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,