Saturday 30th May/Sunday 31st

A wet day, it’s drizzle, not rain, enough to make being outside wet, but not to the stage were you get soaked instantly, more a slow creeping dampness. You don’t really notice how wet you are with the temperature, till you do as I did this afternoon, go for a long walk, then take the t-shirt off when I got home, and had water dripping out of it. It didn’t feel all that wet while I was out, it’s still in the high 20’s low 30’s, quite pleasant actually.

I went into work this morning, hoping to get an internet connection. I have 14 emails sitting there that I haven’t been able to get to since Thursday, make that 17 from today. I spent 4 hours trying to get email to open, it timed out frequently, so I gave up. I’ll have another try tomorrow while everyone is at Church in the morning. I managed to get a speedtest on the connection, 0.11mbps download, and 0.02mbps upload. And Telekom have the nerve to call it broadband.

David and I are getting so *annoyed* with some of the people living in Honiara. The 2 trees we replaced in the main street last week have been hacked with a bush knife already, the tops have been cut off so all that is left is the trunk. If they’d been just small trees it may not have been so bad, but these were 5 yr old 2.5m tall delonix, with a good spread of branches from the crown. $2,500 worth of work gone again by some idiot with a bushknife. And it’s not something we get any income from doing, its part of the free work we do, dependant on donations to cover.

Steve found me wandering along the roadside earlier, I was taking pics of the rubbish that gets thrown into the gardens and median strip we have to clean up. I’ve got a few concerns about the viability of the project I’m meant to be running, it isn’t at the stage VSA were told before I arrived, and I am doubting the long term prospects for it. So long as I can get this year in, and get Andrew and Emery, and hopefully Jennifer and Imelda, away to NZ for training I’ll be happy.

I’m becoming more aware of where and how the Aid money gets skimmed off before it gets to where it is meant to be going. Steve had a good suggestion for the Japanese Grass Roots Funding. The Japanese Consul retains it, and pays it out on invoice, which will stop the management and consultant deductions from the overall amount. It’s close to $2 million Solomon Dollars in funding, and with the usual 15% deductions, someone is just making money for doing nothing more than letting us use a bank account. I’ve seen scams from Nigeria that aren’t as blatant.

I’m meant to be writing something for VSA NZ to have published in the Herald, but as usual, I can write about anything other than myself, so I can’t see it happening. They can use the pics I’ve sent and the couple of newspaper articles that the Solomon Star and the Island Sun have put about me.

It’s a hard place to write about, there’s a lot of stuff that is really bad about Honiara, the lack of rubbish disposal, cleaning, sewage systems, water supply, then you meet the people and it’s as if all that other stuff isn’t really all that important. It will all happen, but at their pace, not just because some white fella flys in and says make it happen now. And I think everyone is still battle shocked and inured to what happens after the 10 years of political corruption and ethnic fighting.

I’m working more on attitudes at work, not that it is easier, but if I can get everyone looking forward, we stand a good chance of getting some improvements. My goals now are fairly simple, one practical thing a month, or project, and keeping everyone in work.

It’s been a damp warm afternoon, ideal for spending the evening with Van Morrison on continuous play, I’ve got 15 cds to work through, from Moondance to Keep it Simple, about halfway there now. Inarticulate Speech of the Heart playing now.

NZ Aid has been restructured in the past month, hopefully it won’t be just providing money for projects that have no real depth or long term benefit. I’m using the restructure as part of my argument for the long term view of the Nursery expansion, and the long term training that we could set in place for the provinces. I really think this project has never been thought through, it’s been a case of apply for the money, produce 2,000 trees, then move on to another Aid agency for more money for something else. There are going to be some problems soon, if I can’t see any long term benefits accruing to the Solomons from this, I’ll notify VSA with my misgivings, and either move to another project, or work out some method of making this a long term education project. There will be people upset, if we go to a proper training centre it will be moving away from their control, which won’t be such a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. If it means we can train more locals to run and organise, the less Aid money will be needed, it’s like weaning kids off a bottle and onto solid food. The only ones who will miss out will be the consultants and others who have milked the Aid agencies for so long for glamour projects that have no real sustainability or long term benefit.

The Solomon Islands got royally screwed by Malaysia/Korea/China with their forests. Forestry account for 60% of Government income, and what is happening now that the forests have been nearly exhausted by clear felling, the companies are declaring bankruptcy, and folding so they don’t have to pay for the restoration of the land. The same thing happened with one of the oil palm plantations, They clear felled and sold all the trees, left the land a total wasteland, then closed the company leaving everyone out of work, and with a huge deforested area that is now polluting the rivers and local villages. All of the agreements date back to the earlier government that was deposed in the civil war, but were held as being legal. So now the trees are gone, and the villagers are left with a desecrated land, no income, and no way of sustaining a living with the land so badly ruined.

It’s been much the same with the fishing rights. Tuna, marlin, mackerel, well, any fish really, all gets taken and shipped to Japan or Korea, then we buy it back in cans, but never the good bits. It’s all the shredded stuff packed in cheap oil. There is talk again of opening a canning and processing fishery in Western Province, but it’s a lot of talk at the moment. Whatever happens, I doubt that the Solomons will see any real benefit come from it.

If we really got the tourist sector right, and increased the quality, it would give a huge boost to all the provinces. And stay away from the eco-living type of accommodation. It’s easy enough to build low impact, good quality tourist accommodation without going to bush houses in the forest type of loopy green ideal.

Solomon $ is now worth NZ $5.86, AUD$6.38, it makes it hard on everyone here. Everything is imported, and the only people making money here are the Chinese importers, and the people with the import/export companies.

Gold Ridge mine is nearing production finally. They have an assay of 50 billion ounces of gold in the prospect area, I’m not sure how accurate that is, but it’s the most common quoted figure. They have a 50/50 agreement with the villages so in a couple of years there will be some extremely wealthy villages in the highlands on Guadacanal. For anyone thinking of heading into the highlands with a pan, all the land is custom owned, and the villages take great offence at people wandering around taking things out. You might be lucky and be able to strike a deal with them, but it would be a minimum of 50/50 agreement now.

Thursday 28th May

The gardens were crowded today. We had Woodford International School Cross Country, The Holy Cross Ladies with their Flower arranging class, then Honiara College arrived to practise their school play and theatrics. At a rough count I’d say close to 250 teenagers parents and teachers, really good day. No accidents with the cross country, other than a few going for an unexpected swim slipping over crossing the river.

We found the little python, tucked up into a tree trunk, hiding in the bark. It’s looking well fed, it must be catching either the tree lizards and geckos, or the hundreds of small frogs in the lawn. I’m hoping no one kills it, it’s relatively harmless, it could give a nasty bite probably, but it’s only 15 inches or so long.

The dry weather is playing havoc with the power supply this week, it must be all the airconditioners in the offices and hotels all going at once. The power is now going off at 10am, till 12, then from 1.30pm till 3.30pm or a bit later. It’s very frustrating to put it mildly. And knowing I’ll come home to a defrosted fridge again really makes my day. Although there isn’t much in the fridge now, I’m learning not to stock too much to lose in it.

We are putting bamboo stakes into the bougainvillea in the tubs down the street tomorrow, then let the bougainvillea grow taller and tie the stems to the stakes, provided the stakes aren’t just stolen each night. I’m trying to get tall spires of flowers in the tubs, rather than the short hard trimmed bushes, we’ll be taking out the crotons, and duranta as well, as we get more bougainvillea ready in the nursery. And the variegated pineapple as well, too many spikes and sharp bits on them.

Flogging Molly on the playlist tonight, Rebels of the Sacred Heart, Drunken lullabies etc. Thanks to Sandy in St Louis for putting me onto them a couple of years ago. And Al for the Screaming Orphans, and the Young Dubliners. And Mary for the Bothy Band. Fairly wide mix of styles in there, plus my usual Gary Moore, Jonny Lang, Paul Butterfield, trance, techno, Bob Dylan etc, and Mary Coughlan

It’s 4.30am Friday, we had another mild rock and roll event, for about 5 minutes, several little house shaking episodes, then it’s been peaceful since. So I may as well stay up and have breakfast, get ready for work and hope there isn’t another shake.

Wednesday 27th May

Maelaen and Jack

Swimming hole

Finally I have power at home, water may be a little while yet, hopefully later tonight. We’ve had major power cuts since Sunday, usually it comes back at night, but since Monday it’s been a few hours in the daytime, then off for most of the residential area all night. Tonight is the first time I’ve had it in the evenings, hopefully I’ll have water as well soon, the rainwater tank is good, but it’s not the place to have a shower under.

The Rove Prison job is progressing really well, I’ll be getting some pictures tomorrow, permission to photograph inside has to be approved first, and the guys have to agree as well, they are quite happy about it, I’ll do prints for them, but we still have to follow procedures. I think I’ve said this, but I really would employ any of them if I had a landscape company here, they work hard, think, solve problems amongst themselves, all I actually do there is arrive, have a look, tell them everything is good, and the work is excellent, make a few suggestions or comments and go away again till the next day.

I’ve managed to get 3 of the guys on day release to come up to the Nursery and feed our compost through the mulcher, some for the garden at the prison, and a lot for Jennifer and Imelda to use for potting up. David (advisor) at the prison said when he asked for volunteers, he had nearly all the inmates to choose from, but I’m guessing it will be a few of the guys we have outside already that get the job. Not that it’s a nice job, it’s hot, dusty, not very heavy, but constant shovelling compost through and bagging the mulch up as it heaps up. Still, as the guys there say, it sure beats sitting in a cell all day looking at the walls.

We’re up to the planting stage, or close, so a couple of palms at each end, duranta borders, and hibiscus fill. The height restrictions for security are fairly specific, they don’t want anything people can get behind and not be seen from the sentry box, which means about 2 – 3 foot maximum.

We had Woodford International School Junior class come through the Gardens this morning, about 40 5-7 year olds, we went along the river track, with me having to give brief talks every so often about the ecology and tree species in the Gardens, which has been good for me, I’m getting to know most of the tree species now from reading up about them in preparation for the different school groups that use the Gardens. Had the usual questions, how old are the trees, where are all the birds etc, then one little lad asked if there were any snakes. When I said yes, I had 40 pair of big round eyes looking horrified, and not one kid walking off the track the whole way around. I’ll have to remember that and mention it first for the next school party.

It’s the Annual School Cross Country race tomorrow, 120 teenage schoolkids competing around the tracks, through the river, and across the lawn area, so that is going to be an interesting time. I’ve been marking out routes this afternoon, the tracks are fine, it’s just where they leave and go down to the river I’ve had to make clear, otherwise I’ll have broken trees, palms, shrubs as they trample through everything.
It’s still dry and sunny, I’m appreciating it now, less humidity, so you don’t feel like you are in a sauna all day, but the sun burns very quickly as well. I may get a tan on me at this rate.

There are a lot more birds coming out in the Gardens, yesterday I finally saw the little humming birds, I think they are honeyeaters, about sparrow size, bright yellow with a small red patch , as soon as I get my camera out they fly to the top of the trees and vanish. Very frustrating. Lorikeets, parrots, lorys, and swallows are all through there in the mornings as well now, feeding on the flowers and fruit, insects, and presumably making nests.

Our eagle hasn’t been back for a week or so, I’m hoping it does come back with a mate, they are beautiful birds in flight.

7pm and joy! The water finally came back on, I can get the last few days dishes properly washed finally, and then I’m headed for a loooooooooooong shower. Swimming in the river is good, but I’m trying to discourage people from using soaps in the river above the swimming hole because it kills the fish between the bridge and swimming hole. I’m having partial success, trying to break life long habits here takes a while as everyone has been using the river by the bridge to wash their clothes since the troubles or before. We’re slowly turning the place into a real Botanic Garden, but it’s a few years away from being up to minimum standard yet.

The swimming hole is full of water, our dam is holding so far, and the kids are having great fun there, jumping off the tires into the pool.

There are a lot more shops opening up in Chinatown now, as the rebuilding gets finished, but as someone wrote into the Solomon Star today, why are they all selling the same cheap rubbish like every other shop is already? I can see the same thing happening with the 64 shops going into the Town Ground Stadium, they will all be filled with the stuff even the Indians don’t want, and even the $2 or €2 or £1 shop would reject. Absolute cheap shoddy rubbish and high prices. And a captive market because there is nowhere else to buy anything from, no shops selling china plates, glasses, cooking ware, even good quality clothing. Kaleko Korporation is the main clothing shop in Honiara, and they import used clothing in bales from Australia, presumably the clothes people donate through the blue bins or where ever, sort it out and sell it on.

Kaleko is toktok pijin for clothing, a derivation of calico cloth.

One thing you get used to here, having to go to several shops to buy the weekly groceries, and the markets for fresh fruit. Each shop will have something cheaper than the rest, it may be tinned sardines at Wings, then around the block to Ausmart for milk, along to the Bulk Bin for flour/sugar/onions/rice, down to Kukum Fish Market for fruit and veg. There are a few “supermarkets” in town, Wings, Ausmart, Longs, but the prices there are usually higher than you find in the corner shops. You could go to Central Market, but the times I’ve been there, the prices have been higher than Kukum, and it really isn’t the place I like going through. Dark, dingy, always rubbish everywhere by midday, and full of kids and teenagers trying to steal stuff out of your bags and pockets. Plus the Kwaso and marijuana sellers tucked into the darker corners, and the drunks having an argument or fight there. It’s a pity, the council spent a lot of money putting the roof over the market, but never put enough windows or skylights into it, so underneath is dark and gloomy all the time, with the tables crammed together in long rows. If I feel brave this weekend, I’ll wander through with the camera and get some pics, although any whitefalla going through there with a camera is fair game for the pickpockets and petty thieves. It’s a huge contrast to Kukum, which as I posted the other day, is out in the open on the roadside.

I managed to do a speedtest on the internet link at work today, the best time and download/upload result was 0.11kbs download, and 0.4kbs upload, and that is for a $500 per month business adsl broadband link, I’ve had dial up internet that was 10 times faster. And more reliable. Telekom here control the satellite link, and they cut the bandwidth during the week so everyone can get some sort of connection, never mind the amount of time you lose waiting for pages or email to open. My longest time so far has been 2 ½ hours waiting for email account to open, without counting the time it then took to open each separate email. It’s usually close to 11am by then, and we get the usual power cut just as I’m halfway through answering, no wonder I go in at 6am to get stuff done. And get caught uttering comments under my breath very loudly.

Monday 25th May

Solomon Island Giant Frogs

Water lily

Red Heliconia

Pink water lily

Orange Heliconia

I think I’ve been here too long. Things that should get me upset, or mildly annoyed don’t anymore, and life carries on.

I didn’t get to Savo, it was either the driver forgot about picking me up, or the weather there was too rough for the boat to come over, or a combination of the two, I still haven’t found out. I’ll go into town later in the week and rebook for another weekend next month. I don’t know whether to be pleased, or annoyed. It’s saved me $1000 anyway, which I don’t mind, but I could have done with the break away doing something different.

Spent the weekend cleaning up the house, not that that took long, the few bits of washing, then went into the Gardens and got a few pictures around the place. 2 pics I really like, one of the lilies, and one of two Solomon Giant Frogs cuddling. A few others, as you can see which make good desktop or screen savers, I’m alternating them around at the moment trying to find which one I prefer, so far it’s the pink lily one up most often.

The Nautilis Souvenir shop and second hand book dealer has a good deal going. I took the books from last week back, 4 of them, took another 6 out, got 4 free, and only paid for 2, so that kept me quiet Saturday night and Sunday night with something to read finally. I’ll have to start rationing them out a bit better, but after nearly 4 months with only Bill Brysons “Made in America” to read since I got here, I’m devouring books at a great rate.

Davids Aunt died Thursday night, he’s been at work, but not really with us in some sense. He takes his position really seriously, if he’s not there it all falls apart quickly, so he’s been coming in for the mornings, getting everyone organised, then going back to his family for the rest of the day and night. He’s had very little sleep since Friday, I took him home at lunchtime today, he was looking like death warmed up, he’s the oldest male member of his family here, so it has all fallen on him to organise, and take care of everyone till they can get his Aunt back to Ren/Bel for the funeral later this week.

We’ve been having a bit of trouble with some of the taxi drivers using the Gardens as a rest and recreation area during the day. They drive up with a few friends, drink a few cans of beer, throw the empty cans out the car windows onto the lawns or gardens, then drive off. Shirleyta and I are now taking their cab numbers, and phoning the cab company and the police when we see them. Eventually they’ll stop coming when they figure out we’re reporting them everytime they come down. It may take a while.

The police do charge anyone drink driving, but it’s not a high priority thing here, they spend more time chasing the kwaso and marijuana sellers in town at the moment, trying to cut down on the assaults and petty thieving. Still, that’s better than New Zealand, where the Police seem to spend more time pulling cars over than actually catching people for criminal offences.

The work at Rove Prison is going well, it’s a pity most of the guys doing it are long term inmates, I’d employ all of them for their work ethic and attitudes. Always smiling, always keen to work. A couple are inside because of things from the troubles, 10 – 15 year sentences, 2 are in for murder, which means 25 years minimum, and a couple for growing marijuana, 6 – 10 years. All nice guys to work with, and with a good sense of humour.

The dry season has really started now, very little rain for a week now, and the air feels a lot drier. We had thunder and lightning Saturday night, but it never turned into anything more than a light shower for an hour or so. The plants in the gardens along the street are throwing up a lot more new growth, I’ll have to get used to the seasons here, it’s coming into winter in NZ, and I keep thinking everything will be slowing down. Most of the bougainvillea we have planted out is in flower, and all the hibiscus is well into bud and some flowers. It’s going to look good in another couple of weeks.


I’m posting reduced size prints here, if anyone wants a full size, 3mb copy, let me know and I’ll email them to you.

Gatto, I like your website, really well done, and interesting, http://www.gatto999.com/ , it’s well worth a look and the translate this link works well.

Another week ahead here, still working on the Japanese Grass Roots Funding proposal, I’m almost ready to throw it away and just go ahead and get the nursery going with what we have, instead of all the bother of trying to get someone else to pay for everything. I’m not very good at diplomacy or dealing with a lot of paperwork lately. And the EU Funding has so many strings attached to it, it’s going to be another nightmare to write up. Although I can see more benefit from the EU one than anything else, we can use the Nursery as a provincial training and education centre, for all the small farmers in the provinces, doing coffee/cocao/vanilla, and also the produce growers.

Take care, have a good week where ever you are.

Thurday 21st May

Memorial plaque on the road junction to the Gifu
Memorial on the Gifu summit

View from the Gifu Summit looking west, North Guadacanl to the left, Savo Island, the Florida Group, and in the distance, Malaita on the right

View from Mt Austin, Henderson Field is approximately centre in the distance.

Hi to my cousin John, and Sylvia, thanks for dropping in, also, Gatto in Italy, and if that is Polly calling in from Bantry, drop me an email when you get the chance please.

David and I went for a drive this morning to the Gifu, and Mt Austin. Kakabono Community have gardens around the Gifu, and wanted a bit of advice about what to do with the Gifu site.

The Gifu was the last Japanese stronghold here in WW2, it took the US Marines a few months to finally overcome it, with a horrendous loss of life on both sides. You can still see the Japanese foxholes, and fortifications on the hillside. They could control the whole northern side of Guadacanal from there, the view goes from the Ngella Islands in the northwest, east past the Florida group, to Malaita and Makira.

Last month we had the last Japanese survivor from the battle for the Gifu visit, he’s 91 now, very frail, and he was overcome in revisiting the scene of the battle. His foxhole is still visible, with the large rock over it. The local village has a good selection of WW2 memorabilia, helmets, machine guns, airplane parts etc, and they still find live ammunition and grenades through the area.

Very interesting trip, the road is more suited to 4wd, the little truck was bouncing around a fair bit, and with 13” wheels, you tend to get into the ruts and holes, rather than go over them.

Mt Austin was the controlling hill for Henderson field, you can look straight down the island to the airfield, and the sea around it. It was one of the first hills the US Marines took in the initial landings on Guadacanal.

I’ve spent the evening rigging up lines and traces, and lures for the weekend. I was going to take the surfcaster as well, but am going to settle for the 2 boat rods, the 6’ Silstar with the Silstar EF70 reel, and the full roller 6’ Titan Supreme with the Penn Commander reel. A good selection of hooks, swivels and sinkers, coral can be hard on lines, and a spare reel, the Jarvis Walker GX 7000
Ooooops, I ‘m actually going for orchids, not fishing. And if anyone believes that they don’t know me very well.

Writing up the Japanese Funding Proposal took another giant leap backwards again. While they think the 2 storey classroom/store etc is a good idea, we now have to itemise everything needed for the construction, how many kg’s of nails, lengths of timber, number of concrete blocks etc etc. There goes another week hunting up 3 different suppliers for pro forma invoices, and Keithie wanting it all done yesterday, and in the morning as well.

Tiffany is about ready to just walk away from the whole thing, this is the second time we’ve approached Japan for funding for the same proposal. It was all approved last year, then Keithie decided we had to have a truck included, and the proposal got dropped so fast over that.

We’ve cut out everything that Keithie wants that isn’t Nursery related from the latest proposal, and so far the lady we are dealing with in the Japanese Consul office is happy with it.

Consumer Warning! Coca Cola™, Coke™ are introducing a Bicarbonate reduced cola here. It’s like drinking flat Coca Cola™. Resist it when you see it appear in your local shop. It’s disgusting, flat, and insipid. I got caught tonight with a 2litre bottle of it, I thought the bottle had a leak, till I read around the label, and found Minuman Berperisa Berkarbonat on the label. It’s made in Papua New Guinea. It’s disgusting, vile, and deserves to be relegated to the same place New Coke went to. Why the hell CocaCola™ keeps on trying to fiddle with a good formula is beyond me, everything they’ve tried has been a dismal and disgusting failure.

I’ll be back Monday night, have a good weekend.

One of the orchids flowering in the orchid House

Wednesday 20th May

It’s been a quiet week in Honiara so far. Only 2 murders, one in Cenral Market, idiots drunk on kwaso having a fight with bushknives, and one in East Honiara same cause. Plus one serious wounding in Chinatown Friday night, young teacher from Western Province stabbed 18 times while walking over the bridge in the early evening. Same cause in that one as well, idiots drunk on kwaso.

It’s no wonder I don’t or can’t be bothered going out of an evening. Too many people with bushkinives wandering around and you never know just what is happening in their heads at any time.

Had lunch today with Peter and Steve. Peter has had a good visit, caught up with all the VSA people in country, and is happy with what is happening so far.

It’s surprising how every occupation has it’s own in-house jokes, that in any other group would have people being shocked/horrified/disgusted. I’m happy to say VSA staff have a really good sense of the ridiculous, I’m not too sure about the people in the office back in Wellington, but the field staff certainly have a slightly off beat twist to the humour.

Our little Rover Mulcher is back working again, I’m picking it will a be monthly maintenance job replacing the shafts, if I could get hold of a mig welder I could modify the design a little to stop the problem, we’re looking for one here now. I’ve written to Rover Industries again with a query on how long the shafts should last, but if their last reply was anything to go by, I’m not expecting anything back. Great machine, crap customer relations. And I think 40 hours use isn’t a great deal of time to be paying out $750 for 3 shafts to get it running again. As I said, it’s a slight design problem with the cutter blades spinning hard on fixed shafts, I’m going to try welding the blades to the spacers so there is a wider surface in contact with the shaft.

Peter has been in contact with Wellington Botanic Gardens, well, they contacted him the week before he left, wondering if VSA had any people that would be interested in working at the Wellington Gardens for a month as exchange students, all expenses paid. It’s part of their outreach programme for the South Pacific, and they are after local people working in similar situations to be part of the training there.

I’ll have to wait for Peter to get back to NZ in the next week, and he is going to follow up, and pass my contact details to WBG. It is looking good for Jennifer and Imelda to get a month in NZ, although I don’t think they’ll be thanking me for the weather in Wellington when they get there. Ok, I know Wellington can be absolutely fabulous at times, but also bloody wet and windy at other times. Plus my son lives there, so it can’t all be bad.

We’ve got Andrew and Emorys applications to be filled out and put in, for them to hopefully get a place in Otago Polytech for the Aboriculture course next year. I had a look at the forms, and decided that while the words may be English, the way they are put together made toktok look simple to understand. Tiffany is going to fill them out, all I have to do is write the recommendation letters.

The beach football (futsal, like soccer) competitions are on in Honiara this week. So far one team has been banned, and 2 players banned for life for attacking the referee and breaking his arm after a match they lost. It seems to be quite common here, one team was banned for life last year, all the players, for a similar occurrence.

As for the rugby Stadium, I found out that all the rugby players come from Rennel/Bellona Province, mostly Polynesians, and they tend to end up in New Zealand or Australia if they are reasonably good. Steve thinks the Solomon Govt should put in for the Rugby World Cup for whenever once the stadium is built. It’s probably the only time it’ll be used.

It can be extremely frustrating dealing in toktok with shopkeepers when you want something technical. I’m after a ring compressor for the stihl weedeater and chainsaw motors, so we can do a complete service, replace the rings bearings etc. Toktok doesn’t have words for “ringcompressor” so it’s a lot of “small fella hem move updown and hem need small fella ring around hem stop hem oil blong hem come out. To puttem back we need hem small fella long tube tight around ring blong small fella go updown” Or words to that effect. Needless to say, I’m still looking. They don’t use them in the repair shops here, the usual method is to tie a tin can around with string, and drive the piston through that into the cylinder. I’m just being fussy I suppose in wanting the right tools.

A word of caution. Our Telekom here charge you for incoming calls on a mobile as well as outgoing. Rose rang on Mothers Day so I could talk to Mum, it ate all of the $50 I’d just put on the phone the week before. Very frustrating and expensive. If I’d known before hand, I’d have rung Mum from the public phone box, it would have been cheaper at $10 a minute.

I’m wondering if the Calling cards will work here, I’ve not seen them on sale anywhere, but it’s possible they will work. I’ll have to stock up on a couple when I get a break at the 12month mark. As well as all the other stuff I’m getting a list of.

Go out with an empty suitcase, come back over weight with tools, cigarette lighters, bic pens, Champion fruit juicer.

One more day to go, then another weekend on Savo, orchids and fishing, I’ll be in heaven.

Monday 18th May

Imelda, Rose, Jennifer, Caroline, Angela, Sepa, Jocelyn, Dorise with their certificates

Rose and Sepa

Rose, Suzzie, Caroline and Imelda with some old fart of a teacher

Nothing like being woken at 5am by what you think is the neighbours pigpig scratching itself on the house support posts for about a minute, then going into work and finding out we had an earthquake. The house was shaking rather well, a few things fell over, nothing broken though. Interesting, almost like living in Wellington again.

Graduation Day for the Students. TV, Newspapers, local radio station all there. Education is a big thing here, any opportunity to promote people achieving qualifications makes the newspapers, radio, tv, All the usual speeches, I had mine down to 2 minutes, which is a bit abrupt for here, an hour is more the norm, but as I said, today isn’t about me, it’s the Students day, and they’ve been listening to me for the past 3 months, they don’t need more.

Steve turned up, with Peter, our VSA South Pacific Regional Director, which was a really pleasant surprise. Lunch was a good mix of fish, chicken, salads, fruit, rice. After the outside people had gone, there was a big cook up for the work crew, I’ve got a good pic of Andrew cooking chicken on the barbque, cigarette in mouth, tossing chicken pieces. Definitely not your 5* restaurant hygiene, but the barbque flavour was terrific.

It’s going to be a bit quiet without the students now, I’ve got so used to Sepa laughing in the river every lunchtime, Suzzie bustling about always busy and smiling, Jocelyn who is the smallest lady I have seen here carrying huge loads on her head, all of them with wide smiles, and willing to do anything.

Rose, Imelda, Jennifer, Dorisse are part of the crew, so they stay on, Rose and Imelda I’d like to send to NZ for training, they are both really good workers, and keen. Jennifer I could send later, she’s too important in the Nursery for me to lose her at the moment.

It was a good day, the pics can be the story here.

Sunday 17th May

Another day of good intentions, I’ve got a few of them done which puts me ahead of yesterday. Went to Kukum Fish Market early today to get ahead of the crowds and possibly get out of town later. I’ve finally got some pics of the market, I’ll post a couple in here, the rest in my webshots album, www.community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi if anyone wants to look. I’m putting reduced size pics in there, 600 pix wide, due to the time it takes to upload larger ones. If there is a pic you’d like a full size 3mb copy of, contact me here

My Coconut crabs are still having fun on the porch, they climb up into the roof during the day, then come down during the night and chase each other around. I bought a few $1 coconuts at the market for them to eat, so hopefully they’ll be a bit quieter tonight.
I’m doubtful about cooking them, for all you get, just a bit of meat out of the claws, and a fiddly bit out of the legs, for the size of them, I’ll take them to the beach next weekend and set them down in a coconut plantation.

I’ve got everyones references written for tomorrow, the weather has clouded over, but that could just be the usual evening buildup. So long as we get a fine morning, it will all go well. A few speeches, barbque, food, with luck they’ll all find work now either in Honiara or back in the provinces.

I’ve printed a few of the Market pics to take to the stall people, I haven’t got a UV filter, and you really notice the blueish cast to the prints. Clear skies and a lot of UV coming down, it is quite noticeable.

I’ll play with the editing programmes at some time and get it adjusted.

The little truck I have is getting temperamental again, taking ages to start, but it does eventually start. It still needs the main fuses fixed, but the jumper leads across the terminals are still working, so it’s the normal Solomon Island case of if it’s running keep going, we’ll fix it when it really dies.

I went into work today, and put the carburettors from the weedeaters into some white spirits to see if that will clean the jets and filters. I’m happy with what we got done on Friday, stripped down one motor completely, and rebuilt, and it started and runs. I’ll have to buy a few proper tools this week, all we have is 2 screwdrivers, some sockets, no ratchet handle for the sockets, so we use a screwdriver wedged into the square end. It’s a bit primitive.

It’s 7pm. The water went off at the same time as the power this morning at 9am, I’ve got power, but still waiting for the water pressure to build up in the lines, it’s a slow trickle at the moment.

Friday in Honiara was fun, I forgot about it till today driving through town. A container truck took the power lines and pole down outside Central Market about 1pm. They had traffic diverted through Hibiscus Avenue from the Breadshop Roundabout, and the ANZ roundabout, but there was still a 4km long buildup in both directions for several hours. They were replacing the pole today in the quiet period when everyone is at church.

Managed to get hold of Steve, my VSA Officer, he’s going to come along tomorrow as well, and get a few pics to send to Wellington for the VSA Magazine. I should really do an article for it as well, I have enough pictures, just the writing is the hard part. I’m meant to be doing a 3 month report anyway, I may just crib a lot of the rubbish in here and fill the spaces with pictures.

Our roads are improving. The council have been out and started filling in the potholes on Mendana, and the really bad corner outside the Iron Bottom Hotel by Rove. It’s a bit annoying, I’ve got so used to the holes, some of them seem like old friends now. You get used to driving sideways along the road once you know where the big ones are, or crossing over lanes into oncoming traffic to dodge the really big ones. Never mind, another few months of rain and they’ll be back again

Friday 15th May

I’m finally ready to dispose of Adrian, one way or the other. He heard us talking about Keithies “request” for us to cut the wage bill and put some of the crew off, and took it on himself to go to Keithie and tell her that we only need 12 people at the Gardens, and we could put 8 people off to cut the number from 20 to 12. He didn’t take into account that in the 20 is Tiffany, Shirleyta, David, in the office, Jennifer and Imelda in the Nursery, Andrew doing the tool maintenance in the workshop every day, so his idea would cut our actual hands on crew to 7 including Emory the driver.

On that number, there is no way we could do the amount of work we have in a week, let alone the month. Bloody idiot. And to cap it all off, David from Rove Prison called up, and admitted that they are unable to guarantee Adrians safety while he is working there with the prisoners because of his attitude towards them. They’re all life sentence people, a few for murder, some from the troubles for sedition and guerrilla activities. And Adrian is abusing them. Anyway, he’s been barred from the prison job, I’m happier, Sepka is happy, the prison staff are happy, and the prisoners are working well again.

I’ve got 3 live coconut crabs scuttling about on my porch, they’ll live quite happily there for a while, so long as I throw them some coconut every now and then. Good burglar alarms too, you don’t want to be treading on one, the claws can rip a coconut apart, so toes and feet will be like soft jelly.

There’s not a lot of meat in them, I feel like letting them go in the bush somewhere to live, the amount of work required to get a few tablespoons of meat doesn’t seem appropriate to kill one for. Crayfish are a different story though, lots of meat, and easier to get at.

We’ve had a good couple of days at work, Andrew, David and I, stripping down the motors on the grass cutters, and rebuilding them. It drives Adrian crazy watching us, he’s still against showing the guys how to service and repair the machines. As far as I’m concerned, it goes with my job, advise, teach, demonstrate. Anyway, the guys can strip a machine down to the cylinders, assemble, check and get it going now, so I feel that is a plus. I’ll get a few more tools to do it properly with next week, and a ring compressor, then we can do a full strip down and reassembly.

This way all we have to pay for is the parts, gaskets etc, although I showed Andrew how to make a gasket with a small ball peen hammer and some thick paper today. All the little tricks I’ve learnt over the years doing maintenance, Andrew and David, just look once, they have it straight away. We had fun tuning the motor today, the micro filter on the jet was blocked, not fully, just enough to let some fuel through for starting and idling, but not enough to run. David was all for stripping the entire motor down again, till I convinced him it was a fuel problem, not mechanical. He’d never touched the carburettors before, so there went an hour or so stripping it apart, not that there is much to them. He didn’t believe me when I said the filter looked clogged, well, it was hard to say, very fine holes, but I figured it must be. We had another old carb so we swapped parts around, reassembled, put it all back together, and then had a petrol head time tuning it in. A lot of noise and smoke from the excess oil in the crankcase for a while, and another machine ready for work.

Graduation Ceremony for the students on Monday, it’s a real big thing here, family, newspapers, even though it’s only Level 2 Certificate, it means a job and a chance for further education. I hope they all do well, it’s been a fun class, and a really good bunch of people to work with. We’re having a full on barbque on the lawn, from what I gather, it’s everything from fish, meat, taro, salads, rice, fruit, cassava. It’ll be good whatever happens, they always have good functions and food enough to make sure everyone gets fed.

I had “words” with David today, he won’t take any money for Mums present, and now he’s got some handwoven baskets from his home for me as well. I keep trying to tell him I’m only doing what I’m meant to be here for, nothing special, just advise, show, help, but he’s too bloody nice and is really proud of his heritage. I’m really pleased, but it’s not something I expect just for doing my job.

Pics are a green tree lizard, and 2 unidentified spiders

Thursday 14th May

I’m sure I’ve died and gone to heaven. David insisted on coming home with me tonight, with a cardboard box.

15 coconut crabs, a couple of large ones, and the rest average restaurant size.

We cooked 4 of the small ones and had a claw cracking feast, then a couple have been cooked and gone into the deep freeze, and I’ve still got one large one and a small one tied up on the floor

David and Tiffany stayed for a while, had a good long talk, the more I get assimilated into here, the more I see where we can make things work. My cutting out the free work has had an impact on David, he can see where the money has been going on what I call “hobby” activities. We need more of the private contracts, lawn mowing, garden maintenance as our bread and butter lines, then we start looking at the cream jobs

I‘m still working on the figures for the contract work, I should have them juggled by the end of next week, and ok, we may have to be on a short work week for a while, 3 or 4 days a week, but it keeps the crew together, which is the main point.

David cracked me up tonight, we’re looking for something to cook the coconut crabs in, well, he was looking, I knew I had a wok, and he said,” Jesus man, is that all you have?????????

When it comes down the real basics, yes, it’s all I have. I have a really good set of pots, pans, frypans back in Auckland I bought in Alaska, but the weight makes them out of range to get here, so it’s back to basic cooking.

And I refuse to buy the crap aluminium stuff on sale here.

I get so frustrated dealing with people here a times. We had a guy call into the gardens yesterday, I was busy with the Students, David was out, so he saw Tiff and Shirleyta. Made all sorts of statements about how he had plants and cuttings, seedlings for us, and could we go get them please.

When we arrived at his place today, all he wanted to do was sell us stuff his father had potted up, which we have plenty of anyway, I walked off in disgust, David followed me very quickly.

The good thing was we kept him talking long enough for Jennifer and Imelda to get lots of cuttings from the plants he had we don’t. Petrea volubis, some more bougainvillea we don’ t have, a double pink, a yellow, and a really cerise one. I am sure Tiffany told him we don’t buy plants, we’re basically a volunteer organization, but as usual, if they sniff money, they’ll try anything

We bumped into Kennedy in town today, we’ve got a garden to design and put into the front of the Tourism Solomon Island Bureaux, I’ll get Tiff to approach them on Monday about having a statue in there as well. Kennedy is ok about accepting cost only for it, so long as we start getting the local art out into the community

I feel I have to make it up to him after the Heritage Hotel fiasco. I’m pleased that fell through, they are still trying to stiff us over hiring our tree shredder, we gave them a per day cost, now they are trying to tell us it was a job and finish contract. 5 days worth of the shredder, 2 staff each day, sorry, you pay the going rate, $1600 Solomon per day

I wouldn’t take any work from them now, they screw the price down, then dicker about the bill, and don’t pay anyway. I’ll put it again here in the hope the search engines find it, Heritage Hotels are not worth wasting time on

I’m up to 99 pages in word with this, and 3 months in, ok, it’s going to make a long novel, even with editing

Then again it’s probably only of interest to anyone coming here, which I’d like to think will be a lot more people. Honiara isn’t the Solomons by any means, once you get out of here, it is all the things you read about. Life slows down, there is time for fishing, just lazing around, life can be so good once you get away from the tv, the video, the dvd player,

Not that I’m a prime example, I like being able to get online, although even that has taken a back seat to some extent. And even in the furtherest islands, it is still possible to hook up with satellite. Ok, solar panels and stuff help.

Alphonse, one of the students on the course asked me to type up his speech for graduation. I’m going to include it here because I think it encapsulates everything I’ve said about all the people here. They are so hungry for knowledge, training, learning, that they appreciate, and see, any opportunity as a gift to be accepted, and worked with

Alphonse speaks 4 languages, his own wantok language, his province language, toktok pijin, and English. He understands me talking in English, he asks me questions in toktok pijin, I feel embarrassed that I cannot answer him as fully as I should in toktok

Alphonse wrote

“ Master of Ceremonies, distinguished guests, representative staff, SEB Trainer, Students parents, other colleagues, ladies and gentlemen

It is indeed a great pleasure for me on behalf of the student trainees to take this wonderful chance to breath our appreciation today.

First of all I would wish to first thank Solo Enviro Beautification for their understanding in collaborating with the idea of forming SEB which started in 1999
To take up the responsibility of beautifying our city is indeed a bold step forward in this much talked about development of Solomon Islands, this is to physically beautify our city, a responsibility that each and everyone of us should shoulder. Also on behalf of student colleagues, I would like to thank the CSF’s who helped SEB in its strive to bear this responsibility.

For without your support, the SEB cannot venture further in fulfilling its commitment and their said responsibility. On the same line of appreciation I would like to thank the hard working staff of SEB who have committed their time and profession in conveying the useful course and training

Secondly, many thanks to the SEB Administration for giving us this wonderful opportunity by accepting us freely to undertake the useful course and training. Something that one have to pay large sums of money to do. With that we are awarded with Certificates is seen as stepping stone in gaining entry to other institution of training and more learning.

It is an ingredient that will eventually ease the many challenges that we will face today and tomorrow. And the future that holds many of these challenges awaits us there. Therefore our conclusion in this programme of SEB really pave a way forward for us. For this, thumbs up to Solo Enviro Beautification.

Finally I would also like to thank any students and colleagues for the enthusiasm that you have shown, and the willingness that you have displayed. So therefore, may I state, here that what we have gained from the benefit of our time with SEB will be long remembered. So too, may I on behalf of my colleagues wish SEB in its endeavours and may the future of SEB be bright and full of many achievements. Before I forget, thanks to the SEB workers for your great work well done. All in all, thanks to the SEB Staff, and many others not mentioned here but who have contributed to this course.

Once again ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you very much, may God bless us all”

If anyone has an idea how I can answer that by Monday, please let me know. After reading it today while typing it out, I feel that I have failed to give them as much as I should have.

I’ve said it previously, if I had my own Nursery, and employed all the people on the course, it would beat any competition

Pics are of Sepa, Jocelyn, Suzie, Alphonse and Caroline preparing a tree trunk for the Orchid House, and the coconut crab we had for dinner

Wednesday 13th May

6.22pm and we have the most spectacular lightning and thunderstorm going on. I’m not going out to get pics, it means going through the trees here to the cliff edge, and the rain is coming in from that direction. Maybe in another year when the camera isn’t quite so new. The thunder sounds like a bowling ball rolling along the boards, then the crackle and flash of the lightning comes after a few seconds.

I know that isn’t the usual sequence, but it seems to happen that way a fair bit here, or else there is more lightning that I don’t see happening further over in the hills.

I’ve been hoping for a good storm out in the bay to get some good pics of, but the weather pattern seems to be holding South at the present. It’s been so humid and hot the last week, I’d almost trade some of the weather that hit NZ the last week, almost.

We’ve been given the go ahead to try for a 2 story building in the Nursery, Forestry are really pushing for us to be out, and if we can get a new building purpose built, it will suit us a lot better. Initial costing is way over our budget by about $500,000, but it had all the bells and whistles which we can do without. Instead of 4 toilets, we’ve cut it to 2, and a few walls we don’t need, so it’s going to look fairly basic, which is good. Office and classroom upstairs which the Japanese will love, anything that has an educational component is exactly what they like to see, and it ties in with my future plans for the Nursery.

I haven’t heard back from Keithie about cutting out the free work, Bruce called a couple of times today about the building proposal, and never mentioned it either. We’re still chasing as much contract work as possible, I’ll catch up with Les at Council tomorrow and twist his arm for the Council Plant Supply Contract for the Nursery. It’s not as spectacular money wise, well, not as quick that is, but selling 200 – 300 plants at a time at $40 - $70 each depending on species certainly fills the coffers.

We had a 15” Diamond Python call into the office today, David saw it outside the door, picked it up and put it in the shrubbery away from the office. The weather is definitely changing, a lot of different things are coming out for the dry season. Beetles, moths, snakes, a lot more green tree lizards around, and the bloody mosquitos are driving me crazy at work along the track. David is going to try to find the python that lives around the lily pond for me, so I can get a photo. It’s about 6’ long and he says it is about 4” thick. I’m guessing it lives quite well off the frogs there. I wish it would catch the cat that lives in the house there, it keeps killing the lizards and skinks around the lily pond, and moves to fast for me to get with a bush knife.

One more day of exams for the students, then a days break Friday, Graduation Ceremony Monday, barbque and food on the lawn area, pics for the paper etc. And hopefully they will all get a job in town with the hotels and other landscape people. They’ve all done well, considering I still use a lot of English, at least I can understand them when they ask anything in toktok pijin. Then it becomes a matter of thinking up a suitable example from here that I can use to demonstrate or explain with.

Family, genus, and species still confused a few, and cultivar/hybrid, so we went back to the Family = Melanesian, Genus = which province they are from, species = wantok, cultivar = themselves. I know it’s a bit of a rough and ready comparison, but it works for them.

The heavy rain has finally arrived, 30 minutes after the thunder started. Pounding down on the trees and roof here.

I’m on a roll tonight, I’ve got electricity, and water both at the same time, so the poor little washing machine is working overtime.

Hopefully I’ll have a quiet day Saturday, and manage to upload some pics to my Webshots albums finally. The connection here is so slow, I’m having to resize all the pics so I don’t spend all day uploading them one at a time.
Hi to Polly (Fionn) in Bantry, nice to see you again.

Pic is of one of the statues carved by Kennedy and Frank in the Museum Grounds

Tuesday 12th May

After having a night to think it through, I asked Shirleyta and Tiffany for a list of all the free stuff we do through town, and a rough guess at how many crew and for how long each week, we spend on them

It took a while to compile, but the final figures came to $14,750 per month in wages alone for work we don’t get paid to do. Nearly half our monthly wages bill, add in diesel, tools and maintenance for equipment, and we’d be close to $20,000 a month.

I wrote it all up, added a letter saying that due to the present financial shortfall as discussed, we have cut back on all free work until such time as we are in a better financial situation, and sent it off to Keithie. I’m expecting a blast tomorrow at least, or then again, it may be what is needed to show where all the money is going.

We have enough contracts to keep everyone employed at least 4 days a week, and with the private work slowly coming in, we should be able to keep everyone on fulltime. Here’s hoping anyway

Priced another big job today, one days work a week for 4 people, mostly lawn cutting, a bit of weeding, and some more shrubs to be planted around one of the PDL Toll houses. PDL Toll are the Logistics Company that supply all the back up for RAMSI and the Army here, food, clothing, supplies, equipment etc. It used to be Patrick Defence Logistics, but Toll Holdings bought them out a couple of years back.

I got a letter back from one of the MPs about the Orchids, Not bad, one reply from 50 sent. But at least we’ll have Orchids from Malaita, which has some really spectacular flowers there

And one MP and one former Prme Minister having their photo taken for the Solomon Star and an article about their generosity.

There’s not a lot been happening lately, I’ve run into a brick wall, mostly with the exam week with the students, power cuts, working most weekends juggling contracts and staff numbers.

Another week and I’ll be back on Savo for another 4 day weekend, hopefully that will recharge the batteries and I’ll be looking forward again.

Monday 11th May

It’s so good to have order restored again. I’ve got electricity, water, an empty fridge after everything defrosted and went off over the weekend, but mostly fruit so that’s cheap enough to replace.

I managed to get Andrews and Emorys application forms on Friday, after a 2 hour wait in the National Training Unit office. Now all we need is copies of all their certificates, references etc and send it all off for approval. It may take a month or more for the applications to be processed, Steve has had a word with his counterpart in the NZ Aid office, so hopefully they will look kindly on them.

Now I know how the system works here, I’ll see how successful we are with Andrew and Emory, then start looking for Nursery training for a couple of the girls next year as well.

We’re running out of money as usual to run everything. I’ve been going through our accounts, and we do an awful lot of free stuff as part of the keep Honiara beautiful thing. Keithie is concerned and is talking about laying off staff, I’m trying to get more contract landscaping work, mowing lawns, keeping gardens maintained for the RAMSI and PDL people. Then we’ll have to take a good look at what we do, and who we can charge for it. The Childrens Playground is maintained by us, it’s a constant drain for paint, timber repairs etc, and we don’t have any income from it or anyone to charge for the repairs, it’s not the only place, David and I are going to get together this weekend and go through our contracts and workload, and drop anything we do for free until we can find sponsors or income to cover it.

It’s all a bit Walt Disney, SEB is Keithies brainchild, full marks to her for being so persistent in getting it all underway. Now we have 20 families dependent on SEB for income, and it’s moved beyond being a hobby project, we need to be a lot more business like

One of the many Chinese shopkeepers in town yesterday swept his shop out, and as they do here, just piled the rubbish around the base of one of the trees, and set fire to it in the main street. Consequently, the tree burnt through, and collapsed. We’re going to replace the tree, but the shopkeeper is getting a bill from me in the morning for the damage and replacement, and if he kicks up about it, the police will be charging him with destroying Council Property. It may wake a few of them up, although that is going to be a long hard job. All of them are the same, they sweep all the rubbish onto the sidewalk, and leave it, even with a rubbish bin next to the shop.

I can sympathise with the locals for burning out Chinatown in the riots in 2006.

Tiffany and Keithie have a meeting with Forestry tomorrow, about the threat to have SEB evicted from the Gardens. It’ll be interesting, we’ve been maintaining the Gardens for the past 6 years out of our own funds, if they evict us, there’ll be a bill sent for the work we’ve done, plus I’ll be packing everything in the Nursery to take with us.

All the students started the final week exams today, 2 exams a day till Thursday, then graduation Friday. As much as I’d like to keep some of them on, present circumstances aren’t going to let me. I think all of them should pass the tests, I’ve made them all multi choice, ok, a few I’ve played with, by giving them several answers all correct to mark, but overall, everything is from their workbooks.

Just realised I’ve been here 3 months now. Looking back, there’s been a few changes already, the Nursery plants are looking better, the potting soil is working, now it’s time to concentrate on getting more income producing work. And David is more trusting of me and what we are trying to do.

Pic is of the Stadium at Town Ground, a more useless waste of money I've yet to see here.

Sunday 10th May

I’ve finally got power back on at the house, it’s been patchy since Friday evening. There was a really good thunder and lightning storm Friday evening and my power decided to go and hide somewhere for the weekend. It has been on at odd times, an hour or so yesterday morning, a few hours this morning, but nothjing you could actually trust to be on continuously

We spent Friday at the gardens, tidying up, clearing the rubbish etc, I’ve got one more exam to write up tomorrow, while they are starting the first 6 for the week.

Saturday I went into the Gardens, the power was on there, so I worked in the office with the airconditioning on. Apart from the interruptions by people coming through the gardens wanting information, I got 4 exams written up between yesterday and today.

Other than the rainwater tank, I’m without water again, it’s just a waiting game now till it hiccups and gushes forth. I haven’t been able to work out the piping system here yet, so I’ll leave it well alone now I’m used to it.

Pic is of a moth that was in the office yesterday, it’s about 100mm across, and about 125mm long. If anyone knows the name, please let me know.

Thursday 7th May

Thanks to the generosity of Solomon Island Electricity Board, I have power once again at home, which explains my absence to some extent. The other reason is that our internet connection at work is back to it’s go slow problem again. I know this sounds unbelievable, but it took 1 ½ hours for my email to open this morning, after which, I opened one email, wrote a reply, hit send, and I got a 404 page not found message. To say I was a tad frustrated is close. We managed to get through the day with it running in fits and starts, my apologies to Rose, Chip, Moira, Marianne for either not answering or vanishing halfway through a conversation or a message post

Our Rover Mulcher has more than just a bent blade. We’ve really worked it hard, and the blades, which spin on a steel shaft have actually worn into the shaft, about halfway through a 15mm steel shaft. The problem now is where to get replacements. The actual Rover Agent here in Honiara is Solomon Motors, who lost their import licence last year, and now deal through Farmset for Rover parts. Farmset have to deal through their head office in Papua New Guinea, who order the parts from Rover Queensland, so we could be a while yet. I wrote to Rover Aust. about it, and got a brief “We don’t deal with the Public” reply, so –10 points for Rover Industries Australia. Philip at Farmset is going to try and get the shafts made up here in Honiara at an engineering shop, they can’t be too hard to make, only 180mm of 15mm steel shaft with a hole at one end for the securing pin, but this is Honiara so I’m not holding my breath over it yet. It would be nice if they could do case hardening on the shaft, or had some good high bright shafting.

It really becomes a nuisance, after getting it all set up in the Nursery, and the girls actually wanting to use our made up potting mix. Once we get this problem sorted, and a good supply of replacement shafts secured it will all go smoothly again. We have 4cum of compost to put through as soon as possible, all the prepared potting mix has been used up. I have to admit our plants are growing a lot faster and looking better, even Jennifer and Imelda think it’s been a good improvement

I’ve had a good couple of days with David working out planting plans and schedules for the garden beds in town. Some were planted at the start of SEB becoming involved, and it was a throw every plant at the space, and step back approach, a bit like Stupid Bloody Johnson* and his “It may look a mess now, but just you come back in 500 years time”

Outside the Telekom Office block is a bit of a really mixed bag of plants, Crotons, Duranta, Hibiscus, Cordyline, Heliconia all tangled together. Both David and looked at it, looked at each other, and said “Hibiscus all the way down the street”. It’s about 50 metres of frontage onto the western end of Mendana Avenue, up to the Supreme Court and if we can get the hibiscus up to shoulder height they’ll block a lot of the traffic fumes and visual stuff. Getting a range of plants here is awkward, there’s not a lot of choice in what we plant yet, just what we can produce in the nursery mostly Duranta, Cordyline, Crotons, Hibiscus and Bougainvillea. Our palms have to be well grown enough to stop people hacking them off with a bush knife at night, actually that applies to most plantings we do in town and along the median strip.

We’ve stopped pruning the Bougainvillea for a few months, and the Hibiscus. I noticed a lot of buds forming last week walking through town, so asked the pruning ladies to hold back on cutting, already a lot of the bougainvillea are in flower, purples and hot pinks, with a few of the orange ones opening as well now. Once I can get some good solid poles, I’ll get the bougainvillea in the tubs trained up about 2 – 3 metres so the flowers hang down.

It’s elections next year here, and already the letters are going into the Solomon Star about the graft, lack of visibility of the MP’s, wantok getting all the province funding, so it’s going to be an interesting year ahead. Hopefully it won’t turn into another civil war with all the factions running amok in Honiara again. The security warning is still in place, stay away from the centre of Honiara at night, travel in groups at night, do not wander the streets etc. Still a way to go here, although it is a lot safer than Auckland at night. Most of the burglaries are where anyone associated with RAMSI are located, my personal view is that if you are going to splash money, and live high consumption lives here, in front of people who have no income, you’re being stupid. This is still a country recovering from 8 years of Civil War, corruption in Government, with 80% unemployment in Honiara and a lot of ethnic violence against different Island communities. Interesting place for sure.

I could have quite cheerfully killed Adrian this morning. For all his shouting, abuse, and get everyone working to time etc, he went out with the work truck this morning after David and I had got the day planned. It turned into a shambles very quickly. Adrian had the truck drive him all around Honiara looking for wine glasses while David and I waited for an hour for the truck to arrive with the chipper and the crew. Then when they did finally arrive 2 hours late, Adrian proceeded to shout and abuse everyone for taking too long over the pruning and tree cutting, and trying to rush everyone to get the job finished in time. I had a few brief words with him this afternoon, he’s going to get a few more tomorrow once I’ve stopped seeing red and calmed down. I’m not having my tree crews shouted at while they are 15 – 20 metres up a tree with chainsaws and bushknives. One sure way of an accident. And all because he commandeered the truck for his shopping.

He keeps going on about planning the day, and when we do, he proceeds to throw a spanner into it so fast you don’t even see it coming.

Oh well, it’s sunshine, hot, and it probably won’t matter in another 50 years. And I’ve got another weekend away next week getting Orchids and a day or so fishing.

Bob Dylan, Live at Budokan cd’s tonight, with The Band on earlier.

* Stupid Bloody Johnson features as a part character in Disc World.

Pic is of a rain cloud over the island west of Savo at 6.30 one morning.

Tuesday 5th May

My apologies to everyone I was talking to online yesterday or today, and I just vanished abruptly. Out Telekom, emphasis on the “Our”, is having bandwidth problems, so they continually cut access at odd times, or slow down the rate for uploading and downloading. It’s driving me up the wall here. It took 2 hours this morning to open my hotmail account, from 7.45am till 9.30, then just as I got it to finally open, the power was cut off for 2 hours.

I’m learning a lot of bad toktok pijin words from Shirleyta, she’s teaching me the ones you can use in mixed company, and also ones you try not to use if the minister calls in.

I gave up trying to upload anything at all today, probably a good thing, I’ve got 4 more exam papers to write up by Friday, so not being able to goof off is a good thing.

Shirleyta and I looked at another house we’ve been asked to landscape. I’m turning it into a tropical garden, banana, pawpaw, bougainvillea, orchids, palms on the slope above the house to block the chinese peoples view. All simple straight forward stuff, a few days work for the crew, so that’s good. We’ve got a contract to look after one of the gardens we put in last month, a few days per month for 4 people once a week, mowing the lawns, trimming shrubs, clearing rubbish.

David was a bit hesitant about it, as I said to him, it’s 4 days pay for 4 people we don’t have to worry about now, one day each week, a few more contracts like that, and we’re home safely with everyones wages. We’ve got the middle of the Road, MID, contract finally signed with the Council, 3 days per week for 15 people, from sweeping to mowing, planting, tubs, and the highway from King George IV School to Henderson Field to mow and plant.

David and I felt so embarrassed, together, that’s a first, over the Taiwanese warships that called in over the weekend. I’ve mentioned the $10million dollars that has gone missing from Taiwan supposedly for the Cattle Development Fund, this weekend 428 sailors from the ships decided that the best thing they could do for Honiara was to clean the town up, and they picked up all the rubbish through the town on Friday. David really felt embarrassed that tourists could come here, and they had to show the locals how to pick up rubbish, and how to make the town look tidy. On top of which, the Taiwanese then put on a full days entertainment in Lawson Tama Stadium of martial arts, bands, displays of Taiwanese traditional dance, and food.

Needless to say, the ships left yesterday, and the rubbish is already back through town. It can get depressingly frustrating here at time.

The prison job is progressing really well. The guys from inside are good to work with, keen, and hard working. We’ve got most of the formwork in place for the centre garden area, and flagpoles. Hopefully the concrete will be poured tomorrow, all hand mixed, and then we start with the paving and garden.

From next week I’m embarking on a serious get fit, well, get moving campaign. Walking to and from work each day, it should help get the last few kilos I need to lose off me, being as David continuously tries to stop me actually doing stuff. It’s going to be a running battle with us for a bit longer yet, although he’s slowly coming around. I’m down to one meal a day, I’ve cut the coffee out a lot, back to water again during the day, although the difference between coffee and the water here is neglible, they are both the same colour at times.
Our Rover Mulcher has been used so much it’s started to buckle the exit plate underneath. Or one of the blades has become bent. Whichever, it started making a clanging noise today, so there is my early morning fix-it job for tomorrow. It’s certainly paid for itself in the short time we’ve had it. There has been over 5cu m of compost, coconut husk, and potting mix put through it so

far.

Pic is of one of the orchids in the Orchid House

Sunday 3rd May

It’s been a mixed weekend as usual. Adrian has been asked not to return to the Prison job, his attitude towards the prisoners wasn’t all that good, not in a demeaning way, but just his usual shouting and overbearing manner. So that leaves David and I at a bit of a loss, I’ve got 2 weeks left with the students, and exams for them next week, the work crews are all busy, but hopefully David can sort them out early in the morning and continue on at the Prison. It’s a nuisance, but not to be unexpected.

David had my little truck on Friday afternoon, and went home with the keys, and was out of phone area, so I walked home. I must be getting better, it only took me 45 minutes to get to Kukum from the Gardens. Managed to get hold of him this morning, and he bought the truck back this afternoon. Full of apologies, and I think Tiffany gave him an earful as well. I gave him a loaf of fresh baked bread for his troubles, so he felt a bit better.

The power was off all day yesterday from 8.30am till 9pm, I walked into Chinatown and bought a new tip for my surfcaster rod, it got damaged in transit I think, but all ready for Savo now. It left me with all the washing to get done this morning, but without a vehicle, there’s not really anywhere within walking distance I felt like going to. The day started off brilliant sunny, then turned to rain for a while this afternoon. It’s now back to hot and humid at 9pm, I’ve got all the ceiling fans in each room on trying to get some air movement.

Spent most of Saturday inside, it rained, and without any power to get the fans on, it was humid and sticky and I was hoping David would find the keys and bring them back. It was good though, read through the Nikon manual, I’ve got a lot more controls to play with on the camera, and more settings than I’ll probably ever use, but then again.

Rose got me thinking about doing postcards for here, there aren’t a lot available, and most of the ones that are available, are all about 10 – 15 year old pictures, from before the troubles. And not very good pictures at that. The Nikon has a few settings for picture quality and colour, that relate to using Adobe for colour balance and definition, which is great for publications, ArcSoft and Irfan View are good, but Adobe has the wider number of people in publishing using it. I’ve reset the Nikon to High Def for everything, thank the Lord for Pix-resizer, actually, thank someone else for telling me about it a few years ago. Great for resizing any size picture down to a manageable size for web pages and email without losing any quality.
Now that the weather is changing, my little garden is starting to actually grow now, it looked really sad for the last couple of months. I think the constant rain wasn’t all that good for the plants, now we get 4 or 5 days a week without rain, it’s all starting to grow better. I’ve tried again with more beans, and coriander, some cayenne chillies, and capsicums. I’ve still got a lot of seeds to use, a few at a time to try and get the right time for them. My cucumbers have taken till now to set fruit, there’re a lot of small cucumbers formed, hopefully they will all grow.

Pic is of my fresh bread from yesterday