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.