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