7th March

I think I’ve calmed down from the last rant. We lost 3 days work last week with the rain, so Thursday and Friday became a bit of a scramble to do as much as possible to tidy the town up. The Childrens park as usual was a mess, Jacinta and Rose spent both days there, I didn’t get a count of the rubbish bags, but they took 3 packets, (60), and I didn’t see any loose ones when they got back. We made a start on the wall in the container, David, Emory, Adrian and I. I keep forgetting that no one here has had any real training, in anything really other than bush survival, and fishing. Watching David and Emory use a handsaw is a frustrating experience. They have the idea that the faster and harder you push the saw through the better it is, with the result we had more than a few angled saw cuts. I tried showing the difference between steady strokes with it, it is going to take a while to teach stuff though. Same with using a hammer, setting studs and nogs into walls.

I remember having the same things with the trainees back in New Zealand, 17 – 20 yr old guys, never used a hammer or saw before, or even seen one I think. It makes for a long learning experience when you have to start with really basic things before you can progress to actually teaching trade skills.

I may have the little truck back on the road this week, notice I did say “may”. We’ve got new brake shoes, reconditioned fuel pump and filter, new injectors, and new glow plugs to go into it. Which will help with the shopping. I’ve got a bare pantry this week, it’s been raining too much to get into the shops yesterday, well, it rained in the morning, then cleared for the afternoon, after the shops had closed, and this morning it was a choice between getting wet going, or waiting then getting wet coming back. I decided I had enough to last me till tomorrow, ok, it’s scratching in the back of the cupboard for tinned something, those emergency ration type things that the alternative has to be really bad before you eat them stuff.

Sweet corn fritters with chilli sauce is it for tonight.

Wet weekends without transport here really turn into a long drawn out case of boredom. I’ve been writing up the Government house planting plan, plus doing a few sketches for the Post Office. Then it became a long afternoon going through the cds in media player and editing the info, and sorting the tracks out. Plus several cups of coffee, 2 long cold showers to cool down from the humidity, it might be raining, but it is like a steam bath in the house. All my washing is limp on the lines, I think my t-shirts are just absorbing the moisture from the air, they feel wetter than when I hung them out on Friday night.

I had another try dehydrating some pineapple, but it is next to impossible this weekend, 12 hours drying, and within 30 minutes the slices are limp with moisture again, before they cool down. I’ll wait a couple of months for the dry season and try again, fruit will be cheaper then as well.

From the Solomon Star yesterday, it looks as though they are going to try the Cattle Farming Proposal once more, with $10million Solomon to back it up. I can’t really see it getting off the ground, for the reasons I mentioned a few months back, wrong cattle breeds, no real ownership of the scheme, and with the village wantok system, it is hard to see how it will last. As soon as someone wants a beast for slaughter, the breeding stock will be gone. There isn’t any sense of future here, it is all in the now, which is the problem I have with trying to get seeds etc started with the nursery. No one has any concept of waiting for a year, 2 years, for things to ripen, grow, produce. If it is near ripe, it is taken, which I can see happening with the cattle, they will all be killed and eaten within a year, and no breeding stock left. That is, if they ever get the cattle, no one has got land organised yet, fencing yards etc, there isn’t a dairy industry here, so all the infrastructure, even a slaughter house facility, all has to be started sometime before anything happens.

I hope it does happen, we need something to get away from the imported food, frozen meat/chicken from Australia and New Zealand, which very few locals can afford, and the locally grown pigs that are slaughtered in backyards under not the most sanitary conditions. I don’t know if any of the pig stock has worm infestations, but given the conditions, and the lack of inspection, it must be something to consider. Add the tropical conditions, and the usual tropical parasites, ok, I’m crossing pork off my list as well.

Spent yesterday afternoon engaged in designing labels for my pineapple pawpaw chilli sauce. I’ll find some Avery labels and print a few up to make the bottles look a bit better. Zoe may get a bottle in the post if US Customs pass it with a label.

I found the NZ MAF Biosecurity website, with their recommendations for a level 1 Quarantine Facility, all 70 pdf pages of it, so that has helped pass the time reading. Most of it is what we were going to do anyway, and they helpfully put a seperate section detailing the paperwork, checks, and security required. Apart from a lot of writing up forms and procedures, it isn’t all that onerous. Security is the main worry, and authorised personnel and training. I’ll be interested to see the Solomon Island equivalent.

As an aside to everything, I noticed when I was back in New Zealand my hair went decidedly grey, almost white, since I’ve been back in Honiara it has returned to a sort of muddy brown. I guess there is a lot to be said for water purification, I know there are times here when the tap water is a definite earthy colour, I’ve got a glass of it sitting on the bench to settle now, I’ll check it again in the morning.