Friday 5th June

Kennedy and Tiffany
Shirelyta giving forth fo rthe TV News

SEB Work Crew World Environment Day March

WED Parade Mendana Ave

It’s World Environment Day. We had a street parade through Honiara, up to the Cultural Park opposite the Solomon Island Bank. Mix of music, the obligatory speeches from the politicians about “Climate Change” and how we can prevent it happening. I keep thinking of King Canute whenever I hear that. Although all he was doing was proving to his courtiers that the King was not omnipotent, and he could not control the sea or nature. It would be nice if the present bunch of scaremongerers would realise it as well.

The music was good, started with a bit of Island style gospel, well, sort of like gospel singing, then the reggae boys came on and it improved considerably. Very heavy on the Bob Marley RIP, and a bit of homegrown music. Most of the work crew stayed on for the day, listening to the music in the sunshine.

Caught up with Keithie there, she’s confident Honiara Council will back and support us more now. There is a new Mayor and Town Clerk who are easier to work with, so we may get more work, and funding from them for the work we do on their behalf through town. Add in the training as well, and it looks like Forestry jumped a bit too soon.

The local tv crew were there, trying to get me in front of the camera talking about environment issues, climate change CO2 etc, but I managed to keep away. I’d probably say everything they didn’t want to hear. Shirelyta had a bit of a say though, the trouble they had wasn’t in getting her to talk, it was more trying to get her to stop.

Kennedy was there, the tourism office is happy with having a statue by him there, but as usual, it comes down to price. We’ll keep working on it. I really want more art work around town, but it’s going to always be a risk at the moment till people start to appreciate stuff more.

Someone drove through the ANZ roundabout last night, not too badly, well, the driving was atrocious, but the damage wasn’t too bad, just a few plants around the edge. And only one of our stake sets in the bougainvillea has been damaged so far, which is better than I expected. I didn’t think they’d last one night, but we still have the weekend to go yet. If they last this weekend, they should be there for a while.

I finally told David today about the Forestry ultimatum, we’ve put off telling him until we had some good news to go with it. Now it appears we won’t be evicted, I took him over by the river to our toktok seat, under the breadfruit tree on the riverbank and gave him a copy of the letter from Forestry. I let him read it, then said we have good news as well, and we have Council backing us finally. He’s very upset over it all, he’s been working for SEB for 7 years now, and really tries to do his best for Honiara, and making the town look good with the parks and gardens. In a way he’s pleased about it, it gives him a reason for letting the 2 night security guys go, they do a good job, but spend too much time with Robert the Forestry employee who lives next to the nursery, feeding him stuff about what we’re doing, and believing the rubbish Robert tells them about what SEB are doing.

I’ll be pleased when things settle down, it’s been one crisis after another since I’ve been here, not major ones like this till now but stuff that suddenly comes up and disrupts everything for a week or so.

One more week, then another weekend on Savo.

Wednesday 3rd June/Thursday 4th June

It’s been one of those days when nothing seemed to matter much, a bit of goofing off, a bit of work, more goofing off, fun.

My guys from Rove Prison couldn’t get permits signed yesterday, so another day before they can get day release and come up to the Nursery. Not to worry, they have done a great job so far, and tomorrow will be digging all the stones out of the garden beds, and deep digging to break the soil up. Then we’ll add in the compost and some fertiliser. It’s looking like Monday before we’ll be finished now, I was hoping for Friday, but this is the Solomons.

We had a couple of young guys plastered on Kwaso hanging around the Gardens this morning, one of them was one of the crew that put the water flow meter in last week, and was becoming a bit of a nuisance with his mate, so I put them both into the truck and ran them into Point Cruz, hoping they’d not find their way back. They arrived back this afternoon, considerably the worse for wear, I had Andrew cracking up. We were building some steps for the meter readers so they can get to the flow meter for readings, and the 2 drunks were on the river bank opposite us, singing, and being nothing more than a mild irritation. I said to Andrew that that was what he looked like on weekends when he goes out chasing girls with his mates, all drunk. He gets so embarrassed, he doesn’t drink, and he and Imelda are usually together at weekends, but he’s just fair game for winding up.
Anyway, the drunks got to the stage where they were starting to harass some of the schoolgirls studying at the tables, David was doing his best to ignore them, he doesn’t like dealing with trouble very much, so I wandered over, managed to get them away from the students for a while, but it didn’t last. Then it got a bit aggro, one of them started with the whitefalla/black falla burble, which didn’t impress me at all. After a few cheap insults going my way, managed to get things under control, and got them started on the road out of the gardens. Both of them too drunk to be much of a physical threat, more bluster and bravado, but still not pleasant. Kwaso is like meth with the effect it has on the locals, totally unpredictable, all of the murders here lately have been after a kwaso session, no wonder the police are really cracking down finally on the distillers. Since the murders in Central Market, there’s been a more visible police presence through the town, I still don’t go out at night though.

After that episode I felt like some light relief, so I got the short bits of bamboo offcuts from the lengths we are using in the tubs and made some throwing darts with them. About 30” long, cardboard fins, and a length of string to throw with. I don’t think anyone had seen them before here, spears and stuff yes, but not the short throwing darts. I was a bit worried about the first throw, I usually stuff it up, and hit the ground about 3’ in front of me, but I must have got everything right this time. Drifted the first dart about 100 yds across the gardens, put the second one about 5’ from it, then everyone wanted to have a play. I’m pleased I wasn’t in competition with anyone. Jacks first throw was about 20yds past mine, then it turned into a competition amongst them all. I’ve got to make about a dozen more tomorrow for all their kids now. Some of the guys would be great javelin throwers, the girls weren’t far behind the guys in distance either.

I missed Les at Council Works, he’s away on holiday till next week, so I hope Keithie has better luck with the Council Head of Works tomorrow. There’s space at SICCHE for us, it’s a bit cramped, but will be ok, and we can probably steal a bit more as we need it if we go there. Although the Nursery site isn’t required to be close to town, any land within 30 minutes of Honiara would be fine. We’ve got warehouse space at BJS Agencies as a stopgap for the tools and equipment, and hopefully we can get a lockup building somewhere close.

Steve called out today with my CARE parcel from Rosalee, (Thanks Sis). Filters for the camera, good china cups, 2 for Tiffany and Shirelyta, t-shirts, and gardening magazines and books. The magazines and books kept all the crew quiet for a couple of hours while we had the afternoon rainshower. Any more magazines always gratefully accepted. Tiffany was all through them getting landscape ideas, and Imelda was after all the plants from them. I’ll try to visit the Plant Quarantine people next week, and see what we can import into here. Where the money to import them will come from I’m not sure, but I’ll cross that when it happens.


All the crew were asking if New Zealand was like the pictures in the magazines, with the gardens and street design. It’s a totally foreign concept here, having parks and gardens full of flowers, shrubs etc, after looking through the magazines, everyone is keen to do the same thing here, if we can get the plants or seeds. As I’ve said repeatedly, the crew I work with are really keen, hard working and hungry to learn everything.

Another morning spent waiting for internet access, I’m getting used to it, still bloody annoying, but ok, I get to post 2 – 3 days at once eventually.

Most of the trees around the Gardens now have bamboo darts stuck in the branches, while the guys practise aiming and throwing. I’ve been busy a few times making up new ones, till I told them to make their own from now on. There is now a severe shortage of cardboard and bamboo around the office and garden. All of the cardboard has gone into tail fins.

We finally had all the “t”s crossed and the “i”s dotted and 2 of the guys from Rove Prison were allowed out on day release to work up in the nursery making mulch for the garden beds at Rove. They had a long lecture from the Prison Admin about behaviour, then got a brief one very similar from me. I mentioned that if either of my 2 ladies in the nursery felt threatened or harassed by them, they would be back inside so fast it would all seem a dream to them. It probably wasn’t needed, the guys are really quiet, and polite, like everyone in the Solomons. They worked really well feeding compost through the mulcher all morning, we’ve got another day or so to go yet, and David the advisor there is keen to get them outside the prison more often, especially the ones coming up for release.

I may have another job there in a while as well, running Level 1 and Level 2 Horticulture for the inmates, which will be another interesting experience.

It appears that Forestry jumped a bit too soon with trying to evict us from the Gardens, Keithie managed to have a meeting with the Honiara Town Clerk today, and the decision from Council is that we stay, Forestry can wait for us to get the Nursery buildings done first, then they can have their building back. And that is all, we stay in the Gardens, and carry on doing what we have for the past 7 years.

I’d give anything to be a fly on the wall at the Forestry/ Council meeting. The Council own the land, and they have been more than happy for us to manage the Gardens and maintain everything.

David had the crew out late last night, putting bamboo stakes in the tubs along Mendana Ave while the traffic was quiet. We’ve staked the bougainvillea, I’m trying for tall spires of flowers from them, rather than close cropped bushes. It’s just wait and see now how long the stakes stay in without some drunken idiot pulling them out.
Once we get more plants growing in the Nursery, we’ll replace all the crotons/duranta with bougainvillea.

The weather continues hot and dry now, it’s no wonder everyone walks here, and not at a fast walk either. I still end up way ahead of everyone if we are going somewhere, I’ll gradually slow down I think, but it will take a while.

I’m going to Savo Island definitely again next week. We’ve got a 3 day weekend, Friday 12th is Queens Birthday weekend here, so I’ll pull an afternoon off Thursday, collect a few orchids over the weekend, do a bit of fishing finally, and come back Monday.

Tuesday 2nd June

Paving at Rove Prison
Formwork being put in

Paving formwork

Well, it finally happened. Forestry have given us till the end of June to vacate the Botanic Gardens, office, nursery and all. It’s going to be an interesting time finally. I thought Keithie would be going to fight it, but other than the usual letters expressing indignation etc, we’re looking at this as a step forward, and a chance to call in all the favours, and get our own area away from the conflicts that happen here when you have 2 or more Government Departments dealing with something. It’s a bit like the mafia turf wars, a lot of internecine fighting and personality conflicts.

At least it gives me something to really do, and something I’ve done a couple of times now, starting a nursery from scratch. I’m meeting Les at the Council Works tomorrow to see if Council have any land we can lease, or work in with Council over. If I can sell him the idea of working alongside us, and getting the Council plants from us, with training for the Council staff as well, it may work.

Failing that there is land available at SICCHE, the Solomon Island Training Centre on the Kukum Highway.

Pity, I can see the Gardens falling back into a wasteland again, Forestry haven’t the staff to keep up with the maintenance, and the few that are meant to be working with us, at the moment, are the ones cutting the trees and clearing spaces in the forest.
Tiffany and I haven’t told David yet, he’s going to really stress out about it when we do tell him, so I’m hoping we can have an alternative in place quickly before we do tell him.

The job at Rove Prison is going really well, all the paving is done, we start getting the garden ready for planting out tomorrow, digging all the stones out, and adding good compost and mulch to it on Thursday, then planting on Friday. I’ve got 3 of the guys coming up to the nursery tomorrow to run the mulcher, I need about 2 metres of mix for the prison, and they can do enough for Imelda and Jennifer as well, to pay for it.

It’s taken a couple of days to get permission from the Head of Corrections here, luckily there’s a couple of Kiwi advisors working at Rove Prison who are really good to work with, and keen to get the guys outside working. It beats sitting around inside looking at concrete walls for sure. I’ll have to get inside to see the job they want done in the recreation area. From what the guys say, it’s just concrete floor, walls and bare of anything.

Paul my local betel nut seller, stopped me tonight on the way home, and he wants some more pics taken for his family. I’ll have to charge him for them this time, I’m out of paper and nearly out of ink, so I’ll work out a cost per print for him. He was really pleased with the one I took the other day, even though it’s not the best, too much blue in it, and I needed a flash to bring out the shadow detail more. Not to worry, I’m getting used to the camera, and can only get better with it the more I use it. Getting used to the dark complexions here is taking me a while to adjust for, shots I would never usually use a flash for, if it was a European person, I need it to give some detail and lighten faces.

Monday 1st June

Spent the weekend playing with the camera again. Mostly pics of the lilies in the pond, working out what all the settings do. It’s got RAW setting, same as the little nikon did, I’ve never tried using it till now. Huge files from it, 5.8MB pics, it’s meant to be good for publications with all sorts of programmes able to use it for colour/tone adjustment. Thankfully it has a convert programme for RAW to JPEG, even so, I’m still getting 4MB files which are brilliant. Run them through Pixresizer and get them down to a manageable size for emailing and posting.

We had the Anglican Arch Bishop for Melanesia annointed (?) yesterday here, whatever it is they do when a new one is appointed anyway. The Church of St Barnabus was overflowing, tents on the lawn, people everywhere. I was stuck in traffic, being moved on along Mendana Ave, it was as bad today with the Football Final on at Lawson Tama Stadium. Uncles FC vs Kossa FC, there was a long procession from the stadium about 5.30pm with all the Uncles supporters carrying banners and waving flags, Uncles won, 1/0. Football has a huge following here, there are usually 20,000 people at Lawson Tama for a game, the last week as the finals have been on, it’s been nearly full.

I’ll have to stop playing with the camera and get down to taking some actual pictures with it, instead of ones that might be good for screen savers, but of no use to VSA for publicity about what I’m doing here. I’ve had a couple of emails from Wellington asking “So where are the pictures then? I’m more used to being behind the camera, not in front of it, and who wants to see pics of some fat old fart when the scenery and people are a lot better to look at.

Steve is insisting on pics of the work at Rove Prison, I know it will be good publicity for VSA, so just to shut him up I’ll get some tomorrow.

I’ve had water and power all day here, so I’m on the last rinse for the washing, it’s 7.45 pm, the floor has been swept, mopped, I’ve got the starter for this weekends bread put away, everything is back to normal finally, and only a 4 day work week. I’ve booked to go to Savo Island on the weekend of the 12th this time. Friday is a holiday, so I’ll go Thursday afternoon, come back Monday with orchids, and maybe some fish if I can get a good ice box for them.
I’ll fill this with pics of the lilies in the pond, oh, and one of my local betel nut seller Paul. He’s got the stand at the end of the road by the corner shop, does a thriving business.

Saturday 30th May/Sunday 31st

A wet day, it’s drizzle, not rain, enough to make being outside wet, but not to the stage were you get soaked instantly, more a slow creeping dampness. You don’t really notice how wet you are with the temperature, till you do as I did this afternoon, go for a long walk, then take the t-shirt off when I got home, and had water dripping out of it. It didn’t feel all that wet while I was out, it’s still in the high 20’s low 30’s, quite pleasant actually.

I went into work this morning, hoping to get an internet connection. I have 14 emails sitting there that I haven’t been able to get to since Thursday, make that 17 from today. I spent 4 hours trying to get email to open, it timed out frequently, so I gave up. I’ll have another try tomorrow while everyone is at Church in the morning. I managed to get a speedtest on the connection, 0.11mbps download, and 0.02mbps upload. And Telekom have the nerve to call it broadband.

David and I are getting so *annoyed* with some of the people living in Honiara. The 2 trees we replaced in the main street last week have been hacked with a bush knife already, the tops have been cut off so all that is left is the trunk. If they’d been just small trees it may not have been so bad, but these were 5 yr old 2.5m tall delonix, with a good spread of branches from the crown. $2,500 worth of work gone again by some idiot with a bushknife. And it’s not something we get any income from doing, its part of the free work we do, dependant on donations to cover.

Steve found me wandering along the roadside earlier, I was taking pics of the rubbish that gets thrown into the gardens and median strip we have to clean up. I’ve got a few concerns about the viability of the project I’m meant to be running, it isn’t at the stage VSA were told before I arrived, and I am doubting the long term prospects for it. So long as I can get this year in, and get Andrew and Emery, and hopefully Jennifer and Imelda, away to NZ for training I’ll be happy.

I’m becoming more aware of where and how the Aid money gets skimmed off before it gets to where it is meant to be going. Steve had a good suggestion for the Japanese Grass Roots Funding. The Japanese Consul retains it, and pays it out on invoice, which will stop the management and consultant deductions from the overall amount. It’s close to $2 million Solomon Dollars in funding, and with the usual 15% deductions, someone is just making money for doing nothing more than letting us use a bank account. I’ve seen scams from Nigeria that aren’t as blatant.

I’m meant to be writing something for VSA NZ to have published in the Herald, but as usual, I can write about anything other than myself, so I can’t see it happening. They can use the pics I’ve sent and the couple of newspaper articles that the Solomon Star and the Island Sun have put about me.

It’s a hard place to write about, there’s a lot of stuff that is really bad about Honiara, the lack of rubbish disposal, cleaning, sewage systems, water supply, then you meet the people and it’s as if all that other stuff isn’t really all that important. It will all happen, but at their pace, not just because some white fella flys in and says make it happen now. And I think everyone is still battle shocked and inured to what happens after the 10 years of political corruption and ethnic fighting.

I’m working more on attitudes at work, not that it is easier, but if I can get everyone looking forward, we stand a good chance of getting some improvements. My goals now are fairly simple, one practical thing a month, or project, and keeping everyone in work.

It’s been a damp warm afternoon, ideal for spending the evening with Van Morrison on continuous play, I’ve got 15 cds to work through, from Moondance to Keep it Simple, about halfway there now. Inarticulate Speech of the Heart playing now.

NZ Aid has been restructured in the past month, hopefully it won’t be just providing money for projects that have no real depth or long term benefit. I’m using the restructure as part of my argument for the long term view of the Nursery expansion, and the long term training that we could set in place for the provinces. I really think this project has never been thought through, it’s been a case of apply for the money, produce 2,000 trees, then move on to another Aid agency for more money for something else. There are going to be some problems soon, if I can’t see any long term benefits accruing to the Solomons from this, I’ll notify VSA with my misgivings, and either move to another project, or work out some method of making this a long term education project. There will be people upset, if we go to a proper training centre it will be moving away from their control, which won’t be such a bad thing as far as I’m concerned. If it means we can train more locals to run and organise, the less Aid money will be needed, it’s like weaning kids off a bottle and onto solid food. The only ones who will miss out will be the consultants and others who have milked the Aid agencies for so long for glamour projects that have no real sustainability or long term benefit.

The Solomon Islands got royally screwed by Malaysia/Korea/China with their forests. Forestry account for 60% of Government income, and what is happening now that the forests have been nearly exhausted by clear felling, the companies are declaring bankruptcy, and folding so they don’t have to pay for the restoration of the land. The same thing happened with one of the oil palm plantations, They clear felled and sold all the trees, left the land a total wasteland, then closed the company leaving everyone out of work, and with a huge deforested area that is now polluting the rivers and local villages. All of the agreements date back to the earlier government that was deposed in the civil war, but were held as being legal. So now the trees are gone, and the villagers are left with a desecrated land, no income, and no way of sustaining a living with the land so badly ruined.

It’s been much the same with the fishing rights. Tuna, marlin, mackerel, well, any fish really, all gets taken and shipped to Japan or Korea, then we buy it back in cans, but never the good bits. It’s all the shredded stuff packed in cheap oil. There is talk again of opening a canning and processing fishery in Western Province, but it’s a lot of talk at the moment. Whatever happens, I doubt that the Solomons will see any real benefit come from it.

If we really got the tourist sector right, and increased the quality, it would give a huge boost to all the provinces. And stay away from the eco-living type of accommodation. It’s easy enough to build low impact, good quality tourist accommodation without going to bush houses in the forest type of loopy green ideal.

Solomon $ is now worth NZ $5.86, AUD$6.38, it makes it hard on everyone here. Everything is imported, and the only people making money here are the Chinese importers, and the people with the import/export companies.

Gold Ridge mine is nearing production finally. They have an assay of 50 billion ounces of gold in the prospect area, I’m not sure how accurate that is, but it’s the most common quoted figure. They have a 50/50 agreement with the villages so in a couple of years there will be some extremely wealthy villages in the highlands on Guadacanal. For anyone thinking of heading into the highlands with a pan, all the land is custom owned, and the villages take great offence at people wandering around taking things out. You might be lucky and be able to strike a deal with them, but it would be a minimum of 50/50 agreement now.

Thursday 28th May

The gardens were crowded today. We had Woodford International School Cross Country, The Holy Cross Ladies with their Flower arranging class, then Honiara College arrived to practise their school play and theatrics. At a rough count I’d say close to 250 teenagers parents and teachers, really good day. No accidents with the cross country, other than a few going for an unexpected swim slipping over crossing the river.

We found the little python, tucked up into a tree trunk, hiding in the bark. It’s looking well fed, it must be catching either the tree lizards and geckos, or the hundreds of small frogs in the lawn. I’m hoping no one kills it, it’s relatively harmless, it could give a nasty bite probably, but it’s only 15 inches or so long.

The dry weather is playing havoc with the power supply this week, it must be all the airconditioners in the offices and hotels all going at once. The power is now going off at 10am, till 12, then from 1.30pm till 3.30pm or a bit later. It’s very frustrating to put it mildly. And knowing I’ll come home to a defrosted fridge again really makes my day. Although there isn’t much in the fridge now, I’m learning not to stock too much to lose in it.

We are putting bamboo stakes into the bougainvillea in the tubs down the street tomorrow, then let the bougainvillea grow taller and tie the stems to the stakes, provided the stakes aren’t just stolen each night. I’m trying to get tall spires of flowers in the tubs, rather than the short hard trimmed bushes, we’ll be taking out the crotons, and duranta as well, as we get more bougainvillea ready in the nursery. And the variegated pineapple as well, too many spikes and sharp bits on them.

Flogging Molly on the playlist tonight, Rebels of the Sacred Heart, Drunken lullabies etc. Thanks to Sandy in St Louis for putting me onto them a couple of years ago. And Al for the Screaming Orphans, and the Young Dubliners. And Mary for the Bothy Band. Fairly wide mix of styles in there, plus my usual Gary Moore, Jonny Lang, Paul Butterfield, trance, techno, Bob Dylan etc, and Mary Coughlan

It’s 4.30am Friday, we had another mild rock and roll event, for about 5 minutes, several little house shaking episodes, then it’s been peaceful since. So I may as well stay up and have breakfast, get ready for work and hope there isn’t another shake.

Wednesday 27th May

Maelaen and Jack

Swimming hole

Finally I have power at home, water may be a little while yet, hopefully later tonight. We’ve had major power cuts since Sunday, usually it comes back at night, but since Monday it’s been a few hours in the daytime, then off for most of the residential area all night. Tonight is the first time I’ve had it in the evenings, hopefully I’ll have water as well soon, the rainwater tank is good, but it’s not the place to have a shower under.

The Rove Prison job is progressing really well, I’ll be getting some pictures tomorrow, permission to photograph inside has to be approved first, and the guys have to agree as well, they are quite happy about it, I’ll do prints for them, but we still have to follow procedures. I think I’ve said this, but I really would employ any of them if I had a landscape company here, they work hard, think, solve problems amongst themselves, all I actually do there is arrive, have a look, tell them everything is good, and the work is excellent, make a few suggestions or comments and go away again till the next day.

I’ve managed to get 3 of the guys on day release to come up to the Nursery and feed our compost through the mulcher, some for the garden at the prison, and a lot for Jennifer and Imelda to use for potting up. David (advisor) at the prison said when he asked for volunteers, he had nearly all the inmates to choose from, but I’m guessing it will be a few of the guys we have outside already that get the job. Not that it’s a nice job, it’s hot, dusty, not very heavy, but constant shovelling compost through and bagging the mulch up as it heaps up. Still, as the guys there say, it sure beats sitting in a cell all day looking at the walls.

We’re up to the planting stage, or close, so a couple of palms at each end, duranta borders, and hibiscus fill. The height restrictions for security are fairly specific, they don’t want anything people can get behind and not be seen from the sentry box, which means about 2 – 3 foot maximum.

We had Woodford International School Junior class come through the Gardens this morning, about 40 5-7 year olds, we went along the river track, with me having to give brief talks every so often about the ecology and tree species in the Gardens, which has been good for me, I’m getting to know most of the tree species now from reading up about them in preparation for the different school groups that use the Gardens. Had the usual questions, how old are the trees, where are all the birds etc, then one little lad asked if there were any snakes. When I said yes, I had 40 pair of big round eyes looking horrified, and not one kid walking off the track the whole way around. I’ll have to remember that and mention it first for the next school party.

It’s the Annual School Cross Country race tomorrow, 120 teenage schoolkids competing around the tracks, through the river, and across the lawn area, so that is going to be an interesting time. I’ve been marking out routes this afternoon, the tracks are fine, it’s just where they leave and go down to the river I’ve had to make clear, otherwise I’ll have broken trees, palms, shrubs as they trample through everything.
It’s still dry and sunny, I’m appreciating it now, less humidity, so you don’t feel like you are in a sauna all day, but the sun burns very quickly as well. I may get a tan on me at this rate.

There are a lot more birds coming out in the Gardens, yesterday I finally saw the little humming birds, I think they are honeyeaters, about sparrow size, bright yellow with a small red patch , as soon as I get my camera out they fly to the top of the trees and vanish. Very frustrating. Lorikeets, parrots, lorys, and swallows are all through there in the mornings as well now, feeding on the flowers and fruit, insects, and presumably making nests.

Our eagle hasn’t been back for a week or so, I’m hoping it does come back with a mate, they are beautiful birds in flight.

7pm and joy! The water finally came back on, I can get the last few days dishes properly washed finally, and then I’m headed for a loooooooooooong shower. Swimming in the river is good, but I’m trying to discourage people from using soaps in the river above the swimming hole because it kills the fish between the bridge and swimming hole. I’m having partial success, trying to break life long habits here takes a while as everyone has been using the river by the bridge to wash their clothes since the troubles or before. We’re slowly turning the place into a real Botanic Garden, but it’s a few years away from being up to minimum standard yet.

The swimming hole is full of water, our dam is holding so far, and the kids are having great fun there, jumping off the tires into the pool.

There are a lot more shops opening up in Chinatown now, as the rebuilding gets finished, but as someone wrote into the Solomon Star today, why are they all selling the same cheap rubbish like every other shop is already? I can see the same thing happening with the 64 shops going into the Town Ground Stadium, they will all be filled with the stuff even the Indians don’t want, and even the $2 or €2 or £1 shop would reject. Absolute cheap shoddy rubbish and high prices. And a captive market because there is nowhere else to buy anything from, no shops selling china plates, glasses, cooking ware, even good quality clothing. Kaleko Korporation is the main clothing shop in Honiara, and they import used clothing in bales from Australia, presumably the clothes people donate through the blue bins or where ever, sort it out and sell it on.

Kaleko is toktok pijin for clothing, a derivation of calico cloth.

One thing you get used to here, having to go to several shops to buy the weekly groceries, and the markets for fresh fruit. Each shop will have something cheaper than the rest, it may be tinned sardines at Wings, then around the block to Ausmart for milk, along to the Bulk Bin for flour/sugar/onions/rice, down to Kukum Fish Market for fruit and veg. There are a few “supermarkets” in town, Wings, Ausmart, Longs, but the prices there are usually higher than you find in the corner shops. You could go to Central Market, but the times I’ve been there, the prices have been higher than Kukum, and it really isn’t the place I like going through. Dark, dingy, always rubbish everywhere by midday, and full of kids and teenagers trying to steal stuff out of your bags and pockets. Plus the Kwaso and marijuana sellers tucked into the darker corners, and the drunks having an argument or fight there. It’s a pity, the council spent a lot of money putting the roof over the market, but never put enough windows or skylights into it, so underneath is dark and gloomy all the time, with the tables crammed together in long rows. If I feel brave this weekend, I’ll wander through with the camera and get some pics, although any whitefalla going through there with a camera is fair game for the pickpockets and petty thieves. It’s a huge contrast to Kukum, which as I posted the other day, is out in the open on the roadside.

I managed to do a speedtest on the internet link at work today, the best time and download/upload result was 0.11kbs download, and 0.4kbs upload, and that is for a $500 per month business adsl broadband link, I’ve had dial up internet that was 10 times faster. And more reliable. Telekom here control the satellite link, and they cut the bandwidth during the week so everyone can get some sort of connection, never mind the amount of time you lose waiting for pages or email to open. My longest time so far has been 2 ½ hours waiting for email account to open, without counting the time it then took to open each separate email. It’s usually close to 11am by then, and we get the usual power cut just as I’m halfway through answering, no wonder I go in at 6am to get stuff done. And get caught uttering comments under my breath very loudly.