soon. All the cucumbers are up, the courgettes and 2 rows of beans. I’m sure my neighbours have doubts about the mad palangi next door, wandering around in the rain in a sarong, laughing. Just you wait till I corner the market in fresh beans and courgettes, capsicums and chillies!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are a few stalls with peppers at Kukum, but I’d feel embarrassed offering anything for sale that looked like they do. Tiny little things, and they want $4 - $5 each. No excuses, I have to grow better ones.

I’ll pick up some bamboo at the markets once my tomatoes and apple cucumbers are growing and build a trellis for them. Rattan cane ties, and bamboo poles. I’ve only got a small patch of ground that doesn’t flood when it rains, all the rest is a river of mud and stones.

I got bitten the other day when I was rummaging through the bush, tiny little ants, about 3mm long, they pack a huge whallop with their bite, it must be pure formic acid. Anyway, one bite turned a bit nasty looking, I noticed it yesterday, so dug out the med kit, and dosed myself up with antibiotics, and put antibiotic cream and plaster over it. It appears to be healing up nicely now. Last thing I feel like doing is going to the hospital. Tiffanys husband is still in there, a few problems with his arm still, she goes in each day with his lunch. The ceiling fans aren’t working, no air conditioning, and they turn the lights off in the daytime to save costs. So it’s dark, humid, and a bit of a gloomy place.

It’s not the place for arachnophobes, like me, some of the spiders are large, and don’t look friendly, either they have long legs, bright colours on their bodies, or short legs, and large bodies. I’m sure the short legged ones are a variety of wolf spider, they have the jaws and head up display when you get near them, and they hop rather than run.

We’ve got landcrabs burrowing into the soil around the lily pond, only small, the holes are only a few inches wide, and I think all the coconut crabs that used to be around Honiara are now all well cooked and eaten a long time ago.
Pic of a spider on a helliconia leaf for today

24th February

Have I mentioned how good the people doing the level 2 Certificate course are? I’ve not worked with such motivated people for a long time. If I mention anything and they are not sure what I mean, they ask for me to explain it better, so my English is now a mix of Toktok, English and scientific names. Every one is happy knowing the latin names for the plants, they all come from different provinces here, and there is a different common name for everything, so we stick to the latin nomenclature, and we all know exactly which palm/tree/shrub we are meaning.

It’s good for me, I’ve been doing such a mix of trades for the past few years, engineering, landscaping, bakery, nursery work, to settle in one occupation for the next 2 years will be great.

Tiffany and I went to the hotel site, ok, once more I’ve really jumped into a deep hole. There are 3 acres of space to landscape, and also the front entrance to design and build. Thankfully, a lot of the space is going to be carparks, although where all the cars are coming from I don’t know. Most of the tourists here use the taxis, or tour guides to get around. There is a car rental agency, but even so, 200 carparks?

The landscaping around the back of the hotel down to the beach will be easy, mostly a mix of Hibiscus, Bougainvillea, palms and cycas, also a large lawn expanse and paved footpaths and seating outside the open bar and pool area.

The front entrance feature is going to be the main effort. I’m pushing for a water feature, 10m wide 3m high waterfall, into a pool of water lilies with palms, hibiscus, delonix regia, caesalpinia, around the outside. It’s a U shaped front entrance, 33m wide, 15m deep to fill. Tiffany has a local wood sculptor I am going to hopefully get to make up two 10m wide by 3m high wooden traditional carvings to use behind the waterfall front and back, then use uplighting to accentuate them at night behind a sheet of water. The back of the garden has a glass wall for the main restaurant so it has to be a two sided design. It all sounds great, apart from the fact I have 2 weeks to have it designed and costed, and 3 months to have it all installed before opening in June.

Needless to say, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown in June once it’s all completed, if we get the approval first.

My seeds I planted last Saturday have already come through, beans, courgettes, cucumbers, so this weekend will be another digging and planting exercise to get coriander, tomatoes, basil, chilli, capsicums, (bell peppers in the USA), apple cucumbers, bok choy and pak choy started.

We had a few visitors to the Gardens today, two English girls on their big South Pacific tour, and an older lady. She turned out to be the Fijian American Consuls wife, and a close friend of Kiethie Saunders, who is the USA Consul here, and also the main driving force behind getting the Botanic Gardens restored. I’m pleased I took the time to meet and show her around, she is bringing her husband back later in the week and I’ll make a point of being available to show them the walkways and gardens.

I keep finding plants buried in the forest growth and going WOW!!!!!! There is a small grove of Cycas bougainvillea some 10’ – 12’ high, and one full of seed fruits. When I asked back at the office if we still had any growing, apparently last year the nursery was broken into, and all the cycas, and rarer orchids, and the few Delonix were stolen, and presumably taken to Singapore or Malaya for sale. And to make matters worse, the last lot of Cycas seed heads were hacked off the palms one weekend, and again presumably smuggled out.

I’m slowly getting the crew to understand how important it is to keep our plants here in the Gardens, as a repository for propagation and show. And to propagate and grow as many of the native species as possible.

The girls in the nursery, with our make shift propagating tray and river sand, are happy, the bougainvillea cuttings have survived 2 days now, without wilting. I’ll have to write up a proposal for VSA NZ to submit to the NZ Nursery Association and try for a donation of a waterpump, pressure system and spray/mist piping. Hand watering every 2 – 3 hours with a watering can isn’t the best, but it seems to be working.
We suffer from a chronic lack of everything, wheel barrows, we have 2, the others were stolen, chainsaws, the Police bought 1 small (12” blade) chainsaw back after the break in last year, but the other 4 bigger ones are presumably long gone to the forestry by now. Handtools, secateurs, loppers etc, are all highly prized high theft articles, despite the bars and locks we have everywhere. It can get frustrating.

The pothole I hit last week and flattened the tyre in, the wheel rim is damaged beyond repair, running repairs here are constant drain on our funds.

On a positive note, it is finally raining here. Thunder, lightning, and a steady downpour for the past 2 hours.

Gecko watch update. After a couple of days without a single gecko anywhere inside, one climbed up my back, which I didn’t really appreciate much, after finding a couple of large black and aggressive looking spiders on the inside of the mosquito mesh on the windows. But no harm done to either of us, apart from spilling my iced coffee on the floor.

And the large 6” one is back in the kitchen again after the bit of excitement with the stove the other night.

Pic is of the USA War Memorial on Skyline Drive.

23rd February

Monday. It felt like it too. I’ve been misled into thinking this is the rainy season, all it does is get incredibly humid, and hot, and it hints at the promise of rain with every breeze.

There was thunder rolling in from the mountains to the southwest of us all afternoon, and my hopes were high. There was a brief shower earlier tonight, about 6pm, which promptly turned my house into a sauna with steam, and all my shirts I am trying to dry on the verandah went limp with moisture.

9 of the 12 people doing the Level 2 Hort Certificate arrived this morning. 3 are working full time for various hotels and tourist places in town and it’s taking a while to arrange morning leave for them to attend. Only 2 men in the group, 1 is already working for the Botanic Gardens, as are 2 of the ladies.

Thankfully it was only basic stuff today, I’m dreading what they will be like if it gets complicated. They questioned everything, which is good, I’d rather that then finish the 12 weeks and find out they didn’t understand anything. I was having to dig deep in my memory for stuff, we were doing soils/nutrients/ minerals and structure. After a couple of hours drawing and writing over the whiteboard, and having to think as I went, we went for a wander around the gardens looking, touching and smelling the different soils and sand, gravel and forest litter, at the same time discussing the uses, nutrient levels of sand, gravel etc.

By lunchtime we all needed a break, afternoons they work with the crew around the gardens and in the town doing maintenance on the gardens, or in the nursery. What we were discussing must have struck a chord with the ladies in the nursery, Jennifer and Imelda. After lunch they were off to the river getting a large bag full of fine gravel to try propagating with. We’ve now got 200 Bougainvillea cuttings in a makeshift propagating bed in the shade house. I’d love a proper spray system for it, time will tell I hope, until then we’re having to hand spray water on the cuttings every 2 hours or so initially.

I mucked up the pics for yesterday, the pic of the cars and the bridge is the 2 lane bridge I mentioned earlier, where 4 lanes of traffic on Mendana play chicken.

Tiffany and I are into town tomorrow afternoon, one of the new hotels on Mendana Ave has approached us to do the landscaping for the project. If only all of the nursery had survived the troubles, we’d have large specimens to plant out, unfortunately, most of the grown stuff was used for firewood.

We can get 15’ – 20’ palms from outside Honiara for a fee to the landowner, and we do have a lot of smaller shrubs and trees to bulk out the plans with. From the architects plan, there are 100 palms alone around the swimming pool complex, and 20 in the front gardens.

It’ll be interesting, and we may make a bit of money from it.

My begging local (from last week) came back tonight, looking for money to pay for his sons school fees. About 8pm, which didn’t impress me, and neither did his story of how the lady that used to be doing my job and lived in this house, always gave him $700 to pay the fees with, and he made baskets for her. For a start there hasn’t been a lady doing my job, I’m the first VSA person to be working officially for the Botanic Gardens, anyway, finally got rid of him off my doorstep but not before he was on again about what security I had. I know this may sound over the top, but my bush knife is staying close to me for a while at night. And I’m leaving the keys in the back door deadlock so I can get out quickly. I’ll have to mention it to Steve tomorrow, if he comes back, I’ll fill out a police report and transfer out of this house to another area.

Unfortunately a lot of people here equate a whiteface with money, the RAMSI people are paid more in a week than I’ll see in a month, hell, probably 3 months, and then the consultants that are gathered like flies on a rubbish heap here live highly conspicuous lives. So it’s understandable that the locals will try to get some of the wealth, but if I did start paying out it would soon turn nasty when he wanted more than I had.

The Honiara Yacht Club have just increased their membership fees, to AUD$1000 for nomination, and AUD$850 per year subscription. I won’t be bothering.

Still no sign of my shipping, I’ve got used to using the seat cushions for pillows, and I’m glad I packed my Alaskan Ulu knives in my suitcase, they are the only decent sharp knives I’ve got at the moment.

The swimming hole retaining wall is getting rebuilt in stages. We ran out of tie wire, and had to resort to buying some. It is taking shape though, we had several of the local children swimming and jumping in it this afternoon. Once we get the dam completed again, it’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts once we get a flood
Pic for today is one of the province houses in the museum grounds.

22nd February

22nd February

Friday. Went for another exploratory walk through the gardens, it’s a tropical botanists dream world. Found some dendrobium orchids growing high up in the canopy, a lot of butterflies, and birds, all living happily 100’ above everything. There is a tree with large brown fruit like an over grown kiwi fruit, hanging off the branches on long stems. I had a fairly good idea, managed to get one of the fruit down, and checked in my reference files. It’s a tamarind tree, about 3 months away from the fruit being ripe yet though. I asked the crew at work about it, but they said they never knew what it was, and just left the fruit to rot on the ground when they fell. I’ve found another couple the weekend, so I’ll be collecting the fruit when it’s ripe. The pulp is great for Asian style cooking, sour/sweet flavour that is good in soups and drinks.

I’m getting to recognise all the different palms now, they have come from all over the Pacific area, and a few from as far as Madagascar and Australia. Very few Draceana, I was hoping to find more than the few I’ve seen, and I think those have been imports rather than native.

Went out for dinner with Steve and his wife, Debbie from World Vision, and Bruce and Gwen to the Taj Mahal restaurant on the airport road. I’m still not used to the prices here, side stuff like pappadoms, (1) were $10, paratha and naan bread the same for each. Most of the entrée dishes were $30 - $40, and the mains started at $70 for dhal curries, and up to $90 for prawn curry. The meals are nice though, it’s a mix of Indian and Sri Lankan styles, I was hoping for a bit more chilli, they were a bit bland for me.
Thanks Steve for paying!

Just for interest, here are Fridays exchange rates
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01

My poor Nikon digital has finally given up on me. It never recovered from being drowned in the rain a year ago in Scotland at the Runrig concert at Drumnadrochit, it has limped along, sometimes sticking and other times working.

I walked into Honiara this morning, (Saturday) hoping to get some pics of the town. I made it to the Museum grounds, taking pics along the way. Managed to get pics of all the different island houses, each province has it’s own distinctive style, when the lens finally stuck shut, and refused to work again. It’s either some grit in the lens barrel, or the water has finally corroded the drive. I’m trying the last ditch method of putting it in a container and freezing it, if it is grit the contraction by freezing may shake any grit loose, but I’m not holding my breath over it. Back to the Pentax film camera for a while, I’m dreading to find out how much it costs to have film developed here, although I can get away without prints, and just scan the negative as jpeg images.

Something I really noticed walking into Honiara, is just how much rubbish is everywhere. Plastic bags, bottles, cans, household rubbish dumped over the nearest wall or beach edge, into the river, the main shopping area is strewn with cans, betel nut husks, paper, rubbish, even though there are rubbish bins everywhere. The footpath is a mix of concrete, ashphalt and stones and dirt. You find yourself wishing for a major flood to clean it all out. The council do have a crew that go around emptying the bins, but it is a bit haphazard. The YWCA where I was going for Toktok lessons, had waited 2 weeks for their bins to be emptied, the crew from the Botanic gardens are responsible for the bins in the parks and gardens, they go out every Friday on the pick up round, well, half of them, the rest rake the lawns and tidy the Botanic garden area up for the weekend

I’m slowly building up another album in my Webshots site

http://community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi

if you’re interested.

It’s close to another rain burst here, the air is hot, muggy, and you can feel the pressure building. The sky over the mountains is black, or it was just before sunset, I’m hoping for a good rainfall tonight, I planted out some bean, courgette and bush cucumber seeds earlier today, in the little garden patch I’m working on. They’ll need a good soaking, although the ground is still moist from the other day.

At some time in the past there must have been a really good earthquake here, the ridge I am living on, and all the other high ground around Honiara is made up of coral reef. It’s been uplifted about 300’ or more in places, although the higher ledges may be from earlier earthquakes. I’ve got a few pics of the exposed coral just down from my house.

I finally got hold of O2 in Ireland about my mobile phone. They want me to buy €150 worth of prepay card before they will give me the unlock code, about NZ$430, I can buy another better phone for less than that, so it’s bin time for the nokia. I sent off a reply to O2 about how I felt. Buy time for a phone I’ll probably never be in Ireland again to use? Excuse me.

I’m not sure about this laptop, I’m used to being able to use alt codes on the number pad for symbols, trying to find a € through insert/symbol/sans serif/scroll is a pain. Anyone know a quicker method?

Other than hooking up a separate keyboard

Edit: Found out, reassigned some commands so I’m all happy again alt + 1 =
€ alt + 2 = ₤. I’ll be playing all night now, so long as I remember what I’ve assigned without having to keep going back and checking.
$600 doesn’t go far here. I needed a few more plastic containers, there’s only one store in town that has good ones, as opposed to the really cheap ones that crack when you try to get the lid on. $114 for a set of 4 round containers, from about 10” diameter to 4’ diameter. I did score well on the coffee though, 2x 250gm packets of Café Aurora Medaglia D’oro expresso for $117.20. A loaf of bread from the Fresh Bread Shop is $10. They have small denomination coins here, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, but no one uses them, you get them as change, then just throw them in a drawer until you get enough to make it worthwhile going to the bank and changing them for notes.

Everything here is shipped in, and then sold by the weight and/or freight cost, every shop is full of the really cheap (elsewhere) Chinese and Indian made stuff. Pots, plates (plastic type) knives forks spoons, are all the lightweight stuff that gives up quickly. It’s all lightweight, but still priced at quality prices.

There’s a thriving black market in beche de mer here. The marketing is meant to be regulated, but some of the more distant provinces are being targeted by Korean and Singaporean fishing boats, and areas are being totally denuded of beche de mer and being sold illegally for the Singaporean and Korean markets.

I found out how everyone prepares for the ferry trips here to the outer islands. Near the wharf is a patch of open ground, with a large shade tree (Delonix regia) and everyone gathers there around the betel nut sellers, chews furiously for a while, then wanders aboard the ferry blissfully stoned.

Got caught at the Bulk Bin Shop earlier today, that’s happening to me a lot, I’ll eventually get used to everything here. I was after some flour to make paratha and puri, and one of the bins was labelled gluten flour, which is good for paratha and puri as it allows them to stretch. Anyway, I bought 2 kilos, $60.50, wasn’t till I got home and checked it, it’s pure gluten, great for making glue on it’s own, but I’ll have to get some plain flour to mix with it. I’ve now got enough gluten to last me most of this year, a tablespoon or so in a mix is all I need. And it’s Saturday afternoon, so everything is shut now.

Still no rain, it’s humid, sticky and hot. Thankfully I have my sarong still, it’s almost too much to wear at times though, and I’m sure the locals would have **words** to say if I wore less. You don’t wear brief swimming suits here, other than at the hotels and resorts, everyone wears board shorts and T-shirts to go swimming at the public beaches.

Sunday
Still no rain, if yesterday was hot and humid, today is 20% over that. Pulled the Nikon out of the freezer, and it’s working, sort of, so took the chance and went for a drive up Skyline Ridge and got some pics of the USA War Memorial, then continued on west of town to Turtle Beach for a swim.

It’s about 12 km out of town, past Bonegi beach, which is the one you see in pics of Honiara, all palm trees and sand beach. Turtle beach is a series of small roadways off the main road, down to small, about 5 – 6 car parking places, and not a lot of beach. The water is like a warm bath, and very salty, well, compared to New Zealand. Spent a couple of hours swimming, getting dry, swimming, getting dry, once I had a layer of salt on me I thought enough. And it’s one of the few places you can get away with wearing briefer swimming suits.

The water is really clear, even with out a mask, you can see down 20 – 30 feet, I’ll get a mask and snorkel and swim out to the wrecks next time. One is only 20 m off the beach.

Asked the man collecting the money ($20) what the fishing is like there, he recommended it, so once my rods arrive I’ll go out there for the day.

All the beaches are family owned, you pay on average $20 for access, a few charge depending on if you’re going swimming, fishing or diving. Then it can rise quickly.

Just west of Honiara you go through the Fishing Village, Malaitans who have moved to Guadacanal over the years, some are 3rd generation, and have lost any land tenure on Malaita, so they are landless with no where else to go. The ethnic riots of the last few years were partly caused by the native people of Guadacanal objecting to the Malaitans, and others moving to Honiara and settling. Most of Chinatown was burnt out, approximately 80 people were killed. It was a rather interesting time to be here. Steve was here for most of it, there was little or no law enforcement, some of the more astute sellers were selling bunches of marijuana heads on poles in the Central Market and the Police were powerless to stop it.

Nikon didn’t last for long, a few pics around the War Memorial, then stuck again.

Went to Kukum Market on the way home, the fish didn’t smell the best today, even the stuff in the ice bins, so vegetarian this week. 2 large pawpaw for $5 each, 2 eating coconuts for $1 each, large island cucumbers $3 each, about 2 kilos of kumara for $10. Bunch of spring onions $5, with the rice and curry I have, I’ll be eating well. If I can get the coconuts open that is. I’ll try with the bush knife to crack them.

My fisherman that was meant to be getting me some squid wasn’t there, so I guess my stir-fry chilli squid isn’t going to be happening this week.

Later the same day. Cracked the coconut, only one, I’ll keep the other for later in the week. Pierced an eye in it, drained the liquid out and used it to cook the rice in. Then whacked the husk with the back of the bush knife. It cracked really easily, and the meat inside came out in large pieces. I’m having some success with this island living finally. Munched about half the coconut meat already while cooking, it’s probably one of those really tasty foods that is bad for me.

It’s 6pm, and it feels like a sauna. I don’t know what the temp is, nor the humidity, but I do know I’ve got sweat running down my face, arms, chest. Almost sunset, and the sky is gloomy and dark, perhaps tonight it will rain and cool everything down.

I’ll post up 3 pics, one of Honiara East from the War Memorial, a pic (finally) of everyone in a flat bed truck, and one of the coral formed hills that Honiara is built on.

19th February

Spent most of the day sorting out the trainees handouts and lesson schedule for the next 12 weeks. All the time I spent in New Zealand teaching certainly helped, but as I realised when I was reading the handouts, it’s surprising how what you know now, you forget the time when you didn’t. It’s all basic stuff, soil structure, cuttings, propagation methods, fertilisers, landscape plants for amenity areas, bush, recreation areas

Hopefully I can make it interesting and fun.

My mobile phone won’t work here, it’s still locked to O2 in Ireland, and after a couple of hours in Telekom today, they worked out they didn’t have the technology to unlock it, and weren’t going to contact O2 in Dublin for the access code, but I could buy one there for $1800. Nearly NZ$450, I’ll transfer some money to my sister ( Hi Rose) and get a cheap one sent from NZ. I’ll email O2 tomorrow and try for the access code from them first.

The afternoon/evening rain has started again, my rainwater tank is over flowing across the ground, there’s a small river cascading down the road, and my roof spouting looks like a sheet waterfall

I hit a pothole going to work this morning, and flattened one of the dual wheels on the back. It’s tubeless, I think the rim is shot, so we’ll put a tube in and try again.

The caesalpinia pulcherrima trees through town are all in flower, yellow stalks standing above the foliage, they look really good against the delonix regia inter-planted along the roadsides

Bruce and Gwen arrived this week, they are going to Makira island for 12 months to help set up the school there. VSA won’t post people there for more than 12 months at a time due to the remoteness. There is a small airfield, and a weekly ferry, a small store, and not a lot else. It is better fishing there though, than around Honiara, I’m trying to work a trip there at some time to **study** and **collect** plants, and also to see what sort of fish they have there.

Pic for today is the dead Metroxylon and the flower head in the gardens

18th February

Rain! About 3pm it came down, no gentle start, one minute it was sunshine and warm, the next the road was covered in rivulets, the roof sounded like a demented drummer, and it turned into a giant outdoor sauna, with a waterfall

It’s still raining 3 hours later, the roadside drains are flowing well, the clay road to my place is slippery, and it’s still about 28*C. The rain is warm enough to be out in without feeling cold, slight problem if you wear glasses, mine have been fogged up for the last couple of hours.

We’re trying another approach to the problem with the swimming hole being washed out each time the river floods. The first lot of tyres, that are now between the Gardens and the coastline, were just placed and hopefully the concrete and weight would lock them in place. The river scours out the bank there, it’s trying to turn a right angle where it hits the bank. This time, we’ve acquired some reinforcing bar somehow, in short 1m sections, and we are pinning each layer of tyres through the lower set, and using the stub to place the next layer, and pinning that again. And wiring each layer to the pin.

It’s been 4 years since it was first done, and the 5th time we have done this, including the dam. I must admit, working with the people here is a lot better than anywhere I have worked so far. If it had been some other places, getting people to rebuild constantly would have caused **words** to be said. Here? It’s just “no wariwari, hem flood hem bugarup all same taem”

Had a guy come round last night as I was getting out of the work truck, started talking, telling me about his family south of Honiara, cut off till the bridges are rebuilt, how he is all worried about them etc, and he was working all day in Honiara worrying about them, and could I help him?

Told him not my concern, he should go to the Flood Relief Centre in town, then he wanted me to buy some baskets he would make for me if I gave him some money now, when I said, “mi no seleni, mi VSA worker, no seleni nomoa” he had a look around the outside of the house, and asked if I was worried about having no security. I pointed to the next house down, told him “dat fala house, RAMSI, hem fala house there, hem RAMSI” He left rather quickly then.

Seleni is Toktok for money, no seleni nomoa, no money

RAMSI is the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, it’s a combination of Police from New Zealand and Australia, set in place after the civil war on Guadacanal. You do not mess with them. Nice people, I’m pleased they’re on my side.

My gas stove is so well behaved tonight, funny how little things give you such joy at times.
Walked the river track during the rain. It’s amazing how quick the river rises, the catchment area is huge behind the Gardens, and it all feeds into the stream through the gardens. It rose 1.5m in the 45 minutes I was walking, just beneath the lower bridge when I got back.

I’ve got about 25% of the trees in the gardens identified now, only 200 or so to go. The breadfruit trees gave me problems, the leaf variation between trees is wider than any of my reference books mention, some look like acanthus mollis , some like philodendron, they are all self seeded, so the variation between varieties here makes it hard to pick good fruiting trees. They’ll be in fruit later in the year when the dry season starts, so I’ll have another try at the specific variety then, or at least which ones to take cuttings from. Thanks to Peter back in Tokoroa for the help.

Pic for today is the bridge and orchid house

17th February

Heavy rain all night, it woke me a few times, with the result I slept in till 7am. Then found out there had been a power cut during the night, and I had no water. I managed to get enough out of the rainwater tank outside for a coffee, well, 3 coffees, then put the remainder in the fridge for iced coffee later in the day. Persisted with the water system, and finally got it running about 8am, had a quick shower and joined the stock car derby to work.

I realised this morning what it looks like driving along Mendana Ave. When the V8 supercar races are on, and the drivers have the warm up lap, and they’re weaving across the track warming up the tyres, that is what Mendana Ave looks like, except you have 4 lanes of traffic, 2 lanes in each direction. At the ANZ roundaroundabout at this end of Honiara, there is a 2 lane bridge, one lane each direction, but no one slows down. Who ever is in front going onto the bridge has right of way, and being in front can be by as much as a thin cigarette paper. Add in the bus stop just before the bridge, at least 6 mini buses stopping and pulling out, it makes for an interesting drive.

I walked all the tracks in the gardens today, down to the old British Hanging site at one end by Rove Prison, up past the top bridge, the two ridge tracks and the valley & ridge loop. A lot of palms, rainforest canopy, butterflies, and what I think is a type of humming bird. It was too high up to see clearly, but only a couple of inches in size, wings beating furiously as it feed off some orchid flowers in the canopy
If you have google earth installed, and look for Honiara, the Botanic Gardens are to the left of the town, look for an X shaped white structure, that is Rove Prison, the Gardens are the forested area going south of the prison.

I’ll have to find some info on the birds and butterflies here, some of the butterflies are Monarch size, from brown to deep blue, speckled and mottled colours.

The rains have washed a lot of debris down over some of the tracks, especially the ones cutting down the ridges, another job for the clean up crew.

Our tree felling exercise yesterday ended abruptly, hem chainsaw, hem bugarup. So it’s away to be repaired, again.

Found another Metroxylon that had seeded, and the seeds have fallen and started sprouting around the base. I’ll collect the seedlings later and transplant them into planter bags.

My class starts next week, 12 people doing level 2 Horticulture certificate. Classroom stuff for the morning, then we can do anything related to the course for the afternoon. One of the units is Amenity structures for Parks and Gardens, so we’ll be playing with dam building in the swimming hole for a day or so, Eric told me he built 3 dams there over the 2 years he was here, and the next person built one. The floods make it a never ending task, but it’s 30*C, sunshine, and what could be better than playing in the stream. No need to make suggestions either thank you

I finally found the Bulk Bin Food Store this afternoon. It’s tucked away behind the Govt Offices, in a dirt sidestreet, nearly everything I wanted, flour(wholemeal and plain,)/curry/red and yellow split lentils, bread improver, eggs, (at $30 for 10) spices, herbs, rice. Dinner for tonight was mango/lentil/onion/chilli curry with rice and pappadoms. I’ve had a few discussions with the gas stove here. 3 of the top burners work, the grill didn’t and the oven has to be lit with a bit of paper, which is ok, at least it works. I was giving it all a good workout again tonight to try to get all 4 burners working, and the grill. Naturally, I forgot to turn the grill off when I gave up, and started cooking on the top burners. Well, it wasn’t working, so it shouldn’t have mattered. After about 10 minutes, there was a loud WHOOOOOMPF, and now the grill works and so do all 4 burners on top. I managed to get the grill door back on without too much trouble.

I mentioned David earlier, in hospital to have his elbow operated on, He dislocated it last year, popped it back in himself. He’d managed to get a couple of muscles tangled with the tendons in his elbow. Luckily he hasn’t done too much damage, The surgeon untangled everything, and apart from a fair bit of pain, he’s due out later this week. I don’t know if he’ll be able to work for a while though.

Gecko watch: 9.41pm, 2 small geckos, one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom. I think the slight gas explosion earlier may have upset a few

Pic for today is the swimming hole at the gardens, the floods last week washed away the bank and the retaining tyres, and the dam is the broken flat topped structure on the left of the pic.
Baebae luikum iu tomoro

16th February

I made several hundred new friends today at work. They’re about 10mm to 12mm long, pale orange and bite.

We’re removing some trees in the centre of the nursery, unfortunately there is a colony of ants taken up residence in them as well. They literally swarmed over my feet, dropped from the branches onto my head, back, shoulders, and arms, then started biting.

I wasn’t the only one, the other three were covered in them as well, and it was a case of brushing them off each other, and still holding the ladder, ropes, while Jack was up the tree cutting branches off.

The other guys seem to be used to them, I was by the end of the day as well, but as I was only wearing board shorts, and a loose muslin top, I was very conscious of any that were making an expedition up my legs. The ants have a sharp sting type bite, more of a nuisance than anything, but I wasn’t game to let them try on any sensitive areas. I’m covered in hundreds of small white spots where they bit, about 1mm in size, no swelling.

The Metroxylon salomonense I posted a pic of earlier, there is one by the lily pond that flowered late last year, and is now dead, which is natural, they grow for about 20 – 50 years, flower once and die. Anyway, when this one falls it will land in the lily pond, and probably damage a few other plants on the way down, so I asked if we could pull it over onto the lawn area with the truck, “Why you want that fala tree?” Mifala want himfala fruit to grow another bigfala palm with” Lot’s of bigfala tri like thatfala, why grow morefala?

I’ve counted 15 Metroxylon so far in the gardens, and there are lots more through the town and surrounding area, but the ones in the gardens are all near flowering over the next few years, and once that happens we won’t have any left. I tried explaining that there are people who would come here just to see a fully grown Metroxylon, to looks of disbelief. I guess if you live here and see them all day everyday, they aren’t all that spectacular. Anyway, we’re pulling it over later in the week, I’ll get my seeds to start new plants with, and the guys seem convinced I’m not quite right in the head. People will come to look at a palm tree?

When you see them here, they are the most spectacular palm, ok, moving on.

I wandered up the river track today, trying to recognise the different trees, on the other side of the river I spotted one I recognised, very distinctive, it wasn’t till I got around the track, climbed down the bank and looked up that I was sure, a mature Agathis macrophylla, related to the New Zealand and Australian Kauri. Beautiful tree, it’s about 20m to the crown, straight bare trunk, and about 7 headers off the crown. Found a younger one further along, still with the side branches, about 5m tall. There’s a tall Eucalyptus deglupta in the open area, reddish streaked trunk where the bark is peeling in strips and a huge assortment of fishtail palms Caryota sp. scattered through the river area.

I’ve counted 8 different coloured Strelitzia so far, from yellow to a deep red, with orange and multicoloured flowers, Mango trees Mangifera indica are everywhere, in the main street, over my house, the fruit drops everywhere, I find at least 4 each night when I get home from work on the ground by the door.

I’ve mentioned the betel nut Areca catechu a few times talking about the betel nut stalls. Until you see people chewing it you tend to think of it as similar to chewing gum, or similar. The footpaths and roads are splattered with what at first you think are bloodstains, then you see a few people that look as though they have had a good solid punch to the mouth, all red stained lips and teeth, gums, tongue. It has a mild narcotic effect, well, that’s what is written about it, I’m not in a hurry to try yet. Steve said it gains you a lot of street cred if you have to go to the outer islands, and you arrive chewing betel nut. I’ve been talking to one of the local sellers at the bottom of my road the past few days, in the mornings and evenings coming home from work, I’ll get a pic of his stall later this week. I’m not an in yer face with a camera tourist, I’ll spend a bit of time with someone first before taking pictures, and if I wait till my cartons finally arrive, I’ll have my printer so I can print him a few copies.

One of my pet peeves is what I call the sock and sandal wearing lentil munching eco save the planet goofballs. I’m trying to help some of the people I worked with in Auckland last year organise a fishing trip here later in the year. The fishing around Honiara is a bit poor, once you see the number of Korean and Japanese fishing boats off Honiara you realise why. Anyway, the best fishing is off the Western Province, Choiseul, Malaita, and with the exception of Savo Island, Gizo, and the resort on Makira, all the accommodation is in eco friendly, no amenities, basic bush hut type accommodation. I don’t know about you, but if I was paying $2,000 a week for a fishing trip, a hot shower, toilets that flush, and a kitchen rate fairly high on my list of basic requirements.

If I ever meet any of the sock and sandal wearing idiots that convinced the Solomon Island Tourism dept that people would be beating down the doors to stay in primitive bush huts and pay over the top for the privilege of catching malaria and drink dodgy water, I’ll make them go stay in the places they foisted on the islands. Which they never do, they can’t afford to for one thing, and they are probably already away on another Aid Agency sponsored trip to somewhere else preaching the sustainability good, progress bad mantra.

Some of the islands have spent over 5 years of income building tourist facilities along eco guidelines, and are now in a worse state than they were before the lentil munchers arrived, and they see the resort islands and **modern** places getting all the tourists.

They have no income from the ventures, you can see and book them through , or you can stay in a good resort with all facilities, and fishing trips, diving, sightseeing organised and at the door, for the same price.

I’m off my soapbox now

Early gecko warning, there’s a small one sitting on the top edge of the laptop screen watching me at the moment

The girls at work think I’m slightly nuts over going on about the geckos, no comments needed in reply thank you very much

I loaded 50 or so hours worth of cds’ onto the laptop before I left Auckland, thank the Lord I did. My radio is still in transit between Auckland and Honiara, I think it is going for a South Seas Cruise, closest date I can get for everything to get here is possibly the end of February, and he didn’t sound all that positive about the possibly.

I got caught at the supermarket tonight, I had $250 in my wallet, and needed a few things, onions, coffee, chillies, toilet rolls. Got to the checkout, and I was $40 short, so there went the coffee at $47.80 a 200gm packet

I’ll have to get used to carrying more, but the Central Markets are rife with pickpockets at the moment. One is in hospital after being chased out of the market and trying to run across Mendana Ave in rush hour traffic. He didn’t make it to the median strip before a mini bus collected him

Pic for today, my corner shop

15th February

Not a very productive weekend. Went for toktok lessons Saturday morning, Steve arrived back from Makira Island and met me for an afternoon of general discussion about the programme, how am I doing, settling in etc. It’s hard to believe I’ve only been here a few days, everything has been hectic, so much for the laidback lifestyle.

Had dinner Saturday night with Steve and his family, taro, rice, pasta, tomato, fresh fruit, it was better than I was going to have, well, more variety, I was going to have rice and stirfry.

Sunday has been wet all day, went to 8am Mass this morning, I’m not Catholic, but I like the ceremony associated with Mass. It is certainly different when it’s conducted in Toktok pijin. I must be getting an ear for it, I understood most of what was said.

The churches are all open sided, and everyone dresses up, it’s like a competition with the women, who can wear the whitest dress and accessories, hats, gloves, beads, frangipani flowers in their hats, almost ankle length dresses, white shoes. The singing is worth going for alone, about 1,000 people all singing. Warning for anyone who does come here and attends any church. If you’re a new face you will be recognised and mentioned from the altar by the priest, and welcomed by everyone. It’s a bit like Ireland where everyone knows if you have gone to Mass or not.

I’ve had a head full of thoughts all week, woke at 4am this morning and started writing out my 2 year goals for the Botanic Gardens, 14 pages later I’m still going.

I have to be mindful of the costs, SEB is a NGO and relies at the moment on donations and aid funding, so major expenses are something to be avoided.

I’m not getting involved in the politics of the situation, my brief is to assist and give advice and practical assistance where required.
Sundays in Honiara are reminiscent of 1950’s New Zealand and Ireland. Everything is closed, a few convenience stores are open, and the Kukum Market opens about 2pm. It’s a Seventh Day Adventist community initiative, and it shuts on Saturdays. Even the roadside betel nut sellers close till midday.

Everytime we have a power cut here, my water system gets an airlock somewhere, and I’m without water for a couple of hours after the power is back. Another little quirk that I’m getting used to.

We had a spectacular lightning and thunder storm over Bloody Ridge last night. Driving back from Steve’s the sky was constantly lit by huge flashes of lightning, and the thunder rolled across the air like a large tank. On this side of the ridge it was wet, but judging by the state of the rivers this morning it had really rained down in the hills. Honiara is on the sheltered side of the island, the weather pattern comes from the south, and the Weather Coast on the south side of Guadacanal gets hit with all the weather first. The floods of the last few weeks have caused a lot of the bridges to be washed away, and travel to the west and north of Honiara isn’t possible past Bonegi Beach at the moment till the bridge is replaced.

Toktok word for today is Cokoroko, if you say it, you will sound similar to a rooster, it is pijin for chicken.

Gecko watch : 9.21pm, and not a one in sight anywhere, even the usual one in my bedroom is absent.

Pic for today is the Metroxylon salomonense growing beside the Nursery

13th February

Joined in the morning mad hour, 7.45 am trying to turn left onto Mendana Ave, there’s some serious potholes at the bottom of my road, either the front wheels are in a hole, or the back wheels. I’ve learnt not to have all 4 wheels in a hole, rocking back and forth trying to get out of ruts isn’t recommended. Lurched out onto the road, and joined in the fleet of mini buses, trucks, cars, RAMSI 4wds, and assorted pedestrians and headed off through Honiara to another 4 hours of toktok pijin lessons.

Place names, days of the week, always have long in front, eg, mi go long King Solomon Hotel fo kaikai long Tosde

Iumi go long Bonegi Beach fo suim

Mi go long Botanic Garden fo waka iestede

I’m having some success, even if it is just blank looks and a *Huh?

Counting is easier, same numerals, but then it all turns to confusion for me at the moment,

Wan, tu, tri, foa, faev, siks, seven, eit, naen, ten

But if you are counting object/people
Wanfala, tufala, trifala foafala

Then you get, samfala, some
And olketa, several,

Put it all together, and you get sentences like

Andrew and Simon, Iutufala go long Ba’hai centre long naen o’klock long morning long tiusde fo mitim Christopher. Christopher bae go soum iutufala bigfala tri iutufala katem doan. Iutufala takem chainsaw an bigfala ladder

It sounds like

You two falla go long Ba’hai centre long nine o’klock long morning long Tuesday meetim Christopher. Christopher bae go showm you two falla big falla tree you two falla cuttem down, you two falla take chainsaw and big falla ladder

You two go to the Ba’hai Centre at 9o’clock Tuesday morning and meet Christopher. Christopher will show you the big tree to be cut down. Take the chainsaw and the big ladder.


Time is divided up as
Long morning, 6am to midday
Melewan dei midday
Big day midday to 2pm
Long aftanun 2pm to 4pm
Ivining 4pm to 6pm
Naet, 6pm to 6am

melewan dei to 2pm is big day, so 2pm Tuesday is long 2 o’klock big day long tuisde

You have to describe everything to the last detail, 2 o’clock Wednesday could be 2am, 2pm, last Wednesday, next Wednesday, without the descriptive big day or naet, and long wenesde you’ll have no one turn up for a meeting.

Rained all last night, steady, not the usual downpour, and everything was clean and fresh smelling this morning. Of course it didn’t help the road, crawling downhill in first gear trying not to slide off the edge. I have to dodge the potholes, we haven’t the budget for tyre replacements,

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m the only person with a flat bed truck that doesn’t have anyone riding on the back. It’s rather embarrassing as everyone looks, being a whiteface driving an island vehicle gets some puzzled stares at times. I may start picking up people to and from work so I don’t feel out of place,

Saw a flat bed truck with a load of timber going down Mendana ave earlier, as usual I was driving and couldn’t get my camera out in time. I counted 9 people scattered over the load, holding onto ropes and stanchions, shirts open in the breeze, smiling and laughing. I’ve decided that Honiara is the perfect hell to send every OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) Inspector I’ve run across, they’d be having conniption fits every minute of the day.

I’ve got another 4 hours tomorrow with Ana for toktok, then I’ll wander around Honiara with the camera.

Gecko watch : The Father? Mother? Just wandered out from behind the stove, about 6 inches long, light brown with gold speckles, if they would sit still long enough for a pic I’d be happy

And get down off the ceiling so I could get a decent close pic

Late note, the green stuff I bought at the market last Thursday is slippery cabbage, It is grown on Malaita Island, and bought over in the local canoes and boats. It grows in a paddy field, about knee deep in water and the tops are harvested.

The floods of the past few weeks have ruined the crops for a while, so the prices and size of the bundles have both risen for price, and shrunk for size. There are some very annoyed letters in the Solomon Star newspaper about profiteering and thieves, The Solomon Star is one of the best newspapers to read, no one pulls any punches, http://www.solomonstarnews.com/ will provide you with hours of enjoyable reading, especially the letters under the viewpoint label

Pic for today is part of the Botanic gardens, the Nursery is to the left,

11th February

Another day, more sunshine, It’s not as bad as Auckland has been the last few weeks, probably about 30*C, slightly steamy with the water evaporating out of the drains and creeks, rivers running through Honiara.

Sorted my bank account at the ANZ in under 2 hours, almost a record according to Steve. Now it’s going to be a month or more till my access card arrives from Port Moresby. I should have gone for the cheque account, although the stamp duty and fees on that would have negated any benefit. I’ve got an account number anyway, it’s just a matter of getting to the bank when there is only a small que.

The crowd gathers outside from 8.30am, till opening at 9am, then it’s a general scrum to get inside and get a ticket, then sit and wait for a teller. There is a separate side door that a few people use, it’s meant to be for business and Govt people, but it’s available if you know about it. The big plus about the ANZ is that it’s air-conditioned, take a book to read while you’re waiting, water or soft drink, and it’s a pleasant way of spending 2 or 3 hours waiting.

Toktok lessons today. I can almost make myself understood in a few sentences.

Nem blong mi Warren. Mi hapi tumas fo mitim iu. Mi waka long Botanic Gardens. Mi wanfala advaesa
Name belong me Warren. Me happy too much for meeting you. Me work at the Botanic gardens. Me one fella advisor, how it sounds.

My name is Warren, I am pleased to meet you. I work at the Botanic Gardens. I work as an Advisor,

Some of the vowels are different to English, but once you see it written, it’s almost as you see it.

Questions are asked with a rise towards the end of the sentence, nam blong iu hu?

Name belong you hoo?

iu kam from wea? You come from where?

Pijin came about in the late 1800’s when a lot of the Solomon Islanders were used as field hands in the sugar cane industry in Queensland, and a common language had to be developed to cope with the hundreds of dialects and languages in the Solomons, Bouganville, and Papua New Guinea. Eventually it spread through the islands as the workers returned, initially it was only the men who spoke pijin, it has only been since WW2 that women have learnt it. The men used it as a secret language for many years, only those that knew pijin could get work in Australia, so on some islands it caused a few problems if only one or two villages had pijin speakers. They would get the employment, and the money and trade goods,

Enough of that for now, full day tomorrow at SEB, meet and greet, find out where everything is, and start getting my head around what and where

Picked up the work truck this morning as well, and joined in the semi controlled chaos that is the only road in Honiara. I think it is 2 lanes, but with the potholes, washouts rubbish it becomes a matter of driving off road onto verges/centre strips/oncoming lanes to dodge the assorted perils. I’ve got a small 1 ½ tonne Toyota flat bed, diesel, it has seen better days, probably a few years ago, and not in Honiara. Flat bed trucks are constantly on the move here, driving through town with a crowd of smiling laughing people on the back, holding on where ever they can. Most do deliveries from the wharf to the businesses, so you’ll see empty trucks with 8 – 10 people on going through to the wharf, then coming back laden down, with the same 8 – 10 people scattered over the load hanging onto ropes, packages, driving and lurching along King George Drive. 2 abreast into oncoming traffic, around the roundabouts, if they have tray sides, then you’ll see 20 or more people sitting with bags and cages taking or bringing stuff from and to the Central market.

The mini buses are constantly going, $2 for anywhere they go, they seem to go to Bengebi beach to the north, and some go as far as White river to the south.

I heard laughter coming from the treetops earlier, looked out and the neighbours daughter, about 15? 16? was sitting in the fronds of one of the coconut trees, about 20metres up, singing and swaying back and forth in the little bit of a breeze we get in the evenings. Which was quite a pleasant sight, then her sister threw her up a machete, none of this OSH rope and lift it up stuff, this was a full toss 20 metres straight up. If anyone ever teaches them to play cricket, she’d be my first choice of
wicket keeper, caught the machete by the handle, and proceeded to trim a few fronds off, till she could reach a few ripe coconuts.

Then slid and climbed back down. No ropes, harness all that stuff, bare feet and hands, carrying the machete. It can be disconcerting watching the pikininis, 5 – 8 yrs old with machetes as tall as they are, trimming logs and branches for firewood, bare feet, shorts, not a safety inspector in sight.

The frangpani (Plumeria) trees here are huge, I’ve only seen white flowered varieties so far, the scent hangs heavy in the air around my house in the evenings and early mornings, the mango trees are full of fruit, I’ve had to clean out under the house after the weekend rains, a lot of very very ripe mangoes were quietly decomposing in the mud and damp.

My gecko from yesterday has a family. There are 3 small, about 1 ½ inch, geckos above my head at the moment running over the ceiling.

Picture for today is the coconut palm beside my house

10th February

Flew out of Auckland on Pacific Blue, I didn’t feel like paying $3.00 for a 50gm pack of Pringles or a $7 sandwich, luckily the coffee was good though, even at $3

Had an hour at Brisbane, Subway are good, although the gross guy behind the counter needs some customer service skills. Enough said, the flights were both smooth, well above the clouds and no bumps.

Flew in over Bloody Ridge on Guadacanal, true rainforest. Dark green tops, rivers at the bottom of deep gorges and valleys, sea was the blue you only ever see in the tropics.

Aquaplaned along Henderson Field till we slid gracefully to a stop outside the Honiara International Airport. Lovely staff, immigration lady was polite, helpful and quick. Customs were even better, I had 20 packets of various veg seeds, which I declared, they had a look, marked them down in a large register and wished me a pleasant time here.

Steve picked me up in the VSA Truck, and drove through the potholes and assorted small children, coconuts, roadside stalls, selling everything from betel nuts to limes, coconuts, pawpaw and mangoes, into Honiara. My house is really good, down a bit of a driveway, it floods when it rains by the look of the debris from the weekend rain, but is well above the ground level. Dirt and coral roads everywhere, the main road through Honiara is tarsealed, but the potholes make it an interesting drive, you follow the car in front as it swerves around, through and over the various holes, bumps and rubbish

Met Tiffany at the Botanic gardens, had a quick look around the Orchid house and then back into Honiara.

There’s a lot of waiting done in Honiara, everywhere are groups of people just sitting, standing, talking, chewing betel nut or just gazing into space. Central markets are a chaos of sellers, some with only a few vegetables and fruit on the stall, others with sacks and baskets of stuff.

I’m going to have to get used to the colour and value of Solomon Island Dollars, $2. $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 values. Exchange rate is about $4.5 SBD to NZ$1, so a mango is $10 SBD, about NZ$2.50

It soon sounds a lot, almost like a Zimbabwean dollar at times, bought a wok, rice, kettle, mattress for one bed, $560SBD,

Met Kiethie Saunders, the person in charge of SEB, she’s also the US Consul here, very organised and busy lady.

Toktok pijin lessons start tomorrow, in the morning, then I have the afternoon going around the Botanic Gardens, getting my head around the various things that SEB are involved in, and pick up the work vehicle.

I have a gecko on the wall watching me at the moment, that will cut down on the spiders and flies

7th February 2009

After nearly 8 months of interviews, correspondence, trips to Wellington for briefings, medical checks, a slow trickle , well, actually a torrent of outgoing expenses, I'm finally away this Tuesday for 2 years in Honiara,

Packing has been a nightmare, I'm allowed 50kgs paid for, plus an extra 10kg for tools of trade, or textbooks, which I promptly blew out by 38kgs, so there went another $185

Things to take were cotton sheets, it's 30*c there almost year round, cotton /polyester doesn't work in that temp, plus the high humidity in Monsoon season. My Programme Officer in Honiara emailed last week, so on the packing list were good can openers, good knives, good surge protected outlet boards and voltage regulator, it's all diesel generated power there, with frequent power surges and blackouts.

Mosquito nets for the bed, lots of Deet, and a good supply of antibiotics. Thankfully the Travel Doctor group work with VSA to put together a good basic kit.

I know I'm going to arrive and find everything I really need is left behind, and what the hell did I bring this junk for. Oh well, live and make do with what you have.

I've got a good supply of veg seeds, capsicums, courgettes, chilli, coriander, dwarf beans, basil, parsley, cucumbers, so once that starts producing I'll be cutting back on the need for shopping, other than fruit and rice.

Fishing rods and reels are packed, 13; surf caster, and a 6' heavy full roller guide boat rod, Penn Commander reels, Shimano surfcaster reels, and a couple of Jarvis Walker combination reels.

Next update will be once I'm in Honiara, and can afford the charges for internet, $200 per month for 1mgb adsl, or $0.75c per minute for Dialup