Tuesday 29th September

Well, we’ve started packing stuff up in the office. I seem to have spent most of the past few years packing/unpacking and moving. I still get frustrated with it, or the whole concept.

I went with Tony from BJS out to the possible new site at Henderson today for a look. It’s good, off the main road on a side street, and at the back of an earthmoving equipment suppliers workshop. Huge area, they use it for storage, on a short term lease basis for anyone with large containers that need temp storage. If it all goes well, we can start moving there next week, plants and all. It’ll mean running a new line for water, and we’ll get a water meter and bill, but we’ll work out how to pay for that further down the track.

I started emptying out the big storage cupboard and packing files into cartons, it’s the cupboard that had the rat nest in, as I found when I got to the bottom shelves and I disturbed a swarm of fleas and other biting things. We had to vacate the office for a while to let the insect spray work. I ended up with hundreds of small bites on my arms and legs, with my luck I’ll get bubonic plague now.

Tiffany and I are really past it all with the problems and petty in-fighting over it all now. I have serious doubts about my project ever getting started, let alone actually being completed. I’m away with Steve for a few days next week, the boat is booked to someone else for this week, so we’ll have a bit of a discussion about other options for me. One of the rural training centres would be good, some of them have wireless internet available sometimes, so they aren’t exactly lost to the world. Although they are all rural, which here means no road in, it’s foot tracks or boat then walk to them. No shops, electricity, but given the few times I’m in Honiara now, that isn’t a big loss, although the lack of electricity without a generator may be a bit hard to cope with. It comes in handy for recharging hearing aid batteries, camera battery and laptop.

I’ve got a month or a bit longer running a training session for the gardeners at the High Court and Justice Dept once all the moving is over with. We used to look after the area there, but they decided as they were employing gardeners anyway, they would do it. Tiffany knew it wouldn’t be long till they came back to us, we know the people employed there, and they prefer to be inside in the aircon rather than outside working in the garden. But ok, at least it gives me something to do for a month or so, and hopefully they’ll learn how to look after the gardens there better than they have been for the past month. All the shrubs have been hacked rather than trimmed, and the lily and helleconia beds are looking a real mess now.
We’re slowly replacing all the crotons/ornamental pineapple in the tubs down the street with bouganvillea. It’s taken me a while to get the idea accepted, but the original ones I had done a few months back are all in flower now, and have been for a while. We get 2 or 3 tubs done each time, dig all the soil out, replace it with our compost/mulch mix, and put 4 bouganvillea into each tub. So far it is working and should look better than the crotons and pineapple plants.

The new security advisory report is out, still fairly much the same, but with a stronger precautionary warning about being out at night in Honiara, and to take extra caution in Central Market and the back streets. About the same as I’ve gathered by myself over the past couple of months. A really high unemployment level, no prospects of work happening, a totally corrupt Government, high cost of living in and around Honiara, it all builds up to a high frustration level with everyone and if you are perceived to be rich, and just being white here is enough for that, you can be in trouble very quickly.

Once you get out of Honiara though it is all different, although you are still charged top dollar for everything, it is done with a smile. And you do have some leeway for bargaining.

I went out last week with the Environmental Action Group, on a school visit to see where or what the schools had done with the Environment Grants. 4 schools took part in the campaign, it was for the upgrading of facilities and improvements as needed. We went to St Nicholas College, which is just beside me here at the Ba’Hai Centre, King George IV College, which is the oldest school on Guadacanal, White River Community School, and St Johns. A huge contrast between them all, St Nicholas has a lot of the higher level Govt and professions children, so money isn’t a problem, and it shows in the facilities, desks, computers, good equipment and resources, then King George IV, which is a boarding school, White River Community which services the White River Settlements, and St Johns which is at the bottom end of everything by Rove Prison and the Gardens.



St Nicholas had used the grants to set up a recycling centre, and rubbish transfer area, roofed, concrete floor, and proper lidded bins, King George had used it to plant border plants along the pathways, White River did a big repaint on the classrooms, and St Johns built a composting and garden area. I’ve put a few photos from the day, one of each school which shows the difference in facilities here.

King George IV is one of the few boarding schools here, they have had problems lately with the quality and committment of the teaching staff, some never turn up for class, or arrive drunk, and the students are having a few problems. It has huge ground, with the boarding houses scattered amongst trees and what was a park like area, now all overgrown and reverting to jungle again. They have advertised through VSA for another relieving Head Master to take charge and train the staff and a permanent Head. That would be an interesting assignment. A few challenges there.
White River Community has a big mix of different island tribes in the area, it is one of the first settlements alongside Honiara. The school would rate between King George IV and St Johns for resources, nice large area, but very few shade trees, and not a lot of amenities. The White River area has a strong community group but has a lot of the usual problems associated with high unemployment, Kwaso and betel nut.



St Johns has almost no resources, really dedicated teachers, great students who are really behind everything the teachers do, but are badly handicapped by the poverty and lack of teaching materials, facilities. It is a real contrast between the schools here, from wealthy schools like St Nicholas, to struggling schools like St Johns.