27th February

Every day I spend here makes me so glad to have applied to VSA a year ago. My first approach to VSA was in late January last year, when I was getting so depressed with living in Ireland, the waiting and frustration I had last year, between the interviews, the interminably slow pace of progress with my visa and work permits, were all worth it.

My concept plan for the Heritage Hotel in Honiara, with the waterfall, the carvings behind it, has had every woodcarver and stone carver in Honiara coming to see me today. One man was waiting at work this morning at 6.30am, he came back later in the morning with 2 other carvers, unfortunately, the work they do, despite it being absolutely magnificent, in stone, is not the style I envisage. It was too modern, I’m after the Kastom traditional carvings for the front.

Tiffany bought Kennedy out to see me this afternoon. He is the head carver for the Solomon Islands Museum, I’ll post pics of his works that are in the Museum grounds, I’d seen them last weekend, without knowing who had done them and they are exactly what I want. He arrived, I showed him the architects drawings of the site, and the area I want to showcase. Initially he started describing modern type sculptures, once I told him the effect I wanted was the Kastom carvings behind the waterfall, so that they appeared to shimmer and move, like ghosts of the past, his face lit up, and when he realised I wanted the panel to represent all the 9 provinces, with the ancestors behind the veil of the water, there was no stopping him. We talked about the ties everyone here has with their ancestors, the spirit world is never far away here. He instantly caught the idea that in the daylight, it would look good, but at night, with the uplighting beneath the sculptures, and the water falling and shimmering, they would appear to be moving. As it’s a tourist hotel, most of the visitors would see it initially in the daylight when they arrived, most of the tours arrive back in Honiara at night time, which is when the whole area will be in darkness, with the fountain the only lighted patch in a dark forest of banana and palm trees. And the restaurant will be drawing people in at night as well. They will have to come past the waterfall to the entrance, so it will be a major focal point.

He drew quick sketches, discarded most of them, as he got closer and closer to the idea and feeling I wanted. When he found out I wanted a reverse side as well, with modern style carvings on it for the restaurant side, he really flew. What we’ve agreed on is for the front panel to be the past, with the ancestors ghosts appearing behind the water, as they do to the people here, and with the 9 provinces represented, every person in Honiara will have some link to it. The reverse side, which faces the restaurant, will have modern style carvings, representing the future, no water over it, and downlighting to bring out the forward look of the sculpture.


I have no idea yet how much this is going to cost, I’m pricing water pumps in New Zealand and Australia, we have another meeting with Heritage Hotels on Monday, to show them concept drawings, and also to get an accurate idea of how much they have budgeted for the landscaping. It’s all talk so far, I’d hate to build peoples hopes up, and then find out Heritage don’t want to spend anything, in which case I’ll just fill their hotel grounds with the usual rubbish plants and find another site.

It has to happen though, the idea has spread through Honiara, from the crew at work, and amongst the carvers themselves. I have another man coming around tomorrow, who is also a Master Carver, he is going to have to be good to beat the empathy and insight Kennedy and I shared.

I think it is the size and scope of the carving that has the interest, and the spiritual side with the waterfall giving the impression of spirit beings behind it that really caught Kennedys mind.

I was trying to explain to Kennedy how the whole image just appeared in my mind as soon as I saw the site. There was no gradual process, the whole idea arrived fully formed instantly. His reply was that if the inspiration appears, it is up to me to make it happen, now he is caught up in the fever about it as well.

Jennifer borrowed my Hartman/Kester/Davies propagation manual for the weekend. It’s the Nurserymans Bible, they laughed when I said that in class this morning, but I never saw it being put down and left for the rest of the day. It’s about level 6 or 7, I used it at Burnley Uni in Melbourne, what it doesn’t cover isn’t worth bothering with. I have no doubt that Jennifer will read it voraciously all weekend. And come back with several pages of questions she will want answers for as well.

The people here are so hungry for knowledge. The troubles of the last few years and the things I’m not allowed to discuss, have really caused so many problems. The cost of education alone means that most of the youth leave school at 15 or 16 because the family cannot afford to keep them at school. Then with no qualifications they have no employment, unless we take them on at the gardens, and train them.

My course now has 14 people, and we have hired 6 more people for the crew, our workload has picked up the last week, I’m hoping in 2 years when I leave that we aren’t dependant on Aid money to function, and we are a profit making business. The Botanic Gardens are becoming the largest employer in Honiara, other than the Council, and Government.

We’re covering seed raising this week, after going through the Australian Propagation Course Book, which talks about seed raising trays, seed raising mix, heated beds, spray systems, timers etc, I could see everyones faces falling, wondering how they would pass this unit without all this expensive equipment. I’d asked Tiffany yesterday for as many egg cartons as she had at home, which she bought in this morning. I took a few packets of the seeds I have here, and with the coconut fibre that Imelda and Annie had prepared yesterday, we made out own seed raising trays out of the egg cartons. 12 seeds per carton, packed with rotted coconut fibre, a good soak in water, and into the shade house for the weekend. I looked for the spare cartons that were left this evening as I was leaving, but they all appear to have gone home with the trainees, and I’m guessing the hole in the coconut fibre heap is because it’s gone home in plastic bags, along with the seeds left over.

As I pointed out to them, the joy of using the egg cartons, is that we don’t disturb the plant roots when we plant them out, just rip the egg carton into the segments, plant the nice little parcel the egg space makes, and as it rots into the soil, the roots grow though it.

I have to laugh, at one of the interviews with VSA for this position, great emphasis was placed on could I cope without equipment, tools, resources, basically, everything you would find in a nursery outside of here. Thanks to everyones attitude here, I think we’re doing really well.

We have propagation grit for cuttings from the river, fibre rice bags opened out to use to hold the grit, and we’re going to have a day making palm leaf trays to place the bags in, so I’ll learn how to make them as well, coconut husk to use for water retaining fibre for seeds, egg cartons for seed trays, chicken manure in what ever quantity we need, chippings from the tree pruning and removal crew. Given the rainfall and temperature here, chippings rot in a matter of days, when we put some chicken manure into the heap, it really breaks down quickly.
So there is our bagging mix, with a bit of river sand and grit, coconut husk, it’s as good as I’ve used anywhere.

I was intending to go fishing this weekend, that idea has gone by the board. I’ll be here all weekend doing sketches and detail drawings of the fountain, the planting around it, and writing up a list of materials and equipment for the meeting with Heritage on Monday afternoon.

My screened porch on the side of the house has a table, chairs, so I’ll be out there in the cool breeze all weekend. If only I can remember how to do perspective drawings!

Tiffany informed just as I was leaving tonight, she thought I’d love to give a speech at the Womens Day Parade in Honiara in a weeks time, about preserving the ecology of the Solomons. So she booked me in for it.

I’m not talking to her for the whole of next week

Sunday

Bought my one weekly indulgence again today. Fresh warm wholemeal bread, ($7) and well worth it. The bread shop is opposite the Kukum Fish Market, so it’s just a matter of dodging the buses and trucks on Mendana and I’m happy. Fresh bread, thick cut slabs, butter and honey.

It pelted down with rain while I was at the markets, I was soaked in seconds, muslin top and board shorts, no wariwari, got 2 more large pawpaw ($5 Each), 3 coconuts($0.50 each for 2, $1 for large one), a big hand of bananas(20 bananas $10), some bok choy($5), or what looks like it, dozen eggs($29), I’ve still got 3 kilos of rice, so I’m happy.

Saw a beautiful ripe jackfruit there, $40, far too much just for me, the size, not the price, I’d have bought it, but I’d be wasting most of it. Definitely an acquired taste, once you get past the smell (think of well used gym socks) they are like a cross between pineapple and pawpaw in flavour.

I might buy one next week, it freezes well, apart from going mushy when it thaws, but I can use it in a fruit mix salad.

Yesterday was a mix of good and bad. Good in that Frank Haiku called around in the morning, he’s the wood carver the Solomon Island Government send overseas as our representative to any ethnic symposium on tribal art and culture, so he’s fairly good.

He was here till 3.30pm, from 9am. He had a portfolio of his work, brilliant stuff, traditional and modern styles, then we got to talking about different cultures, NZ, Ireland, the Solomons, and I cranked the laptop up and showed him some of the pics from Ireland. So there went the day for me. He’s ambivalent about the waterfall. If we get the approval and the design is accepted he’ll join in, but as he said, he’s been trying to get more art works and sculpture used here, but hasn’t had much luck. I think he’s got so used to rejection he goes in expecting to be turned down, rather than being positive in his approach and selling the sizzle first.

Found where to get my films developed in town, $20 just for the negatives, or $80 with prints. Scanned both rolls of film, I’ll have to get some fine soft cloth and clear all the dust and threads off the negatives and try again. They came back just stuffed into a paper Kodak bag, with Sellotape holding the rolls together. I lost 3 prints where the Sellotape tore the emulsion off. And the hassle of retouching all the scans to get the bits of dust and threads from the paper off the pics.

It’s still pouring with rain here, nearly 3 hours continuously now, the road looks like a small stream outside the house again, thankfully my little garden is on the one bit of raised ground behind the house.

I’ve got a few diagrams done, trying to do perspective drawings was never my strong suit, even more so when all I have is a 300mm plastic ruler and some pencils of dubious hardness and ability to hold a point. We went shopping for pencils and stuff on Friday, the girl behind the counter just has a blank look when I and Silesa explained what we were after, so it was a matter of accepting the cheap Chinese made stuff, and I’ll make do with that.

I know what I’ll be stocking up with when I get my 12month leave break and go to New Zealand for 2 weeks.

I’m not doing too badly now, if you discount all the stuff I had to pay out for when I arrived to set the house up, wok/pot/mattress, and basic stuff, I’m under $100 a week for food, if I need more rice and coffee it may go to $150 for that week. The sour dough bread got dumped, well the batter mix did, I didn’t look too closely at the flour to start with, when I went to add the flour and make up the dough, I thought it would probably be better to freeze the flour, sift out the weevils, and try again. Thankfully it wasn’t wholemeal flour, I’d probably not have noticed the weevils in that.

I was wondering why every shop in town has sifters for sale, now I know. Tropic heat, humid climate, and flour, ideal breeding ground for weevils. I looked around the bakery today, and sure enough, several large industrial size sifters hanging on the wall by the flour bins.

If anyone ever decides to sell Tupperware here they will make a killing. All the plastic storage stuff here is just absolute rubbish. Two of the large containers I bought last week have already cracked, one across the lid, the other down the side. I keep telling myself it was only NZ$12, but it doesn’t help. $56 Solomon. I’ve seen better quality in the $2 shops in Auckland

The electrical stuff is the same, it’s all cheap copies of the Tiffany and generic Taiwanese and Chinese electrical brands, I don’t know where it is made, but it must be some really low cost country. 250watt blenders, and you know as soon as you pick them with one finger they’ll have trouble blending water, let alone anything with some resistance.

Anyway, I’m living well and cheaply, things I’d probably want in NZ aren’t all that important here, I get fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, sunshine, a good crew to work with, and I’ve got the nursery and gardens to play in.

Making yoghurt this weekend, I’m trying all sorts of experiments in my spare time. I didn’t bring my yoghurt maker, silly, but I’m improvising. 1.5 litre container with the yoghurt mix , inside a 3 litre container with hot water. It seems to be working, it’s going thick anyway, I don’t know if I really need the hot water around it, it’s 30*C all of the time, it would probably set just left on the bench for a day.

I’ve got the washing machine working partly, the washer side anyway. It’s a twin tub, wash and spin drum. It looks as though the motor has burnt out on the spin drum. I’ve seen bigger motors on scaletrix slot cars. Again as above, I can pick it up and carry it with one arm. I think the wash side may struggle with anything more than a couple of shirts, if that.

I was up till 2am this morning sketching and trying to get drawings done for tomorrow, I’ll tidy the rough drafts up tonight, now it’s dark and the rain is cooling the air. Trying to draw yesterday just caused huge sweat stains on the paper, and I had streaks of pencil and colour everywhere.

I’ll go through the blog and resize all the pics so it loads quicker for anyone on a slow connection, they’re all full size at the moment, if you click them. I’ll get them to 600 wide, and put the full size into my webshots album.

Pic is of Turtle Beach