10th April

Easter Friday, I went into work with David this morning, well, it’s still not really work, it’s the Botanic Gardens, and I still don’t see it as being work, like a 7 - 5 engineering place. The Seventh Day Adventists are having a picnic service on the big lawn tomorrow, so we rearranged the picnic tables and cleaned them up for them to use. Gave the bar b ques a quick once over, and got the plates out for them.
It’s been muggy and sweaty since late Thursday, I was hoping for rain yesterday, even this morning, but it’s held off till now, 3pm. I was down at the Kukum Fish Market when it started. Long roll of thunder, then the rain fell down. I’m so used to it now, just carried on getting fruit and vegetables, like everyone else. Soaked through in seconds, but it’s still warm, more like being in a warm shower than rain.

The thunder here is terrific, if you like that sort of thing. It sounds like a tall multi level building falling, like you hear when they dynamite and demolish. You hear a sharp crack, then a long roll that sounds like concrete slabs falling onto each other, sometimes it will go for 30 – 40 secs, if it’s directly overhead, like the last two have been, the whole house vibrates.

We have an eagle taking up residence in the Gardens, it has been flying around the last couple of days, and seems to have started building a nest in one of the trees close to the office building. If the damn trees weren’t so close together and so tall I’d stand a chance of seeing it clearly, when I find which tree it is actually in. Beautiful bird, golden colour, black banding on the wings. Our owl is still around as well, it’s coming into the dry season, and everything seems to be flourishing.

I wandered through the river walk again this morning, while waiting for David. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get some pictures of the green tree lizards for ages, so I think I’ve ended up with lots of pictures of tree trunks, and some blurry pics of lizard tails as they scurry around to the other side of the tree. They sit and watch till you raise the camera, then vanish. I’ll keep persevering. I’m still looking for snakes, if Keithie has the small python at her place, then we are bound to have some in the forest at the Gardens.

There’s a lot of different fruit and veg showing up this week in the market, huge grapefruit, about 300mm wide, like small footballs, jack fruit, green stuff that looks like spinach, a lot more bok choy, beans, stuff that looks like fern or bracken tops, I’ll have to ask Tiffany how you cook it and give it a try one day.

I get really annoyed still when I see the fish there, all ruined in the heat. Big kingfish, tuna, about 30kg and more, just laying on the tables in the sun, slimy feel to them and the eyes milky and the gills brown and starting to smell. And people still buying them. I don’t want to know what happens to the ones they don’t sell, but I suspect that the smoked fish they sell as well is the fish they didn’t sell the week before. My fisherman still hasn’t got any squid, I’m not keen on it from there now anyway, but I’d still take it if it shows up.

The neighbours pigpig got loose again early this morning, and I got woken up by them chasing it around the houses, under mine, through the banana trees and the mud. I notice it’s back tied up again now.

The rain has settled into a steady downpour now, not the wall of water it was 30 min ago. It’s not often I’ve seen a vertical block of water like it can be here. All you can do is carry on, wet, dry, it’s still warm and you dry out quickly. Rose was talking about bringing a raincoat, it would be like wearing a personal sauna here. Light clothes, quick drying, is all you need.

When I get my 12 month break, I’m buying a Champion Fruit Juicer in either Australia or NZ. Or one similar. I’m going to really kill my Kenwood juicer feeding frozen pawpaw and banana through it to make ice cream. With a bit of ginger to give it some spice.

I have to take at least 1 week, preferably 2, at 6 months and again at 12 months into the assignment, away from here. It’s easy to settle into the life and start to lose track of the purpose, also, you need to step away instead of taking charge, and the breaks help the locals figure stuff out for themselves while you’re gone. It’s really easy to just take charge, but it doesn’t give ownership of anything to the local people, so I tend to make suggestions, rather than give orders or “tell” everyone what to do. If my suggestions work, we use them, otherwise we start again with a different idea. It does drive Adrian crazy, but I’m the one with the position, he’s a seconded voluntary volunteer doing something while his wife works for RAMSI.

Trying to work out the costs and expenditure for the stuff we do is a nightmare. 3 or 4 different accounts, some of it is income from the contract work, other accounts are for the Aid money, and specific purposes, then there is the administration slush account and the general office admin account. I’m sorting out the Median Strip contract now, initially it came with a start up component for equipment, after a couple of years, the “start up” amount has been dropped, and now it’s just a straight contract for labour. Which I don’t have a problem with, from the figures Tiffany and I worked out, we can still do the work, and keep the crew we have, and still have a surplus for equipment replacement. I’m trying to adjust the figures so that it looks ok for Keithie, she’s concerned that without the extra “start up” allowance, we’ll have to fire half the crew. I can’t see it, but it’s going to take me the rest of the week to sort out where the money comes and goes to.

Doing business here is almost like watching The Godfather. The Council members set their own wages, and they came up with a method that basically takes the amount of income the council receives, divide that by the 20 councillors, and that is their remuneration. Then there is no money left to pay staff wages, repair roads, maintain the city centre, etc. So an unmarked brown envelope passed across with any permit application is always gladly received by the staff if you want anything done.

The above may not be strictly accurate, but it’s the only way I’ve had explained how the Chinese business people have been able to get land on what is the Botanic Garden boundary, cut down the trees, and build huge walled estates encroaching into the Gardens. I give the Gardens 10 years at most before they are gone. Most of the ridge tops have been cleared, and a lot of the trees going off the ridges as well so the houses get a view. Then the rain washes away the soil off the slope, the next layer of trees fall, and take a few more, and so long as money changes hands, no-one in Council or Forestry care.

It can be frustrating at times here

Saturday 11th

Still raining, heavy at times. The power went off about 8am this morning, 12.15 and still not back on. Went into the Gardens to check on everything earlier, and was hopeful of logging on there, but the power is off out there as well.

I finally found my snakes, I wandered up the river track in the rain, and found 2 pythons and a green tree snake sheltering from the rain in some of the lower tree branches. The pythons were slightly larger versions of the one at Keithies, about 3’ long, curled around the branch sheltering, I was hoping the rain had driven them up from the ground into the trees, and the little green tree snake was curled up in some philodendron which took me a while to find him in there. I wasn’t going to have my last remaining camera out in the rain, but now I know where they are, I’ll go back in the fine weather and have a good look.

A lot of trees have lost branches, getting into the Gardens took a bit of an effort, dragged 2 large branches off the road, and several large rocks that had fallen or slid down the hillside. The river is about 1’ below the big lawn bank top, and at the swimming hole it’s 3 tyres below the top. Huge volume of water coming down, and as soon as the rain stops it drops rapidly. It’s still warm, I got saturated walking the river track, my glasses were fogged up most of the time, got back home and just dumped the wet clothes into the wash for when the power comes back, and wrapped a sarong around me.

By the look of the rain, it’s going to continue for some time, there’s no blue sky anywhere. And it’s steady, my spouting is like a waterfall with the excess over flowing, the road is like a small river.

Ran the battery out on the laptop, which was a nuisance. 3.20pm and the power is back on, but for how long is anyones guess. It’s still raining, so the chances of another tree going over the lines is still good.

This is the longest I’ve seen it rain continuously here, since last night, 24 hours since the thunder started yesterday. The Adventists cancelled their picnic, they would have had a lot of trouble going ahead with it. The lawn area is flooded, the river is lapping at the top of the bank now and occasionally coming over. The tyres at the swimming hole are holding, so that is one good thing.

Finally got my washing on, it’ll be days waiting for it to dry now though. Apparently we’ve got rain for the whole of Easter.

I’ve decided not to wait till I can possibly get to the Provinces, as nice as it would be to go, and have written to all 48 Members of Parliament (yes, 48 of them for a population of 500,000) asking for their assistance in acquiring orchids from each province. Along with an invite to the official Orchid House opening in August. If the thought of getting their picture in the paper doing something that hasn’t cost them anything isn’t enough incentive, I don’t know what else would work, other than the usual unmarked bills in a brown envelope.

There’s usually 50 MP’s, but there are two seats still vacant, as they can’t find anyone corrupt enough to stand I think. (Tongue firmly in cheek there)

The power keeps going off, a few minutes at a time now, and as usual, I’m without water inside, with the washing that I started an hour ago when it seemed the power was here for the rest of the day still in the tub and a trickle of water is all I have. And I’m not going up and down the steps outside in the rain just to get potfuls of water for it from the rainwater tank. It may take me a while to get the washing done.

I was reading the NZ Herald online last week, about Helen Clark feeling rejected by the voters for throwing her out so unceremoniously and convincingly at the last election. All I can say is she got back exactly what she’s been doing to 95% of the voters in NZ for the past 5 years. When you start letting the loony left, Greens etc put all their pet ideas through and imposing a nanny govt on everyone, checking kids lunch boxes, removing playground equipment and P.E. classes from schools, then complain about kids getting no exercise, despite everyone concerned voicing misgivings, tough luck Helen, go play in the UN. At least her new job in the UN means she can keep on being a nanny, but no one really cares or is affected anymore.

I could carry the rant on, but why bother, I just get angrier and angrier.

7pm and the washing is finally rinsed out and the water looks clean coming out, so there’s a good start. Still steady rain, the Gardens are going to look a mess tomorrow if it clears, or whenever it does clear. There were a few branches in the river, hopefully they have been swept away without causing any damage to the bridges.

Sunday 7am

Woke up due to the silence about 3am. The rain has stopped, and the air is still, not a breath of wind. Managed to get back to sleep till now, and got woken with the neighbours pigpig grunting and snorting it’s way through what ever it is they feed it.

Sunshine, blue skies, and the power is still on. I’ll have another go at work this morning to post this, and catch up with a few emails, then spend the rest of the day going through the house with the mop and chasing geckos.

So much for that idea, the truck has died on me. It’s either the battery given up, or there is an electrical fault somewhere. I’ll try for a tow start tomorrow, if that doesn’t work, it’ll be another unexpected expense. Luckily it’s diesel, so it should start with a tow, whether or not it continues starting will be interesting. I’m hoping it’s just the battery.

Spent the day cleaning up the house, the stove almost looks new again, the floor has had the bigger lumps removed, and the sticky patches aren’t there either now on the floor. The washing is still taking forever to dry though.

Had Tom Waits “Rain Dogs” playing most of the day, on random repeat, good music to clean the house to. The Pogues are on now for a while till I log off this and go to bed.

Monday

Still haven’t got the truck going. Tried a borrowed battery in it, no go, the headlights work, so it looks like a wiring or ignition switch problem. Spent a couple of hours underneath the motor tracing wires, checking the alternator wires, took the steering column covers off and played with the ignition switch, it’s one of the ones with the wires sealed of, so I couldn’t short them out to see if it would start.

Checked all the fuses, all good, it looks like I’ll be walking into work tomorrow morning, or catching one of the shuttle buses on Mendana. I hope they’re running at 6.30 in the morning. Although walking into work would be better for me, I need the exercise, about 3 miles which I should be able to do in under 45 min, even with the laptop and backpack.

It’s been a glorious day here, sunshine, blue skies, and hot, well above 30C, no wind, and I’ve been a grease spot most of the day underneath the truck. Bad thing is that I’ve drunk about 4 litres of iced coffee, and probably won’t get to sleep now for ages.

Carole King “Tapestry” cd on at the moment, nice early evening tracks, I’ve got an overimaginative mind, there are a lot of good tracks on cds and I can envisage the video to go with them, all it will take is $$$’s or some really good friends. Gary Moore is another, and Van Morrison, there are songs that create pictures in my mind that I would like to put onto tape. I write up story lines for songs for filming, it’s just being self determined enough and to stop getting distracted by others and actually doing it. There is a lady on youtube who has used some of my Irish pics for Sean Keane songs, I’ll have to start doing it as well. I did a cd for Marye in Cali for Ballyjamesduff, her family hometown that I put to a generic “Paddy Reilly” track that came out really well. Oh well, another thing to do after this holiday here. Or to start doing here while I have a lot of spare time in the evenings.

I started thinking about doing different villages in Ireland, and using the songs that mention them, or scenes from songs like Spancil Hill, etc, and making dvd tourist stuff, but I didn’t realise just how depressed I was and it all seemed too much. That was a black couple of years, it’s not the best country in the world to be suffering from depression in. The weather just makes your mood blacker, and for all the hype, it takes a lot to acquire real friends there.

I rang Pat in the Bakery at Schull yesterday, hoping to find out how Easter was going, but at $10 a minute, I ran out of time talking to Tom instead. I’ll recharge the phone and try again next Sunday. Or ask Rose to bring a couple of phone cards if they work here. The first Easter I worked with Pat we did 2,500 hot cross buns a day over the Easter period, starting at midnight and working till 2pm each day, crazy times but fun. On top of the normal bake as well. For a small village bakery, only 5 ovens, we did a huge amount of bread/rolls etc through it. I really enjoyed the Bakery, constantly busy, I learnt a lot, but the hours certainly constrict your social life. I missed the pub for a long a time on a weekend over summer, but with the tourists there, winter is preferable anyway. Not so crowded, and more fun with the locals singing and dancing.

Pic is of the median strip planter tubs and the Westpac Roundabout. We look after the tubs, and the roundabouts