Wednesday 29th April

I’m still recovering from Savo, or is it I’m having trouble adjusting to Honiara again. Our funding proposal to the Japanese Grass Roots Org needs more work, now they want a BIG building in the nursery, so our potting and propagating area will be huge, plus a storage area at one end. Lord knows why, but all the stuff Japan has done here has been huge buildings that aren’t really wanted or needed, we’d appreciate a good water system, a good electricity supply, sanitation and sewage systems, but all they want to provide funds for is buildings.

Not wishing to knock them for the aid, it is needed, but the priorities are sometimes a bit askew. We’ve got a giant stadium going up on Town Ground now, for rugby, which has about 5 followers here, and the stadium has 23 shops, a restaurant, commercial enterprises, and seating for 30,000. There’s only 50,000 people in Honiara, and even the big football match last Saturday, Koloale FC against Auckland FC drew 20,000. And more shops? Honiara is full of shops now, all selling the same cheap shoddy junk from China and Taiwan, Korea.

We had a Cruise ship call in over the weekend, the Hemiasiatic ? The council went through the town and cleaned all the rubbish up the night before, Rose was wondering what had happened while we were away till David told us when we got to the Gardens. Rose spent the morning at the Gardens picking up rubbish, with a few helpers she coerced into helping. 2 bins full of rubbish for her efforts.

I haven’t the heart to tell her that it was all a mess again this morning with beer cans, paper and noodle packets scattered over the lawn and paths.

The work at Rove Prison started yesterday, all I can say is that I’d be employing all of the guys once they come out. It’s either incredibly boring inside, and they want the diversion, or they normally work hard. Stuff I was thinking might take a week has been 2 days, we’re pouring concrete tomorrow, and relaying the pavers, then the garden gets started, the first stage will be finished by Monday at this rate.
I have to have Andrews application to Dunedin Polytech for the Aboriculture Course in by November, so I have to get moving on finding sponsorship for him. A couple of really nice people involved in NZ with the Horticulture Industry Training Board, and at Dunedin Polytech. Extremely helpful, and with all the right advice. Hopefully I can find the course fees for him, the Polytech are prepared to find sponsorship for his course equipment fees, about $1000NZ, so there’s nearly $5000 SBD Andrew will not have to worry about. There is a big Solomon Island Community in Dunedin, so Andrew won’t be feeling all alone too much. I’m not sure how he’s going to handle winter, with snow and rain, and a bitter cold wind. I’ll try to find him a good Swandri in NZ before he goes, and get it to him in Dunedin. And David told me today, Andrew has cut his betel nut bill down already, so he’s starting to make the effort I asked him to. I’ll keep working on him for the rest of the time, and encouraging him.

Adrian arrived back today, injured from a surfing mishap. He caught the same infection I had a month ago, and his wife has it now as well. They are both suffering. He’s had to change his medication for his epilepsy and isn’t allowed to drive anymore. So we may not see as much of him as previous unless we pick him up each morning.

David is slowly realising not all whitefella are the same. He’s talking a lot more, and I’m finding out more of his frustrations with work, and the worries he keeps to himself.

He and Tiffany, and their daughters bought Rose dinner on Monday night, cooked in an umu, similar to a hangi. Kumara, coconut cream, cheese, tomato and onion stuffed pumpkin, slippery cabbage, fish. They arrived at my house about 7pm, left a few hours later, after looking at the pics I have on the laptop, and listening to a wide range of music. David got his cousin to carve a duka pair for my mum, I forgot to get a pic of them, if Rose sees this, please get a pic and email. Duka are spiritual beings, the female is the seer, she sees where everyone is going, the male is the follower, and makes sure everyone arrives. I’m still having arguments with David over how much they were, he won’t tell me, and I keep telling him, I asked for them, for my Mother, and I want to pay your cousin for his work, but it seems to fall on deaf ears at the moment. They would be about $300 - $400 SBD from what I’ve seen in the good shops here, if not more.

Rose was talking about writing to the Solomon Star about the rubbish and smell in Honiara, and David and Tiffany were all for it, so am I. It does get people talking and interacting. The Solomon Star prints all sorts of stuff, during the troubles, it was the only newspaper that kept going, and the editor was threatened a few times, and assaulted. At the present moment, it is asking where the $10 million that Taiwan gave to the Cattle Industry Development Fund went. It seems to have gone to 3 Constituencies that don’t have cattle, but do have a MP who is wantok to the MP who is on the Cattle Development Board. So far they have traced $4million in payments that have vanished.

http://solomonstarnews.com/ I think

The letters are well worth going back through, there was a tourist here a few months ago, who lost all her cameras etc, and wrote to the SS about the Solomon Islands being a Nation of Thieves, which caused a huge uproar, and now the MPs are caught out, people are looking at the whole thing a lot more closely. Unfortunately, what she said is true, but it’s the same as any place, if you go around flaunting wealth in the faces of people who live in poverty, you’ll be ripped off at some stage.

Just had a quick google, if you enter “Nation of Thieves” you’ll find the Solomon Star page

Honiara has close to 80% unemployment, no Social Security, everyone depends on wantok to survive, so for every person working, they are probably supporting 10 – 15 other people on minimal wages of $300 - $450 SBD a week,

SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01

Rice is back to $55 for 5kilos, imported rice is double that at least, I saw Basmati Rice at Wings for $35 a kilo, the fruit and veg at Kukum market have settled back as well the last week, the rain over Easter caused a bit of a jump in prices due to the damage. We walked past Central Market on Saturday, Rose wasn’t interested in going through after looking through the fence, it was a bit after midday, when the rubbish starts to pile up, and the smell from decaying fruit and veg gets a bit unwholesome. You only go market shopping early here, the heat gets everything fermenting quickly, and the way the Council rebuilt the market doesn’t help. Big high tin roof, no windows, it always looks dark and gloomy inside the main area with the tables, and all the traders outside in the alleys with food just scattered on the ground isn’t a good look. I prefer Kukum Market, it is always cleaned up afterwards, and the produce, well, apart from the fish, always looks fresh.

I’m looking forward to another weekend on Savo, some of it is work related, but it’s gathering orchids, so it’s hard to say if it’s work or pleasure, and I’ll get a day or 2 in fishing as well. I’m definitely coming back late Monday, Sunday and Monday morning will be fishing. I’ll get a few packets of good hooks and swivels for John, if the fishing is as good as he said, it’ll be something for him to use, and he can trade them around the island for stuff as well. I’m slowly getting used to how things are done here, which isn’t too bad for barely 3 months in country. Money is always appreciated, but things are better. Fish hooks and swivels on Savo are worth more than they cost in Honiara, it’s a boat trip away for shopping, about $500 just to get to Honiara, so if you leave anything you bring, it’s worth treble at least in trade for the people there.

Part of our toktok today, David and I, David talked about the previous volunteer here, who took David a few times to the GBR Beach for a get-together with all the other aid agencies. As David explained it, he went with her, was told to bring just himself, when they got there, there is a locals area, and an area where the Aid Agency and RAMSI people tend to congregate. When David saw the back trays of the RAMSI vehicles open and the Chilly bins of beer, food and barbques come out, he wandered off to the local area, and joined in with the people there, who may have had nothing, but they shared what they had, a kumara here, a piece of fish from there. He’d taken some food, but felt embarrassed at the meagre offering he could afford. I get so pissed off at the crassness and attitudes of some of the people here that I am meant to be part of.

Pic is of a dug out canoe, and the modern version on Savo Island. The dugouts are still used a lot there, they don't require petrol, nor a motor, and you see pickaninnies paddling around the island quite happily fishing and snorkeling.

Tuesday 28th April

Finally back in civilisation, although I’m now convinced that isn’t really all that good. Brilliant weekend on Savo, a few minor problems getting there. We didn’t go till Saturday, the driver got a flat on the way down to get us, so wasn’t able to pick us up till a day later, but it was still worth it.

It’s sort of basic accommodation, the rooms are good, go for the double rooms with the sea side balcony, $150, rather than the singles, they are on the shaded side of the block. The bathroom (shared) is in a state of almost finished, the shower and toilet work, only air temp water for the shower, which can be a bit chilly in the mornings, but in comparison with the sea, it’s actually preferable.

The food needs a revamp, more on that in a minute, there is a great barbque set up, and hammocks etc through the trees on the front. Rose spent most of the weekend asleep in a hammock, or wandering along the beach looking for shells, along with all the little kids she met along the way.

John, the boat driver who takes you over, is a youngish guy, as with all Solomon Islanders, friendly, keen to help, and a lot of fun. We booked to go to see the infamous Megapod bird, at some stupid time in the morning, with our guide Manuel, a Phillippino who married a local girl here. Unfortunately, there had been a fundraising party for one of the local Island bands the night before, and from the accounts we got, it took 3 buckets of water to wake John up, so instead of leaving to go around the Island at 7am, it was closer to 7.30, well past day break. No birds, but a lot of tracks, and holes where the eggs were laid. Nice place to walk through, full of Metroxylon solomomense palms, and cocoa trees. We could have done the Kastom Village tour, but it’s like looking in peoples windows, so neither Rose nor I felt like being that crass, Manuel was a bit upset , it gets the villagers $20 each person, I’d rather just give them the $20 and leave them alone. Anyway, we went, we saw what was there, I’m going back on the 22nd to collect orchids for the Orchid house, and get a days fishing in as well.

The meals aren’t all that impressive, I’d have rather fired the barbque up and had Island style fish and rice, with stuff, but it was sit down smorgasbord of fish pieces, chips beans pineapple etc and rice. Not one of the highlights of the place. I’ll have a word next time I’m over there, it is a great place to go to, the beach is safe, if you watch which way the tide is going, you tend to drift out quickly at times. I watched several logs and floating debris drift back and forth for 3 days on the tide, so it would be a matter of just drifting along with the tide.

Beer is $15 a bottle, wine, which Rose gave a bottle of to Manuel, is $150 for NZ or Australian, all good brands too. We had a Hardys Shiraz, and a White Cloud Chardonnay, nice wines in the right setting.

There isn’t a lot to do there, if you have never done a volcano walk, there are two good walks into the thermal area, be prepared to slip, slide, get saturated with sweat, it is hot. Snorkelling and fishing are superb, the water is clear to 10 – 15 metres from the surface, you can easily see the coral reef from the boat underneath, the dolphins are always in motion around the Island, our dinner was caught off the beach in front of the lodge, large trumpeter fish, pics I’ll post.

If you don’t drink wine, and pester the staff for a barbque, you’ll have a cheap weekend, and if you like fishing, then you’re in heaven.

Rose had a good time, like me she found Honiara to be a bit of a slum, with all the rubbish and smell, but Savo made up for that.

We’ve got ArchBishopDesmond Ballerina Dress arrived today to tell us all how to be culturally sensitive and to hug each other like they do in Africa, and be all friendly towards each other, for which the Solomon people are paying for everything. Sanctimonious little prat, but that’s only my opinion, he’s probably a really nice guy.
Pic is of our dinner being scaled on the foreshore, and also one of the pickaninnies cooking their dinner on the barbque.

Wednesday 22nd April

We finished off the remaining tubs this morning, well, David took everyone, he’s determined I’m not meant to be doing anything other than advising, he has the opinion that work is not what the white fella does here, we just advise, and the black fella does the work, or in this case the black women. I can see the two of us having a lot of fun eventually, with him trying to keep me in the office, and me spending more time in the nursery. It’s easier for me to teach by showing and doing, than trying to describe things in broken English/pijin. And I’d rather be doing things, not sitting in an office all day.

Another hot dry day, they are becoming more common now, when I arrived they were about once a week without rain, now it’s one day a week we get rain, but when it does rain, it comes down.

David and I are looking at the lily pond, it needs a lot of cleaning out. The wash off from the bank around it has silted it up, and there is very little clear water for the fish and eels to live in. Although the frogs seem to like it there. It’ll take about a week of digging and clearing out though, we need enough outside work to cover the cost of 5 people doing work we don’t get paid for. I’ll have to get a drain dug around the pond, to divert the mud from washing into the pond, then we’ll put the lilies into baskets this time, so we can trim and move them easier. At the moment they are planted direct into the pond, so the roots have spread all over the place. Nice colours in the pond, red, pink, blue, white, and lots of dragon flies, some with iridescent red and blue bodies.

I haven’t seen my 2 pythons since last weekend, I wandered the track again this morning, but they must be back in the forest litter, or still up in the trees. Our eagle hasn’t been back this week, but the red backed parrots are having a good time feeding off the trees close to the office.

Long weekend coming closer for me, half day at work tomorrow, a few things to tidy up there, then pick Rose up at Henderson Field, I’ll go into work Friday morning and show her around the Gardens, then get Tiffany to drop us off in Honiara to get the shuttle to the ferry at Vila. Hopefully the weather will hold long enough for a good weekend on Savo.

I may not be posting till we get back, so have a good weekend, and I’ll catch up next week.

Tuesday 21st April

Finally finished one test paper, 9 to go. I’m a few years out of practise, plus most of it is having to come out of my head from what I remember, we have no resources to check against, and anything previous was burnt when the old training school was ransacked and burnt during the troubles. I’m sticking with multi choice questions and a few diagrams to mark stuff onto, anything to make it as easy as possible, but still show they know what they are doing.

By the time I got half way through it last night I didn’t feel like writing into this, and I’ve had one of those annoying headache behind my eye things for most of the day. I figure if I get another test paper written up this week, have the weekend off with Rose, I’ll come back all refreshed, or more likely, stressing because I’m going to be running out of time. Situation normal for me though, I don’t do anything till there is a deadline. And the closer the faster I can do it. Or so I hope

We start at the prison on Monday, or rather Adrian does. I’m sending David down with him to, to try and keep things under control. Neville called up last week, I had a lot of stuff about paving and concreting p/copied for him to give to the guys, he was pleased, it makes it look as though we are actually teaching them something useful, rather than just making use of them

David is still having trouble with his arm, there is a large white patch on his hand now, where the nerves have either died or are being pinched so hard they are dying back. He still has no movement in 2 fingers, and I’m concerned if it isn’t repaired soon, he’ll lose all feeling in most of his hand. He won’t cope with that, he’s so used to working he can’t just sit and give directions. He went back to #9 today, and has another appointment in 2 weeks with the surgeon again to see about opening his elbow up again. Something he is definitely not happy with

The girls bagged up another 100 bags of compost for the remaining tubs on Mendana today, cleaned up all the remaining compost through the mulcher, and started another fresh compost heap with the chippings and chicken manure. And did about 300 cuttings into the bags. If I ever start a nursery up anywhere, I’m employing all of them. They work with what we have, never complain, any improvements I’ve been able to make so far are accepted with gratitude, and they don’t expect much.

It’s going to be several more months yet till our funding comes through, I’m getting so frustrated waiting, all I need is a few sheets of plywood to make a potting bench, well, ok, I’d like a lot of other things, but a potting bench is top priority now we have the potting soil sorted out with the mulcher. I put in for a concrete mixer as well last week, to mix the coco husk/sand/compost mulch in, instead of the girls using a shovel and mixing by hand on the ground. The guys sometimes work in the nursery, Kennedy and Sandy do work, a few of the others see it as “womens” work, they wouldn’t last long in a nursery, well, not one I was running anyway.

If our weekend away on Savo doesn’t bankrupt me I’ll buy the plywood myself just to get things moving and improved.

4 more weeks for the Hort course to go, then we decide if we are keeping any of the students. I’ve got my list of the ones I want to keep for the nursery, and a couple for the work crew. We had a word with Willy on Monday, he’s been spending more time working out how to not do anything, than the time it would take to actually do the job, and he’s not interested in doing stuff he finds boring. He’s really good when he works, we know he’s smart enough, he used to be a school teacher till he had a few problems with kwaso and other substances, and he thinks that some of the things we do are a bit beneath him at times. Pity, if he’d be more consistent in his work I’d be keeping him, he thinks things through, and doesn’t need a lot of information to work stuff out. But it’s “womens” work, so the Island patriarchial stuff influences him too much

I’ve stocked the kitchen up a bit this week for Rose, well, not stocked up, but a few choices for breakfast and dinner, and a carton of milk for her and some butter. Not stuff I buy, and when I saw the price I know why I don’t buy it. $16.80 for a litre of milk, long life uht only, there’s no dairy industry here for fresh milk, and butter is $58.90 a 500gm tin

She’ll have to like rice for dinner, I may splurge and put something with it.

Music for tonight is Peter Green, a mix of his stuff from Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, and one of his solo cds, Little Dreamer
Pic is of my two Malaitan Shell money necklaces, the dark brown one is from Suzie, the orange one is from Imelda

Sunday 19th April

Sunday 19th April

The power came back on at 3am, the ceiling fan started up, and I managed to get a few hours of sleep in the relatively cool air finally. Went into work, tidied my desk up, well, more moved stuff from one place to another, but it looks as though I’ve done something. I’ll be spending the rest of the week looking for stuff now.

10 test papers to write up in the next week, Then 2 weeks of revision for everyone, and a final week of tests. Thankfully it’s mostly practical stuff which they have been doing, I just need pictures of them doing it as evidence for any audit.

Tiffany and David have been without water since Friday at White River, and no power either although they have never had power there. They have a bush house, David is slowly improving it as they get the money and time to spare. Tiffany was at the river washing the clothes this morning, with their 2 girls and her mother. Along with what looked like all of the women from White River with their washing as well.

It’s a mixed evening here, I had Led Zeppelin on earlier, now it’s Flogging Molly mix of tracks from Swagger, Rebels of the Sacred Heart etc. Haven’t played Flogging Molly much here, so it’s good for the neighbours.

I’ve got 2 loaves of wholemeal bread in the oven, once that’s done and out, it’s cold shower time and sleep I hope. It was too hot last night for any real sleep, I was up and down most of the night drinking cold water from the tap, well, it was colder than the air. I’ve made up for it today with the freezer working again, I have ice cubes, coffee ice cubes and some more pawpaw and banana frozen for ice cream.
A few more days then a long weekend for me! I am starting to feel as though I need to get away from the Gardens, I’m usually working at weekends, and early mornings, time to get away and see a bit more of the country, well, other Islands anyway.

Pic is of a Delonix in the main street that was used for firewood and set on fire during the troubles, or "Ethnic Tension Period" as they call it here

Friday 17th April

Mixed day, good, bad, and funny. David has joined in with me about Andrew, which is good, he had a few words with Andrew about the opportunities we’re trying to open up for him if he can show us it’s going to be worthwhile for us to do so. I’ve got a few addresses in Auckland to contact in a little while and see if I can place Andrew there for a year to learn and get some certification in Aboriculture and Safety Regulations, not that the safety stuff is heeded here, but it will help.

Caught up with Les in the Council Works Dept, and he’s going to organise the back hoe and compactor to clean up the Childrens Playground tomorrow, all the rubbish we couldn’t remove. And he’ll send the backhoe into the Gardens so we can dig out the swimming hole properly, and hopefully that will be the final thing we have to do there.

The repercussions from reporting Robert the Forestry employee who hacked our tree about have started. I mentioned that he is wantok to Fred, the head of Forestry, wantok is family or tribal or language relationship, it’s thicker than glue as far as the people here are concerned. One of the more friendly people in Forestry rang Tiffany late today, and Fred is having an eviction order drawn up to remove us from the Botanic Gardens, because we tried to get his wantok in trouble. Whether we were right or wrong doesn’t come into it, it’s wantok, so that takes precedence over right or wrong.

It’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks now, when Keithie gets back and finds out. I’ll have to chase up the Minister for Environment and push for National Heritage Status for the Gardens to take it out of all the fingers that are involved, it’s an insane system here, well, probably not insane, but it can be very shortsighted in not acknowledging shortcomings and problems.

David tried explaining about the overtime today, and called me in to explain it better, there aren’t the words in pijin to explain exactly what we are intending to do. It still took me an hour to go over it, before everyone understood, then we had one of the night security guys arrive drunk, and disrupted the whole thing by accusing David of just stealing money from them all by not paying overtime rates. So it went back to the start again, and Tumi got sent out of the meeting, he was really drunk, and not listening, but still managed to get everyone confused.

I think everyone understands now, that we are not paying penal rates anymore, but we will give them equivalent time off during the week for time worked at weekends and night time. It’s either that, or we have to start laying off people, and neither David nor I want that to happen. We’ve got a good crew, who know what to do with minimal supervision, and when more work comes in we’ll need all of them for it.

3 days of hot dry weather and it’s been the Invasion of the Cockroaches! Opened the cupboard when I got home to see what I could throw together for dinner, and several large brown cockroaches went scuttling under over and through the assorted tins and containers. The cupboards got a swift clean out, and a good spray of crawling insect spray, and an hour later there’s a lot of dead cockies on the floor under the cupboards. Now I need another tin of spray, I got a bit carried away with it. Effective though. Another reason to get good well sealed containers, the damn things get everywhere. And they are too big for the geckos to eat.

I might try and catch a couple of green tree lizards to let loose in the house to keep the cockies under control, then I’ll need a small python to keep the lizards in check, it could get to be a zoo.

The truck seems to be over it’s temperamental hissy fit of last weekend, apart from taking a few minutes to start now, and when it does finally fire up, it belches a lovely big smoke ring out the exhaust. Mostly white, so it’s unburnt diesel, better than black oil smoke.

We’re having continual power cuts again this week, every day at work, from 11am till 12, then from 2pm till 3pm, and when I got home tonight, no power till nearly 7pm, then only for 15 minutes, off again till 9pm. I wouldn’t have minded, but it means I’ll be without hot water till the morning, and there’s only a trickle coming from the cold tap. So much for solar heating, it’s connected to the power supply somehow, I think when the power goes out, it closes a valve somewhere which causes an airlock in the system. I’m used to it now, but it’s still annoying. Especially when it’s hot and I’m looking forward to a shower.

Saturday 18th

Longest power cut so far, nearly all day, and still off at 8pm. The fridge was nicely defrosted when I got home, luckily there isn’t a great deal in it, although my diminishing supply of crab sticks had to be used up tonight, I’m more upset at not having any ice for a cold drink.

We’ve got half the tubs down the median strip done, digging out about 4 – 6 inches of the soil in them, and replacing it with our custom made compost, and giving them a good 30 litres of water to wash it all in. A lot of the crew turned up, Jennifer, Sepa, Jocelyn, Kennedy, Andrew, Emory, Suzie, so they seem to have accepted the new system for overtime.

It was hot coming down the main street through Honiara. No wind, and the tar seal was reflecting and holding the heat. 48 tubs to go, we ran out of compost, so that’s a job for next weekend once we mulch another lot of compost through the mulcher.

I’ve had 5 cold showers so far since I got home, trying to cool down, I’d trade for a steady breeze at the moment. There’s no air movement and it’s humid, and still. A bit like a sauna run by a heat freak, without any water to cool down with.

If the power is still off in the morning I’m going into work, to post this, and soak up the air-conditioning in the office.

I found some Coke Zero in 300ml cans today, $6 each, and to hell with the expense, I had to have 3, because the first two seemed to vanish between my mouth and the rest of me. You sweat a lot here, and no matter how much you drink, there’s not much makes it all the way through.

Pic is the bus stop on Mendana in the centre of Honiara

Thursday 16th April

Another hot dry day, more surprises. I’ve now got two shell money necklaces, Imelda made me one with orange and black bands with white coral chips, now I’m stuck wearing both, in case I upset one or the other by not wearing their one. I’ll have to try for a red feather one from Rennell/Bellona, but there’s no one other than Tiffany and David from there,

We’ve got a large amount of compost ready for the weekend now, it’s going to be interesting getting people for work. Our wages are frozen, no overtime to be paid, so to get around it I’m giving whoever works time off during the week in lieu. They’ll make a few hours on it, it’s only Saturday afternoon and Sunday we can work while the traffic is slow, so they’ll get 2 days pay for 1 ½ days work.

Young Andrew, he’s 20, I found out he’s spending $400 a fortnight at the betel nut stall, on betel nut, so I had a few words with him. That’s ¾ of his pay, I’m going to get it organised for him to go to NZ for arborculture training, using ropes etc for tree pruning, so the incentive for him is to save his airfare, I’ll arrange for the training and work, and I’ll work with the Solomon Island Commissioner in NZ to get him accommodation. He’s got a year to save up, so he’s going to have to cut down his betel nut consumption. At $1 each nut, that’s a lot of betel he’s chewing. As more incentive, I told him I’d tell his mother about his expenditure if he didn’t cut back, that really has him worried.

He’s a really good worker, and keen, I don’t want to see him waste his opportunities and blow it all on betel nut. And he’s keen to go away to learn more as well. Along with Imelda and Rose from the nursery.

We have the Childrens Playground to maintain along the waterfront, opposite the Police Head Quarters. Swings, a slide, travel hanger, wooden castle structure, and a wooden ship. Once a month or so we have to clean out the ship, it’s quite large, the children love it, but unfortunately at night time it becomes a repository for condoms, rubbish, toilet, etc etc. We cleaned it out yesterday, 14 rubbish bags of cans, rubbish and stuff we didn’t particularly want to identify. It’s always been a problem area, the Betel Nut Stalls along the road from it constantly pilfer timber off the fence, the slide, and use it to build their stalls. David and I are of the opinion it is getting to the time when we stop asking the crew to clean the ship out, I’ll put a notice up there, and if it continues being used as it is, we’ll demolish it. Which will be sad, for the children, but we’re not going to keep cleaning up what is becoming an open toilet.

Pic is of Parliament House overlooking Honiara