Wednesday 8th July

Thank God for spreadsheet for dummies, otherwise known as Microsoft Works Spreadsheet. I’ve got the costings to the nearest 20 dollars, I need some accurate figures and then I’ll be able to start fresh with a zero bank balance, but I’ll know where the money is going. We’ve been losing $15,783 each month, just on wages, without catastrophic stuff like truck repairs, weed trimmer repairs.

It makes for a difficult time.

Davids wantok William turned up today, received his termination letter, he didn’t come to work Monday, and got very upset. He is after redundancy, not termination hoping to get a bigger payout, instead of having to work the months notice out. As I pointed out to him, even if we paid him redundancy, he’s had so many advances on his wages this year, he hasn’t got anything to collect. He has 3 weeks holiday time owing, plus this months wages which he’d get as a redundancy payment. Unfortunately, what he owes is still $207 more than he has in credit, so he is going to end the month still owing money and not collecting anything.

He went to a lawyer, or said he had been. Then came back to work threatening to take us to the Employment Court if I didn’t change the wording on his termination letter to redundancy, instead of termination notice. Which is when I pointed out his wage advances. If he works out the month, he might just have some spare, but I doubt we’ll see much of him now. We counted up his days absence do far this year, 23 up to Monday, which isn’t bad for 5 months. Nearly a month off in 5.

The joys of employment issues never stop.

The little truck I’ve been driving, otherwise known as the rust bucket, has to have the tray replaced completely, so David and I are stripping it off tomorrow and Friday and replacing it with a timber deck. We have Vasa wood here, harder than Kwila, and a nice dark colour when it is oiled, so the truck will look quite good when we have finished. David got an exemption notice from the Police so we can continue driving it for a few days while we make repairs. David feels embarrassed when ever he sees me in it, all the other whitefala in Honiara drive new SUV’s, 4WD, Mitsubishi/Toyota/Landrovers and there I am in a beaten up truck, full of rust and dings, and quite happy about it.

It’s late here, we got caught at work with the power cuts this afternoon, and the crew had to wait till 6 pm before we had their wages done. Tiffany only just made it to the Bank in time to get the cash. Very few people use direct payment, actually, very few of them have bank accounts anyway, there isn’t enough money left over to put in the bank.