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
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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
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