Wednesday 7th April - Thursday 8th April

Tiff is back, with the girls, David managed to successfully miss the plane and is still on Bellona diving and fishing. I’ve ended up with 3 large crayfish for dinner, and a sudden need to visit Bellona.

MID (Ministry of Infrastructure and Development) were on Bellona, running a 2 week workshop to train people to do the roading contract on Bellona, and Tiffany met the main people from MID on Sunday. We’ve been asked to put in a proposal for SEB to manage the roadside clearing and maintenance, and train the people on Bellona. Tiff and I were talking it over yesterday afternoon, as we both agreed, a 2 week workshop isn’t going to work, there is no business set up on Bellona similar to SEB, the only maintenance people on Bellona service the airport, and they are the people whose land was taken for the airport. They live around the perimeter and have a contract to keep the grass etc cut. It is run through the ex-MP for Bellona, and as is normal with anything to do with money and MPs, there is a large discrepancy between money allocated, and services rendered. It is not uncommon for flights to be cancelled due to the length of grass on the landing strip. Each family has about 60’ of grass to keep cut, they get $600 per fortnight for it, the allocation is $1,000 per fortnight each area, no equipment in sight other than the curved bushknives.

Tiff is convinced we can go there, set it up, train enough locals to do the work, and we run the accounts and payments. Initial expenses would be for grass cutters and handtools, and for a couple of us to be there for a month or so setting up and training. After than, about a once per month trip to Bellona for a few days to check on the work being done.

We have till the 14th May to have the proposal in, which gives us time to get it sorted.

I’m striking it lucky with everything I’m ordering from Brisbane, Tropigro, Garden City Plastics, and WetEarth have everything we need, and the prices are a long way below what Island Enterprises and Bowmans were charging us here, even with freight added in. I’ve got all the propagation supplies ordered, planter bags, weedmat, tubes, trays, irrigation fittings and timers. If it all makes the container at the end of April, we’ll have everything needed by May, and hopefully by then the land issue will be sorted and we can make a start.

I’ve run out of motivation for the Governor Generals Residence at the moment, most of the drawings are done, after last years fiasco with Heritage Hotels, unless I know it is going to go ahead I find it hard to spend more of my own time on doing stuff that may not be used. We have a meeting with Nigel at Government House probably Monday, to discuss the budget. At present the Governor General and family are staying in Heritage Park Hotel, while the Residence is renovated, but I have no idea what timeframe the grounds are being upgraded to. Plus we don’t have a lot of plants at the moment for any major work.

Thursday 8th April

I have to say thank you to Telekom, I got more work done today than usual, thanks to the almost nonexistent internet connection. I’d have got more done if I’d been able to send email when I needed to, instead of whenever the connection came on. Oh well, it isn’t as if it is an unexpected thing.

I have to go over the irrigation system again, Wet Earth in Brisbane have everything we need, but their recommendation is to go for higher pressure pipe than I’ve written in, I’m not totally convinced though. It isn’t so much a high pressure system, as more a high volume, low pressure one. I’ll email back tomorrow and send them the original drawings and plan, they might have a better design we can use.

Went and priced a section and garden cleanup job today, long time expat Americans living here. It’s all a bit overgrown, I figure a good day for all the crew, 4 guys with weedeaters, 3 –4 of the ladies weeding and clearing, a lot of palms that need the lower fronds cut, and some that are almost lifting the roofing iron off, 2 trees to be taken right out, and a lot of remedial path making. They are going to put lunch on for the crew as well, rice and Taiyo tuna, and cold drink. It’ll be a hard earned $1600 though, the overgrown bit at the back is about 3’ high with weeds and grass. I can see the weedeaters getting caught with the long grass. Plus a few snakes in there as well no doubt so the guys will be watching where they step.

A friend of the owners is staying for a week, Pat, another American, she was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Sierra Leone for 2 years, so we had fun swapping stories. She lives in Western Province, above Gizo on the hill, and has been trying for 15 years to establish trees and plants along the road up to the house, but the locals cut them all for firewood as soon as she plants them. Or pick the fruit as soon as it looks almost ripe, instead of letting it ripen.

I’m going to have a few words with David when he finally decides to come back from Bellona. He knows full well how I feel about everyone killing the parrot fish on the reef, and all the other coral fish, I found something else to talk about as well. One of the crayfish he sent back was a female with a full egg pouch, so I’ll be onto him about that as well. I know already the argument he’ll use, “If I didn’t take it someone else would”. As I keep telling him, once everyone realises not to keep taking the fish that their reef islands and atolls depend on, they might be able to live there a lot longer, instead of watching everything die. And just sitting around saying “Global Warming” as if that excuses them from any and all responsibility.

David sent back about 12 large parrotfish as well, and Tiff said he knew I’d be waiting for him to come back to have another talk. I really feel a baseball bat would come in handy with some conversations here. There is no conception of the idea of conservation, it is always, “If I don’t take/eat/kill/collect it now, someone else will”, it is a very much live now, tomorrow is too far away to think about society. Coming from NZ, with all the fishing regulations about sizes, quantities that work to conserve resources, and seeing the decimation of everything here and the lack of forward thinking, tends to get me a bit excited about things at times. And of course the Ministry for the Environment has got 5 people working full time on Climate Change, and no one working on actual environment or conservation issues.

Tiff got hold of MID today, about the road restoration work on Bellona, it looks as if we’ll be able to quote for the roadside maintenance and go there and set it all up if we get the contract. It’s only 5km, all the roads on Bellona only total 9km anyway, so this is the first stage, they are talking of the last bit for next year if the first stage goes well. We do 20km of road verge and median strip in Honiara now, from Honiara to King GeorgeVI, so 5km is like a days work for the crew we have, it may be worth while taking a couple of them to Bellona to show the people we employ there how it is done.

I’ve got the little truck back at last, ok, the brakes still grab, but it is mobile, and I’m not going to get too worried about the brakes, at least they stop in a straight line finally. Now it’s due for certification again next week, after 9 months of being off the road for repairs. I don’t know if I’ll laugh or cry if it gets rejected.

The postal address here for anyone thinking of sending stuff, thanks for the offer Zoe and Pete, is c/ VSA NZ, PO Box 1714, Honiara, Solomon Islands. If anything weighs too much, send sea freight, I’m not going anywhere, and like everything here, there’s no rush.

The weather continues, hot, humid, almost raining, then changes its mind and all we get is the thunder, but no rain. Even the 4.30 usual showers have been absent this year, due to the el nino weather system stuck in the Pacific. I know I’m going to freeze whenever I go back to NZ, I’m so used to wearing shorts, t-shirt at work, sarong at home, the thought of temperatures below 30*C isn’t good. And going for a swim doesn’t really cool you down, I got down about 30’ last Sunday at the beach, and the water barely changed temp till the last few feet, and even then only by a small fraction. Sea temp here is about 27*C all year, out further on the wrecks it would be cooler deeper down, but on top of the inshore reef it is always warm.

I’m still having heart attacks with the prices here for stuff, I bought 2 wheelbarrows, and 4 plastic garden rakes for the crew today, don’t ask what happened to the other wheelbarrows. Wheelbarrows, and not the super dooper contractors ones, just your standard wooden framed tin bucket, are $1200 each, garden rakes without a handle are $73, and handles are $25 each. I could have got really good steel framed wheelbarrows, but at $2,080 each, I decided not.