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.