Friday 23rd October

What a fun day it turned into. We were hoping to be out of the office and away without too much fuss, but it turned into a stand up confrontation with Fred and Clement from Forestry getting upset with us stripping everything out of the office, desks, chairs, telephones, cables, internet connections everything. David really impressed me this morning during the whole thing. He had Clement and Fred almost in his face, fists clenched, shouting abuse at him, and he never raised his voice, unfolded his arms, just let them shout and threaten him. We’ll be in the Solomon Star again tomorrow, Fred got them down to show them what SEB were doing, and making it impossible for Forestry to work in the office, the fact that the phone/internet connections were in SEB’s name, didn’t mean anything to him.

It helped pass the morning anyway. For the past 8 months during all this Fred has been coming down to the Gardens with a self satisfied smirk on his face, but not today. If he’d been white, his face would have been purple with rage, as it was, he’s from Western Province, and is one of the blacker skinned Melanesians, even so, he was blacker than normal. Tiffany and David, and me, were still laughing this afternoon when we finished work.

Adrian turned up after it was all over, and wanted to know everything as usual. He didn’t believe that David just stood there, and never lost his cool. And David was doing really well explaining, till he said to Adrian, “I am David, I’m a fucking civilised man”

After I stopped laughing, I have to admit he couldn’t have said a better phrase, it broke all the tension of the past few months, and the rest of the day was just a relief for everyone, knowing we were out of all the crap and conflict.

I know I shouldn’t be wishing Forestry trouble, spite is such a petty thing to indulge in, but...............

John and Patrick from Woodford School called in later in the day, to make sure the Cross Country could still go ahead on the 5th November. I’ve told Clement about it, and walked him over the tracks yesterday showing him the repairs needed after the rains, washouts, holes, fallen trees, that we haven’t done the last week or two. John looked over the lawn area, and said it was a disgrace, which it really is now, we haven’t touched anything for about 3 weeks now, since Forestry got all belligerent. John is going to hold the Cross Country, and if the Gardens aren’t up to the standard we always had them in 2 weeks, he is going to make sure the Solomon Star knows.

We picked up 2 more contracts today as well, for Pacific Casino, the one I mentioned a few posts back, and Civic Centre Gardens as well. Keithie sent Pacific Casino the newspaper clipping with a contact attached, and a note saying “It’s about time you signed this”. It was returned today, signed with a cheque for the next month attached. We also have a fulltime street cleaner for Commonwealth Ave, paid for, it’s the street at Point Cruz with the Lime Lounge, and BJS Agencies, and the US Consulate in it. The fact that Keithie is the US Consul, with her office there in her husbands building, BJS Agencies, might have had something to do with it, but who cares, they are paying, and we get someone employed 5 days a week and it starts getting some of the town cleaned up.

The Childrens Park and the Police Memorial Park are going to be sponsored by HK Logistics, enough for us to put someone there full time everyday, which will help stop the graffiti, and rubbish being dumped there.

Keithie has finally accepted that the pricing for the roundabouts has been too low, and we are increasing it in 2 stages, from $1,000 per month to $1250 for next year, then up to what I want, $1500 after that.

The next few months are going to be tight for us, but we’re out of all the crap and Government Departmental infighting, and on a site that has everything we need, out of Honiara, away from the main road, and a good site to set up on once we get the lease and tenure sorted.

We have funding coming from the German Embassy, the EU Non State Actors Fund, and Chie at the Japanese Consul has told us to re-apply for the Nursery Funding again by March next year once we have a signed lease agreement with Hasting-Deering. It’s just getting through the next few months. And keeping the work crew together.

Tiffany and I spent the afternoon setting up the office container with the office desks. I’ll put a false wall in the end, with a door and the airconditioner, I may use the security door we had at the Gardens, although it will negate the aircon, ok, change that.

I’ve been impatient to do something the past 9 month, now I can’t wait to actually get started with a proper nursery that will be ours with no outside politics involved.


Steve agreed that yes I will have to write up a whole new Project Proposal for VSA, and that he would ignore any bad language expressed by me during the next few weeks while I do so. There are probably 1,000 other things I would prefer to do, watching geckos, counting the leaves falling off the breadfruit trees, trimming nostril hair, but it shouldn’t take too much time to write up. I’ve written proposals for courses and training schools, it’s just more of the same, and actually sitting down and doing it.