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.
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