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.