Friday 7th August/Sunday 9th

Friday 7th August

Finished the week no further ahead than when it started, but I’m used to that now. The only high point has been getting the truck back on the road with the new tray.

We had the Honiara Womens something or other hold a morning tea in the Gardens this morning, 200 women, the Prime Ministers wife etc, with her police escort. By the looks of them it was mostly consular and diplomatic wives, they bought more than enough food, cakes, sandwiches, soft drink to feed half Honiara. It was interesting for a few hours, they were all packed up and gone by 1pm, when all the school kids arrived to turn the Gardens into a zoo again.

Andrew came in for a couple of hours to help me get the picnic tables gathered up, so I gave him $20 for his help, he didn’t have to come in, he’s like all the work crew, they all want to work, and they like working for SEB.Even at weekends when I go in there are always 4 or 5 of them there, keeping an eye on the Gardens and Nursery. Either that or things are so bad at home they prefer coming into work.

Tiffany had to go early today, Tessie has pnuemonia and isn’t in the best of health this week. Tiffany took her to the hospital, a couple of injections, and a course of pills then see how she is by Monday. Poor little kid, she’s had a rough time this year, 2 bouts of malaria, now this. It’s a bit rough on a 4 year old growing up here. I think I mentioned a while back the death rate for under 10 yr olds here is 80% if they get to hospital. Mostly caused by people being unable to get there in time, and the poor facilities.

We’ve got rain again tonight, it’s that rare now I notice it, as opposed to when I arrived back in February and it was the fine days that were the rare event. It’s almost tolerable now, about 25C with the breeze and rain. I know it won’t last, by tomorrow it will be back into the low 30’s again.

I’m trying to make pita bread this time. I found another recipe on www.joepastry.com, it looks easier than my usual one so I’ll give it a try. They will come out a bit different, I don’t have a stone for the oven, so it’s back to the wok which is probably more authentic considering where they come from. My list of kitchen toys to buy is growing again. Coconut scraper, Indian style bread plate for doing chapati and paratha, and possibly pita bread on as well. Be nice if I had a house to put it all in : =). Then again with my history of losing or giving away stuff every few years why bother, I’ll use it till someone else needs it more than me as usual.

The Americans are here for the week, August 7th Guadacanal Anniversary, so there are a few hundred sailors wandering the streets looking like they have been dropped into hell. I must admit the Council have done a bit of a clean up, but it was only superficial along Mendana Ave. As soon as you get behind the main road it turns back into 3rd world again.

Sunday night
Spent a pointless couple of hours at work this morning trying toupload photos to webshots, gave up in the end, the connnection kept timing out even after I resized all the pics. I get so frustrated with it sometimes.

I’ve got a stack of washing, well, 2 sheets and 2 t-shirts and a pair of short, pillow cases to wash, and haven’t had any water in the house since Saturday morning again. I’m getting to the stage where it doesn’t bother me as much as it should. I’ve still got the rainwater tank for cooking and coffee water, so the washing can wait till tomorrow night.

Tension is building up in town over the payouts the MPs have given themselves. It is nearly $500,000 each at the end of each parliament term, $50,000 to their wife, $100,000 if they don’t get re-elected, plus a pension for life, free air travel anywhere, $250,000 if they were a cabinet minister, all accumulative, so after a couple of terms they collect well over a million dollars when they finally get voted out. No wonder they give so much money out in pre election bribes and stuff.

There is a report going around the Consulates describing the Solomons as the 6th most corrupt nation after 5 African states, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, a couple of others I can’t remember rigth now. It is certainly true, you can’t egt anything done here without bribing someone, from the Customs to the politicians, I think the Police force has improved since RAMSI have been here, but I’m not going to say it doesn’t still happen a ttimes, just not as blatently as it used to.