Our shredder works really well, in 2 hours it shredded as much as 2 weeks worth from the ladies using the mesh and hand rubbing. Jennifer is pleased, as is Suzie, Sepa and Imelda. Ok a few teething problems, putting too much down the chute at once, but once we got that organised it worked well. They filled a 55gal (200L) drum with shreds, and would have continued on if they had had anything to put it in.
I need to find the other grate for it, went back to Farmset and asked if they could look for it there, it’s more a bar type grate, and allows wet shreds through which the finer holed grate doesn’t. If they can’t find it I’ll contact Rover Manufacturing in Sydney about it.
We’re still arguing with Telekom SB about the phone and internet connection at the Gardens. The phone line is now dead, and internet is haphazard at best. I was in at 6am this morning to post the previous one, that took nearly an hour to resolve and upload, then it went down again. Shirleyta got hold of them again this morning, and they promised wondrous things over the mobile, we’re still waiting to see anyone.
I’m about 50 metres in a direct line away from the Church here at the Ba’hai Centre. There’s been entertainment for the kids and teenagers here every afternoon till about 8pm, music, mainly, the boys all get up and start practising dance moves, then the girls, they don’t dance together unless there are adults around, and even then it’s not a common thing. The boys tend to copy whatever video or dvd they’ve seen, and they move like they have ball bearing joints in their hips and knees, but the girls tend to do a mix of kastom and modern dance. It’s no wonder that so many of the early European sailors jumped ship when they came through here. The dances aren’t Polynesian style, more a mix, some Indonesian/Polynesian influences, even with the rubbish rap that they play occasionally. Reggae is big here, 3 radio stations in Honiara play nothing else, and some bouncy local bands that have a good following locally.
Unfortunately they’ve copied some of the other reggae influences here as well, marijuana is grown widely through a few of the Islands, some communities have banned people from the Islands for growing or selling it. The further away from Honiara you are the less you’ll see of it. The village elders still rule strongly which is good. There are good things to say about subsistence living, especially here, where everything grows, there are fish for the taking, fruit, garden vegetables grow quickly, rice is plentiful. I’ve been too long in civilisation, I still like some comforts, internet etc, but I can appreciate how possible it would be to just walk away from the towns here and live in the bush. Apart from the mosquitos.
I’m still working on plans to get to the distant provinces, Rennel/Bellona, and Makira especially. Rennel has 23 endemic orchids, 8 or more endemic mammals, and a large list of endemic plants that only grow there. Along with the largest stand of Agathis macrophylla in the Solomons. I think they are macrophylla, I haven’t seen them yet, but every report I read about them describes them as the native Solomon Island Kauri. Browsing on the net when it let me last week, I found a list of plant banks set up in the Provinces before the troubles, with a list of the species grown in each bank. No other information other than the plant lists. I’ll have to contact the people involved and find out if they still have the plants available, and get some planted in the Gardens. All of the written information has been lost over the past 10 years of fighting and arguing, so it’s a matter of rebuilding all the information back up, and then making sure it is spread as widely as possible. Thankfully, the internet is good for that.
I saw a native owl this morning at the gardens, huge bird, light orange brown. Wing span about 80 - 90 cm, I thought it was an eagle at first till I got a good look, big flat face, huge eyes. It was feeding on the lawn area, when I disturbed it, and flew up into the canopy over the river. So somethings are worth going into work at 6am for. I’m getting used to the day length here, sunrise never seems to alter, it’s always about 6am, sunset is always about 6pm, there’s little dusk, it goes light to dark in minutes. By 7pm it’s night.
The guys doing night watch are going to keep an eye out for any cuscus (native opossum) in the trees, and let me know. I’ll go in one night and have a look for them, there used to be several around the office, but the feeling is that they have been poached out and eaten by now. I’ll be coating myself in a lot of repellent, the mosquitos there fly in squadrons in the evening.
I’m getting a list of food trees drawn up, I’d like to plant a few of each in the Gardens, both for visitors to see, and as a supply for cuttings and propagation. The local guava, Psidium guajava, is the huge pink fruited one, it’s almost quince size here. Large baseball sized fruit, We have just one left in the Gardens, I’ve found another Canarium sp. along the river walk, again, they have been bred for so long in each province, they are all separate sub species now. It would be good to have a couple of each growing, but there’s a lot of education needed first to stop them being chopped or ruined.
I cracked a Canarium (ngali nut) open today, still green a few more months to go yet, but they are full of sweet oil even now. The nut is in an apricot type of shell, and resembles an almond. Egg shaped drupe, cling type flesh around the shell that is fairly easy to peel away. Cracking the shell is the hard part without damaging the nut inside. It is meant to be a good cure (?) for arthritis. Or a pallative anyway
My neighbours banana plant got washed down with the rain on Saturday night, huge bunch of bananas on it, about 30 on each hand, and several hands, still small and green, so there goes breakfast in a few weeks. There’re about 5 suckers growing around the base, so another season to wait now.
Our swimming hole retaining wall is finished, tyres right up to the soil surface. Next is the dam again. We’ve had a few good floods down the river since we started pinning the tyres, and they’ve stayed, so the crew are keen to see if the idea of a sloping dam works as well. Once I get another camera there’ll be pics till everyone is sick of them.
Bob Dylan again tonight, Blood On the Tracks, and Blonde on Blonde.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
28th – 30th March
Happy birthday Jesse! 9 years old today. Hope you had a good time on Saturday.
Saturday evening , rain still, I was mistaken about it being the end of the monsoon season, well, the worst of it may have gone, the rain remains.
I’m bored, which is better than I’ve been feeling all week. I’ve got a batch of bread rising, to make in the morning, Mary Coughlan playing in the back ground, a much overlooked Irish blues/jazz singer. Love me or Leave me album is a good compilation of hers to start with. She has one of the better versions of Ride On other than Christy Moores solo with bodhran version.
I gave up at work this morning, internet kept losing the connection, usually at the 50 – 60% download stage, so it became a constant re-connect restart, download 60% disconnect. Got the Nursery plan done for Will, which is good, and made a start on the lesson plans and assessments.
It’s surprising how many people use the Gardens during the day, there are always people walking through using the track to get to the houses on the ridges, or just meeting people away from Honiara. A lot of teenagers, meeting girlfriends/boyfriends, or just hanging out there. There’s a small amount of graffiti, but not what you’d see in Auckland or other places I’ve been. I usually wander around saying hello, by the time I’ve explained where I’m from, what I’m doing there etc, they tend to respect the gardens a bit more. Hopefully it will all pay off in the longer term with less damage and rubbish left around.
Something you get used to here eventually is how much people hold onto you when you’re talking to them, or just being with them. Not between sexes, but male/male, or female/female. I see a lot of the crew in town at weekends when I’m shopping or at the markets, it’s always a shake hands thing, then they hold your hand while they are talking to you, it takes some getting used to. It does come in handy though, everyone around then knows that you aren’t on your own, and it’s a bit of a deterrent to any pickpockets at the markets. I caught up with Kennedy the carver the other day, it must have been 10 minutes we’re standing there talking holding hands, coming from a different culture it takes a bit to get used to. And more so when you’re like me and have an aversion to people touching me. So it’s learning/teaching from both sides.
I missed the second hand bookshop, left work too late and it was shut. Probably saved myself a fair bit of money anyway. It’s got a good system though, you pay by the kilo for books, $7, no matter what the books are. Eric said he picked up some quality books there, for a pittance. With my luck I’ll be stuck with Spiderman comics and Mills and Boon heart throbbers.
Sunday.
Power went off, along with the water, so I thought I might as well be at work as sitting here in the rain. 2 ½ hours of frustration. All I managed to do was answer 1 email, which took me 3 attempts. I reset and restarted several times, kept losing the connection, I still haven’t managed to download the manual for the Shredder. I made it to 35% downloaded once, after that it barely started downloading and failed.
Hi to Chip, out of hospital and hopefully on the mend. I’m having second thoughts about going to a barbque at your place.
Hi to Makayla, in Melbourne, so good to hear from you at last. I keep asking Valerie after you whenever I talk to her.
There are a wide ranging lot of people reading this, Ireland, France, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, America
I hope it’s interesting, or something. Mostly true, only the facts have been changed.
The guys who do security for us at night and weekends have the worst job. All night and weekends there in the building, in the middle of the Gardens, with a torch and mobile phone for back up. I took a few magazines out for them today, National Geo, Australian Geo, Garden and Nursery, so they have something to read when they’re stuck inside.
Mentioned to Les on Friday about putting a couple of guys street cleaning, he came up with the same idea last month and there are now people doing that, when he finds them. I’ll wait a while as he said, and then check back to see how he thinks it’s working. We may still get it eventually.
I’m going to wait for the dry season to start, then go back to Turtle Beach for a try at fishing, the water gets really muddy with the rain washing off the land, and the tidal currents sweep it along the coastline. Although by the time you get to Turtle beach it’s clear water again. Shirleyta reckons it’s not much use at the moment anyway. I’m just curious about where the fishermen from the Markets go for the fish they catch.
There are fish there that people in NZ would give their teeth for just to catch.
Other than the rain, the sunshine, it’s been another weekend
Tom Waits playing, Franks Wild Years, Closing Time, and Rain Dogs. Bit of a change for the neighbours, I had Van Morrison on most of yesterday after a long time when I had too many memories to shake before I could listen to him again. I still like Mary Coughlan for the mornings, she has a nice slow easing into the day feel about her music.
Pic is of Jesse Rainbow, the birthday girl today, and #1 granddaughter. Happy birthday Jesse!
Friday, March 27, 2009
28th March
I’ve missed a couple of days, I’ve felt worn out, listless since Wednesday, no real symptoms, just a lethargic aching feeling. Finally took myself to the Malaria Clinic on Friday afternoon and found I’ve had my first dose of malaria. The doxycycline I take has stopped it, but the initial infection is what has been causing the symptoms. I’d hate to be having a full strength version, Shirlyeta is back at work, Tiffany is now off till Tuesday at least with malaria, coming to the end of the monsoon season and the mosquitos are finding more pools of stagnant water to breed in. While its raining all the time the mosquito larvae get washed out of the pools, now that there’s not as much heavy continuous rain more pools are being left for them to breed in. Apart from this week.
I’ve had a tender spot on my leg since Monday or Tuesday, a bit red and slightly swollen which the Doctor at the clinic said was probably the mosquito bite that caused it. It’s almost gone now, so the doxycycline is effective. The locals get given chloroquinine, which is effective but can take a while to act, and because it’s used so widely here, the risk of causing resistance to it by the malaria mosquito is increasing.
Now I know it’s not just me feeling depressed I’m a lot happier, I spent most of the week going 2 steps forward, one step back, Keithie decided that giving the crew cooking stoves wasn’t a good idea, they’d just get broken/stolen/borrowed whatever, so we have to look for another alternative. I’ll bring it up again at the next monthly meeting anyway with a few more arguments about how it will improve the work times, but I’m not going to get too involved with it. Adrian was all for it, so there’s an unexpected vote. We’ve got to get the idea through that we pay for 8 hours work, and expect a reasonable amount of the time each day to be spent actually working.
I went through this with David yesterday, with the example of him being in charge, quoting a contract for the roundabouts, on a basis of 5 people doing 4 hours per week tidying each roundabout, if he’s paying out 8 hours to each person, but only getting 4 hours actual work, he’ll lose money very quickly. He understands it, but trying to change life styles/habits/attitudes is going to take a long time here. The crews do work well, I’ve mentioned before, but you would lose money of you were contracting on a set price and budget.
We’ve got our coconut mulcher! Thanks to the wonder and technology of Solomon Island Telekom, Keithies email never arrived on Wednesday giving permission to go ahead, it wasn’t till Friday when she got back from Brisbane I was able to contact her, the price dropped even further in the meantime so that was good.
Rover Shredder Mulcher, list price SBD$11,875, our price SBD$6,875. 5.5hp petrol Briggs and Stratton motor, 3 rotating flail blades, the ladies are really happy. I told Jennifer and Imelda that only 4 people to use it, themselves, me and David. If you let everyone use it, I’d give it less than a week before it would have parts missing, or be broken. It is going to make life a bit happier in the nursery, no more kneeling and hand rubbing coconut husk through the mesh.
Hi to Luis in Portugal, thanks for your note.
We had Les from the Honiara Council Works dept call in Friday morning. He’s in a similar position to me, here as an advisor from Perth for 2 years, he’s got another year to go. There’s been a bit of non-co-operation between the Council and the Gardens, mostly personality clashes I think now, between different sections of the Council and the SEB, thankfully Les never got involved or wanted to. He’s keen to see the gardens bought back to life, and will be giving us a list of streetscape trees and shrubs to grow for the Council for planting out. Also, as the Council have responsibility for the Gardens, again personality clashes involved, he’s going to let us have the use of the Council heavy equipment for digging drainage, he’ll supply the back hoe, bob cat and truck with drivers for any work we need done. That will help when we start draining around the lily pond and playground area and also when we put the retaining walls in on the river bends.
My gecko family have either migrated, or they change colour in the different seasons. All the ones inside are now a dark brown with green and gold speckles, even the smaller ones.
I have a drawing plan to do for Will before Monday, showing the size of the Nursery expansion, I’ve found going into work at the weekends I get more done without the distractions, and also, I’m not tempted to go wandering through the Nursery or Gardens to catch up with everyone. Trying to find stuff for the class is impossible. I’m going to be spending most of what free time I have writing up lesson plans, assessment schedules, learning packs while they are out on practical work, and downloading what I can find on the net, if Telekom let me have uninterrupted access.
I spent most of Friday afternoon trying to download the manual for the shredder from the Rover Manufacturers site, pdf file, the best I could do was 55% downloaded before Telekom disconnected, and I had to repair or change the ip address, then start again. I gave up after 3 hours. Early mornings and weekends are the best times, another reason why I go in at 6.30am and work weekends.
The rainy season continues, it’s rained every day this week, and every night, sometimes heavily. The good part is that it’s not cold like Ireland, you don’t get that chill to your bones like I remember from Tullamore. It’s more like a warmish shower, sometimes like a heavy shower, but tolerable. The walks through the Gardens when it’s raining are more enjoyable I think, less mosquitos for a start, and you get the fresh rain washed aroma from everything.
I’m still finding orchid flowers being washed down off the tree tops, scattered along the paths or off in the undergrowth. I haven’t found any that look like the pictures I’ve got of the dendrobiums or bulbiferums, no doubt they’ll be listed somewhere, it’s just a matter of spending the time searching. Some of the orchids in the Orchid House are flowering now, small tiny white flowers, a few long stalks, but mostly clumps of star like flowers, I’ll have to wait till the dry season, then try to wrangle a trip to a few of the provinces and get more varieties to bring back.
Hi to Chip, Judy and all the people on the ranch, I hope Chip is following the advice, but I doubt it.
All the trees in the Memorial Gardens are now bridge grafted, and the ant barrier has been cleaned off. Now it’s just a matter of wait and see how successful we’ve been. I have doubts about some of the grafts, but we’ve got plenty of good branches to retry with, and the trunks are big enough to keep attempting grafts on for a few more times.
I’ve had a tender spot on my leg since Monday or Tuesday, a bit red and slightly swollen which the Doctor at the clinic said was probably the mosquito bite that caused it. It’s almost gone now, so the doxycycline is effective. The locals get given chloroquinine, which is effective but can take a while to act, and because it’s used so widely here, the risk of causing resistance to it by the malaria mosquito is increasing.
Now I know it’s not just me feeling depressed I’m a lot happier, I spent most of the week going 2 steps forward, one step back, Keithie decided that giving the crew cooking stoves wasn’t a good idea, they’d just get broken/stolen/borrowed whatever, so we have to look for another alternative. I’ll bring it up again at the next monthly meeting anyway with a few more arguments about how it will improve the work times, but I’m not going to get too involved with it. Adrian was all for it, so there’s an unexpected vote. We’ve got to get the idea through that we pay for 8 hours work, and expect a reasonable amount of the time each day to be spent actually working.
I went through this with David yesterday, with the example of him being in charge, quoting a contract for the roundabouts, on a basis of 5 people doing 4 hours per week tidying each roundabout, if he’s paying out 8 hours to each person, but only getting 4 hours actual work, he’ll lose money very quickly. He understands it, but trying to change life styles/habits/attitudes is going to take a long time here. The crews do work well, I’ve mentioned before, but you would lose money of you were contracting on a set price and budget.
We’ve got our coconut mulcher! Thanks to the wonder and technology of Solomon Island Telekom, Keithies email never arrived on Wednesday giving permission to go ahead, it wasn’t till Friday when she got back from Brisbane I was able to contact her, the price dropped even further in the meantime so that was good.
Rover Shredder Mulcher, list price SBD$11,875, our price SBD$6,875. 5.5hp petrol Briggs and Stratton motor, 3 rotating flail blades, the ladies are really happy. I told Jennifer and Imelda that only 4 people to use it, themselves, me and David. If you let everyone use it, I’d give it less than a week before it would have parts missing, or be broken. It is going to make life a bit happier in the nursery, no more kneeling and hand rubbing coconut husk through the mesh.
Hi to Luis in Portugal, thanks for your note.
We had Les from the Honiara Council Works dept call in Friday morning. He’s in a similar position to me, here as an advisor from Perth for 2 years, he’s got another year to go. There’s been a bit of non-co-operation between the Council and the Gardens, mostly personality clashes I think now, between different sections of the Council and the SEB, thankfully Les never got involved or wanted to. He’s keen to see the gardens bought back to life, and will be giving us a list of streetscape trees and shrubs to grow for the Council for planting out. Also, as the Council have responsibility for the Gardens, again personality clashes involved, he’s going to let us have the use of the Council heavy equipment for digging drainage, he’ll supply the back hoe, bob cat and truck with drivers for any work we need done. That will help when we start draining around the lily pond and playground area and also when we put the retaining walls in on the river bends.
My gecko family have either migrated, or they change colour in the different seasons. All the ones inside are now a dark brown with green and gold speckles, even the smaller ones.
I have a drawing plan to do for Will before Monday, showing the size of the Nursery expansion, I’ve found going into work at the weekends I get more done without the distractions, and also, I’m not tempted to go wandering through the Nursery or Gardens to catch up with everyone. Trying to find stuff for the class is impossible. I’m going to be spending most of what free time I have writing up lesson plans, assessment schedules, learning packs while they are out on practical work, and downloading what I can find on the net, if Telekom let me have uninterrupted access.
I spent most of Friday afternoon trying to download the manual for the shredder from the Rover Manufacturers site, pdf file, the best I could do was 55% downloaded before Telekom disconnected, and I had to repair or change the ip address, then start again. I gave up after 3 hours. Early mornings and weekends are the best times, another reason why I go in at 6.30am and work weekends.
The rainy season continues, it’s rained every day this week, and every night, sometimes heavily. The good part is that it’s not cold like Ireland, you don’t get that chill to your bones like I remember from Tullamore. It’s more like a warmish shower, sometimes like a heavy shower, but tolerable. The walks through the Gardens when it’s raining are more enjoyable I think, less mosquitos for a start, and you get the fresh rain washed aroma from everything.
I’m still finding orchid flowers being washed down off the tree tops, scattered along the paths or off in the undergrowth. I haven’t found any that look like the pictures I’ve got of the dendrobiums or bulbiferums, no doubt they’ll be listed somewhere, it’s just a matter of spending the time searching. Some of the orchids in the Orchid House are flowering now, small tiny white flowers, a few long stalks, but mostly clumps of star like flowers, I’ll have to wait till the dry season, then try to wrangle a trip to a few of the provinces and get more varieties to bring back.
Hi to Chip, Judy and all the people on the ranch, I hope Chip is following the advice, but I doubt it.
All the trees in the Memorial Gardens are now bridge grafted, and the ant barrier has been cleaned off. Now it’s just a matter of wait and see how successful we’ve been. I have doubts about some of the grafts, but we’ve got plenty of good branches to retry with, and the trunks are big enough to keep attempting grafts on for a few more times.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
25th March
Met the Japanese Consul, or the lady who handles Grant applications at any rate. A few more things to tidy up with the application before Monday, then it will be finished and ready to go for acceptance and approval.
Will has done a huge amount of work on it, I don’t know where he gets the time. He is involved with the coffee/cocoa/vanilla orchid trial farms as well, plus different small farming ventures in Thailand/Indonesia. He has a lot of good ideas, one for eventually getting the Nursery to become a training ground for his coffee growers so they can learn propagation and general plant maintenance. Once the nursery is complete and we’ve got the existing contract work out of the way I’ll get that underway next year.
Our cheap mulcher is looking further away each day. Keithie isn’t keen on spending the money in the account, regardless of the cost saving, I’ll have to work on that a bit more, but I get the impression that once the money comes in, it never goes out. In the meantime, the ladies are still sitting patiently hand rubbing about 2 – 3 wheel barrows of husk a day through the mesh.
And the pile of husks gets bigger each week as we clean up around Honiara.
The funding from Japan is for the production of 2,000 trees to be planted around Honiara, streets and parks. I think I’ve mentioned before about how no-one in Honiara is actually from there, they all come from different islands or provinces, so there isn’t any real sense of belonging. Any trees planted get ripped out, hacked with bush knives, used for firewood, including the cages used to surround the trees to protect them. We’re getting steel re-bar cages made, that have to be cemented into the ground in an attempt to stop the trees being damaged. I asked Tiffany and Shirleyta could we make wooden surrounds, to be told they had tried that, most of the surrounds didn’t last the first weekend before they were used for firewood. It takes a while to get used to life here.
David came in this morning, his arm is going to take a long time to heal, and he’s now been bitten by something on his foot. His foot up past his ankle is twice the size of the other, but is he going to the doctor? His answer is that it doesn’t hurt as bad as it did last night, so it’s going to be alright, in the meantime, he’s hobbling about barefooted, obviously in pain, but being a MAN from Rennell Islands, you don’t let anyone know.
I’m 2 more trees up on my list in the Gardens, Ngali nut, (Canarium harveyii) and Mussaenda glabra. I keep asking Tiffany and Shirleyta about the trees, they keep saying “oh we don’t know” but when you ask a bit more, they know the island name, and from there it’s easy to research from all the different botanical surveys that have been done here over the years.
Ngali nut have an almond like nut inside, on a few of the Islands, Isabel is a good example, the local people have slowly altered the nut size by selective breeding so that it is now classed as a separate sub-species, although as Shirleyta said, it might be a bigger nut, but it doesn’t taste as sweet as the small ones on her Island off Makira. And the trees on her Island are a different sub-species again.
Mussaenda is a medium sized tree, several different colours to the flowers, actually the bracts surrounding the flowers, a lot like Bougainvillea have colourful bracts, and insignificant flowers. The tree at Bekikama is a white/green colour, the bracts look like tissues floating in the breeze, I was reminded of Magnolia stellata by it, the same floppy white flower forms. Nice trees, the foliage stays on all year here, it’s possibly deciduous in a more temperate climate. We have a red one in the nursery, totally different flower shape altogether, just a species variation.
I’ll have to go back to Bekikama soon, the Ravenala madagascariensis (Travellers Palm) there that Ben has had trouble propagating, found out that because he has been trimming the leaf and stem shrouds, he’s also been cutting off the flower heads before they form. I’ll have to have a closer look at it next week and see if there are any flower heads still tucked away in the leaf sheaths.
I’ve a meeting with the Works Clerk from the Honiara Council this Friday, I’ll put the idea that we get a couple of small carts made with a rubbish bin mounted, and provide a daily street cleaning service through Honiara township. It’ll be 2 or 3 new jobs, and it’ll help tidy the township up during the day. Hopefully we’ll be able to work out a contract price and get it underway before the next tourist season starts fully.
It’s shows how desperate people are here to work, I’ve talked it over with a few people in the work crew, and I have more people willing to push a cart and broom, shovel around town all day than there will be positions available. I’ve mentioned previously about the status people get if they have a job here, it’s a source of self esteem, pride, whatever, even though most jobs pay a pittance it’s better than not having any employment.
Having the people with RAMSI, and the outside Consultants and UN observers here has really distorted the local economy. Rents, hotels, food, are all way beyond the levels that the local people can afford now. The fishing charter prices out of Honiara are just one example, SBD$10,000 for one days fishing. Ok, it’s AUD$2,000 but even that is pushing the limit. Spending 2 ½ months worth of my living allowance for a day out isn’t worth it for me. I’ll wait till Shirleytas brother gets organised with the boat, and I’ll pay for the diesel for the day. Or half it, depends on what arrangement we can come to.
Will has done a huge amount of work on it, I don’t know where he gets the time. He is involved with the coffee/cocoa/vanilla orchid trial farms as well, plus different small farming ventures in Thailand/Indonesia. He has a lot of good ideas, one for eventually getting the Nursery to become a training ground for his coffee growers so they can learn propagation and general plant maintenance. Once the nursery is complete and we’ve got the existing contract work out of the way I’ll get that underway next year.
Our cheap mulcher is looking further away each day. Keithie isn’t keen on spending the money in the account, regardless of the cost saving, I’ll have to work on that a bit more, but I get the impression that once the money comes in, it never goes out. In the meantime, the ladies are still sitting patiently hand rubbing about 2 – 3 wheel barrows of husk a day through the mesh.
And the pile of husks gets bigger each week as we clean up around Honiara.
The funding from Japan is for the production of 2,000 trees to be planted around Honiara, streets and parks. I think I’ve mentioned before about how no-one in Honiara is actually from there, they all come from different islands or provinces, so there isn’t any real sense of belonging. Any trees planted get ripped out, hacked with bush knives, used for firewood, including the cages used to surround the trees to protect them. We’re getting steel re-bar cages made, that have to be cemented into the ground in an attempt to stop the trees being damaged. I asked Tiffany and Shirleyta could we make wooden surrounds, to be told they had tried that, most of the surrounds didn’t last the first weekend before they were used for firewood. It takes a while to get used to life here.
David came in this morning, his arm is going to take a long time to heal, and he’s now been bitten by something on his foot. His foot up past his ankle is twice the size of the other, but is he going to the doctor? His answer is that it doesn’t hurt as bad as it did last night, so it’s going to be alright, in the meantime, he’s hobbling about barefooted, obviously in pain, but being a MAN from Rennell Islands, you don’t let anyone know.
I’m 2 more trees up on my list in the Gardens, Ngali nut, (Canarium harveyii) and Mussaenda glabra. I keep asking Tiffany and Shirleyta about the trees, they keep saying “oh we don’t know” but when you ask a bit more, they know the island name, and from there it’s easy to research from all the different botanical surveys that have been done here over the years.
Ngali nut have an almond like nut inside, on a few of the Islands, Isabel is a good example, the local people have slowly altered the nut size by selective breeding so that it is now classed as a separate sub-species, although as Shirleyta said, it might be a bigger nut, but it doesn’t taste as sweet as the small ones on her Island off Makira. And the trees on her Island are a different sub-species again.
Mussaenda is a medium sized tree, several different colours to the flowers, actually the bracts surrounding the flowers, a lot like Bougainvillea have colourful bracts, and insignificant flowers. The tree at Bekikama is a white/green colour, the bracts look like tissues floating in the breeze, I was reminded of Magnolia stellata by it, the same floppy white flower forms. Nice trees, the foliage stays on all year here, it’s possibly deciduous in a more temperate climate. We have a red one in the nursery, totally different flower shape altogether, just a species variation.
I’ll have to go back to Bekikama soon, the Ravenala madagascariensis (Travellers Palm) there that Ben has had trouble propagating, found out that because he has been trimming the leaf and stem shrouds, he’s also been cutting off the flower heads before they form. I’ll have to have a closer look at it next week and see if there are any flower heads still tucked away in the leaf sheaths.
I’ve a meeting with the Works Clerk from the Honiara Council this Friday, I’ll put the idea that we get a couple of small carts made with a rubbish bin mounted, and provide a daily street cleaning service through Honiara township. It’ll be 2 or 3 new jobs, and it’ll help tidy the township up during the day. Hopefully we’ll be able to work out a contract price and get it underway before the next tourist season starts fully.
It’s shows how desperate people are here to work, I’ve talked it over with a few people in the work crew, and I have more people willing to push a cart and broom, shovel around town all day than there will be positions available. I’ve mentioned previously about the status people get if they have a job here, it’s a source of self esteem, pride, whatever, even though most jobs pay a pittance it’s better than not having any employment.
Having the people with RAMSI, and the outside Consultants and UN observers here has really distorted the local economy. Rents, hotels, food, are all way beyond the levels that the local people can afford now. The fishing charter prices out of Honiara are just one example, SBD$10,000 for one days fishing. Ok, it’s AUD$2,000 but even that is pushing the limit. Spending 2 ½ months worth of my living allowance for a day out isn’t worth it for me. I’ll wait till Shirleytas brother gets organised with the boat, and I’ll pay for the diesel for the day. Or half it, depends on what arrangement we can come to.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
24th March
Rain and sunshine for most of the day, mostly sunshine till about 4pm, then rain continuously. Went with Tiffany ,Suzie, Jennifer, Imelda to the Adventist School at Bekikama, they have a small nursery for the students. Absolutely beautiful Ravenala madagascariensis growing there, the Travellers Palm. They have been trying for a few years to propagate it, but no luck yet. I’ll go back in the dry and get some seeds to try. There are a lot of suckers growing out the base of the older trunks, we may try cutting them off at some time soon to get some more established.
Found some Hibiscus schizopetalus growing as a hedge, first time I’ve seen it, so we got a lot of cuttings from it, bright red flowers that look like they’ve been turned inside out. Ben the gardener there had a lot of Helliconia and Ginger plants for us, different colours to what we have in the gardens. We’re slowly building up a good range of plants, all we have to do is stop the locals from cutting and hacking them down.
I priced a fishing charter here this morning, through Lalae Charters, nice boat, their website is worth looking at www.lalaecharters.com, but it is AUD$2000 per day, SBD$10,000, so I won’t be going out with them, that’s 2 ½ months pay for me, for 1 day out fishing. I like fishing, but not to that extent. Thanks to RAMSI, and all the Consultants that are here everyone is trying to get as much as possible.
Local wages are SBD$240 per week if you have any skills, less than that for someone straight from a village or rural life.
Spent a couple of hours with David today. His arm looks like it isn’t going to get much better than it is at present. Too much nerve damage, and he’ll be lucky to get any feeling in his fingers. They want to operate again in a couple of months to see if they can improve it, but he’s not keen. It will either improve it, or he’ll lose all feeling in his fingers and hand.
I’ve got him thinking about starting up a separate company of his own over the next year or so, and taking over the contracts SEB have, so they aren’t dependent on Aid money, or someone taking responsibility from them because “these people” can’t be trusted to run a business. If necessary I’ll try to get a business mentor through VSA to come here and help set them up further down the road. He has to start looking at different options, he’s going spare as it is not being able to work, so getting him into his own private business will be good for him.
Adrian is still shouting at everyone, I’ve told him it’s no use shouting at the crew about time keeping, lunch breaks etc, until we have an alternative to put in place, but it doesn’t seem to register. Getting the kerosene stoves has turned into another long drawn out saga. Now I have to write a report about why we need to spend $500 on kerosene stoves, what benefit etc will accrue. Oh well, it helps fill the day in is one way of looking at it, although I’d rather be outside in the nursery, or anywhere outside, than writing up cost/benefit analysis reports.
I have a meeting with the Japanese Consul tomorrow morning, with Will, and we’ll put our Funding Proposal to them. I may even shave, and dress up a bit. All I’ve worn since I’ve been here is board shorts and muslin tops, a shirt and trousers will really surprise them at work.
We may be able to get a shredder for the coconut husks, at cost price, SBD$6,800 instead of SBD$11,850 through Farmset, they have one left that has been sitting in the shop for several months. I’ll have to convince Kiethie that it is worthwhile getting it now, for that price, instead of waiting till October when the next grant money comes through. Another reason why I’d like to see David set up his own business, so we don’t have to go cap in hand to get money that in some respects is ours to spend on improvements.
My kitchen lightbulb fell out last night, the copper fitting that holds the bulb has corroded away totally from the constant humidity. I leave the printer/scanner turned on all the time, just to keep them warmed up, my camera sits on top of the fridge, where there is a hot spot to keep it warm and dry. My leather belt that I’ve just had hanging on a hook in the bedroom had a nice blue bloom of fungus, that vinegar took off but will grow back again. I’ll have to make up a cabinet from my shipping boxes with a light bulb in to keep the new camera and lenses dry when I’m not using them.
As Steve said the other day, humidity here is 95% all the time, if it goes over that it’s called rain. It’s hard to get a tan here, I don’t know if it’s because of the humidity, or what, but I’m paler now than I was in New Zealand, despite being out doors most of the time.
The rain is getting heavier tonight, I pulled up a term from the Hort course, atabaric flow, when the cool air from the mountains flow down to the lower levels, meet the warm sea air, and promptly cause a huge water dump. I think that’s what happens here, the daytime rain never seems to be as hard or heavy as it does a few hours after sunset.
Found some Hibiscus schizopetalus growing as a hedge, first time I’ve seen it, so we got a lot of cuttings from it, bright red flowers that look like they’ve been turned inside out. Ben the gardener there had a lot of Helliconia and Ginger plants for us, different colours to what we have in the gardens. We’re slowly building up a good range of plants, all we have to do is stop the locals from cutting and hacking them down.
I priced a fishing charter here this morning, through Lalae Charters, nice boat, their website is worth looking at www.lalaecharters.com, but it is AUD$2000 per day, SBD$10,000, so I won’t be going out with them, that’s 2 ½ months pay for me, for 1 day out fishing. I like fishing, but not to that extent. Thanks to RAMSI, and all the Consultants that are here everyone is trying to get as much as possible.
Local wages are SBD$240 per week if you have any skills, less than that for someone straight from a village or rural life.
Spent a couple of hours with David today. His arm looks like it isn’t going to get much better than it is at present. Too much nerve damage, and he’ll be lucky to get any feeling in his fingers. They want to operate again in a couple of months to see if they can improve it, but he’s not keen. It will either improve it, or he’ll lose all feeling in his fingers and hand.
I’ve got him thinking about starting up a separate company of his own over the next year or so, and taking over the contracts SEB have, so they aren’t dependent on Aid money, or someone taking responsibility from them because “these people” can’t be trusted to run a business. If necessary I’ll try to get a business mentor through VSA to come here and help set them up further down the road. He has to start looking at different options, he’s going spare as it is not being able to work, so getting him into his own private business will be good for him.
Adrian is still shouting at everyone, I’ve told him it’s no use shouting at the crew about time keeping, lunch breaks etc, until we have an alternative to put in place, but it doesn’t seem to register. Getting the kerosene stoves has turned into another long drawn out saga. Now I have to write a report about why we need to spend $500 on kerosene stoves, what benefit etc will accrue. Oh well, it helps fill the day in is one way of looking at it, although I’d rather be outside in the nursery, or anywhere outside, than writing up cost/benefit analysis reports.
I have a meeting with the Japanese Consul tomorrow morning, with Will, and we’ll put our Funding Proposal to them. I may even shave, and dress up a bit. All I’ve worn since I’ve been here is board shorts and muslin tops, a shirt and trousers will really surprise them at work.
We may be able to get a shredder for the coconut husks, at cost price, SBD$6,800 instead of SBD$11,850 through Farmset, they have one left that has been sitting in the shop for several months. I’ll have to convince Kiethie that it is worthwhile getting it now, for that price, instead of waiting till October when the next grant money comes through. Another reason why I’d like to see David set up his own business, so we don’t have to go cap in hand to get money that in some respects is ours to spend on improvements.
My kitchen lightbulb fell out last night, the copper fitting that holds the bulb has corroded away totally from the constant humidity. I leave the printer/scanner turned on all the time, just to keep them warmed up, my camera sits on top of the fridge, where there is a hot spot to keep it warm and dry. My leather belt that I’ve just had hanging on a hook in the bedroom had a nice blue bloom of fungus, that vinegar took off but will grow back again. I’ll have to make up a cabinet from my shipping boxes with a light bulb in to keep the new camera and lenses dry when I’m not using them.
As Steve said the other day, humidity here is 95% all the time, if it goes over that it’s called rain. It’s hard to get a tan here, I don’t know if it’s because of the humidity, or what, but I’m paler now than I was in New Zealand, despite being out doors most of the time.
The rain is getting heavier tonight, I pulled up a term from the Hort course, atabaric flow, when the cool air from the mountains flow down to the lower levels, meet the warm sea air, and promptly cause a huge water dump. I think that’s what happens here, the daytime rain never seems to be as hard or heavy as it does a few hours after sunset.
Monday, March 23, 2009
23rd March
Another mixed bag Monday. Went in early to try and do the photocopying that I didn’t get done yesterday. Didn’t even make it to ¼ of the stuff, and the printer was out of ink, as usual, it’s only buy as you need it, so there went the morning. It wasn’t all bad, I caught up with a couple of people online (Hi Moira) finally, got some emails cleared away.
Class turned into a shambles, Adrian dragged me off to Heritage, they rang early this morning wanting the wood chipper urgently, despite never getting back to us about the price or quote, and Adrian wanted to see just what the crew were doing. Huge old Agathis macrophylla cut down, full of seed cones which I grabbed for seed, although they are a few months away from being ripe, some of the seeds may germinate.
We’ve only got the one really good specimen at the gardens, they are becoming rare here now, cut down for timber mostly. Endemic to the Solomons and Bouganville.
Spent the afternoon driving around the farm suppliers in Honiara trying to get prices for stuff to go into the funding proposal, only one place that was helpful, the others were really Solomon Island Time with it all, no wariwari, tomorrow or Thursday we’ll get back to you. I only had to have it all priced for Will by 4pm today. Anyway, it’s done as much as we could.
I mentioned back a few days about being an arachnophobe, just as Tiffany and Shirleyeta were leaving tonight one of the biggest huntsman spiders I have seen wandered out from behind the filing cabinet, walked up the wall, and started heading across the ceiling in my direction. The last thing I like is having a bloody big spider walking around above me, managed to chase it outside with a rolled up newspaper, then into the shrubbery. It’ll be back inside somewhere by the morning, they tend to like living indoors.
Other than that, the day settled down into it’s usual pattern finally. Steve called in again, to pick up my Security Plan, as I said to him, no matter what is written in it, if there is any trouble, my plan is to get to the airport and wait in the bar for the next flight out. If the road is blocked, I’ll be in the nearest large tourist hotel, in the bar.
He was going to send that off to Wellington as my Security Plan, well, it’s mostly true, I’ll certainly be in the bar, somewhere.
Found Jesse Rainbows birthday present, but as she reads this, I’m not going to say what it is.
Power off again, it's 9pm, I give up
Class turned into a shambles, Adrian dragged me off to Heritage, they rang early this morning wanting the wood chipper urgently, despite never getting back to us about the price or quote, and Adrian wanted to see just what the crew were doing. Huge old Agathis macrophylla cut down, full of seed cones which I grabbed for seed, although they are a few months away from being ripe, some of the seeds may germinate.
We’ve only got the one really good specimen at the gardens, they are becoming rare here now, cut down for timber mostly. Endemic to the Solomons and Bouganville.
Spent the afternoon driving around the farm suppliers in Honiara trying to get prices for stuff to go into the funding proposal, only one place that was helpful, the others were really Solomon Island Time with it all, no wariwari, tomorrow or Thursday we’ll get back to you. I only had to have it all priced for Will by 4pm today. Anyway, it’s done as much as we could.
I mentioned back a few days about being an arachnophobe, just as Tiffany and Shirleyeta were leaving tonight one of the biggest huntsman spiders I have seen wandered out from behind the filing cabinet, walked up the wall, and started heading across the ceiling in my direction. The last thing I like is having a bloody big spider walking around above me, managed to chase it outside with a rolled up newspaper, then into the shrubbery. It’ll be back inside somewhere by the morning, they tend to like living indoors.
Other than that, the day settled down into it’s usual pattern finally. Steve called in again, to pick up my Security Plan, as I said to him, no matter what is written in it, if there is any trouble, my plan is to get to the airport and wait in the bar for the next flight out. If the road is blocked, I’ll be in the nearest large tourist hotel, in the bar.
He was going to send that off to Wellington as my Security Plan, well, it’s mostly true, I’ll certainly be in the bar, somewhere.
Found Jesse Rainbows birthday present, but as she reads this, I’m not going to say what it is.
Power off again, it's 9pm, I give up
Sunday, March 22, 2009
22nd March
6.45pm, still no water, went into work at 11, sorted out a huge amount of stuff to photocopy for tomorrow, posted the blog update, started the p/copy machine and the power went out. I said a few choice words, none printable, waited around for an hour, wandered through the Gardens to calm down and to try and get out of the rain, well, I was out in it, but the trees shelter a lot. Still wasn’t back on by 1pm, so went to Kukum Fish Market on the way home.
If I stop the extravagant purchases that I don’t use, like the fish the other week, I’m around SBD$100 a week for food, 5 kg bag of rice is $55, which so far has lasted me 6 weeks, coffee I found at the Bulk Shop yesterday at $35 for 250gm (Fair Trade New Guinea Gold) instead of the $47.80 Wings and AusTrade charge. Sugar, flour at the Bulk Shop are about $4 a kilo. I’m going to have to blow a couple of hundred this week on 3 storage bins with clip lids for the flour/rice/noodles and spaghetti, $110 each for ones that will hold 5kg rice, and keep the weevils out.
Papaya (Pawpaw) are still $5 - $7 each, depending on size, got some Cavendish (or they look like Cavendish) bananas today, $10 for 12, the long ones, not the usual Island stubby ones, coconuts still $1 - $2 each, slippery cabbage and Bok Choy $10 a bundle, and spring onions $5. The fish hadn’t improved, I’m going to wait till I can get some time off and go on a charter for the day or weekend. Or Shirleyetas brother comes through with the boat. It really annoys me seeing the fish there, all good kingfish, tuna, snapper out in the sun all day, being ruined. The people wiping them down constantly with a sponge that is just dipped into the water in the ice bins doesn’t improve the image either, and the rags on a stick moving the flies around.
I’ll put this back in again, exchange rate SBD$ to various currencies
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
Went through Central Market yesterday, it’s my grand-daughters Birthday soon, I was hoping to find something there for her, but no luck, I’ll go to Bekihama, the traditional carving and jewellery outlet and get her something there. The fish at Central are in the same state, so I’m not in a rush for any yet.
Wings and AusTrade have meat, mince (ground beef) at $50 per 500gm and up, steak and lamb start at $80 kg, chicken pieces for soup are $30, about 1kg, sausages are $45 per kg.
They have tried raising cattle for beef and dairy here, it’s been a mixed reaction, the natives have no history of using dairy products, so it’s mainly the people like me and the ex-pats who would be buying it. I’d be inclined to raise water buffalo here, for beef and dairy, they’re more suited to the conditions, wet swamps and lush water grass, than conventional cattle. There is very little flat or gentle sloping land here, it’s either swampland, like around Honiara, or vertical cliffs and rainforest.
My bread attempts are improving, got 2 round loaves today that would be equal to the ones we used to make in Schull, so I’m pleased. No doubt Pat will be as well in Schull when I write and tell him I did learn something from him.
The rain hasn’t stopped all day, it almost turns to drizzle, then changes its mind and comes down heavy for a bit longer. Thank God I have the water tank outside, ok, the shower/toilet kitchen sink are useless without the main supply, but at least I can fill the jug and boil up washing water for the kitchen dishes.
Oh joy, the water is back on, hot and cold! Dishes from last night, this morning, and tonight all done finally, toilet flushed, and I’m going to soak in a long hot, well warm, it’s too hot anyway for a hot shower, but long shower before I go to bed.
I’m giving the neighbours a treat tonight, Gaelic Storm, Bring Yer Wellies CD, Thanks to Una Flanagan from the sadly defunct Midwest Irish Internet Radio, well, it’s not defunct, but Una isn’t on it anymore.
If I stop the extravagant purchases that I don’t use, like the fish the other week, I’m around SBD$100 a week for food, 5 kg bag of rice is $55, which so far has lasted me 6 weeks, coffee I found at the Bulk Shop yesterday at $35 for 250gm (Fair Trade New Guinea Gold) instead of the $47.80 Wings and AusTrade charge. Sugar, flour at the Bulk Shop are about $4 a kilo. I’m going to have to blow a couple of hundred this week on 3 storage bins with clip lids for the flour/rice/noodles and spaghetti, $110 each for ones that will hold 5kg rice, and keep the weevils out.
Papaya (Pawpaw) are still $5 - $7 each, depending on size, got some Cavendish (or they look like Cavendish) bananas today, $10 for 12, the long ones, not the usual Island stubby ones, coconuts still $1 - $2 each, slippery cabbage and Bok Choy $10 a bundle, and spring onions $5. The fish hadn’t improved, I’m going to wait till I can get some time off and go on a charter for the day or weekend. Or Shirleyetas brother comes through with the boat. It really annoys me seeing the fish there, all good kingfish, tuna, snapper out in the sun all day, being ruined. The people wiping them down constantly with a sponge that is just dipped into the water in the ice bins doesn’t improve the image either, and the rags on a stick moving the flies around.
I’ll put this back in again, exchange rate SBD$ to various currencies
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
Went through Central Market yesterday, it’s my grand-daughters Birthday soon, I was hoping to find something there for her, but no luck, I’ll go to Bekihama, the traditional carving and jewellery outlet and get her something there. The fish at Central are in the same state, so I’m not in a rush for any yet.
Wings and AusTrade have meat, mince (ground beef) at $50 per 500gm and up, steak and lamb start at $80 kg, chicken pieces for soup are $30, about 1kg, sausages are $45 per kg.
They have tried raising cattle for beef and dairy here, it’s been a mixed reaction, the natives have no history of using dairy products, so it’s mainly the people like me and the ex-pats who would be buying it. I’d be inclined to raise water buffalo here, for beef and dairy, they’re more suited to the conditions, wet swamps and lush water grass, than conventional cattle. There is very little flat or gentle sloping land here, it’s either swampland, like around Honiara, or vertical cliffs and rainforest.
My bread attempts are improving, got 2 round loaves today that would be equal to the ones we used to make in Schull, so I’m pleased. No doubt Pat will be as well in Schull when I write and tell him I did learn something from him.
The rain hasn’t stopped all day, it almost turns to drizzle, then changes its mind and comes down heavy for a bit longer. Thank God I have the water tank outside, ok, the shower/toilet kitchen sink are useless without the main supply, but at least I can fill the jug and boil up washing water for the kitchen dishes.
Oh joy, the water is back on, hot and cold! Dishes from last night, this morning, and tonight all done finally, toilet flushed, and I’m going to soak in a long hot, well warm, it’s too hot anyway for a hot shower, but long shower before I go to bed.
I’m giving the neighbours a treat tonight, Gaelic Storm, Bring Yer Wellies CD, Thanks to Una Flanagan from the sadly defunct Midwest Irish Internet Radio, well, it’s not defunct, but Una isn’t on it anymore.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
21st March
Got woken about 3am this morning, I thought the roof was going to collapse, but it was just a bit of rain. Sometimes we get rain that looks and feels like rain, other times it is like the heavens have opened and all the Angels are flushing their toilets at once.
Apparently I’m a couple of months late, David told me yesterday that the river occasionally floods over the banks, and across the level parts of the gardens. I think when it gets like that forget the white water rafting.
I’m slowly getting organised at work, after 6 weeks of doing the urgent stuff, it’s settling down to where I can actually start planning things and see them happen. Up till now it’s been Crisis Management 101, thankfully I’ve got my work diary and this to go back over and use to get thoughts on future ways and means to handle what at the time are disruptions and confusion.
The work crews always come back to the Gardens for lunch, even when they’re working at Henderson Field, about 45 min away. Consequently, they leave in the mornings about 9am, the stretch convertible Limo drops off various crews through town doing the Median Strip/roundabouts/gardens, and continues onto Henderson Field with the lawn mowing crew. Then they start coming back about 11.15, picking up the others on the way back, have lunch till 1pm or 1.30pm, then drive back out again. Total time actually working in a day, 4 – 5 hours.
It drives Adrian crazy, I have to agree with him, but not with the way he tries to go about changing it, all shouting and abuse, without an alternative.
I’ve bought 3 kerosene cooking stoves, and a set of pots for each, so from Monday each work crew stays where they are, cooks their lunch there, and do not need to come back to the Gardens. It’s going to be a bit awkward getting them used to it, there were a few people against the idea at the Friday meeting, but we’ll see what happens. Traditions take a long time to change here, I don’t know how this one started, but we’ll try to change a few habits slowly. Some of the men were objecting because there aren’t any women in their crew, and who was going to cook their lunch for them. It’s a very patriarchal society, I’ve mentioned before about the work habits.
Lunch is always rice and tuna with a soupy noodle mix, which we provide.
Tiffany has picked up a dose of malaria, she’s looking like death warmed up at the moment. It’s fairly common here, especially among the natives. Anti-malarial drugs are too expensive for them, so they tend to get malaria, the ones that live slowly build up some immunity, but still get very sick with fevers and nausea. I’d hate to look at the child death statistics here. The Govt provide free mosquito nets, but as everyone is outside in the mornings and evenings the chances of contracting malaria are fairly high. Add in Dengue fever from the daytime mosquitos and you understand why the tourists stopped coming when the troubles stopped the mosquito spraying and eradication programmes. They had malaria almost totally eradicated here some years back, when we could use DDT, when that was banned, the mosquitos returned with a vengeance, and also a high degree of immunity to conventional sprays. Deet works reasonably well as a deterrent, I’m using RID Repellent, but at SBD$120 a bottle, it’s beyond the price of everyone here. As is the Doxycycline I take everyday.
You still get bitten no matter what you use, some of the mosquitos are persistent little buggers.
Just got back from shopping, it’s Ba’Hai New Year, there’s a concert going on for all the kids here, music, games food etc, the rain has stopped, it’s sunshine, humid and everyone has dark sweat patches on their shirts and clothes. I’ve got my washing to do, sweep the bigger lumps off the floorboards, finally got hot water with the sunshine, so yesterdays dishes and the kitchen cleaned up as well. I have got electric to the hot water, but when you turn it on, you can see the light being sucked backwards into the light bulbs as it drains the power. I try not to use it, it’s SBD$2.78 per KW, and a SBD$1.68 per KWh surcharge for the diesel effectively $4.46 per KWh
I’m not doing too bad, Steve put $400 onto the meter when I got here, still got about half the credit left in 6 weeks. About all I use all the time are the ceiling fans, and about 2 hours of light at night. Gas for cooking, solar heater for the hot water.
I need to get some more plastic containers, large size, my last couple of kilos of rice in the bag have got weevils, I forgot to tie the bag up the other night, just screwed the top over, wasn’t enough, luckily not many, sifted the bigger ones out, put the rice in the freezer to kill the smaller ones, and I’ll wash them out later. They float to the top in water, which is handy.
Meant to be full of protein, I’ll give it a miss if I can at the moment.
Caught up with Keithie at the kids concert. My advisors role seems to be forgotten, and I’m more of an administrator than advisor. I get the impression she doesn’t want too much responsibility being passed down to the locals, there’s always got to be a white person in charge. I’ll work on it from the bottom up and get Tiffany, Shirleyeta and David doing a lot more instead of expecting me to run the office and Gardens. I have to do a 6month report for VSA on what I’ve done, seen, and think, so it will be interesting to go back over this and my work diary and put it all down on some logical pattern.
My bread making attempts are improving, it’s mostly edible, I’ll have to spend a bit and get a couple of baking trays for the gas oven, and a couple of tins, then I’ll be back into bakery mode again. I’m using the recipes off www.joepastry.com, plus what I learnt in the bakery in Schull. It’s a really good blog for bread making and other bakery stuff. Remember to drop Joe a note and say I sent you. I’ve been following his blog for a couple of years now, all good advice and a lot of information, unlike this collection of random thoughts views and drivel.
Talking to my Sister yesterday, she was going to our School Wine and cheese evening last night. She was really good at college, cricket team, sports, academic etc, I got expelled. Any reunion we go to, Rose gets, “oh, you’re Warrens sister, hello” after 45 odd years it’s surprising what people remember. They never remember her name, but mine seems to have stuck. Hope you had a good time Roses.
300 kids running on a sugar fix through the settlement here at the moment. I think there is some sort of organization, well, there are adults with them, but give the kids here any sort of entertainment and it’s like Christmas, Birthdays, everything all thrown together. There isn’t much for them otherwise, so anything is appreciated.
I was watching some of the students at the school practising football earlier today, got talking to a couple, their training wasn’t till 10o’clock, but they come early to practise for a couple of hours first, then have 2 hours training, then play among themselves for another couple of hours before going home. No wonder they are all good players.
I’ll be pleased to get another camera, it’s the first time since I was a kid I’ve been without one, there’s a lot to get pics of here, well, that is true of anywhere, but I can tie them into the stuff I write here, to give a better picture of Honiara and the Solomons. A few more weeks, Rose arrives the 17th April for a week hopefully with the new one. I’ve got the Pentax, but with the disastrous results from the local idiot, I’m not keen on spending money for film just to have it ruined.
7pm, it must be going to rain soon, there’s 6 geckos scuttling over the ceiling, and it feels like a sauna inside, and worse outside. All the ceiling fan is doing is moving the warm air across me and drying the sweat.
The young pickinini next door, about 4 years old, hates going to bed, he starts screaming about now every night, for about an hour, till he finally drops off to sleep. I see his father walking around cuddling him for ages, to no avail, as soon as they put him down he starts off again. The joys of close living. I think there are 7 kids next door, from the 2 girls about 16/17, the eldest son, Christopher, about 15, then a few assorted ages down to the 4 year old.
I’m giving the neighbours a mixed set of music today, they had Janis Joplin Essential Double CD, earlier, a bit of Neil Young, After the Gold Rush, now it’s Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense. Tomorrow it’s trance/reggaedub and techno with Salmonella Dub, The Nomad, and Pitch Black
As a side note, the Solomon Star had an article last week about the Prime Minister being shown around the Customs and Immigration section at Henderson Field. They had a large display set up of confiscated articles, in the prime position was a large collection of vibrators, sex toys etc, at which the PM expressed shock and horror that people would be trying to bring these in with them. No matter that they were for personal use, well duh, not for sale is what I meant, all found in peoples suitcases and carry on bags. So a word of caution, leave your toys behind when you visit here, it’s a Christian Patriarchal Society. Tampax applicators included.
I’ve some stuff to do tomorrow at work, so I’ll post this, photocopy everything I need for Monday, and go to the beach for the afternoon.
Woke up at 6am, sweaty, hot and feeling like I was inside an oven. The power went off sometime between the dogs barking at 3am and 6am so I had no water, or ceiling fans. Rainwater tank is full, no surprises, and the gas stove is fine for making coffee. It’s now 9am, and the power is back, I’ll have to wait a bit for the water to start, then I’ll clean up and go to the Kukum Market, then work for a few hours. It’s raining again, so there goes the beach idea for the day,
Apparently I’m a couple of months late, David told me yesterday that the river occasionally floods over the banks, and across the level parts of the gardens. I think when it gets like that forget the white water rafting.
I’m slowly getting organised at work, after 6 weeks of doing the urgent stuff, it’s settling down to where I can actually start planning things and see them happen. Up till now it’s been Crisis Management 101, thankfully I’ve got my work diary and this to go back over and use to get thoughts on future ways and means to handle what at the time are disruptions and confusion.
The work crews always come back to the Gardens for lunch, even when they’re working at Henderson Field, about 45 min away. Consequently, they leave in the mornings about 9am, the stretch convertible Limo drops off various crews through town doing the Median Strip/roundabouts/gardens, and continues onto Henderson Field with the lawn mowing crew. Then they start coming back about 11.15, picking up the others on the way back, have lunch till 1pm or 1.30pm, then drive back out again. Total time actually working in a day, 4 – 5 hours.
It drives Adrian crazy, I have to agree with him, but not with the way he tries to go about changing it, all shouting and abuse, without an alternative.
I’ve bought 3 kerosene cooking stoves, and a set of pots for each, so from Monday each work crew stays where they are, cooks their lunch there, and do not need to come back to the Gardens. It’s going to be a bit awkward getting them used to it, there were a few people against the idea at the Friday meeting, but we’ll see what happens. Traditions take a long time to change here, I don’t know how this one started, but we’ll try to change a few habits slowly. Some of the men were objecting because there aren’t any women in their crew, and who was going to cook their lunch for them. It’s a very patriarchal society, I’ve mentioned before about the work habits.
Lunch is always rice and tuna with a soupy noodle mix, which we provide.
Tiffany has picked up a dose of malaria, she’s looking like death warmed up at the moment. It’s fairly common here, especially among the natives. Anti-malarial drugs are too expensive for them, so they tend to get malaria, the ones that live slowly build up some immunity, but still get very sick with fevers and nausea. I’d hate to look at the child death statistics here. The Govt provide free mosquito nets, but as everyone is outside in the mornings and evenings the chances of contracting malaria are fairly high. Add in Dengue fever from the daytime mosquitos and you understand why the tourists stopped coming when the troubles stopped the mosquito spraying and eradication programmes. They had malaria almost totally eradicated here some years back, when we could use DDT, when that was banned, the mosquitos returned with a vengeance, and also a high degree of immunity to conventional sprays. Deet works reasonably well as a deterrent, I’m using RID Repellent, but at SBD$120 a bottle, it’s beyond the price of everyone here. As is the Doxycycline I take everyday.
You still get bitten no matter what you use, some of the mosquitos are persistent little buggers.
Just got back from shopping, it’s Ba’Hai New Year, there’s a concert going on for all the kids here, music, games food etc, the rain has stopped, it’s sunshine, humid and everyone has dark sweat patches on their shirts and clothes. I’ve got my washing to do, sweep the bigger lumps off the floorboards, finally got hot water with the sunshine, so yesterdays dishes and the kitchen cleaned up as well. I have got electric to the hot water, but when you turn it on, you can see the light being sucked backwards into the light bulbs as it drains the power. I try not to use it, it’s SBD$2.78 per KW, and a SBD$1.68 per KWh surcharge for the diesel effectively $4.46 per KWh
I’m not doing too bad, Steve put $400 onto the meter when I got here, still got about half the credit left in 6 weeks. About all I use all the time are the ceiling fans, and about 2 hours of light at night. Gas for cooking, solar heater for the hot water.
I need to get some more plastic containers, large size, my last couple of kilos of rice in the bag have got weevils, I forgot to tie the bag up the other night, just screwed the top over, wasn’t enough, luckily not many, sifted the bigger ones out, put the rice in the freezer to kill the smaller ones, and I’ll wash them out later. They float to the top in water, which is handy.
Meant to be full of protein, I’ll give it a miss if I can at the moment.
Caught up with Keithie at the kids concert. My advisors role seems to be forgotten, and I’m more of an administrator than advisor. I get the impression she doesn’t want too much responsibility being passed down to the locals, there’s always got to be a white person in charge. I’ll work on it from the bottom up and get Tiffany, Shirleyeta and David doing a lot more instead of expecting me to run the office and Gardens. I have to do a 6month report for VSA on what I’ve done, seen, and think, so it will be interesting to go back over this and my work diary and put it all down on some logical pattern.
My bread making attempts are improving, it’s mostly edible, I’ll have to spend a bit and get a couple of baking trays for the gas oven, and a couple of tins, then I’ll be back into bakery mode again. I’m using the recipes off www.joepastry.com, plus what I learnt in the bakery in Schull. It’s a really good blog for bread making and other bakery stuff. Remember to drop Joe a note and say I sent you. I’ve been following his blog for a couple of years now, all good advice and a lot of information, unlike this collection of random thoughts views and drivel.
Talking to my Sister yesterday, she was going to our School Wine and cheese evening last night. She was really good at college, cricket team, sports, academic etc, I got expelled. Any reunion we go to, Rose gets, “oh, you’re Warrens sister, hello” after 45 odd years it’s surprising what people remember. They never remember her name, but mine seems to have stuck. Hope you had a good time Roses.
300 kids running on a sugar fix through the settlement here at the moment. I think there is some sort of organization, well, there are adults with them, but give the kids here any sort of entertainment and it’s like Christmas, Birthdays, everything all thrown together. There isn’t much for them otherwise, so anything is appreciated.
I was watching some of the students at the school practising football earlier today, got talking to a couple, their training wasn’t till 10o’clock, but they come early to practise for a couple of hours first, then have 2 hours training, then play among themselves for another couple of hours before going home. No wonder they are all good players.
I’ll be pleased to get another camera, it’s the first time since I was a kid I’ve been without one, there’s a lot to get pics of here, well, that is true of anywhere, but I can tie them into the stuff I write here, to give a better picture of Honiara and the Solomons. A few more weeks, Rose arrives the 17th April for a week hopefully with the new one. I’ve got the Pentax, but with the disastrous results from the local idiot, I’m not keen on spending money for film just to have it ruined.
7pm, it must be going to rain soon, there’s 6 geckos scuttling over the ceiling, and it feels like a sauna inside, and worse outside. All the ceiling fan is doing is moving the warm air across me and drying the sweat.
The young pickinini next door, about 4 years old, hates going to bed, he starts screaming about now every night, for about an hour, till he finally drops off to sleep. I see his father walking around cuddling him for ages, to no avail, as soon as they put him down he starts off again. The joys of close living. I think there are 7 kids next door, from the 2 girls about 16/17, the eldest son, Christopher, about 15, then a few assorted ages down to the 4 year old.
I’m giving the neighbours a mixed set of music today, they had Janis Joplin Essential Double CD, earlier, a bit of Neil Young, After the Gold Rush, now it’s Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense. Tomorrow it’s trance/reggaedub and techno with Salmonella Dub, The Nomad, and Pitch Black
As a side note, the Solomon Star had an article last week about the Prime Minister being shown around the Customs and Immigration section at Henderson Field. They had a large display set up of confiscated articles, in the prime position was a large collection of vibrators, sex toys etc, at which the PM expressed shock and horror that people would be trying to bring these in with them. No matter that they were for personal use, well duh, not for sale is what I meant, all found in peoples suitcases and carry on bags. So a word of caution, leave your toys behind when you visit here, it’s a Christian Patriarchal Society. Tampax applicators included.
I’ve some stuff to do tomorrow at work, so I’ll post this, photocopy everything I need for Monday, and go to the beach for the afternoon.
Woke up at 6am, sweaty, hot and feeling like I was inside an oven. The power went off sometime between the dogs barking at 3am and 6am so I had no water, or ceiling fans. Rainwater tank is full, no surprises, and the gas stove is fine for making coffee. It’s now 9am, and the power is back, I’ll have to wait a bit for the water to start, then I’ll clean up and go to the Kukum Market, then work for a few hours. It’s raining again, so there goes the beach idea for the day,
Thursday, March 19, 2009
19th March
It's still raining, and as I discovered when I got home, solar water heating doesn't when it rains like it has been here today. Warm water, certainly not hot, but never mind.
The river was well up this morning through the Gardens, high enough to run a canoe down, ok, it's not exactly white water, but good enough for a bit of fun. All I need to do now is find someone with a canoe I can beg, borrow or acquire. I'd settle for a inner tube even, there are a few small waterfalls on the way down through the Gardens.
Still working on the funding proposal, Will called in, took away what we had ready, I'm still waiting on replies from suppliers here. I'm still getting used to counting in very large sums when it comes to tools and equipment, a chainsaw that costs $2,000 in NZ is SBD$12,000, wheelbarrows are SBD$580 to SBD$800, you don't even bother asking about good quality tools, my Estwing hammer is SBD$780 here, the cheap flimsy almost plastic chinese ones are SBD$240.
I haven't got a lot of time to write more today, I'll work on more detail over the weekend.
The river was well up this morning through the Gardens, high enough to run a canoe down, ok, it's not exactly white water, but good enough for a bit of fun. All I need to do now is find someone with a canoe I can beg, borrow or acquire. I'd settle for a inner tube even, there are a few small waterfalls on the way down through the Gardens.
Still working on the funding proposal, Will called in, took away what we had ready, I'm still waiting on replies from suppliers here. I'm still getting used to counting in very large sums when it comes to tools and equipment, a chainsaw that costs $2,000 in NZ is SBD$12,000, wheelbarrows are SBD$580 to SBD$800, you don't even bother asking about good quality tools, my Estwing hammer is SBD$780 here, the cheap flimsy almost plastic chinese ones are SBD$240.
I haven't got a lot of time to write more today, I'll work on more detail over the weekend.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
18th March
I’ve nearly completed all the class work, the next 5 unit are all basic practical , maintaining amenity areas, planting trees shrubs, weed identification so that gives me a break from the classroom, and time to write up assessments and marking schedules.
We had 2 tourists visit today, about 3pm, Australians, who live in Penang. I tried to get one of the ladies to go over and talk to them, but no luck, so I gave them the guided tour around the Gardens, up the river walk etc. Had a really good discussion about what they saw, and their thoughts about Honiara now. They were here about 15 years ago, when it was described as the prettiest town in the Pacific. You’d have to be blind with no sense of smell to consider that now unfortunately. We’ll keep working on it.
8pm and it’s finally raining. I made some wholemeal rolls when I got home, well, pulled the starter dough out of the fridge, added a few cups of flour etc to it, gave it a quick stir and had dinner, then mixed it up. Yeast is temperamental stuff. It doesn’t like it when it’s about to rain, it seems to go on holiday and wait till it turns humid and sticky before waking up. I’m learning as I go.
Add thunder and lightning to the above, I wish I lived up on a ridge top, the lightning is spectacular over the islands off Honiara at times.
I had a few moments of doubt about all this over the weekend, I’ll have to stop thinking it will all happen quickly. As Eric advised me in Wellington, make a list of 5 things to do for the week, if one of them is done by Friday, you’ve had a good week, 2 things you’ve had a brilliant week, then take the weekend off and go fishing.
Someone walked up the river track overnight with a slasher or more likely a bush knife, and indiscriminately hacked the trees on the side of the track down, only small ones, but all filling in the spaces where a few of the dead palms and trees have been cleared out from. I counted 20 Delonix, 14 Caesalpinina, and small palms about 4’ to 6’ high all hacked. None of them were near the pathway, they had to go off the path to reach them. Idiots
It’s a long road at times I feel.
Will phoned this afternoon, he’s calling in tomorrow to pick up the list of equipment for the Japanese Grass Roots Agency Loan application, which I’ve looked at, started, and not completed. I need a 36 hour day, and an 8 day work week, with a 4 day weekend at times here
I’ll have to start urgently on training Tiffany and Shirlyeta so I can spend more time advising and less time doing. 6am to 6pm makes for a long day.
Our power is still being shut off at times with the #3 generator out of action. I was pricing equipment from Australia today, lost 3 emails, well, not lost, but saved one, lost 2 and don’t know if the others were sent or not till I can get back to work tomorrow and check. Our area goes off at 11am till 12.30, then from 2.45 to 3.45pm. Or close to those times. ½ an hour either side is normal. Today it went off at 2.30, still wasn’t back by 4.45 when I finally gave up waiting and went home
Other than that, another day in paradise, the weather stays warm, it rains often enough, and stuff grows.
We had 2 tourists visit today, about 3pm, Australians, who live in Penang. I tried to get one of the ladies to go over and talk to them, but no luck, so I gave them the guided tour around the Gardens, up the river walk etc. Had a really good discussion about what they saw, and their thoughts about Honiara now. They were here about 15 years ago, when it was described as the prettiest town in the Pacific. You’d have to be blind with no sense of smell to consider that now unfortunately. We’ll keep working on it.
8pm and it’s finally raining. I made some wholemeal rolls when I got home, well, pulled the starter dough out of the fridge, added a few cups of flour etc to it, gave it a quick stir and had dinner, then mixed it up. Yeast is temperamental stuff. It doesn’t like it when it’s about to rain, it seems to go on holiday and wait till it turns humid and sticky before waking up. I’m learning as I go.
Add thunder and lightning to the above, I wish I lived up on a ridge top, the lightning is spectacular over the islands off Honiara at times.
I had a few moments of doubt about all this over the weekend, I’ll have to stop thinking it will all happen quickly. As Eric advised me in Wellington, make a list of 5 things to do for the week, if one of them is done by Friday, you’ve had a good week, 2 things you’ve had a brilliant week, then take the weekend off and go fishing.
Someone walked up the river track overnight with a slasher or more likely a bush knife, and indiscriminately hacked the trees on the side of the track down, only small ones, but all filling in the spaces where a few of the dead palms and trees have been cleared out from. I counted 20 Delonix, 14 Caesalpinina, and small palms about 4’ to 6’ high all hacked. None of them were near the pathway, they had to go off the path to reach them. Idiots
It’s a long road at times I feel.
Will phoned this afternoon, he’s calling in tomorrow to pick up the list of equipment for the Japanese Grass Roots Agency Loan application, which I’ve looked at, started, and not completed. I need a 36 hour day, and an 8 day work week, with a 4 day weekend at times here
I’ll have to start urgently on training Tiffany and Shirlyeta so I can spend more time advising and less time doing. 6am to 6pm makes for a long day.
Our power is still being shut off at times with the #3 generator out of action. I was pricing equipment from Australia today, lost 3 emails, well, not lost, but saved one, lost 2 and don’t know if the others were sent or not till I can get back to work tomorrow and check. Our area goes off at 11am till 12.30, then from 2.45 to 3.45pm. Or close to those times. ½ an hour either side is normal. Today it went off at 2.30, still wasn’t back by 4.45 when I finally gave up waiting and went home
Other than that, another day in paradise, the weather stays warm, it rains often enough, and stuff grows.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
17th March
Happy Paddys Day! The funniest memory I have of Paddys day is arriving in Shannon Airport, and driving down to West Cork and getting caught up in every village St Pats Day Parade, then missing the turnoff at Millstreet and visiting Killarney briefly.
I think some of the tourist hotels may have something on, but I’ll give it a miss. I’m too far out of town to be driving late at night
Another day at the Memorial Gardens, about 60 trees grafted so far, most of them cleaned, we’ll take a break for a week, then I can go back and see if the grafts are going to take or not. A lot of lizards/skinks there, and bull ants. After the crew had lunch, rice and tuna, any rice dropped was soon surrounded by bull ants and carried up into the huge caesalpinia to a dead branch where they seem to have a thriving colony.
Adrian is away sick for a few days, as they say in toktok, Adrian hem belleran, diarrhoea in other words. I was trying to get everyone to turn up this morning with a toilet roll and give them to Adrian, but they don’t have the same sense of humour, well, not yet anyway. He’s also got epilepsy, and having belleran doesn’t let his medicine stay in his system long enough, plus he has lost a huge amount of fluid and salt, so he’s been falling over, can’t sit up without falling backwards or sideways. Hopefully he’ll be ok by the end of the week
It’s 8pm, I’m sweating like a fire hydrant, the air is heavy and humid, all day out in the sun at the Memorial Gardens and I’ve got a bit of sun on me.
Drank 2 fresh coconuts, Jennifer wandered over the road to the stalls, you buy green coconuts before the meat forms inside, cut the top off and it’s a great refreshing drink. $2 each, and the roadside stalls are always busy with stacks of coconuts peeled and ready, stacked like cannon balls
Then you crack them open and scrape the jelly out. No wonder I’m not losing weight.
Hi to MaryAnne staying with her family in Connecticut, take care and have a good time.
I only put that in to show I can spell Connecticut
And Libby having a fun time in Hawaii, Al the Florist in Illinois, murph in Franklin, and Tim and Marye in Martinez, Moira in Canada
Pic is of betel nut juice on some steps
Monday, March 16, 2009
15th/16th March
The power went out again, so I went into work, posted the previous, did a bit of work on the quarterly report, went to Kukum Market for the weeks shopping. I know I keep talking about the fish sellers, I really felt like fish for dinner, so I browsed all the bins, it’s got cheaper lately, down to $9lb, so not too bad. Picked out a good sized snapper, $45 worth, been cleaned and gutted as well, so not a lot of waste.
I’ll wait till I can go fishing I think, it was meant to be no more than a day old, and on ice. Not one of the best gastronomic experiences I’ve had. I’d say it was caught no earlier than last Friday, and the first time it saw ice was today at the market. Oh well, didn’t even bother cooking it, just dumped it in the trash bin. Once it thawed out from the ice, it was flabby, and the smell convinced me it was probably not a good thing to eat.
Pawpaw were a bit dearer, $5 to $7 today, coconuts still $0.50 and $1, although I bought a $2 one about twice the size of the $1 ones. Bok Choy was $5 a bundle, 5 small heads, and finally some ginger root, although $10 for a piece about 75mm long is a bit much but I bought it anyway, cucumber were $1 to $3. Bananas were still $10 for a big hand, about 20 on each. $5 for a large bunch of spring onions.
I’m getting better with opening coconuts, only one good crack with the back of the cleaver and they split in half now, no more bouncing over the floor when I drop them.
O2 Ireland sent me the unlock code, unfortunately, the button sequence to get the network settings to open don’t apply to the model I have, K300i, another email back to them. At this rate, it’ll be quicker to get one posted from NZ
Raining finally, it’s been humid with thunder since Friday, thick black clouds that just pass over Honiara without dropping anything.
Monday evening.
Got to work this morning, and one of our big banyan trees has been hacked for firewood. By the person who is in charge of the Herbarium, and lives next to the Nursery. I was not happy. Some rather irate emails have been sent out, I’ve got the work crew taking his nice new stack of firewood and feeding it all through the chipper. Then I’ll work on getting him evicted from the Gardens. I think my honeymoon period is over.
On a happier note, we spent all day at the Memorial Gardens, and what I was thinking could be a disaster turned into a great day. We’ve got 25 trees bridge grafted, about 50 cleaned, and everyone worked really well. Quick learners, I gave one demo of what I wanted, with the bridge grafts, and away they went. I usually have trouble getting Alphonse to stand up, let alone do anything, but today he was in his element. He and Sandy probably did 2/3 of the trees, Kennedy, Imelda and Rose the rest.
I’ll swap them around tomorrow, Willy and the other ladies were cleaning the glue off, so they can have a go at grafting tomorrow.
Picked my film up tonight, WARNING! Do not use transparencie (slide) film here. They look at it when you take it in, and you ask if they can develop it, then proceed to put it through with all the other negative film and ruin it. And get $122.50 upfront. And do not give refunds or apologies. Idiots.
36 pics of the class doing Unit related work, that I was going to use as Assessment proof, wasted and ruined.
I’ve been working on one pic, got it so you can see something, but it took me nearly 45 min playing with the colour balance, tone, hue and gamma levels.
I’m sending the other 2 rolls to NZ for developing, and I’ll post the name of the place here when I remember it. And tell them I’ve put it on the net as well.
Got my Sony phone working, managed to finally unlock it, it’s still a crappy phone, it was rubbish in Ireland, it hasn’t improved with age or change of countries. Talking to Rose today, she’s sent a Nokia over in the mail. Hopefully I’ll be able to hear people on the Nokia, I’ve never been able to hear anyone on the Sony. And yes, I do have the volume on it set as high as it will go, I get the Warning, Loud Volume Will Damage Your Hearing. As if I’m not already wearing hearing aids from 20 years as a boilermaker and welding.
Rode in the back of the stretch convertible after work to the Gardens tonight. All the Crew were going, “Warren ui sittem in cab” Blow that, I’m not some white sahib. As I keep telling them, I’m a nurseryman, you get the shitty stuff to do, and the good stuff, riding in the back of the truck in the rain is actually preferable to sitting in the cab and getting suffocated with the heat. And it’s more fun as well.
It’s 6.32pm, and the neighbours are listening to Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon. I try to vary their musical appreciation hour if I can. I’ll give them some early Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green later.
I’ve got 2 rolls of slide film of the crew grafting today, I’ll eventually use the pics for their assessment, and also do an article for the NZ Nurserymans Magazine. It may generate a bit of interest in NZ, and some of the crew may get there and work.It’s surprising how big football (soccer) is here. As I’ve found out, there are a lot of Solomon Island players in NZ teams, and Australian teams. Out by the airport, one of the stands has “Go Waitakere Go” painted on the tin, one of the Auckland teams that the local team is named after. I presume some of the local players do get there and play, even if just for a trial season. I’ll get to a local game once the season starts in the dry. From what Steve has said, it’s drums, shouts, dancers, disorganised mayhem, and if the local team win, the party carries on all night at the stadium. I may give that part a miss, it’s still a bit iffy here at night
Pic is off the roll of slide film processed by the chinese idiots in town, Susie and Sepa hand rubbing coconut fiber through our home made sieve
Saturday, March 14, 2009
14th March
I missed a few days posts, we’ve been having intermittent power cuts all week while the #3 generator is out of commission. The number of times I’ve had emails, blog post, downloading off the net, and the power goes out. I gave up trying in the end, plus it’s been slow uploading all week, again due to the power restrictions and cuts.
Still, better here than Makira, when they run out of petrol, the generators stop till the next boat arrives. And they only run a few hours each day, around midday, and for a couple of hours each evening.
Bruce and Gwen are settling in there, it’s a major change for both of them. Both School principals in NZ, this is a whole different experience for them both. From being very organised to an Island School in the remotest part of the Solomons.
The film processing place in Honiara can develop my ektachrome slides, $110 for 36 exposure, I’m hoping they don’t come back on Monday with a fingerprint in the middle of each shot. I’ll scan the good pics and post in here.
Finally got some of the big trees identified last week too. All Ficus sp. and in reading up about them, they are the original genus , or not very far away from the original genus/species type for this part of the Pacific. All the Ficus species between here, Fiji, Malaya, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, all come from the pachycaul genus originally growing here. Massive trees, smooth grey straight trunks with huge buttress roots. The fruit grow out of the trunk, on what I first thought were adventitious roots, but apparently they are fruiting spurs. Small rounded fruit, once I managed to get some and open them it was easily recognised as a Ficus, I’m still going through journals and textbooks hoping to find a species name. They look as though they are fertilised by ants, or small insects, only a small opening, some of the fruit I opened had tiny ants and winged insects climbing through the flowers. If they hadn’t released cats in Honiara, the endemic mammals would still be here, and probably eating the fruit and spreading the seed. Cats have wiped out at least 30 species of small mammals here in the past 50 years, and the bird life has suffered as well.
We’ve got approval to go ahead with the rescue plan for the Memorial Garden trees, cost is irrelevant, so I spent up large on a couple of chemical masks for the people using the white spirits to wash the glue off. It’s Tanglefoot Pest Barrier, probably a great product if applied properly, but in this case, it’s been a case of slap it on, throw the empty containers away and watch the trees slowly get strangled. It’s one of those jobs that I’m keen to do for the experience and grafting skills, but also a job I’m not looking forward to as well.
The Memorial Gardens are enclosed with a 2.5m tall thick hedge, only one entrance, no wind, bull ants, mosquitos, hot sun, and 150 trees to treat. We’ll be there for a week at least.
We’ve had more schools come through the Gardens this week, really good to see them using the Botanic Gardens, and now we are keeping a record of School visits, it will help with funding.
I’m slowly working on David to think about setting up a private outside business to do all the work outside the Gardens, it’ll take a year or so, and will make the SEB more of a contact point for work, rather than the only contractor. Plus it makes the crew independent, and not relying on outside aid agencies. A lot of work needed first though, it’s only 2 years since the fighting stopped here, and there is still a bit of tension around.
Got my VSA Security update yesterday from Steve, recommendations are not to venture out into Honiara at night, alone, or even with a group. Do not flaunt wealth, as in clothes, money etc, easy for me to do, I haven’t either, but you see the RAMSI and Consultants in town occasionally, spending up large in the hotels and restaurants. So the staff at those places see how much there is, gossip and toktok does the rest, and white faces are associated with easy money.
Visiting places close to Honiara can be a bit of a mixed bag of reactions, some of the Malaita Eagle Force people are still carrying a few grudges, the Guadacanal Revolution Army still want Honiara back, so you don’t take sides and grin and smile a lot.
I’m past the nightclub till dawn and then go to work age anyway, I’ll trade the night life for the early mornings and full days wandering through the Gardens and streams.
I’m having success with the washing machine, ok, still haven’t got the spin tub working, but the wash side works. It makes a mockery of handwashing, my board shorts have got the white patches again, and my muslin tops are back to the original colours again. The amount of grime you pick up here in a day is incredible. I wear a different top each day, (thanks to Mum for sewing frantically for 2 weeks before I left, making me a dozen shirts) and the first wash water goes that dark grey colour. 4 rinses later, it’s clear. Sum total of amount of washing for the week, 6 muslin shirts, 1 pair of board shorts, 1 double sheet. I’m not totally native yet, I slide the washer to the bathroom and empty it through the shower, it would be easier just to open the back door and let it go out the steps, I’ll wait till I do a night wash for that, not a good look
I’ve got used to the ceiling fan humming away all night in the bedroom, there’s not a lot of cooling from it, but it stops me sweating all night. And forget a top sheet, the house is fully screened so there’s no mosquitos get in, and all I like is a clean sheet to lay on, and pillows.
I’m re-writing the quarterly report for Tiffany this weekend, how the Course is going, work carried out, projects underway, where the money has been spent etc, for the Aid Funding agencies. I’d really like to think that in 2 years they won’t need the amount of Aid that comes in here, and more employment opportunities open up. But in reality, a Civil War, long standing inter-tribal conflicts, politicians who had more fingers in the pie than out of it all create a few problems that will take a while to sort out. The politicians were easily sorted, the people had an armed revolution, which lead to a Civil War, it was a very interesting time.
We finally got the 2 dead Metroxylon down on Friday. All I wanted was for the big one with all the seed cones not to fall into the lily pond.
I’m not going to mention anymore.
I spent a couple of muddy wet slimy hours hip deep picking seed cones out of the mud, lilies and water
Once they were gone, we found 3 small ones that had suckered from the base, so that was a bonus.
Close to 300 seed cones, Jennifer will have them planted out into a nursery bed on Monday
Another experiment day, I’m making wholemeal bagels. I’ll try boiling a couple, then try a couple in the wok steamer, then bake them in the oven, along with the wholemeal buns.
My most used utensil is my wok. I cook soup, stew, stirfry, rice, omelettes, curry in it, then use it as a mixing and proving bowl for bread and pastry. Highly versatile kitchen utensil.
The heat and humidity makes yeast think it is on steroids. What would normally take a couple of hours rise, is done in an hour, and second rise is about 45 min. I’m keeping back half the dough in the fridge for a starter for the next batch, it improves the flavour a lot.
I’m up to 48 pages in Word with this. By the time I leave it’ll be a book, it’ll come in handy for the next VSA volunteer here, all the little things I keep prattling on about that VSA don’t mention.
Later the same day, or, Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the bagels turned out ok, the steamed ones rose a lot more than the boiled ones, I’ll stick to that now, crusty outside and a chewy texture inside after 20 min baking. Very nice, 4 bread buns, 4 bagels, actually, only 2 of each, I had to do a quality control check with butter and honey. I’ve got 6 curry and rice spring rolls in the oven now, the supermarket was out of the pastry type wrappers, so I’m using the Vietnamese rice paper wrappers, they’re good, soak for a few seconds in cold water, then use. I’m using a double layer wrap, I learnt from past experience. Some chilli pappadoms, and some plain rice.
I’m helping the neighbours musical appreciation today, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana at quite a loud volume.
Still, better here than Makira, when they run out of petrol, the generators stop till the next boat arrives. And they only run a few hours each day, around midday, and for a couple of hours each evening.
Bruce and Gwen are settling in there, it’s a major change for both of them. Both School principals in NZ, this is a whole different experience for them both. From being very organised to an Island School in the remotest part of the Solomons.
The film processing place in Honiara can develop my ektachrome slides, $110 for 36 exposure, I’m hoping they don’t come back on Monday with a fingerprint in the middle of each shot. I’ll scan the good pics and post in here.
Finally got some of the big trees identified last week too. All Ficus sp. and in reading up about them, they are the original genus , or not very far away from the original genus/species type for this part of the Pacific. All the Ficus species between here, Fiji, Malaya, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, all come from the pachycaul genus originally growing here. Massive trees, smooth grey straight trunks with huge buttress roots. The fruit grow out of the trunk, on what I first thought were adventitious roots, but apparently they are fruiting spurs. Small rounded fruit, once I managed to get some and open them it was easily recognised as a Ficus, I’m still going through journals and textbooks hoping to find a species name. They look as though they are fertilised by ants, or small insects, only a small opening, some of the fruit I opened had tiny ants and winged insects climbing through the flowers. If they hadn’t released cats in Honiara, the endemic mammals would still be here, and probably eating the fruit and spreading the seed. Cats have wiped out at least 30 species of small mammals here in the past 50 years, and the bird life has suffered as well.
We’ve got approval to go ahead with the rescue plan for the Memorial Garden trees, cost is irrelevant, so I spent up large on a couple of chemical masks for the people using the white spirits to wash the glue off. It’s Tanglefoot Pest Barrier, probably a great product if applied properly, but in this case, it’s been a case of slap it on, throw the empty containers away and watch the trees slowly get strangled. It’s one of those jobs that I’m keen to do for the experience and grafting skills, but also a job I’m not looking forward to as well.
The Memorial Gardens are enclosed with a 2.5m tall thick hedge, only one entrance, no wind, bull ants, mosquitos, hot sun, and 150 trees to treat. We’ll be there for a week at least.
We’ve had more schools come through the Gardens this week, really good to see them using the Botanic Gardens, and now we are keeping a record of School visits, it will help with funding.
I’m slowly working on David to think about setting up a private outside business to do all the work outside the Gardens, it’ll take a year or so, and will make the SEB more of a contact point for work, rather than the only contractor. Plus it makes the crew independent, and not relying on outside aid agencies. A lot of work needed first though, it’s only 2 years since the fighting stopped here, and there is still a bit of tension around.
Got my VSA Security update yesterday from Steve, recommendations are not to venture out into Honiara at night, alone, or even with a group. Do not flaunt wealth, as in clothes, money etc, easy for me to do, I haven’t either, but you see the RAMSI and Consultants in town occasionally, spending up large in the hotels and restaurants. So the staff at those places see how much there is, gossip and toktok does the rest, and white faces are associated with easy money.
Visiting places close to Honiara can be a bit of a mixed bag of reactions, some of the Malaita Eagle Force people are still carrying a few grudges, the Guadacanal Revolution Army still want Honiara back, so you don’t take sides and grin and smile a lot.
I’m past the nightclub till dawn and then go to work age anyway, I’ll trade the night life for the early mornings and full days wandering through the Gardens and streams.
I’m having success with the washing machine, ok, still haven’t got the spin tub working, but the wash side works. It makes a mockery of handwashing, my board shorts have got the white patches again, and my muslin tops are back to the original colours again. The amount of grime you pick up here in a day is incredible. I wear a different top each day, (thanks to Mum for sewing frantically for 2 weeks before I left, making me a dozen shirts) and the first wash water goes that dark grey colour. 4 rinses later, it’s clear. Sum total of amount of washing for the week, 6 muslin shirts, 1 pair of board shorts, 1 double sheet. I’m not totally native yet, I slide the washer to the bathroom and empty it through the shower, it would be easier just to open the back door and let it go out the steps, I’ll wait till I do a night wash for that, not a good look
I’ve got used to the ceiling fan humming away all night in the bedroom, there’s not a lot of cooling from it, but it stops me sweating all night. And forget a top sheet, the house is fully screened so there’s no mosquitos get in, and all I like is a clean sheet to lay on, and pillows.
I’m re-writing the quarterly report for Tiffany this weekend, how the Course is going, work carried out, projects underway, where the money has been spent etc, for the Aid Funding agencies. I’d really like to think that in 2 years they won’t need the amount of Aid that comes in here, and more employment opportunities open up. But in reality, a Civil War, long standing inter-tribal conflicts, politicians who had more fingers in the pie than out of it all create a few problems that will take a while to sort out. The politicians were easily sorted, the people had an armed revolution, which lead to a Civil War, it was a very interesting time.
We finally got the 2 dead Metroxylon down on Friday. All I wanted was for the big one with all the seed cones not to fall into the lily pond.
I’m not going to mention anymore.
I spent a couple of muddy wet slimy hours hip deep picking seed cones out of the mud, lilies and water
Once they were gone, we found 3 small ones that had suckered from the base, so that was a bonus.
Close to 300 seed cones, Jennifer will have them planted out into a nursery bed on Monday
Another experiment day, I’m making wholemeal bagels. I’ll try boiling a couple, then try a couple in the wok steamer, then bake them in the oven, along with the wholemeal buns.
My most used utensil is my wok. I cook soup, stew, stirfry, rice, omelettes, curry in it, then use it as a mixing and proving bowl for bread and pastry. Highly versatile kitchen utensil.
The heat and humidity makes yeast think it is on steroids. What would normally take a couple of hours rise, is done in an hour, and second rise is about 45 min. I’m keeping back half the dough in the fridge for a starter for the next batch, it improves the flavour a lot.
I’m up to 48 pages in Word with this. By the time I leave it’ll be a book, it’ll come in handy for the next VSA volunteer here, all the little things I keep prattling on about that VSA don’t mention.
Later the same day, or, Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the bagels turned out ok, the steamed ones rose a lot more than the boiled ones, I’ll stick to that now, crusty outside and a chewy texture inside after 20 min baking. Very nice, 4 bread buns, 4 bagels, actually, only 2 of each, I had to do a quality control check with butter and honey. I’ve got 6 curry and rice spring rolls in the oven now, the supermarket was out of the pastry type wrappers, so I’m using the Vietnamese rice paper wrappers, they’re good, soak for a few seconds in cold water, then use. I’m using a double layer wrap, I learnt from past experience. Some chilli pappadoms, and some plain rice.
I’m helping the neighbours musical appreciation today, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana at quite a loud volume.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
11th March
Finally, first estimate for Heritage Hotel done, $354,600 just for the plants at the rear, without looking at the frontage. So much for their $100,000 allocation. Add labour costs into that, $500,000 easily.
That’s what happens here when things get left to the last minute. Everyone knows they need the plants, all my suppliers know I need them, so the prices have gone up. I’m paying $450 each for 2 metre coconut palms, and I need 150 for Heritage. They’ve been working on the site, or developing it now, for 5 years, 3 months to go before opening, “oh, that’s right, throw some plants around here please”
Musa, Carica, Cocos nucifera, grow like weeds here, and get chopped down mercilessly, until someone wants them, then you start negotiating $’s
I’m past caring actually, it’s been a headache dealing with Heritage, and my suppliers, and I’ve fallen behind with what I’m actually meant to be doing here
Talked over the possibility of getting the Botanic Gardens declared a National Heritage Area with Steve again today. I’m probably getting close to the boundary of my advisors role here, but given the Councils attitude towards the Gardens, the lack of co-operation, and the constant encroachment into the edges of the Gardens, I think it is the only way for the Botanic Gardens to have any real long term future. Steve is going ahead with arranging a meeting with the Minister for the Environment for next week
We’re having constant power cuts here this week, one of the 3 diesel generators that supply Honiara, hem bugarup, and the replacement is a week away coming from Japan. I went for another track walk through the Gardens for a couple of hours. Found more Cycas bougainvillea, they are supposed to be rare here. I keep tripping over the things now. Cycas circinalis are all in seed, Sago cycas, I’m hoping that the seed is viable, and we’ll propagate as many as possible.
Found a lot of dendrobium orchid flowers on the track, yellow brown speckled throat, they are so high up in the canopy, I’ll need one of the good tree climbers in the crew to go look for them. I can’t find it in any reference book yet, a few close to it, but not close enough to say for definite which variety. Considering there are an estimated 230+ varieties of Dendrobiums in the Solomons, and Bulbiferums, one that isn’t in any reference book isn’t unusual.
We had a Botanist from Germany here last year for 3 months, a year later, he still hasn’t finished cataloguing, naming or describing the plants within the Botanic gardens.
I’m constantly wandering through the tracks, plucking leaves, flowers, going through reference books, catching seed heads as they float down from the tops, a few of the trees I’ve managed to identify are classed as endangered in the wild, due to the logging that is being done in the Solomons and Bouganville, Papua New Guinea. Even more reason to have the Botanic Gardens declared a National Heritage Area.
We’ve got the post barrier erected across the lawn edge. Cut the trees from the Nursery into 800mm sections, about 350mm diameter, and buried 400mm deep.
It was only acacia, but heavy!. 2 person lift for each section, once it was on your shoulder, ok, you could walk with it, but you didn’t want to be dropping it.
And of course, no one came and tried to drive up on the grass. I was hoping to catch someone, I’ll wait.
The swimming hole restoration is progressing well. 2 more layers of tyres and it will be up to the ground level, and finished, then we start on the dam reconstruction. So far we’ve had a few floods down the river without losing any tyres, so the steel pins are working, with the double tyres tied in behind and back filled with river gravel. The crew working on it are happy, now they want to see if my idea of sloping the dam wall back will work, instead of a barrier.
My work permit finally got approved today, so I’m here working legally now. My job description on it reads,’Advisory Position Botanic Gardens” so I’m having fun with Tiffany and Shirleyta over what I do from now on. I’m going to scan it into OCR tomorrow night and re-word it so it reads, “Studying ecological systems and impact on offshore reef structure” as my excuse to get 3 days a week out fishing.
Having seen hardly any geckos for a week, there are now 7 inside here with me tonight. There’s a small 50mm one doing laps up and down the door frame, up one side, across, down, then it runs across the floor, and climbs back up. 3 or 4 times since I first noticed it tonight.
Arrrgh, it’s 10.30pm, I spent 3 ½ hours tonight writing up the Heritage estimate, I’ve spent close to 35 hours outside of work on it, no wonder I’m sick of it.
I’ve been here a month now, and only been once to the beach. When Rosalee gets here, I’m taking a long weekend and we’ll go to Savo Island resort for 3 days. Or 4
That’s what happens here when things get left to the last minute. Everyone knows they need the plants, all my suppliers know I need them, so the prices have gone up. I’m paying $450 each for 2 metre coconut palms, and I need 150 for Heritage. They’ve been working on the site, or developing it now, for 5 years, 3 months to go before opening, “oh, that’s right, throw some plants around here please”
Musa, Carica, Cocos nucifera, grow like weeds here, and get chopped down mercilessly, until someone wants them, then you start negotiating $’s
I’m past caring actually, it’s been a headache dealing with Heritage, and my suppliers, and I’ve fallen behind with what I’m actually meant to be doing here
Talked over the possibility of getting the Botanic Gardens declared a National Heritage Area with Steve again today. I’m probably getting close to the boundary of my advisors role here, but given the Councils attitude towards the Gardens, the lack of co-operation, and the constant encroachment into the edges of the Gardens, I think it is the only way for the Botanic Gardens to have any real long term future. Steve is going ahead with arranging a meeting with the Minister for the Environment for next week
We’re having constant power cuts here this week, one of the 3 diesel generators that supply Honiara, hem bugarup, and the replacement is a week away coming from Japan. I went for another track walk through the Gardens for a couple of hours. Found more Cycas bougainvillea, they are supposed to be rare here. I keep tripping over the things now. Cycas circinalis are all in seed, Sago cycas, I’m hoping that the seed is viable, and we’ll propagate as many as possible.
Found a lot of dendrobium orchid flowers on the track, yellow brown speckled throat, they are so high up in the canopy, I’ll need one of the good tree climbers in the crew to go look for them. I can’t find it in any reference book yet, a few close to it, but not close enough to say for definite which variety. Considering there are an estimated 230+ varieties of Dendrobiums in the Solomons, and Bulbiferums, one that isn’t in any reference book isn’t unusual.
We had a Botanist from Germany here last year for 3 months, a year later, he still hasn’t finished cataloguing, naming or describing the plants within the Botanic gardens.
I’m constantly wandering through the tracks, plucking leaves, flowers, going through reference books, catching seed heads as they float down from the tops, a few of the trees I’ve managed to identify are classed as endangered in the wild, due to the logging that is being done in the Solomons and Bouganville, Papua New Guinea. Even more reason to have the Botanic Gardens declared a National Heritage Area.
We’ve got the post barrier erected across the lawn edge. Cut the trees from the Nursery into 800mm sections, about 350mm diameter, and buried 400mm deep.
It was only acacia, but heavy!. 2 person lift for each section, once it was on your shoulder, ok, you could walk with it, but you didn’t want to be dropping it.
And of course, no one came and tried to drive up on the grass. I was hoping to catch someone, I’ll wait.
The swimming hole restoration is progressing well. 2 more layers of tyres and it will be up to the ground level, and finished, then we start on the dam reconstruction. So far we’ve had a few floods down the river without losing any tyres, so the steel pins are working, with the double tyres tied in behind and back filled with river gravel. The crew working on it are happy, now they want to see if my idea of sloping the dam wall back will work, instead of a barrier.
My work permit finally got approved today, so I’m here working legally now. My job description on it reads,’Advisory Position Botanic Gardens” so I’m having fun with Tiffany and Shirleyta over what I do from now on. I’m going to scan it into OCR tomorrow night and re-word it so it reads, “Studying ecological systems and impact on offshore reef structure” as my excuse to get 3 days a week out fishing.
Having seen hardly any geckos for a week, there are now 7 inside here with me tonight. There’s a small 50mm one doing laps up and down the door frame, up one side, across, down, then it runs across the floor, and climbs back up. 3 or 4 times since I first noticed it tonight.
Arrrgh, it’s 10.30pm, I spent 3 ½ hours tonight writing up the Heritage estimate, I’ve spent close to 35 hours outside of work on it, no wonder I’m sick of it.
I’ve been here a month now, and only been once to the beach. When Rosalee gets here, I’m taking a long weekend and we’ll go to Savo Island resort for 3 days. Or 4
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
10th March
Spent the morning with Adrian. He’s Australian. From Queensland. His work method with the crew is to shout, if they don’t understand, he shouts louder.
I’m not impressed. After 4 hours with him, I felt exhausted. Everything here gets done at a pace that doesn’t suit him, the heat and humidity have a lot of influence, you don’t run here, especially in the middle of the day or afternoon, and even more so when you’re wearing overalls, work boots and working in the middle of a tarseal road with traffic, and no shade. He has or seems to have no regard for the crew taking a few minutes off to grab a quick rest under some shade when they’re doing the median strips, or the garden edgings in town. Add in the constant “Don’t do anything unless I tell you” commands, I’m fighting an uphill battle if I hope to get most of the crew to be self sufficient and working for themselves in 2 years.
I’m still working on the Heritage Hotel landscape plan. It’s a nightmare of a thing. We needed a years notice to bulk up plants, now I’m having to source good size specimens from another Kastom Nursery west of Honiara, who have Native land title, and pull the plants out of the bush, and charge accordingly. $450 and up for 1.8 – 2.4 metre palms and trees. Keithie isn’t impressed, she doesn’t want me dealing with them, or more to the point, she doesn’t want the other nursery getting any of the income.
I’m working on it till this Friday, submitting my plans, sketches, prices, and letting it go. I’m falling behind in what I’m meant to be doing, with the Gardens and the Nursery here.
Steve called in today, well, late this afternoon. I’ve finally got covers for the foam squabs for the chairs and 2 seater wooden couch. He’s had them sitting at his house for a month, after getting cleaned.
I’ve found what to use to clean the trees up in the Memorial Gardens, white spirit, or paint thinners. It’s going to be interesting, we’ll have to wash the thinners off the trees with detergent, and lots of water, before we can start grafting. The heat will be evaporating the thinners quickly, so I’m picking there will be a few dizzy people with me there. The ant barrier glue was meant to have been applied over a separate plastic or builders felt layer, to allow the tree to grow. An expensive lesson for all. But good grafting practise for the students.
Steve is setting up a meeting with the Minister for the Environment later in the week, or early next week for me. It is frustrating trying to get answers and decisions about the Gardens with so many different groups involved. The Honiara Council have title, the Forestry Commission are meant to be overseeing, the SEB are the ones taking care on a voluntary basis. The Council don’t want to know, we’re just a bunch of tree hugging lentil munching hippies as far as they are concerned, the Forestry Commission would love to clear fell the entire Gardens, after which the Council could put houses on the land. I’ll try to convince the Minister to have the Botanic Gardens put into Government ownership, we may not get any money from it, but it will solve the disputes and ambiguity.
It’s a bit like making an omelette, you have to beak a few eggs to get something good.
I had 2 hours with XXXXXXX and XXXXXXX, I’m not going to be able to put up with the patronising attitude for long. It’s almost as though they can’t accept that “these people” may have different aspirations, or abilities and may have different ways of working things out, or have other ideas about what they want.
Adrian wants me to go to the Yacht Club with him and meet the “important” people in town. I’m putting it off as much as I can, from what he’s said, they are the people who have “the white mans burden” attitude to the people I work with. After a couple of drinks I’m just as liable to start making a few remarks of my own.
It’s going to be funny reading back over this in a year or so, looking back at the problems that are here now, and I’m wondering what it will look like further along the track.
Planted out my silverbeet, chillies tonight in the rain, I got soaked coming in from the truck to the house, so carried on and dug over a new patch of soil, cleared the grass off, broke the soil up, and planted 10 of each.
Everything else is growing well, a bit leggy, I may have to try a new place, although I’ve not got a lot of ground to choose from. The mango trees shade everywhere, it’s a choice between fresh mangoes, and sunlight. Still, better than not being able to plant anything and having to wait for warm weather.
Pic is of a Delonix regia with a Carallia brachiata growing through
Monday, March 9, 2009
9th March
Here’s a bit of a geography lesson. The Solomon Islands consist of 9 provinces, with a land area of 28083.646 sq Kms. Total area governed by the Solomon Island Government is over 400,000sq kms in size, sea and land area.
The provinces from West to East are Western, which butts up against the eastern side of Bouganville, Choiseul, slightly to the north of Western Province, Ysabel, or Isabel, to the north of Central Province, Guadacanal, south of Central, Rennel and Bellona south of Guadacanal, Malaita to the east of Central and Ysabel, Makira/Ulawa to the east and south of Guadacanal, and Temotu, about 400kms to the east of Makira/Ulawa
Each Island group has its’ own culture, language, some have several languages, flora and fauna. Some are volcanic in origin, some are coral based atolls. The people themselves all have different appearances, Malaitans have dark skins, blonde or reddish hair, very easy to tell where they come from, other island groups have coal black skins, asian features, or Polynesian in appearance. I’m working on recognition. Guadacanal, where I am based is a mix of coral reefs uplifted by earthquakes on the northern side, and volcanic rock on the southern side. Savu Island about a 45 min canoe ride north of Honiara is an active volcanic island, the Savu Island resort, the cheapest in the Solomons, offers a 45 min walk to the lower crater, or a 3 hour trek to the top of the main crater, where you have the dubious pleasure of standing inside an active volcano.
Despite all the languages, toktok pijin is spoken throughout the islands, and in most provinces there will be people who can speak english
Savu Island also has the Megapode bird, a bit like a bantam with long crow like feet, which buries its eggs in the hot sand, and lets the volcano do the incubating.
I’m hoping during the next two years to visit every province, as part of the Botanic Gardens upgrade, to gather endemic plants to propagate and plant in the Gardens.
David is out of hospital finally, his arm will be several weeks, if not months before he is able to use it fully. We had a very good talk together this morning, what he would like for the Gardens to do or be, what I would like to see happen. What I’ve learnt in the past few weeks here, is there may be a lot of talking done, but it is always going towards a conclusion. I’ve been making decisions more or less on my own, to get things started, luckily, they have been in line with what David sees as the Botanic Gardens eventual place in the Solomons.
We both agree that the Nursery needs to be expanded, upgraded, and improved, and more staff training over the next 2 years. I feel better having made those decisions without consultation that they have been in line with what everyone wants to see happen as well.
I think I surprised him with some of the things I mentioned, and how I speak of the Gardens as being **ours**. While we were talking outside, a local drove up, and over onto the lawn area by the stream, in a 4WD, and ate lunch, then dropped the takeaway cartons out of the truck window into the stream. I got to them before they floated away, and had great pleasure in putting them back into the truck while the woman was reversing out over MY lawn, and telling her not to park on OUR lawn, and not to drop her rubbish in MY Gardens. David was laughing so much by the time I got back to him, he took a few minutes to catch up again. We’re putting a post and rail low fence around the parking area this week, using the trees we cut out of the Nursery for the posts and cutting rails as well.
Something that really annoyed me last Friday at the Memorial Gardens, and it’s taken me all weekend to be able to put it in a way David understood, when the tourists arrive there, every wood and stone carver on Guadacanal arrives, sets up their blankets and carvings on the footpath inside the garden, then starts pestering the tourists with **Hello, you like to Buy**
Most of the tourists on Friday were either American or Australian, in their late 60’s, and from the ones I spoke to, were at the Memorial Garden to remember uncles, elder brothers, or just because they had served at a later time in the US Marines or Navy, and wanted to remember various Units that had served on Guadacanal in WW2. The trees there have plaques denoting different Marine Units, Ships, Air force, individuals, who served and died on Guadacanal, all donated by different people and Services Units.
I explained to David that in our eyes, the Memorial Gardens were a Sacred Site, a place for Remembrance, and peace, and to have traders pestering people to buy carvings detracted from it. I used the Tabu Sites here in the Solomons as an example, how would he feel if I went to a Solomon Island Sacred Site, and set up a stall selling whatever I could find?
We’re getting signage made, and the traders will be allowed to sell there, but only on the road verge outside the Memorial Garden, not inside
Small steps, but I think important ones.
I walked over the ridge track to the Kastom Village today, we had a power cut at work again, so I had some time to fill in. Met John, the Village Chief, explained who I was, and that we were starting to get the tourist cruise ships back, and he is calling a village meeting tomorrow, and all the village will be upgraded and spruced up over the next few weeks. Once I get another camera I’ll get pics. The Kastom Village is a small group of people who fled into the Botanic Gardens during the troubles, all from different provinces, and built typical province houses like the ones I’ve been posting.
When my predecessor Eric found them, they’d been living quite happily there for a few years, with no-one being any wiser. Instead of evicting them, Eric hammered out a co-operative deal with the Council, Forestry, Botanic Gardens Trust, and the villagers, so they could stay, on the condition that the houses be retained in Kastom Style, no charge would be made on any tourists coming through, and the villagers themselves were made honorary park rangers, and took responsibility to keep the village area clean, tidy. I was pleased when I got there, it looks like an idyllic setting, river and waterfalls, gardens, some of the houses are a bit tatty, but as I found out, several families have returned to their home province, and there are only 21 people living there now. Chief John will get the area tidied up, house thatch redone, in time I hope for the next cruise ship.
Class today was easy, we went over grafting once more, then I put my 2 volume set of Flora out on the bench, and said they could all have a browse through them. 6 people clustered around each volume, turning the pages one by one, and talking constantly. They would have been there all day if I’d let them. Whenever they found a plant they knew from here, there was a collective gasp, that one of their plants was in the book.
I found some tree geckos in the forest, a lot of lizards, or skinks, there are cuscus living in there, but we think they may have been poached out, no one has seen any for some time. Also, there is a snake living around the lily pond, no doubt eating quite well off the frogs there. I asked if it was a poisonous one, but the only description I got was that it was a Lazy Snake, it rarely moves much in daytime, and the crew know it is there, so work around it when they come across it. There are green tree snakes in the forest, but I’m thinking they will be high up where the bird and animal life is, rather than down at ground level.
Our compost heap from last week is heating up very well, there was a thick cloud of steam coming off it this morning, and it is too hot to put your hand into it very far.
I have chilli, silverbeet, tomatoes to plant out this weekend, my beans, zucchini and cucumber are growing well. Scattered some coriander and capsicum seeds in as well to try.
The provinces from West to East are Western, which butts up against the eastern side of Bouganville, Choiseul, slightly to the north of Western Province, Ysabel, or Isabel, to the north of Central Province, Guadacanal, south of Central, Rennel and Bellona south of Guadacanal, Malaita to the east of Central and Ysabel, Makira/Ulawa to the east and south of Guadacanal, and Temotu, about 400kms to the east of Makira/Ulawa
Each Island group has its’ own culture, language, some have several languages, flora and fauna. Some are volcanic in origin, some are coral based atolls. The people themselves all have different appearances, Malaitans have dark skins, blonde or reddish hair, very easy to tell where they come from, other island groups have coal black skins, asian features, or Polynesian in appearance. I’m working on recognition. Guadacanal, where I am based is a mix of coral reefs uplifted by earthquakes on the northern side, and volcanic rock on the southern side. Savu Island about a 45 min canoe ride north of Honiara is an active volcanic island, the Savu Island resort, the cheapest in the Solomons, offers a 45 min walk to the lower crater, or a 3 hour trek to the top of the main crater, where you have the dubious pleasure of standing inside an active volcano.
Despite all the languages, toktok pijin is spoken throughout the islands, and in most provinces there will be people who can speak english
Savu Island also has the Megapode bird, a bit like a bantam with long crow like feet, which buries its eggs in the hot sand, and lets the volcano do the incubating.
I’m hoping during the next two years to visit every province, as part of the Botanic Gardens upgrade, to gather endemic plants to propagate and plant in the Gardens.
David is out of hospital finally, his arm will be several weeks, if not months before he is able to use it fully. We had a very good talk together this morning, what he would like for the Gardens to do or be, what I would like to see happen. What I’ve learnt in the past few weeks here, is there may be a lot of talking done, but it is always going towards a conclusion. I’ve been making decisions more or less on my own, to get things started, luckily, they have been in line with what David sees as the Botanic Gardens eventual place in the Solomons.
We both agree that the Nursery needs to be expanded, upgraded, and improved, and more staff training over the next 2 years. I feel better having made those decisions without consultation that they have been in line with what everyone wants to see happen as well.
I think I surprised him with some of the things I mentioned, and how I speak of the Gardens as being **ours**. While we were talking outside, a local drove up, and over onto the lawn area by the stream, in a 4WD, and ate lunch, then dropped the takeaway cartons out of the truck window into the stream. I got to them before they floated away, and had great pleasure in putting them back into the truck while the woman was reversing out over MY lawn, and telling her not to park on OUR lawn, and not to drop her rubbish in MY Gardens. David was laughing so much by the time I got back to him, he took a few minutes to catch up again. We’re putting a post and rail low fence around the parking area this week, using the trees we cut out of the Nursery for the posts and cutting rails as well.
Something that really annoyed me last Friday at the Memorial Gardens, and it’s taken me all weekend to be able to put it in a way David understood, when the tourists arrive there, every wood and stone carver on Guadacanal arrives, sets up their blankets and carvings on the footpath inside the garden, then starts pestering the tourists with **Hello, you like to Buy**
Most of the tourists on Friday were either American or Australian, in their late 60’s, and from the ones I spoke to, were at the Memorial Garden to remember uncles, elder brothers, or just because they had served at a later time in the US Marines or Navy, and wanted to remember various Units that had served on Guadacanal in WW2. The trees there have plaques denoting different Marine Units, Ships, Air force, individuals, who served and died on Guadacanal, all donated by different people and Services Units.
I explained to David that in our eyes, the Memorial Gardens were a Sacred Site, a place for Remembrance, and peace, and to have traders pestering people to buy carvings detracted from it. I used the Tabu Sites here in the Solomons as an example, how would he feel if I went to a Solomon Island Sacred Site, and set up a stall selling whatever I could find?
We’re getting signage made, and the traders will be allowed to sell there, but only on the road verge outside the Memorial Garden, not inside
Small steps, but I think important ones.
I walked over the ridge track to the Kastom Village today, we had a power cut at work again, so I had some time to fill in. Met John, the Village Chief, explained who I was, and that we were starting to get the tourist cruise ships back, and he is calling a village meeting tomorrow, and all the village will be upgraded and spruced up over the next few weeks. Once I get another camera I’ll get pics. The Kastom Village is a small group of people who fled into the Botanic Gardens during the troubles, all from different provinces, and built typical province houses like the ones I’ve been posting.
When my predecessor Eric found them, they’d been living quite happily there for a few years, with no-one being any wiser. Instead of evicting them, Eric hammered out a co-operative deal with the Council, Forestry, Botanic Gardens Trust, and the villagers, so they could stay, on the condition that the houses be retained in Kastom Style, no charge would be made on any tourists coming through, and the villagers themselves were made honorary park rangers, and took responsibility to keep the village area clean, tidy. I was pleased when I got there, it looks like an idyllic setting, river and waterfalls, gardens, some of the houses are a bit tatty, but as I found out, several families have returned to their home province, and there are only 21 people living there now. Chief John will get the area tidied up, house thatch redone, in time I hope for the next cruise ship.
Class today was easy, we went over grafting once more, then I put my 2 volume set of Flora out on the bench, and said they could all have a browse through them. 6 people clustered around each volume, turning the pages one by one, and talking constantly. They would have been there all day if I’d let them. Whenever they found a plant they knew from here, there was a collective gasp, that one of their plants was in the book.
I found some tree geckos in the forest, a lot of lizards, or skinks, there are cuscus living in there, but we think they may have been poached out, no one has seen any for some time. Also, there is a snake living around the lily pond, no doubt eating quite well off the frogs there. I asked if it was a poisonous one, but the only description I got was that it was a Lazy Snake, it rarely moves much in daytime, and the crew know it is there, so work around it when they come across it. There are green tree snakes in the forest, but I’m thinking they will be high up where the bird and animal life is, rather than down at ground level.
Our compost heap from last week is heating up very well, there was a thick cloud of steam coming off it this morning, and it is too hot to put your hand into it very far.
I have chilli, silverbeet, tomatoes to plant out this weekend, my beans, zucchini and cucumber are growing well. Scattered some coriander and capsicum seeds in as well to try.
Pic is a house from Western Province.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
8th March
I didn’t get away this weekend, spent Saturday morning at Heritage Hotel measuring the areas for planting, over 500 metres of paths to be edge and bulk planted. There’s no way we’ll have enough plants ready for June, if we’d had some warning, we could have been bulking up stock a year ago, but to propagate, transplant, sufficient stock in 3 months?
Add in the mature palms and trees they want for bits and pieces around the pool area, it’s going to be expensive if we have to get them from the bush farms.
We’ve got Adrian back with us. His wife works for RAMSI, he’s Australian. He’s a freebie volunteer, we got him because his wife is a friend of Keithies, and they thought he’d be useful at the Gardens. I’ve got him involved looking after the Rove Prison Training. A good few months there will be good for him, and us
It’s been one of those weekends when nothing seems to get done. Lost electricity yesterday afternoon till nearly 8pm, then had the usual water problem, and again today for most of the day.
The people up the top of me, seem to be woodcarvers. They started hammering away Friday afternoon, inside the house, so it echoes around the neighbourhood, till midnight Friday, then started again 9am Saturday morning, till 11pm, I finally went up there at 11pm, and asked them if they could possibly leave it till daytime. Lot’s of embarrassed grins and “Sori, sori, sori” Nice people, but just getting carried away with the creative spirit
I’ve decided that buying fish is a real haphazard process here, other than going to the shops in Honiara that charge considerably more for the privilege. It’s close to 30C all the time, today feels like 90% humidity, clothes just go limp in minutes, and the fish at Kukum Market are out on tables with a basic shade screen, and people waving sticks with rags keeping the flies moving. I really felt like a good feed of fish, but changed my mind. It’s a pity, some of the tuna and kingfish are a really good size, and probably looked really good several hours ago, before they sat in the sun all day.
None of the fish are cleaned, gilled or gutted, so you buy the whole fish, then have to clean it. It would be ok, if they’d been kept cold on ice, but in the bottom of a canoe, then on a table in the sun?
I’ve got lesson plans to write up for this week, and I’ll try to have at least 2 assessments ready for them by Friday.
I didn’t get away this weekend, spent Saturday morning at Heritage Hotel measuring the areas for planting, over 500 metres of paths to be edge and bulk planted. There’s no way we’ll have enough plants ready for June, if we’d had some warning, we could have been bulking up stock a year ago, but to propagate, transplant, sufficient stock in 3 months?
Add in the mature palms and trees they want for bits and pieces around the pool area, it’s going to be expensive if we have to get them from the bush farms.
We’ve got Adrian back with us. His wife works for RAMSI, he’s Australian. He’s a freebie volunteer, we got him because his wife is a friend of Keithies, and they thought he’d be useful at the Gardens. I’ve got him involved looking after the Rove Prison Training. A good few months there will be good for him, and us
It’s been one of those weekends when nothing seems to get done. Lost electricity yesterday afternoon till nearly 8pm, then had the usual water problem, and again today for most of the day.
The people up the top of me, seem to be woodcarvers. They started hammering away Friday afternoon, inside the house, so it echoes around the neighbourhood, till midnight Friday, then started again 9am Saturday morning, till 11pm, I finally went up there at 11pm, and asked them if they could possibly leave it till daytime. Lot’s of embarrassed grins and “Sori, sori, sori” Nice people, but just getting carried away with the creative spirit
I’ve decided that buying fish is a real haphazard process here, other than going to the shops in Honiara that charge considerably more for the privilege. It’s close to 30C all the time, today feels like 90% humidity, clothes just go limp in minutes, and the fish at Kukum Market are out on tables with a basic shade screen, and people waving sticks with rags keeping the flies moving. I really felt like a good feed of fish, but changed my mind. It’s a pity, some of the tuna and kingfish are a really good size, and probably looked really good several hours ago, before they sat in the sun all day.
None of the fish are cleaned, gilled or gutted, so you buy the whole fish, then have to clean it. It would be ok, if they’d been kept cold on ice, but in the bottom of a canoe, then on a table in the sun?
I’ve got lesson plans to write up for this week, and I’ll try to have at least 2 assessments ready for them by Friday.
Pic is of the Museum Grounds and the Kastom Houses
Thursday, March 5, 2009
6th March
I’m a bit like Sam Vimes*, when I hear the phrase **these people** I start looking for sharp bladed objects. No names, I had to put up with closed lips for a while this morning while someone who probably doesn’t know any better talked about everyone I work with. Or more likely, doesn’t want to know any better.
I’ve had no trouble getting anyone at work to do stuff, there is a bit of male/female bias, I mentioned it a few days back, where the women do the majority of the work, the men do just sit around expecting to be waited on, I’ve got one or two men doing the course that I’m working on about that, but I’ll do it my way. I won’t be told that **these people** only work if you shout at them and you have to watch them all the time. Bit like Dwarves, the little buggers are everywhere, and you never see their women. Shiftless lazy lot, working all day and night, quaffing** and fighting all the time.
Yesterday was chaotic, the class in the morning was fun, we did grafting, using branches from a few hibiscus that were cut out, Sandy constantly amazes me. He never says much, he watches, listens, reads my propagation manual, then just goes and does beautiful grafts and splice grafts. Then comes up after class at lunchtime with questions that are so far above a Level 2 certificate. I need more gardening magazines, horticulture books, anything to do with gardening! Everyone here is so hungry for learning.
Wills called in after lunch. He’s one of the people here that work with Aid agencies writing up Funding proposals, to be submitted to the different countries and organizations that provide aid here. He can write sentences like
**It is envisaged that the positive outcomes derived from the input of capital will enable the indigenous people to determine and ascertain independence, and that the infrastructure of the governing bodies will enable all stakeholders to be active participants in determining positive and ongoing future developments that will ensure equality without race or gender affecting the ideal predetermined input and outcomes that will provide for employment opportunities available to every stakeholder.**
I just wrote that and I haven’t a clue what it means either, but it looks good on the proposals, and the UN and Euro Aid, etc all love it.
I’d have written,
**Give us some money so we can get organised and get everyone working, and stop bloody well interfering**
Anyway, I had to write up my wish list for the Nursery by tomorrow, with reasons for purchase and how I thought the equipment would increase both the ability of the Nursery to produce plants efficiently, and also how the equipment would give more skills and work opportunities to everyone here.
It was fairly brief, 4 pages of explanation about what we have now, with the ladies hand rubbing coconut husk through a hand sieve as an example, and how a heavy duty mulcher would speed the process up, and also help remove waste from the Honiara township.
Then a page of equipment, from mulchers, to water systems, pumps, hand tools, training manuals and educational aides.
So about 1am this morning I had it finally edited and printed out.
2pm we had King George VI School 6th form students arrive for a guided tour of the gardens, emphasis on the ecology, preservation, native plants, rain forest habitat. 40 of them, all with a list of questions they wanted answering. I was pleased to get away from them at 4pm, not that they were a nuisance, but my head was spinning with having to think so fast about everything they asked.
Thursday
We finally got our compost made today. About 2 cu. metres of it, layers of wood chippings, with chicken manure in between. I worked with the ladies for the morning, they’re a lot more fun to work with anyway, always laughing and working steadily. We had to bag the wood chips, and carry them a few metres to where we made the heap, still no wheelbarrow, they worked steadily at the heap with rakes and shovels, carried the bags over, I got the easy bit, shovelling chicken manure between the layers with Jennifer and Doris.
I had the men down the river, digging out river gravel and spreading it around the pathways in the Nursery, so we won’t be walking in mud when it rains.
There is a War Memorial Garden by Henderson Field Airport that we are responsible for. About 250 Carallia brachiata trees, beautiful trees, they grow straight with weeping branches.
About a year ago someone got the idea to try to prevent the bull ants that are everywhere here from getting into the trees, and they obtained some form of tar/glue that is meant to deter ants. I haven’t been able to find what yet, or even the tins of it, but it is constricting the tree trunks, and has killed 26 trees so far in the Garden, some are surviving by growing adventitious roots out above the glue, others have inarched over the glue. I’m trying to find out how to either wash it off, which is the ideal solution, or else I’ll be there with the students cutting branches and they can practise inarch grafting on about 100 trees.
If it works well and good, if it doesn’t the trees will die anway.
Shirleyta at work, her brother is looking after one of the numerous cousins boat, while the cousin is working in Australia, and she is trying to find out when they can organise a fishing trip. I am definitely going to Turtle Beach this weekend, probably Sunday, shopping Sat, and Kukum Market on my way home Sunday.
I might not catch anything, but it looks better to be sitting there with a fishing rod, than just staring out over the water, and gives me something to do, I have a very low boredom threshold.
*Sam Vimes, read Night Watch, or Men at Arms, Guards Guards, from the Discworld series, Terry Pratchett is a brilliant writer
** Quaffing is like swilling, but you spill more.
Pic is the USA War Memorial Skyline Drive
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
5th March
My apologies, I was up till 1am this morning writing up a funding and equipment list to be presented to the Japanese Grass Roots Agency.
And now I'm at work and out of time to write anything
I'll catch up tonight.
And now I'm at work and out of time to write anything
I'll catch up tonight.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
3rd March
I had one of the most pleasant surprises today at work. Annie arrived and gave me a necklace of Malaitan shell bead money as a present. Brown shells, with red and white bands. One of the nicest presents I’ve had in a long time. I’ll have to try harder with the classes, even more incentive to do the best I can for everyone here.
Heritage Hotels have got a ridiculous figure allocated for the landscaping, under $100,000 Solomon, about $20,000 Australian. I’ve done landscaping in Australia that cost that much just for a house, let alone a 3 acre hotel site. Oh well, I’ll have to really sell my ideas to them. If I can make it sound good, there will be more money allocated. I’m basing the general garden area on $50 per running metre for the fill plants, Helliconia, Ginger etc, each Hibiscus will be $75, palms that we have, oil palms mainly for a quick fill, about $90 each, and the larger ones up to $500. All in Solomon Dollars.
I’m going to put some pawpaw and breadfruit trees as well, if I can source pineapple plants to go in, even better. If people are staying here, they’ll see how lush everything is, and I know if they see pawpaw growing outside their room, that is one of the things they will remember.
I’ve had a couple of people that read this ask if there is anything I’d like sent, no doubt from my bit of a bitch session about the quality of stuff here. I personally don’t need anything. My sis is coming up in April, hopefully with a replacement camera and a few bits and pieces, so I’m perfectly happy.
What we do need is a good heavy duty petrol driven garden mulcher, to chop up the coconut husks. If your Church or Returned Services Branch, I don’t know what the equivalent is in America, ex marines and ex-navy organizations, would like a good Aid project to help with, contact me for more details.
I’m only here for 2 years, I can make do, the people that live here need something to carry on with, to improve their lives and employment prospects.
I saw our garden crew in action earlier today, while I was waiting for Tiffany in town. Our island stretch convertible chauffeur driven transport (flatbed truck) pulled up, the road cones came off the side, 12 people jumped off, weedtrimmers, rakes, brooms, shovels at the ready, and started cleaning up around the Telekom roundaroundabout, (I know, it’s not how it is in English, it is in toktok though). 30 minutes later the roundabout was swept clean, the median strip plants had been trimmed, everything was swept up, all the rubbish from the planted circle was picked up, and they were off to the next one. The guys wear their t-shirts tucked over their heads, with an eyeslit, or big bandannas, they look like every mothers nightmare. Add in the betel nut stained teeth, the big grins, great people to work with
.
We got a shipment of overalls today, from New Zealand, one of the previous volunteers had organised it with a company in New Zealand to donate used overalls for us. Everyone was like a kid in a clothing shop. We’re getting SEB (Solo Enviro Board) stencilled on them, everyone really takes pride in working for the Botanic Gardens, and they really want to make Hoinara look and appear better.
It’s a very infectious feeling, I’ve been here 3 weeks now, and I’m talking about our place, our islands, our culture, our town. I can almost distinguish where everyone comes from, the Malaitans are easy, ginger or blonde hair, or so I thought. Then I found out that there are separate islands in the Central Province where the differences are not so apparent. I’m going to be a while yet till I know where everyone is from.
I’m becoming addicted to iced coffee. I have to have my morning hot coffee still, but for the rest of the day, iced coffee, with coffee ice cubes.
William in class is brilliant, ok, I know, they all are, but he seems to be able to ask the questions everyone else is too shy to ask yet. I’ll have to work harder with them to get them to realise that I’d appreciate questions, rather than wait till too late and find out they didn’t understand something. He was asking why all the books we have, (2) always say to store seeds in dark glass jars. Did I ever have to rack my brain for the answers. The best I could come up with off the top of my head was to keep sunlight off seeds that may need light to germinate, like a few Alaskan and Canadian flowers, and so you could check the seeds without having to open the jars. I’ve actually forgotten, it’s one of those things you learn, then do forever after without any more thought. I’ve got research to do
We covered seed raising again, I know it’s only Level 2 we are doing, but they kept asking questions, so we got into a lot of technical stuff with different ways of making seeds react and germinate, like Eucalyptus and Acacia, Callistemon, Banksia. All need fire to break the seed capsule, and or smoke and water. So there went an hour describing smoked water treatment, scarifying, burning sheets of paper around the seed capsule. Selecting the right time for getting seeds, it doesn’t seem to matter how technical I get, so long as I can break it down to things they relate to, the knowledge sinks in.
We’re doing grafting for the rest of the week, hibiscus and bougainvillea.
If anyone collects stamps, the Solomon Island stamps are really beautiful. I’ll get a selection and scan and post here
I finally found out what we pay the staff today, we have several trees on the Heritage Hotel site to remove. Tiffany and I have been working out a price for them, the labour cost for 4 guys for 12 days came to SBD$6,000, $125 each person per day, about US$11, AUD$24, or NZ$28
We charge more for the equipment than the labour.
Then there is tax to be taken off that as well
It’s why the Hort Certificates are so highly prized here, it gets them better pay, a guarantee of work, and a real sense of achievement.
I’m determined to get away soon for a days fishing, I’ll have to stop saying yes to everything people ask me to help with. We have King George IV School 6th form students arriving tomorrow afternoon for a field trip to the gardens to study the ecology and habitat. Tiffany volunteered me for it. She is not being invited to my birthday party.
Pic is of a traditional house from Ysabel Province
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
