6.45pm, still no water, went into work at 11, sorted out a huge amount of stuff to photocopy for tomorrow, posted the blog update, started the p/copy machine and the power went out. I said a few choice words, none printable, waited around for an hour, wandered through the Gardens to calm down and to try and get out of the rain, well, I was out in it, but the trees shelter a lot. Still wasn’t back on by 1pm, so went to Kukum Fish Market on the way home.
If I stop the extravagant purchases that I don’t use, like the fish the other week, I’m around SBD$100 a week for food, 5 kg bag of rice is $55, which so far has lasted me 6 weeks, coffee I found at the Bulk Shop yesterday at $35 for 250gm (Fair Trade New Guinea Gold) instead of the $47.80 Wings and AusTrade charge. Sugar, flour at the Bulk Shop are about $4 a kilo. I’m going to have to blow a couple of hundred this week on 3 storage bins with clip lids for the flour/rice/noodles and spaghetti, $110 each for ones that will hold 5kg rice, and keep the weevils out.
Papaya (Pawpaw) are still $5 - $7 each, depending on size, got some Cavendish (or they look like Cavendish) bananas today, $10 for 12, the long ones, not the usual Island stubby ones, coconuts still $1 - $2 each, slippery cabbage and Bok Choy $10 a bundle, and spring onions $5. The fish hadn’t improved, I’m going to wait till I can get some time off and go on a charter for the day or weekend. Or Shirleyetas brother comes through with the boat. It really annoys me seeing the fish there, all good kingfish, tuna, snapper out in the sun all day, being ruined. The people wiping them down constantly with a sponge that is just dipped into the water in the ice bins doesn’t improve the image either, and the rags on a stick moving the flies around.
I’ll put this back in again, exchange rate SBD$ to various currencies
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
Went through Central Market yesterday, it’s my grand-daughters Birthday soon, I was hoping to find something there for her, but no luck, I’ll go to Bekihama, the traditional carving and jewellery outlet and get her something there. The fish at Central are in the same state, so I’m not in a rush for any yet.
Wings and AusTrade have meat, mince (ground beef) at $50 per 500gm and up, steak and lamb start at $80 kg, chicken pieces for soup are $30, about 1kg, sausages are $45 per kg.
They have tried raising cattle for beef and dairy here, it’s been a mixed reaction, the natives have no history of using dairy products, so it’s mainly the people like me and the ex-pats who would be buying it. I’d be inclined to raise water buffalo here, for beef and dairy, they’re more suited to the conditions, wet swamps and lush water grass, than conventional cattle. There is very little flat or gentle sloping land here, it’s either swampland, like around Honiara, or vertical cliffs and rainforest.
My bread attempts are improving, got 2 round loaves today that would be equal to the ones we used to make in Schull, so I’m pleased. No doubt Pat will be as well in Schull when I write and tell him I did learn something from him.
The rain hasn’t stopped all day, it almost turns to drizzle, then changes its mind and comes down heavy for a bit longer. Thank God I have the water tank outside, ok, the shower/toilet kitchen sink are useless without the main supply, but at least I can fill the jug and boil up washing water for the kitchen dishes.
Oh joy, the water is back on, hot and cold! Dishes from last night, this morning, and tonight all done finally, toilet flushed, and I’m going to soak in a long hot, well warm, it’s too hot anyway for a hot shower, but long shower before I go to bed.
I’m giving the neighbours a treat tonight, Gaelic Storm, Bring Yer Wellies CD, Thanks to Una Flanagan from the sadly defunct Midwest Irish Internet Radio, well, it’s not defunct, but Una isn’t on it anymore.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
21st March
Got woken about 3am this morning, I thought the roof was going to collapse, but it was just a bit of rain. Sometimes we get rain that looks and feels like rain, other times it is like the heavens have opened and all the Angels are flushing their toilets at once.
Apparently I’m a couple of months late, David told me yesterday that the river occasionally floods over the banks, and across the level parts of the gardens. I think when it gets like that forget the white water rafting.
I’m slowly getting organised at work, after 6 weeks of doing the urgent stuff, it’s settling down to where I can actually start planning things and see them happen. Up till now it’s been Crisis Management 101, thankfully I’ve got my work diary and this to go back over and use to get thoughts on future ways and means to handle what at the time are disruptions and confusion.
The work crews always come back to the Gardens for lunch, even when they’re working at Henderson Field, about 45 min away. Consequently, they leave in the mornings about 9am, the stretch convertible Limo drops off various crews through town doing the Median Strip/roundabouts/gardens, and continues onto Henderson Field with the lawn mowing crew. Then they start coming back about 11.15, picking up the others on the way back, have lunch till 1pm or 1.30pm, then drive back out again. Total time actually working in a day, 4 – 5 hours.
It drives Adrian crazy, I have to agree with him, but not with the way he tries to go about changing it, all shouting and abuse, without an alternative.
I’ve bought 3 kerosene cooking stoves, and a set of pots for each, so from Monday each work crew stays where they are, cooks their lunch there, and do not need to come back to the Gardens. It’s going to be a bit awkward getting them used to it, there were a few people against the idea at the Friday meeting, but we’ll see what happens. Traditions take a long time to change here, I don’t know how this one started, but we’ll try to change a few habits slowly. Some of the men were objecting because there aren’t any women in their crew, and who was going to cook their lunch for them. It’s a very patriarchal society, I’ve mentioned before about the work habits.
Lunch is always rice and tuna with a soupy noodle mix, which we provide.
Tiffany has picked up a dose of malaria, she’s looking like death warmed up at the moment. It’s fairly common here, especially among the natives. Anti-malarial drugs are too expensive for them, so they tend to get malaria, the ones that live slowly build up some immunity, but still get very sick with fevers and nausea. I’d hate to look at the child death statistics here. The Govt provide free mosquito nets, but as everyone is outside in the mornings and evenings the chances of contracting malaria are fairly high. Add in Dengue fever from the daytime mosquitos and you understand why the tourists stopped coming when the troubles stopped the mosquito spraying and eradication programmes. They had malaria almost totally eradicated here some years back, when we could use DDT, when that was banned, the mosquitos returned with a vengeance, and also a high degree of immunity to conventional sprays. Deet works reasonably well as a deterrent, I’m using RID Repellent, but at SBD$120 a bottle, it’s beyond the price of everyone here. As is the Doxycycline I take everyday.
You still get bitten no matter what you use, some of the mosquitos are persistent little buggers.
Just got back from shopping, it’s Ba’Hai New Year, there’s a concert going on for all the kids here, music, games food etc, the rain has stopped, it’s sunshine, humid and everyone has dark sweat patches on their shirts and clothes. I’ve got my washing to do, sweep the bigger lumps off the floorboards, finally got hot water with the sunshine, so yesterdays dishes and the kitchen cleaned up as well. I have got electric to the hot water, but when you turn it on, you can see the light being sucked backwards into the light bulbs as it drains the power. I try not to use it, it’s SBD$2.78 per KW, and a SBD$1.68 per KWh surcharge for the diesel effectively $4.46 per KWh
I’m not doing too bad, Steve put $400 onto the meter when I got here, still got about half the credit left in 6 weeks. About all I use all the time are the ceiling fans, and about 2 hours of light at night. Gas for cooking, solar heater for the hot water.
I need to get some more plastic containers, large size, my last couple of kilos of rice in the bag have got weevils, I forgot to tie the bag up the other night, just screwed the top over, wasn’t enough, luckily not many, sifted the bigger ones out, put the rice in the freezer to kill the smaller ones, and I’ll wash them out later. They float to the top in water, which is handy.
Meant to be full of protein, I’ll give it a miss if I can at the moment.
Caught up with Keithie at the kids concert. My advisors role seems to be forgotten, and I’m more of an administrator than advisor. I get the impression she doesn’t want too much responsibility being passed down to the locals, there’s always got to be a white person in charge. I’ll work on it from the bottom up and get Tiffany, Shirleyeta and David doing a lot more instead of expecting me to run the office and Gardens. I have to do a 6month report for VSA on what I’ve done, seen, and think, so it will be interesting to go back over this and my work diary and put it all down on some logical pattern.
My bread making attempts are improving, it’s mostly edible, I’ll have to spend a bit and get a couple of baking trays for the gas oven, and a couple of tins, then I’ll be back into bakery mode again. I’m using the recipes off www.joepastry.com, plus what I learnt in the bakery in Schull. It’s a really good blog for bread making and other bakery stuff. Remember to drop Joe a note and say I sent you. I’ve been following his blog for a couple of years now, all good advice and a lot of information, unlike this collection of random thoughts views and drivel.
Talking to my Sister yesterday, she was going to our School Wine and cheese evening last night. She was really good at college, cricket team, sports, academic etc, I got expelled. Any reunion we go to, Rose gets, “oh, you’re Warrens sister, hello” after 45 odd years it’s surprising what people remember. They never remember her name, but mine seems to have stuck. Hope you had a good time Roses.
300 kids running on a sugar fix through the settlement here at the moment. I think there is some sort of organization, well, there are adults with them, but give the kids here any sort of entertainment and it’s like Christmas, Birthdays, everything all thrown together. There isn’t much for them otherwise, so anything is appreciated.
I was watching some of the students at the school practising football earlier today, got talking to a couple, their training wasn’t till 10o’clock, but they come early to practise for a couple of hours first, then have 2 hours training, then play among themselves for another couple of hours before going home. No wonder they are all good players.
I’ll be pleased to get another camera, it’s the first time since I was a kid I’ve been without one, there’s a lot to get pics of here, well, that is true of anywhere, but I can tie them into the stuff I write here, to give a better picture of Honiara and the Solomons. A few more weeks, Rose arrives the 17th April for a week hopefully with the new one. I’ve got the Pentax, but with the disastrous results from the local idiot, I’m not keen on spending money for film just to have it ruined.
7pm, it must be going to rain soon, there’s 6 geckos scuttling over the ceiling, and it feels like a sauna inside, and worse outside. All the ceiling fan is doing is moving the warm air across me and drying the sweat.
The young pickinini next door, about 4 years old, hates going to bed, he starts screaming about now every night, for about an hour, till he finally drops off to sleep. I see his father walking around cuddling him for ages, to no avail, as soon as they put him down he starts off again. The joys of close living. I think there are 7 kids next door, from the 2 girls about 16/17, the eldest son, Christopher, about 15, then a few assorted ages down to the 4 year old.
I’m giving the neighbours a mixed set of music today, they had Janis Joplin Essential Double CD, earlier, a bit of Neil Young, After the Gold Rush, now it’s Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense. Tomorrow it’s trance/reggaedub and techno with Salmonella Dub, The Nomad, and Pitch Black
As a side note, the Solomon Star had an article last week about the Prime Minister being shown around the Customs and Immigration section at Henderson Field. They had a large display set up of confiscated articles, in the prime position was a large collection of vibrators, sex toys etc, at which the PM expressed shock and horror that people would be trying to bring these in with them. No matter that they were for personal use, well duh, not for sale is what I meant, all found in peoples suitcases and carry on bags. So a word of caution, leave your toys behind when you visit here, it’s a Christian Patriarchal Society. Tampax applicators included.
I’ve some stuff to do tomorrow at work, so I’ll post this, photocopy everything I need for Monday, and go to the beach for the afternoon.
Woke up at 6am, sweaty, hot and feeling like I was inside an oven. The power went off sometime between the dogs barking at 3am and 6am so I had no water, or ceiling fans. Rainwater tank is full, no surprises, and the gas stove is fine for making coffee. It’s now 9am, and the power is back, I’ll have to wait a bit for the water to start, then I’ll clean up and go to the Kukum Market, then work for a few hours. It’s raining again, so there goes the beach idea for the day,
Apparently I’m a couple of months late, David told me yesterday that the river occasionally floods over the banks, and across the level parts of the gardens. I think when it gets like that forget the white water rafting.
I’m slowly getting organised at work, after 6 weeks of doing the urgent stuff, it’s settling down to where I can actually start planning things and see them happen. Up till now it’s been Crisis Management 101, thankfully I’ve got my work diary and this to go back over and use to get thoughts on future ways and means to handle what at the time are disruptions and confusion.
The work crews always come back to the Gardens for lunch, even when they’re working at Henderson Field, about 45 min away. Consequently, they leave in the mornings about 9am, the stretch convertible Limo drops off various crews through town doing the Median Strip/roundabouts/gardens, and continues onto Henderson Field with the lawn mowing crew. Then they start coming back about 11.15, picking up the others on the way back, have lunch till 1pm or 1.30pm, then drive back out again. Total time actually working in a day, 4 – 5 hours.
It drives Adrian crazy, I have to agree with him, but not with the way he tries to go about changing it, all shouting and abuse, without an alternative.
I’ve bought 3 kerosene cooking stoves, and a set of pots for each, so from Monday each work crew stays where they are, cooks their lunch there, and do not need to come back to the Gardens. It’s going to be a bit awkward getting them used to it, there were a few people against the idea at the Friday meeting, but we’ll see what happens. Traditions take a long time to change here, I don’t know how this one started, but we’ll try to change a few habits slowly. Some of the men were objecting because there aren’t any women in their crew, and who was going to cook their lunch for them. It’s a very patriarchal society, I’ve mentioned before about the work habits.
Lunch is always rice and tuna with a soupy noodle mix, which we provide.
Tiffany has picked up a dose of malaria, she’s looking like death warmed up at the moment. It’s fairly common here, especially among the natives. Anti-malarial drugs are too expensive for them, so they tend to get malaria, the ones that live slowly build up some immunity, but still get very sick with fevers and nausea. I’d hate to look at the child death statistics here. The Govt provide free mosquito nets, but as everyone is outside in the mornings and evenings the chances of contracting malaria are fairly high. Add in Dengue fever from the daytime mosquitos and you understand why the tourists stopped coming when the troubles stopped the mosquito spraying and eradication programmes. They had malaria almost totally eradicated here some years back, when we could use DDT, when that was banned, the mosquitos returned with a vengeance, and also a high degree of immunity to conventional sprays. Deet works reasonably well as a deterrent, I’m using RID Repellent, but at SBD$120 a bottle, it’s beyond the price of everyone here. As is the Doxycycline I take everyday.
You still get bitten no matter what you use, some of the mosquitos are persistent little buggers.
Just got back from shopping, it’s Ba’Hai New Year, there’s a concert going on for all the kids here, music, games food etc, the rain has stopped, it’s sunshine, humid and everyone has dark sweat patches on their shirts and clothes. I’ve got my washing to do, sweep the bigger lumps off the floorboards, finally got hot water with the sunshine, so yesterdays dishes and the kitchen cleaned up as well. I have got electric to the hot water, but when you turn it on, you can see the light being sucked backwards into the light bulbs as it drains the power. I try not to use it, it’s SBD$2.78 per KW, and a SBD$1.68 per KWh surcharge for the diesel effectively $4.46 per KWh
I’m not doing too bad, Steve put $400 onto the meter when I got here, still got about half the credit left in 6 weeks. About all I use all the time are the ceiling fans, and about 2 hours of light at night. Gas for cooking, solar heater for the hot water.
I need to get some more plastic containers, large size, my last couple of kilos of rice in the bag have got weevils, I forgot to tie the bag up the other night, just screwed the top over, wasn’t enough, luckily not many, sifted the bigger ones out, put the rice in the freezer to kill the smaller ones, and I’ll wash them out later. They float to the top in water, which is handy.
Meant to be full of protein, I’ll give it a miss if I can at the moment.
Caught up with Keithie at the kids concert. My advisors role seems to be forgotten, and I’m more of an administrator than advisor. I get the impression she doesn’t want too much responsibility being passed down to the locals, there’s always got to be a white person in charge. I’ll work on it from the bottom up and get Tiffany, Shirleyeta and David doing a lot more instead of expecting me to run the office and Gardens. I have to do a 6month report for VSA on what I’ve done, seen, and think, so it will be interesting to go back over this and my work diary and put it all down on some logical pattern.
My bread making attempts are improving, it’s mostly edible, I’ll have to spend a bit and get a couple of baking trays for the gas oven, and a couple of tins, then I’ll be back into bakery mode again. I’m using the recipes off www.joepastry.com, plus what I learnt in the bakery in Schull. It’s a really good blog for bread making and other bakery stuff. Remember to drop Joe a note and say I sent you. I’ve been following his blog for a couple of years now, all good advice and a lot of information, unlike this collection of random thoughts views and drivel.
Talking to my Sister yesterday, she was going to our School Wine and cheese evening last night. She was really good at college, cricket team, sports, academic etc, I got expelled. Any reunion we go to, Rose gets, “oh, you’re Warrens sister, hello” after 45 odd years it’s surprising what people remember. They never remember her name, but mine seems to have stuck. Hope you had a good time Roses.
300 kids running on a sugar fix through the settlement here at the moment. I think there is some sort of organization, well, there are adults with them, but give the kids here any sort of entertainment and it’s like Christmas, Birthdays, everything all thrown together. There isn’t much for them otherwise, so anything is appreciated.
I was watching some of the students at the school practising football earlier today, got talking to a couple, their training wasn’t till 10o’clock, but they come early to practise for a couple of hours first, then have 2 hours training, then play among themselves for another couple of hours before going home. No wonder they are all good players.
I’ll be pleased to get another camera, it’s the first time since I was a kid I’ve been without one, there’s a lot to get pics of here, well, that is true of anywhere, but I can tie them into the stuff I write here, to give a better picture of Honiara and the Solomons. A few more weeks, Rose arrives the 17th April for a week hopefully with the new one. I’ve got the Pentax, but with the disastrous results from the local idiot, I’m not keen on spending money for film just to have it ruined.
7pm, it must be going to rain soon, there’s 6 geckos scuttling over the ceiling, and it feels like a sauna inside, and worse outside. All the ceiling fan is doing is moving the warm air across me and drying the sweat.
The young pickinini next door, about 4 years old, hates going to bed, he starts screaming about now every night, for about an hour, till he finally drops off to sleep. I see his father walking around cuddling him for ages, to no avail, as soon as they put him down he starts off again. The joys of close living. I think there are 7 kids next door, from the 2 girls about 16/17, the eldest son, Christopher, about 15, then a few assorted ages down to the 4 year old.
I’m giving the neighbours a mixed set of music today, they had Janis Joplin Essential Double CD, earlier, a bit of Neil Young, After the Gold Rush, now it’s Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense. Tomorrow it’s trance/reggaedub and techno with Salmonella Dub, The Nomad, and Pitch Black
As a side note, the Solomon Star had an article last week about the Prime Minister being shown around the Customs and Immigration section at Henderson Field. They had a large display set up of confiscated articles, in the prime position was a large collection of vibrators, sex toys etc, at which the PM expressed shock and horror that people would be trying to bring these in with them. No matter that they were for personal use, well duh, not for sale is what I meant, all found in peoples suitcases and carry on bags. So a word of caution, leave your toys behind when you visit here, it’s a Christian Patriarchal Society. Tampax applicators included.
I’ve some stuff to do tomorrow at work, so I’ll post this, photocopy everything I need for Monday, and go to the beach for the afternoon.
Woke up at 6am, sweaty, hot and feeling like I was inside an oven. The power went off sometime between the dogs barking at 3am and 6am so I had no water, or ceiling fans. Rainwater tank is full, no surprises, and the gas stove is fine for making coffee. It’s now 9am, and the power is back, I’ll have to wait a bit for the water to start, then I’ll clean up and go to the Kukum Market, then work for a few hours. It’s raining again, so there goes the beach idea for the day,
Thursday, March 19, 2009
19th March
It's still raining, and as I discovered when I got home, solar water heating doesn't when it rains like it has been here today. Warm water, certainly not hot, but never mind.
The river was well up this morning through the Gardens, high enough to run a canoe down, ok, it's not exactly white water, but good enough for a bit of fun. All I need to do now is find someone with a canoe I can beg, borrow or acquire. I'd settle for a inner tube even, there are a few small waterfalls on the way down through the Gardens.
Still working on the funding proposal, Will called in, took away what we had ready, I'm still waiting on replies from suppliers here. I'm still getting used to counting in very large sums when it comes to tools and equipment, a chainsaw that costs $2,000 in NZ is SBD$12,000, wheelbarrows are SBD$580 to SBD$800, you don't even bother asking about good quality tools, my Estwing hammer is SBD$780 here, the cheap flimsy almost plastic chinese ones are SBD$240.
I haven't got a lot of time to write more today, I'll work on more detail over the weekend.
The river was well up this morning through the Gardens, high enough to run a canoe down, ok, it's not exactly white water, but good enough for a bit of fun. All I need to do now is find someone with a canoe I can beg, borrow or acquire. I'd settle for a inner tube even, there are a few small waterfalls on the way down through the Gardens.
Still working on the funding proposal, Will called in, took away what we had ready, I'm still waiting on replies from suppliers here. I'm still getting used to counting in very large sums when it comes to tools and equipment, a chainsaw that costs $2,000 in NZ is SBD$12,000, wheelbarrows are SBD$580 to SBD$800, you don't even bother asking about good quality tools, my Estwing hammer is SBD$780 here, the cheap flimsy almost plastic chinese ones are SBD$240.
I haven't got a lot of time to write more today, I'll work on more detail over the weekend.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
18th March
I’ve nearly completed all the class work, the next 5 unit are all basic practical , maintaining amenity areas, planting trees shrubs, weed identification so that gives me a break from the classroom, and time to write up assessments and marking schedules.
We had 2 tourists visit today, about 3pm, Australians, who live in Penang. I tried to get one of the ladies to go over and talk to them, but no luck, so I gave them the guided tour around the Gardens, up the river walk etc. Had a really good discussion about what they saw, and their thoughts about Honiara now. They were here about 15 years ago, when it was described as the prettiest town in the Pacific. You’d have to be blind with no sense of smell to consider that now unfortunately. We’ll keep working on it.
8pm and it’s finally raining. I made some wholemeal rolls when I got home, well, pulled the starter dough out of the fridge, added a few cups of flour etc to it, gave it a quick stir and had dinner, then mixed it up. Yeast is temperamental stuff. It doesn’t like it when it’s about to rain, it seems to go on holiday and wait till it turns humid and sticky before waking up. I’m learning as I go.
Add thunder and lightning to the above, I wish I lived up on a ridge top, the lightning is spectacular over the islands off Honiara at times.
I had a few moments of doubt about all this over the weekend, I’ll have to stop thinking it will all happen quickly. As Eric advised me in Wellington, make a list of 5 things to do for the week, if one of them is done by Friday, you’ve had a good week, 2 things you’ve had a brilliant week, then take the weekend off and go fishing.
Someone walked up the river track overnight with a slasher or more likely a bush knife, and indiscriminately hacked the trees on the side of the track down, only small ones, but all filling in the spaces where a few of the dead palms and trees have been cleared out from. I counted 20 Delonix, 14 Caesalpinina, and small palms about 4’ to 6’ high all hacked. None of them were near the pathway, they had to go off the path to reach them. Idiots
It’s a long road at times I feel.
Will phoned this afternoon, he’s calling in tomorrow to pick up the list of equipment for the Japanese Grass Roots Agency Loan application, which I’ve looked at, started, and not completed. I need a 36 hour day, and an 8 day work week, with a 4 day weekend at times here
I’ll have to start urgently on training Tiffany and Shirlyeta so I can spend more time advising and less time doing. 6am to 6pm makes for a long day.
Our power is still being shut off at times with the #3 generator out of action. I was pricing equipment from Australia today, lost 3 emails, well, not lost, but saved one, lost 2 and don’t know if the others were sent or not till I can get back to work tomorrow and check. Our area goes off at 11am till 12.30, then from 2.45 to 3.45pm. Or close to those times. ½ an hour either side is normal. Today it went off at 2.30, still wasn’t back by 4.45 when I finally gave up waiting and went home
Other than that, another day in paradise, the weather stays warm, it rains often enough, and stuff grows.
We had 2 tourists visit today, about 3pm, Australians, who live in Penang. I tried to get one of the ladies to go over and talk to them, but no luck, so I gave them the guided tour around the Gardens, up the river walk etc. Had a really good discussion about what they saw, and their thoughts about Honiara now. They were here about 15 years ago, when it was described as the prettiest town in the Pacific. You’d have to be blind with no sense of smell to consider that now unfortunately. We’ll keep working on it.
8pm and it’s finally raining. I made some wholemeal rolls when I got home, well, pulled the starter dough out of the fridge, added a few cups of flour etc to it, gave it a quick stir and had dinner, then mixed it up. Yeast is temperamental stuff. It doesn’t like it when it’s about to rain, it seems to go on holiday and wait till it turns humid and sticky before waking up. I’m learning as I go.
Add thunder and lightning to the above, I wish I lived up on a ridge top, the lightning is spectacular over the islands off Honiara at times.
I had a few moments of doubt about all this over the weekend, I’ll have to stop thinking it will all happen quickly. As Eric advised me in Wellington, make a list of 5 things to do for the week, if one of them is done by Friday, you’ve had a good week, 2 things you’ve had a brilliant week, then take the weekend off and go fishing.
Someone walked up the river track overnight with a slasher or more likely a bush knife, and indiscriminately hacked the trees on the side of the track down, only small ones, but all filling in the spaces where a few of the dead palms and trees have been cleared out from. I counted 20 Delonix, 14 Caesalpinina, and small palms about 4’ to 6’ high all hacked. None of them were near the pathway, they had to go off the path to reach them. Idiots
It’s a long road at times I feel.
Will phoned this afternoon, he’s calling in tomorrow to pick up the list of equipment for the Japanese Grass Roots Agency Loan application, which I’ve looked at, started, and not completed. I need a 36 hour day, and an 8 day work week, with a 4 day weekend at times here
I’ll have to start urgently on training Tiffany and Shirlyeta so I can spend more time advising and less time doing. 6am to 6pm makes for a long day.
Our power is still being shut off at times with the #3 generator out of action. I was pricing equipment from Australia today, lost 3 emails, well, not lost, but saved one, lost 2 and don’t know if the others were sent or not till I can get back to work tomorrow and check. Our area goes off at 11am till 12.30, then from 2.45 to 3.45pm. Or close to those times. ½ an hour either side is normal. Today it went off at 2.30, still wasn’t back by 4.45 when I finally gave up waiting and went home
Other than that, another day in paradise, the weather stays warm, it rains often enough, and stuff grows.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
17th March
Happy Paddys Day! The funniest memory I have of Paddys day is arriving in Shannon Airport, and driving down to West Cork and getting caught up in every village St Pats Day Parade, then missing the turnoff at Millstreet and visiting Killarney briefly.
I think some of the tourist hotels may have something on, but I’ll give it a miss. I’m too far out of town to be driving late at night
Another day at the Memorial Gardens, about 60 trees grafted so far, most of them cleaned, we’ll take a break for a week, then I can go back and see if the grafts are going to take or not. A lot of lizards/skinks there, and bull ants. After the crew had lunch, rice and tuna, any rice dropped was soon surrounded by bull ants and carried up into the huge caesalpinia to a dead branch where they seem to have a thriving colony.
Adrian is away sick for a few days, as they say in toktok, Adrian hem belleran, diarrhoea in other words. I was trying to get everyone to turn up this morning with a toilet roll and give them to Adrian, but they don’t have the same sense of humour, well, not yet anyway. He’s also got epilepsy, and having belleran doesn’t let his medicine stay in his system long enough, plus he has lost a huge amount of fluid and salt, so he’s been falling over, can’t sit up without falling backwards or sideways. Hopefully he’ll be ok by the end of the week
It’s 8pm, I’m sweating like a fire hydrant, the air is heavy and humid, all day out in the sun at the Memorial Gardens and I’ve got a bit of sun on me.
Drank 2 fresh coconuts, Jennifer wandered over the road to the stalls, you buy green coconuts before the meat forms inside, cut the top off and it’s a great refreshing drink. $2 each, and the roadside stalls are always busy with stacks of coconuts peeled and ready, stacked like cannon balls
Then you crack them open and scrape the jelly out. No wonder I’m not losing weight.
Hi to MaryAnne staying with her family in Connecticut, take care and have a good time.
I only put that in to show I can spell Connecticut
And Libby having a fun time in Hawaii, Al the Florist in Illinois, murph in Franklin, and Tim and Marye in Martinez, Moira in Canada
Pic is of betel nut juice on some steps
Monday, March 16, 2009
15th/16th March
The power went out again, so I went into work, posted the previous, did a bit of work on the quarterly report, went to Kukum Market for the weeks shopping. I know I keep talking about the fish sellers, I really felt like fish for dinner, so I browsed all the bins, it’s got cheaper lately, down to $9lb, so not too bad. Picked out a good sized snapper, $45 worth, been cleaned and gutted as well, so not a lot of waste.
I’ll wait till I can go fishing I think, it was meant to be no more than a day old, and on ice. Not one of the best gastronomic experiences I’ve had. I’d say it was caught no earlier than last Friday, and the first time it saw ice was today at the market. Oh well, didn’t even bother cooking it, just dumped it in the trash bin. Once it thawed out from the ice, it was flabby, and the smell convinced me it was probably not a good thing to eat.
Pawpaw were a bit dearer, $5 to $7 today, coconuts still $0.50 and $1, although I bought a $2 one about twice the size of the $1 ones. Bok Choy was $5 a bundle, 5 small heads, and finally some ginger root, although $10 for a piece about 75mm long is a bit much but I bought it anyway, cucumber were $1 to $3. Bananas were still $10 for a big hand, about 20 on each. $5 for a large bunch of spring onions.
I’m getting better with opening coconuts, only one good crack with the back of the cleaver and they split in half now, no more bouncing over the floor when I drop them.
O2 Ireland sent me the unlock code, unfortunately, the button sequence to get the network settings to open don’t apply to the model I have, K300i, another email back to them. At this rate, it’ll be quicker to get one posted from NZ
Raining finally, it’s been humid with thunder since Friday, thick black clouds that just pass over Honiara without dropping anything.
Monday evening.
Got to work this morning, and one of our big banyan trees has been hacked for firewood. By the person who is in charge of the Herbarium, and lives next to the Nursery. I was not happy. Some rather irate emails have been sent out, I’ve got the work crew taking his nice new stack of firewood and feeding it all through the chipper. Then I’ll work on getting him evicted from the Gardens. I think my honeymoon period is over.
On a happier note, we spent all day at the Memorial Gardens, and what I was thinking could be a disaster turned into a great day. We’ve got 25 trees bridge grafted, about 50 cleaned, and everyone worked really well. Quick learners, I gave one demo of what I wanted, with the bridge grafts, and away they went. I usually have trouble getting Alphonse to stand up, let alone do anything, but today he was in his element. He and Sandy probably did 2/3 of the trees, Kennedy, Imelda and Rose the rest.
I’ll swap them around tomorrow, Willy and the other ladies were cleaning the glue off, so they can have a go at grafting tomorrow.
Picked my film up tonight, WARNING! Do not use transparencie (slide) film here. They look at it when you take it in, and you ask if they can develop it, then proceed to put it through with all the other negative film and ruin it. And get $122.50 upfront. And do not give refunds or apologies. Idiots.
36 pics of the class doing Unit related work, that I was going to use as Assessment proof, wasted and ruined.
I’ve been working on one pic, got it so you can see something, but it took me nearly 45 min playing with the colour balance, tone, hue and gamma levels.
I’m sending the other 2 rolls to NZ for developing, and I’ll post the name of the place here when I remember it. And tell them I’ve put it on the net as well.
Got my Sony phone working, managed to finally unlock it, it’s still a crappy phone, it was rubbish in Ireland, it hasn’t improved with age or change of countries. Talking to Rose today, she’s sent a Nokia over in the mail. Hopefully I’ll be able to hear people on the Nokia, I’ve never been able to hear anyone on the Sony. And yes, I do have the volume on it set as high as it will go, I get the Warning, Loud Volume Will Damage Your Hearing. As if I’m not already wearing hearing aids from 20 years as a boilermaker and welding.
Rode in the back of the stretch convertible after work to the Gardens tonight. All the Crew were going, “Warren ui sittem in cab” Blow that, I’m not some white sahib. As I keep telling them, I’m a nurseryman, you get the shitty stuff to do, and the good stuff, riding in the back of the truck in the rain is actually preferable to sitting in the cab and getting suffocated with the heat. And it’s more fun as well.
It’s 6.32pm, and the neighbours are listening to Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon. I try to vary their musical appreciation hour if I can. I’ll give them some early Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green later.
I’ve got 2 rolls of slide film of the crew grafting today, I’ll eventually use the pics for their assessment, and also do an article for the NZ Nurserymans Magazine. It may generate a bit of interest in NZ, and some of the crew may get there and work.It’s surprising how big football (soccer) is here. As I’ve found out, there are a lot of Solomon Island players in NZ teams, and Australian teams. Out by the airport, one of the stands has “Go Waitakere Go” painted on the tin, one of the Auckland teams that the local team is named after. I presume some of the local players do get there and play, even if just for a trial season. I’ll get to a local game once the season starts in the dry. From what Steve has said, it’s drums, shouts, dancers, disorganised mayhem, and if the local team win, the party carries on all night at the stadium. I may give that part a miss, it’s still a bit iffy here at night
Pic is off the roll of slide film processed by the chinese idiots in town, Susie and Sepa hand rubbing coconut fiber through our home made sieve
Saturday, March 14, 2009
14th March
I missed a few days posts, we’ve been having intermittent power cuts all week while the #3 generator is out of commission. The number of times I’ve had emails, blog post, downloading off the net, and the power goes out. I gave up trying in the end, plus it’s been slow uploading all week, again due to the power restrictions and cuts.
Still, better here than Makira, when they run out of petrol, the generators stop till the next boat arrives. And they only run a few hours each day, around midday, and for a couple of hours each evening.
Bruce and Gwen are settling in there, it’s a major change for both of them. Both School principals in NZ, this is a whole different experience for them both. From being very organised to an Island School in the remotest part of the Solomons.
The film processing place in Honiara can develop my ektachrome slides, $110 for 36 exposure, I’m hoping they don’t come back on Monday with a fingerprint in the middle of each shot. I’ll scan the good pics and post in here.
Finally got some of the big trees identified last week too. All Ficus sp. and in reading up about them, they are the original genus , or not very far away from the original genus/species type for this part of the Pacific. All the Ficus species between here, Fiji, Malaya, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, all come from the pachycaul genus originally growing here. Massive trees, smooth grey straight trunks with huge buttress roots. The fruit grow out of the trunk, on what I first thought were adventitious roots, but apparently they are fruiting spurs. Small rounded fruit, once I managed to get some and open them it was easily recognised as a Ficus, I’m still going through journals and textbooks hoping to find a species name. They look as though they are fertilised by ants, or small insects, only a small opening, some of the fruit I opened had tiny ants and winged insects climbing through the flowers. If they hadn’t released cats in Honiara, the endemic mammals would still be here, and probably eating the fruit and spreading the seed. Cats have wiped out at least 30 species of small mammals here in the past 50 years, and the bird life has suffered as well.
We’ve got approval to go ahead with the rescue plan for the Memorial Garden trees, cost is irrelevant, so I spent up large on a couple of chemical masks for the people using the white spirits to wash the glue off. It’s Tanglefoot Pest Barrier, probably a great product if applied properly, but in this case, it’s been a case of slap it on, throw the empty containers away and watch the trees slowly get strangled. It’s one of those jobs that I’m keen to do for the experience and grafting skills, but also a job I’m not looking forward to as well.
The Memorial Gardens are enclosed with a 2.5m tall thick hedge, only one entrance, no wind, bull ants, mosquitos, hot sun, and 150 trees to treat. We’ll be there for a week at least.
We’ve had more schools come through the Gardens this week, really good to see them using the Botanic Gardens, and now we are keeping a record of School visits, it will help with funding.
I’m slowly working on David to think about setting up a private outside business to do all the work outside the Gardens, it’ll take a year or so, and will make the SEB more of a contact point for work, rather than the only contractor. Plus it makes the crew independent, and not relying on outside aid agencies. A lot of work needed first though, it’s only 2 years since the fighting stopped here, and there is still a bit of tension around.
Got my VSA Security update yesterday from Steve, recommendations are not to venture out into Honiara at night, alone, or even with a group. Do not flaunt wealth, as in clothes, money etc, easy for me to do, I haven’t either, but you see the RAMSI and Consultants in town occasionally, spending up large in the hotels and restaurants. So the staff at those places see how much there is, gossip and toktok does the rest, and white faces are associated with easy money.
Visiting places close to Honiara can be a bit of a mixed bag of reactions, some of the Malaita Eagle Force people are still carrying a few grudges, the Guadacanal Revolution Army still want Honiara back, so you don’t take sides and grin and smile a lot.
I’m past the nightclub till dawn and then go to work age anyway, I’ll trade the night life for the early mornings and full days wandering through the Gardens and streams.
I’m having success with the washing machine, ok, still haven’t got the spin tub working, but the wash side works. It makes a mockery of handwashing, my board shorts have got the white patches again, and my muslin tops are back to the original colours again. The amount of grime you pick up here in a day is incredible. I wear a different top each day, (thanks to Mum for sewing frantically for 2 weeks before I left, making me a dozen shirts) and the first wash water goes that dark grey colour. 4 rinses later, it’s clear. Sum total of amount of washing for the week, 6 muslin shirts, 1 pair of board shorts, 1 double sheet. I’m not totally native yet, I slide the washer to the bathroom and empty it through the shower, it would be easier just to open the back door and let it go out the steps, I’ll wait till I do a night wash for that, not a good look
I’ve got used to the ceiling fan humming away all night in the bedroom, there’s not a lot of cooling from it, but it stops me sweating all night. And forget a top sheet, the house is fully screened so there’s no mosquitos get in, and all I like is a clean sheet to lay on, and pillows.
I’m re-writing the quarterly report for Tiffany this weekend, how the Course is going, work carried out, projects underway, where the money has been spent etc, for the Aid Funding agencies. I’d really like to think that in 2 years they won’t need the amount of Aid that comes in here, and more employment opportunities open up. But in reality, a Civil War, long standing inter-tribal conflicts, politicians who had more fingers in the pie than out of it all create a few problems that will take a while to sort out. The politicians were easily sorted, the people had an armed revolution, which lead to a Civil War, it was a very interesting time.
We finally got the 2 dead Metroxylon down on Friday. All I wanted was for the big one with all the seed cones not to fall into the lily pond.
I’m not going to mention anymore.
I spent a couple of muddy wet slimy hours hip deep picking seed cones out of the mud, lilies and water
Once they were gone, we found 3 small ones that had suckered from the base, so that was a bonus.
Close to 300 seed cones, Jennifer will have them planted out into a nursery bed on Monday
Another experiment day, I’m making wholemeal bagels. I’ll try boiling a couple, then try a couple in the wok steamer, then bake them in the oven, along with the wholemeal buns.
My most used utensil is my wok. I cook soup, stew, stirfry, rice, omelettes, curry in it, then use it as a mixing and proving bowl for bread and pastry. Highly versatile kitchen utensil.
The heat and humidity makes yeast think it is on steroids. What would normally take a couple of hours rise, is done in an hour, and second rise is about 45 min. I’m keeping back half the dough in the fridge for a starter for the next batch, it improves the flavour a lot.
I’m up to 48 pages in Word with this. By the time I leave it’ll be a book, it’ll come in handy for the next VSA volunteer here, all the little things I keep prattling on about that VSA don’t mention.
Later the same day, or, Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the bagels turned out ok, the steamed ones rose a lot more than the boiled ones, I’ll stick to that now, crusty outside and a chewy texture inside after 20 min baking. Very nice, 4 bread buns, 4 bagels, actually, only 2 of each, I had to do a quality control check with butter and honey. I’ve got 6 curry and rice spring rolls in the oven now, the supermarket was out of the pastry type wrappers, so I’m using the Vietnamese rice paper wrappers, they’re good, soak for a few seconds in cold water, then use. I’m using a double layer wrap, I learnt from past experience. Some chilli pappadoms, and some plain rice.
I’m helping the neighbours musical appreciation today, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana at quite a loud volume.
Still, better here than Makira, when they run out of petrol, the generators stop till the next boat arrives. And they only run a few hours each day, around midday, and for a couple of hours each evening.
Bruce and Gwen are settling in there, it’s a major change for both of them. Both School principals in NZ, this is a whole different experience for them both. From being very organised to an Island School in the remotest part of the Solomons.
The film processing place in Honiara can develop my ektachrome slides, $110 for 36 exposure, I’m hoping they don’t come back on Monday with a fingerprint in the middle of each shot. I’ll scan the good pics and post in here.
Finally got some of the big trees identified last week too. All Ficus sp. and in reading up about them, they are the original genus , or not very far away from the original genus/species type for this part of the Pacific. All the Ficus species between here, Fiji, Malaya, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Australia, all come from the pachycaul genus originally growing here. Massive trees, smooth grey straight trunks with huge buttress roots. The fruit grow out of the trunk, on what I first thought were adventitious roots, but apparently they are fruiting spurs. Small rounded fruit, once I managed to get some and open them it was easily recognised as a Ficus, I’m still going through journals and textbooks hoping to find a species name. They look as though they are fertilised by ants, or small insects, only a small opening, some of the fruit I opened had tiny ants and winged insects climbing through the flowers. If they hadn’t released cats in Honiara, the endemic mammals would still be here, and probably eating the fruit and spreading the seed. Cats have wiped out at least 30 species of small mammals here in the past 50 years, and the bird life has suffered as well.
We’ve got approval to go ahead with the rescue plan for the Memorial Garden trees, cost is irrelevant, so I spent up large on a couple of chemical masks for the people using the white spirits to wash the glue off. It’s Tanglefoot Pest Barrier, probably a great product if applied properly, but in this case, it’s been a case of slap it on, throw the empty containers away and watch the trees slowly get strangled. It’s one of those jobs that I’m keen to do for the experience and grafting skills, but also a job I’m not looking forward to as well.
The Memorial Gardens are enclosed with a 2.5m tall thick hedge, only one entrance, no wind, bull ants, mosquitos, hot sun, and 150 trees to treat. We’ll be there for a week at least.
We’ve had more schools come through the Gardens this week, really good to see them using the Botanic Gardens, and now we are keeping a record of School visits, it will help with funding.
I’m slowly working on David to think about setting up a private outside business to do all the work outside the Gardens, it’ll take a year or so, and will make the SEB more of a contact point for work, rather than the only contractor. Plus it makes the crew independent, and not relying on outside aid agencies. A lot of work needed first though, it’s only 2 years since the fighting stopped here, and there is still a bit of tension around.
Got my VSA Security update yesterday from Steve, recommendations are not to venture out into Honiara at night, alone, or even with a group. Do not flaunt wealth, as in clothes, money etc, easy for me to do, I haven’t either, but you see the RAMSI and Consultants in town occasionally, spending up large in the hotels and restaurants. So the staff at those places see how much there is, gossip and toktok does the rest, and white faces are associated with easy money.
Visiting places close to Honiara can be a bit of a mixed bag of reactions, some of the Malaita Eagle Force people are still carrying a few grudges, the Guadacanal Revolution Army still want Honiara back, so you don’t take sides and grin and smile a lot.
I’m past the nightclub till dawn and then go to work age anyway, I’ll trade the night life for the early mornings and full days wandering through the Gardens and streams.
I’m having success with the washing machine, ok, still haven’t got the spin tub working, but the wash side works. It makes a mockery of handwashing, my board shorts have got the white patches again, and my muslin tops are back to the original colours again. The amount of grime you pick up here in a day is incredible. I wear a different top each day, (thanks to Mum for sewing frantically for 2 weeks before I left, making me a dozen shirts) and the first wash water goes that dark grey colour. 4 rinses later, it’s clear. Sum total of amount of washing for the week, 6 muslin shirts, 1 pair of board shorts, 1 double sheet. I’m not totally native yet, I slide the washer to the bathroom and empty it through the shower, it would be easier just to open the back door and let it go out the steps, I’ll wait till I do a night wash for that, not a good look
I’ve got used to the ceiling fan humming away all night in the bedroom, there’s not a lot of cooling from it, but it stops me sweating all night. And forget a top sheet, the house is fully screened so there’s no mosquitos get in, and all I like is a clean sheet to lay on, and pillows.
I’m re-writing the quarterly report for Tiffany this weekend, how the Course is going, work carried out, projects underway, where the money has been spent etc, for the Aid Funding agencies. I’d really like to think that in 2 years they won’t need the amount of Aid that comes in here, and more employment opportunities open up. But in reality, a Civil War, long standing inter-tribal conflicts, politicians who had more fingers in the pie than out of it all create a few problems that will take a while to sort out. The politicians were easily sorted, the people had an armed revolution, which lead to a Civil War, it was a very interesting time.
We finally got the 2 dead Metroxylon down on Friday. All I wanted was for the big one with all the seed cones not to fall into the lily pond.
I’m not going to mention anymore.
I spent a couple of muddy wet slimy hours hip deep picking seed cones out of the mud, lilies and water
Once they were gone, we found 3 small ones that had suckered from the base, so that was a bonus.
Close to 300 seed cones, Jennifer will have them planted out into a nursery bed on Monday
Another experiment day, I’m making wholemeal bagels. I’ll try boiling a couple, then try a couple in the wok steamer, then bake them in the oven, along with the wholemeal buns.
My most used utensil is my wok. I cook soup, stew, stirfry, rice, omelettes, curry in it, then use it as a mixing and proving bowl for bread and pastry. Highly versatile kitchen utensil.
The heat and humidity makes yeast think it is on steroids. What would normally take a couple of hours rise, is done in an hour, and second rise is about 45 min. I’m keeping back half the dough in the fridge for a starter for the next batch, it improves the flavour a lot.
I’m up to 48 pages in Word with this. By the time I leave it’ll be a book, it’ll come in handy for the next VSA volunteer here, all the little things I keep prattling on about that VSA don’t mention.
Later the same day, or, Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the bagels turned out ok, the steamed ones rose a lot more than the boiled ones, I’ll stick to that now, crusty outside and a chewy texture inside after 20 min baking. Very nice, 4 bread buns, 4 bagels, actually, only 2 of each, I had to do a quality control check with butter and honey. I’ve got 6 curry and rice spring rolls in the oven now, the supermarket was out of the pastry type wrappers, so I’m using the Vietnamese rice paper wrappers, they’re good, soak for a few seconds in cold water, then use. I’m using a double layer wrap, I learnt from past experience. Some chilli pappadoms, and some plain rice.
I’m helping the neighbours musical appreciation today, Carl Orff, Carmina Burana at quite a loud volume.
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