Brilliant sunny morning, it all looked good for the day. Went down to Adeles house about 9.30 to see if she wanted a lift to Kukum Market, but she was still half asleep, after her week at Tulagi. I got the impression yesterday when she got home that the work side of the trip was mind numbingly boring, and the usual waitwait, but the after work stuff was interesting.
The prices continue to drop slightly at the market, I got away with spending $45 and I think I have about the same as last week, when it was $50. I got a variety of banana hands today, short fat red ones, fat little yellow ones and some longer ones a bit like a Cavendish, but with a lot better flavour. Pineapples are $10 to $20 each, there’s a bit of difference between $10 and $20, but not between $15 and $20 ones. Lots of bok choy, spinach, slippery cabbage, the heaps of kumara are getting bigger for the same price, $10 for about 2 kilos. Coconuts are still $1, and lots of mangoes @$2 - $3 each. Although with the number of mangoes all over the ground around my house I don’t need to be paying for them.
The hot weather makes going outside first thing in the morning interesting, as far as the smell goes. If you have ever smelt fermenting fruit, that is what it is like here now. All the ripe or damaged mangoes, (the fruit bats tend to take a bite, then it falls off the tree) scattered over the ground start to ferment in a matter of hours and the smell is rather pungent. It overpowers the frangipani with a sweet sickly smell, it’s almost nice, for a minute, then the vinegary sharp scent hits and I’m pleased to be away for the day.
Went into work to upload the previous post, I was only there for about 30 minutes when the heavens opened and it’s been continuous rain ever since. And heavy rain, not a shower. The roads were flooding when I left to come home, I had a few interesting driving moments in the truck on the way with water over the road and the truck wanting to go sideways in a few places. Never apply brakes in water, it is not recommended, even if a pedestrian does walk out in front of you without looking. I should have hit them and carried on, it would have saved me getting worried when the truck went sliding sideways on Mendana Ave outside the Supreme Court.
I had a quick look at the Arts Centre where the Monks are setting up for tomorrow, but they were looking rather bedraggled in the rain as well, not a lot of activity that I saw yet. If we don’t get a summons for a meeting tomorrow I’ll go down with the camera and get some photos.
Hi to Oisin, about time we caught up again. I’ll email the pics I have of the stained glass church windows this week.
Had a productive afternoon though, I’ve got a dozen herb and garlic buns made, and 2 loaves of herb and garlic bread made, so I’m set for the week. I’ve given up trying to find sardines here, all the ones we can get are the poor quality sardines in tomato sauce, the ones John West don’t want by the look of them. I’m buying Fijian Mackerel in vegetable oil now, not as juicy as sardines, more drier flesh, but better than the sardines in tomato sauce. And cheaper as well. Only $8 to $10 a tin instead of the $20 - $50 for sardines. And on herb and garlic toast they taste perfectly fine.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Saturday 3rd October
Another week of power cuts, broken internet connections, in general, samesame as usual.
The mystery pic I posted is of Tiffany and her daughter Renee, here’s one of Tessie.
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And if you ever wondered where kapok comes from, here's the tree, Cieba pentranda
+(600+x+402).jpg)
The large fruit capsules contain kapok, you would get about 4 pillows worth off one tree this size.
For the past couple of months there has been a gang of guys from one of the settlements going around at night breaking into peoples houses, beating up the owners and taking whatever they could grab, till Tuesday night. They attacked the wrong house, the Police Commissioners, beat up the 3 security guards, threatened the Commissioner and his wife, stole laptops, mobile phones etc then left.
The gang has been incredibly hard to catch for the past 2 months, despite everyone knowing the cars they drive, probably exactly who they are, and where they live. They got picked up Wednesday afternoon, 9 of the 10, I guess until the Police Commissioner gets hit it’s all a bit too much like work to be out looking for them.
It was in the Star on Wednesday morning, and we were taking bets at work on how long it would take to finally catch the people concerned. It’s been nearly 200 burglaries in the past 2 months by the same group, one house has been hit 3 times in a fortnight. It will be interesting reading once they get to court.
Tiffany and I are still packing the office up, it’s not on our list of high priority things yet. The container was meant to have been moved to the Hasting-Deering site on Friday, but neither of us could be bothered checking. Monday Keithie is back, so there will be a meeting to sort it out hopefully. If the Nursery isn’t go to be continued with I’ll be out of a job, which I already know. It would be a good thing to get going from scratch though, at least we could make it a viable proposition without relying on Aid Funding, but I can’t see Keithie spending money on getting it going.
I never fail to be amazed at what happens here, I know I should be used to things but there is always something new happens each week. We got new boots and overalls for the work crew last week, to replace the worn out ones. Issued them all last Wednesday, Thomas arrives at work Monday morning with out boots or overalls. His uncle had wanted to borrow his boots over the weekend, and his brother borrowed his overalls for work on the wharf. Then he asked us to buy him some more boots and overalls because his uncle had gone back to Makira with his boots, and his brother had ripped the overalls unloading a ship etc etc. I was feeling sympathetic till Tiffany told me he had done the same thing the year before, and the year before that. So Thomas is working barefoot as usual without overalls.
I’m pleased there is no Dept of Safety here. I was tempted to tell Thomas that he couldn’t work without boots and overalls, but he is one of the really good workers on the crew, so we just let it go. I have no doubt that if we did replace his boots, they wouldn’t last the week till another of his wantok “borrowed” them and we’re not going to supply an entire village with work boots and overalls.
We worked Friday, the Monks Fire Festival Organiser contacted us a month ago, needing 800 one metre Carillia branches to decorate the altar with, to be delivered either Friday or Saturday. I asked whoever of the crew who wanted to work, they were all welcome to come in and help, with pay for once. Jacinta arrived still drunk from the night before, and David wasn’t in the best of moods either, he’d been playing chess till 2am, and getting beaten so he’d had a few bottles of Solbrew as well. We managed to get all the branches cut and delivered, and dropped everyone off when Yanni from Heritage arrived at the office looking for Jacinta. She was meant to be at an interview for the head gardeners position at Heritage, but obviously had partied the night before, and forgotten all about the interview. I don’t know if she’ll get a second chance, she’d be good for it, at the moment she’s the supervisor for the womens crew at work. I was going to go and find her, but Tiffany said not to bother, if she couldn’t get herself to an interview, which she’s been trying for since May, running around after her won’t make any difference.
Mother sent me a book by Ashley Wilson, who was here prior to the Civil War, with VSA based on Temotu. It’s interesting reading the problems he faced, and describes in his journal. All the things he saw happening leading up to the unrest and tension period are all back with us again 10 years later. The unemployment, Government corruption and bribery, the lack of any infrastructure, poor facilities, no reliable shipping between island provinces. The list goes on but I think you get the picture.
There is discussion now about changing the election process from first past the post to something else, either preferential or some other system. 50% of the current MPs were elected with less than 30% of the vote in their province, and of the rest only 10% gained more than 51%. So they don’t have to pay off many people after the election this way. I’ve mentioned that the elections are next year here, and the bribery is starting now, with villages being given solar panels, water tanks, new houses, and promises of more after the election if they vote the right way. The fact that the money is rightfully meant to be spent on the villages, is lost as the MP for the area has the say on what, who and where it is spent, so if you want something done for your village, you have to vote for the right person or else you will get nothing. It causes a lot of problems within a village when the MP has wantok there, and they receive the benefits, and the rest of the village miss out. It is common to see villages where only a few houses have water tanks, solar panels, generators, and the local shop is also run by the MPs wantok. The rest of the village miss out if they don’t sign pledges to support the MP.
Someone is probably thinking “well, why don’t the others set up their own store, shop, etc” Everything to the islands has to be shipped in, and when the MP can control who gets stuff delivered, opening a shop in opposition to the MPs wantok won’t last long when you can’t get supplies bought in. Or when you can, the price for shipping is going to be 3 or 4 times the cost of the other person.
There are a huge number of tourists in town at the moment, and will be for the next month. We have 450 Monks from Japan here for a week performing “Fire Cleansing” rituals for all the Japanese war dead on Guadacanal, a half marathon in 2 weeks, the South Pacific Public Services Annual Forum, which all means that the hotels and tourist places are booked out.
It also means the pickpockets and bag snatchers are having a field day at Central Markets as well. Adrian stopped a group going in there on Friday, all white, with big handbags, back packs, cameras slung all over, and told them to either close everything up, or go back to their hotel and leave most of the stuff behind. They wouldn’t have lasted 2 minutes in Central Market. The pikininis are the worst, they crouch below the tables and reach into the bags when people stop to look at anything, or hide in the clothing racks and grab stuff out of the bags.
You can tell the locals here, or people that have been here a while. You wear any bags slung over your neck, with the bag on your chest. Never slung on the side or behind.
I went in there on Friday to get some pictures, but after having some Kwaso drunk guy with a bushknife abuse me, and then start to swing the knife at me I decided that I didn’t really want or need any pictures of the place. Totally different to Kukum Fish Market, I can take pictures, chat, have a few jokes, buy stuff and know I’m not being ripped off there.
There is a new group of American Peace Corps people arrived, all young, in their early 20’s. Totally unprepared for what they are finding here. They can’t believe that there are still places on earth where you may have to go without things, like clean drinking water, electricity, where you are safer not going to hospital, rubbish isn’t collected. A lot of them don’t have the skills needed here either, or the ability yet to adapt to the local conditions and lack of resources. It isn’t a simple matter of walking into a shop and buying what you need. Especially once you get out of Honiara.
Personally I think VSA and AusAid give the volunteers a lot better background information, and the selection process with VSA and AusAid is more suited. They pick the people for the need, not like the US Peace Corps where it appears all you need do is volunteer, then they send you and try to find something in the host country for you to do. Very few of the ones I’ve spoken to this week had any idea of the conditions here, and none of them had skills that I would have thought were needed. Still, it will be a good period of learning for them, and it will certainly give them a better world view than they had at the start of their 12 months.
The mystery pic I posted is of Tiffany and her daughter Renee, here’s one of Tessie.
+(600+x+402).jpg)
And if you ever wondered where kapok comes from, here's the tree, Cieba pentranda
+(600+x+402).jpg)
The large fruit capsules contain kapok, you would get about 4 pillows worth off one tree this size.
For the past couple of months there has been a gang of guys from one of the settlements going around at night breaking into peoples houses, beating up the owners and taking whatever they could grab, till Tuesday night. They attacked the wrong house, the Police Commissioners, beat up the 3 security guards, threatened the Commissioner and his wife, stole laptops, mobile phones etc then left.
The gang has been incredibly hard to catch for the past 2 months, despite everyone knowing the cars they drive, probably exactly who they are, and where they live. They got picked up Wednesday afternoon, 9 of the 10, I guess until the Police Commissioner gets hit it’s all a bit too much like work to be out looking for them.
It was in the Star on Wednesday morning, and we were taking bets at work on how long it would take to finally catch the people concerned. It’s been nearly 200 burglaries in the past 2 months by the same group, one house has been hit 3 times in a fortnight. It will be interesting reading once they get to court.
Tiffany and I are still packing the office up, it’s not on our list of high priority things yet. The container was meant to have been moved to the Hasting-Deering site on Friday, but neither of us could be bothered checking. Monday Keithie is back, so there will be a meeting to sort it out hopefully. If the Nursery isn’t go to be continued with I’ll be out of a job, which I already know. It would be a good thing to get going from scratch though, at least we could make it a viable proposition without relying on Aid Funding, but I can’t see Keithie spending money on getting it going.
I never fail to be amazed at what happens here, I know I should be used to things but there is always something new happens each week. We got new boots and overalls for the work crew last week, to replace the worn out ones. Issued them all last Wednesday, Thomas arrives at work Monday morning with out boots or overalls. His uncle had wanted to borrow his boots over the weekend, and his brother borrowed his overalls for work on the wharf. Then he asked us to buy him some more boots and overalls because his uncle had gone back to Makira with his boots, and his brother had ripped the overalls unloading a ship etc etc. I was feeling sympathetic till Tiffany told me he had done the same thing the year before, and the year before that. So Thomas is working barefoot as usual without overalls.
I’m pleased there is no Dept of Safety here. I was tempted to tell Thomas that he couldn’t work without boots and overalls, but he is one of the really good workers on the crew, so we just let it go. I have no doubt that if we did replace his boots, they wouldn’t last the week till another of his wantok “borrowed” them and we’re not going to supply an entire village with work boots and overalls.
We worked Friday, the Monks Fire Festival Organiser contacted us a month ago, needing 800 one metre Carillia branches to decorate the altar with, to be delivered either Friday or Saturday. I asked whoever of the crew who wanted to work, they were all welcome to come in and help, with pay for once. Jacinta arrived still drunk from the night before, and David wasn’t in the best of moods either, he’d been playing chess till 2am, and getting beaten so he’d had a few bottles of Solbrew as well. We managed to get all the branches cut and delivered, and dropped everyone off when Yanni from Heritage arrived at the office looking for Jacinta. She was meant to be at an interview for the head gardeners position at Heritage, but obviously had partied the night before, and forgotten all about the interview. I don’t know if she’ll get a second chance, she’d be good for it, at the moment she’s the supervisor for the womens crew at work. I was going to go and find her, but Tiffany said not to bother, if she couldn’t get herself to an interview, which she’s been trying for since May, running around after her won’t make any difference.
Mother sent me a book by Ashley Wilson, who was here prior to the Civil War, with VSA based on Temotu. It’s interesting reading the problems he faced, and describes in his journal. All the things he saw happening leading up to the unrest and tension period are all back with us again 10 years later. The unemployment, Government corruption and bribery, the lack of any infrastructure, poor facilities, no reliable shipping between island provinces. The list goes on but I think you get the picture.
There is discussion now about changing the election process from first past the post to something else, either preferential or some other system. 50% of the current MPs were elected with less than 30% of the vote in their province, and of the rest only 10% gained more than 51%. So they don’t have to pay off many people after the election this way. I’ve mentioned that the elections are next year here, and the bribery is starting now, with villages being given solar panels, water tanks, new houses, and promises of more after the election if they vote the right way. The fact that the money is rightfully meant to be spent on the villages, is lost as the MP for the area has the say on what, who and where it is spent, so if you want something done for your village, you have to vote for the right person or else you will get nothing. It causes a lot of problems within a village when the MP has wantok there, and they receive the benefits, and the rest of the village miss out. It is common to see villages where only a few houses have water tanks, solar panels, generators, and the local shop is also run by the MPs wantok. The rest of the village miss out if they don’t sign pledges to support the MP.
Someone is probably thinking “well, why don’t the others set up their own store, shop, etc” Everything to the islands has to be shipped in, and when the MP can control who gets stuff delivered, opening a shop in opposition to the MPs wantok won’t last long when you can’t get supplies bought in. Or when you can, the price for shipping is going to be 3 or 4 times the cost of the other person.
There are a huge number of tourists in town at the moment, and will be for the next month. We have 450 Monks from Japan here for a week performing “Fire Cleansing” rituals for all the Japanese war dead on Guadacanal, a half marathon in 2 weeks, the South Pacific Public Services Annual Forum, which all means that the hotels and tourist places are booked out.
It also means the pickpockets and bag snatchers are having a field day at Central Markets as well. Adrian stopped a group going in there on Friday, all white, with big handbags, back packs, cameras slung all over, and told them to either close everything up, or go back to their hotel and leave most of the stuff behind. They wouldn’t have lasted 2 minutes in Central Market. The pikininis are the worst, they crouch below the tables and reach into the bags when people stop to look at anything, or hide in the clothing racks and grab stuff out of the bags.
You can tell the locals here, or people that have been here a while. You wear any bags slung over your neck, with the bag on your chest. Never slung on the side or behind.
I went in there on Friday to get some pictures, but after having some Kwaso drunk guy with a bushknife abuse me, and then start to swing the knife at me I decided that I didn’t really want or need any pictures of the place. Totally different to Kukum Fish Market, I can take pictures, chat, have a few jokes, buy stuff and know I’m not being ripped off there.
There is a new group of American Peace Corps people arrived, all young, in their early 20’s. Totally unprepared for what they are finding here. They can’t believe that there are still places on earth where you may have to go without things, like clean drinking water, electricity, where you are safer not going to hospital, rubbish isn’t collected. A lot of them don’t have the skills needed here either, or the ability yet to adapt to the local conditions and lack of resources. It isn’t a simple matter of walking into a shop and buying what you need. Especially once you get out of Honiara.
Personally I think VSA and AusAid give the volunteers a lot better background information, and the selection process with VSA and AusAid is more suited. They pick the people for the need, not like the US Peace Corps where it appears all you need do is volunteer, then they send you and try to find something in the host country for you to do. Very few of the ones I’ve spoken to this week had any idea of the conditions here, and none of them had skills that I would have thought were needed. Still, it will be a good period of learning for them, and it will certainly give them a better world view than they had at the start of their 12 months.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday 29th September
Well, we’ve started packing stuff up in the office. I seem to have spent most of the past few years packing/unpacking and moving. I still get frustrated with it, or the whole concept.
I went with Tony from BJS out to the possible new site at Henderson today for a look. It’s good, off the main road on a side street, and at the back of an earthmoving equipment suppliers workshop. Huge area, they use it for storage, on a short term lease basis for anyone with large containers that need temp storage. If it all goes well, we can start moving there next week, plants and all. It’ll mean running a new line for water, and we’ll get a water meter and bill, but we’ll work out how to pay for that further down the track.
I started emptying out the big storage cupboard and packing files into cartons, it’s the cupboard that had the rat nest in, as I found when I got to the bottom shelves and I disturbed a swarm of fleas and other biting things. We had to vacate the office for a while to let the insect spray work. I ended up with hundreds of small bites on my arms and legs, with my luck I’ll get bubonic plague now.
Tiffany and I are really past it all with the problems and petty in-fighting over it all now. I have serious doubts about my project ever getting started, let alone actually being completed. I’m away with Steve for a few days next week, the boat is booked to someone else for this week, so we’ll have a bit of a discussion about other options for me. One of the rural training centres would be good, some of them have wireless internet available sometimes, so they aren’t exactly lost to the world. Although they are all rural, which here means no road in, it’s foot tracks or boat then walk to them. No shops, electricity, but given the few times I’m in Honiara now, that isn’t a big loss, although the lack of electricity without a generator may be a bit hard to cope with. It comes in handy for recharging hearing aid batteries, camera battery and laptop.
I’ve got a month or a bit longer running a training session for the gardeners at the High Court and Justice Dept once all the moving is over with. We used to look after the area there, but they decided as they were employing gardeners anyway, they would do it. Tiffany knew it wouldn’t be long till they came back to us, we know the people employed there, and they prefer to be inside in the aircon rather than outside working in the garden. But ok, at least it gives me something to do for a month or so, and hopefully they’ll learn how to look after the gardens there better than they have been for the past month. All the shrubs have been hacked rather than trimmed, and the lily and helleconia beds are looking a real mess now.
We’re slowly replacing all the crotons/ornamental pineapple in the tubs down the street with bouganvillea. It’s taken me a while to get the idea accepted, but the original ones I had done a few months back are all in flower now, and have been for a while. We get 2 or 3 tubs done each time, dig all the soil out, replace it with our compost/mulch mix, and put 4 bouganvillea into each tub. So far it is working and should look better than the crotons and pineapple plants.
The new security advisory report is out, still fairly much the same, but with a stronger precautionary warning about being out at night in Honiara, and to take extra caution in Central Market and the back streets. About the same as I’ve gathered by myself over the past couple of months. A really high unemployment level, no prospects of work happening, a totally corrupt Government, high cost of living in and around Honiara, it all builds up to a high frustration level with everyone and if you are perceived to be rich, and just being white here is enough for that, you can be in trouble very quickly.
Once you get out of Honiara though it is all different, although you are still charged top dollar for everything, it is done with a smile. And you do have some leeway for bargaining.
I went out last week with the Environmental Action Group, on a school visit to see where or what the schools had done with the Environment Grants. 4 schools took part in the campaign, it was for the upgrading of facilities and improvements as needed. We went to St Nicholas College, which is just beside me here at the Ba’Hai Centre, King George IV College, which is the oldest school on Guadacanal, White River Community School, and St Johns. A huge contrast between them all, St Nicholas has a lot of the higher level Govt and professions children, so money isn’t a problem, and it shows in the facilities, desks, computers, good equipment and resources, then King George IV, which is a boarding school, White River Community which services the White River Settlements, and St Johns which is at the bottom end of everything by Rove Prison and the Gardens.
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St Nicholas had used the grants to set up a recycling centre, and rubbish transfer area, roofed, concrete floor, and proper lidded bins, King George had used it to plant border plants along the pathways, White River did a big repaint on the classrooms, and St Johns built a composting and garden area. I’ve put a few photos from the day, one of each school which shows the difference in facilities here.
King George IV is one of the few boarding schools here, they have had problems lately with the quality and committment of the teaching staff, some never turn up for class, or arrive drunk, and the students are having a few problems. It has huge ground, with the boarding houses scattered amongst trees and what was a park like area, now all overgrown and reverting to jungle again. They have advertised through VSA for another relieving Head Master to take charge and train the staff and a permanent Head. That would be an interesting assignment. A few challenges there.
White River Community has a big mix of different island tribes in the area, it is one of the first settlements alongside Honiara. The school would rate between King George IV and St Johns for resources, nice large area, but very few shade trees, and not a lot of amenities. The White River area has a strong community group but has a lot of the usual problems associated with high unemployment, Kwaso and betel nut.
St Johns has almost no resources, really dedicated teachers, great students who are really behind everything the teachers do, but are badly handicapped by the poverty and lack of teaching materials, facilities. It is a real contrast between the schools here, from wealthy schools like St Nicholas, to struggling schools like St Johns.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday 27th September
Called into work after shopping at Kukum this morning. I probably should have waited till tomorrow, they always say bad news arrives first. I’m going to be having “discussions” later in the week over staffing levels, as well as having to move the nursery and office to temp accommodation, on top of keeping everyone at work thinking positively.
There is talk of cutting the staff further, down to only 5, which makes it totally impractical given the contract work we have now. Considering it will cost us $5,000 at least per person to put anyone off, I can’t see that idea going through.
I’m going to find a good solid wall somewhere this week and spend a few hours banging my head against it, at least I’ll feel like I’m accomplishing something when I stop.
Steve is meant to be taking me away this week for a couple of days visiting the rural training centres, I’ll have to make sure Tiffany is ok with everything now if I go, her and David are close to just walking away from it all. They’ve been 10 years building it all up, with constant promises of better pay and conditions once it all happens, and now this. If I can’t manage to talk some sense into a few people I’ll have to join Tiffany and just forget about everything, it won’t work and it just becomes a pointless frustrating experience.
Geelong won the Grand Final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2nd time in 3 years! About bloody time as well, I remember the frustration in the 1990’s when we were always the bridesmaid, and never the bride. Well played St Kilda as well, it was close scoring all the way through, ok, one dodgy call for Geelong, and it should perhaps have been a 1 goal lead at the end, but the main things is, WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
I’m having fun at Kukum Fish Market the longer I’m here. There are maybe 15? 20 permanent traders there every week, and another 30 or so casual traders, and finally the permanent ones are actually talking to me, rather than just calling out the prices. Not that I buy a lot, but I find I’m going to the same people each week, even when they change their position along the street. I tried talking the eggman down this morning, he was selling at $28 per 10 tray. I can get the same eggs at my local shop for $26, as I pointed out, but he wasn’t going to drop $2 for me. Never mind, we just passed the time for a bit. Bok choy, spinach, snake beans are all dropping in price as well, between $5 and $8 per bundle which is good. I might even start eating greens again this week, well, for a couple of meals anyway. It will make a change from rice with something.
I wish I could say this vegetarian living is helping cut my weight down, but it appears it agrees with me far too much.
I’m up to 2,000 words on the science fiction story , and I’ve spent more time doing research to make sure what I’m writing has some basic physics and electrical grounding. I hate science fiction that is just impossible, and I’m not too much of a fan of the fantasy type sci-fi either. Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Zem and Kurt Vonnegut I’ve got whole collections of, or had at some stage.
So far it is looking good, it is possible, or in theory anyway. Which is all it needs to be.
There is talk of cutting the staff further, down to only 5, which makes it totally impractical given the contract work we have now. Considering it will cost us $5,000 at least per person to put anyone off, I can’t see that idea going through.
I’m going to find a good solid wall somewhere this week and spend a few hours banging my head against it, at least I’ll feel like I’m accomplishing something when I stop.
Steve is meant to be taking me away this week for a couple of days visiting the rural training centres, I’ll have to make sure Tiffany is ok with everything now if I go, her and David are close to just walking away from it all. They’ve been 10 years building it all up, with constant promises of better pay and conditions once it all happens, and now this. If I can’t manage to talk some sense into a few people I’ll have to join Tiffany and just forget about everything, it won’t work and it just becomes a pointless frustrating experience.
Geelong won the Grand Final!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2nd time in 3 years! About bloody time as well, I remember the frustration in the 1990’s when we were always the bridesmaid, and never the bride. Well played St Kilda as well, it was close scoring all the way through, ok, one dodgy call for Geelong, and it should perhaps have been a 1 goal lead at the end, but the main things is, WE WON!!!!!!!!!!
I’m having fun at Kukum Fish Market the longer I’m here. There are maybe 15? 20 permanent traders there every week, and another 30 or so casual traders, and finally the permanent ones are actually talking to me, rather than just calling out the prices. Not that I buy a lot, but I find I’m going to the same people each week, even when they change their position along the street. I tried talking the eggman down this morning, he was selling at $28 per 10 tray. I can get the same eggs at my local shop for $26, as I pointed out, but he wasn’t going to drop $2 for me. Never mind, we just passed the time for a bit. Bok choy, spinach, snake beans are all dropping in price as well, between $5 and $8 per bundle which is good. I might even start eating greens again this week, well, for a couple of meals anyway. It will make a change from rice with something.
I wish I could say this vegetarian living is helping cut my weight down, but it appears it agrees with me far too much.
I’m up to 2,000 words on the science fiction story , and I’ve spent more time doing research to make sure what I’m writing has some basic physics and electrical grounding. I hate science fiction that is just impossible, and I’m not too much of a fan of the fantasy type sci-fi either. Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Zem and Kurt Vonnegut I’ve got whole collections of, or had at some stage.
So far it is looking good, it is possible, or in theory anyway. Which is all it needs to be.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Saturday 26th September
Wednesday 23rd September
Caught up with Steve today finally. Or rather he finally called into the Gardens with my mail from the past month. So I’ve finally got the letters Mother has been writing. Thanks Mum. Still waiting on my phone to get here though but never mind.
We’re slowly getting ready to move out, making arrangements for the tools, the office stuff, and trying to get a container moved to the temp site in Ranandi. It is a bit rough at the moment, but if we can go ahead we can turn it into something workable. The only problem is going to be funding for us. The last cheque we got from the Ministry of Infrastructure for the Road Contract bounced, and it took an extra 2 weeks till the Govt had enough to cover it, in the meantime we were out $19,000, and copped a $250 charge from the bank for presenting it. I’m hoping we have enough in the bank for next week, I’m still waiting for the $7,000 I used last payday for everyone, and I don’t have enough left to cover it again yet.
I’m really stuck for stuff to do at work, we are all winding down, knowing we’re really moving now, so the urgency of jobs is declining. I had the crew do a big tidy up in the Botanic Gardens today, David couldn’t understand why for a bit. He wanted to know why I wanted it all tidied up when we’re being thrown out, and it was hard to put into words, but I feel that we’ve looked after the place for 10 years, and improved it immensely, to leave it untidy knowing Forestry will be quick to publicise the fact isn’t something I wanted to do. Well, I don’t really care what Forestry do or say, but I didn’t want the Gardens looking uncared for when we do leave.
I filled the afternoon in googling everything and anything, then found the new Triumph T100 Bonneville Classic and it was love at first sight. All I need now is $15,000 plus a few extras, like a helmet, jacket, trousers and oh yes, a bike licence and I’ll be away. Beautiful bike, Triumph have managed to keep the classic look of the 1968 Bonneville, upgraded the spec to fuel injection, disc brakes etc, and an 850cc motor which is plenty big enough for me. Although the touring bikes are nice lookers as well, but at 2100cc and quite a few kilos I don’t think so.
Saturday
We’re getting closer to moving, slowly. Monday Tiffany and I are sorting out the files and boxing stuff up to go to BJS Office, and some of the clutter as well. We haven’t heard about the container going to Ranandi yet, but hopefully that will be sorted this week.
Our lady at the Japanese Consul is having a meeting with the Honiara Mayor on Tuesday, trying to sort out the facts from the BS. According to the Mayor, he knew nothing about HBC forming an NGO, Solo Enviro Beautification, but our paper trail of letters and meeting minutes from the past 10 years shows different. Same with Forestry, it’s a small victory, it won’t change anything, but Chie thinks it may help us keep the funding as it is not our doing that has caused the problems.
Along with that, the Mayor called out to the Gardens on Thursday, to inform us we weren’t to call ourselves Honiara Beautification Committee any longer, as he is calling the Parks and Gardens Dept that. I think he will have a few problems if he tries to go ahead. The name is registered to us, plus we have a 10 year prior usage, although the way things are here that means nothing. It’s more a matter of trying it on, and if you can get away with it you do.
I can see a huge upheaval coming here soon, with the things that are happening with the present Government. There are ministers making decisions over the courts, accepting bribes blatently, well, ok, bribery is a way of life here, so it isn’t a big thing. But it is going to rebound over the next year leading up to the elections.
I’m noticing more and more the attitudes and frustrations amongst the people in town, especially around Central Market. While it is still reasonably safe there, it isn’t somewhere I’d spend a lot of time, not that I have anyway. Adrian got involved in a bit of a push and shove match the other day there. Luckily he had his small bush knife, a bit of a Crocodile Dundee one, and once he pulled that out the guys giving him a hard time changed their minds about taking it any further. It’s mostly the kwaso and marijuana sellers causing the problems, with the buyers getting drunk on the spot and then getting a bit aggressive towards everyone.
Another reason why I prefer Kukum Fish Market.
I’ve been going around the house at night lately, trying to get a pic of the fruit bats in the mango trees. All you hear at night now, is a rustle in the branches, then a loud “plop” as the mangoes fall to the ground. In the mornings the ground is littered with mangoes, all with a couple of bites taken out by the fruit bats.
I found out never park a vehicle under a mango tree with fruit on it. Fruit bats crap all over it during the night.
If anyone is following the South Pacific mini Games being held in Rarotonga, or if you aren’t, here’s a name to watch out for in the coming years, Betty Babalu. She’s a 12 year old from the Solomon Islands, races barefoot, and won the 5,000 metre race on Tuesday, came second in the 10,000 metre race in 42.8 minutes, and I haven’t heard yet how she did in the 15,000 metre race today yet.
Along with which I haven’t yet heard how Geelong did in the Grand Final against St Kilda today. I’ll check from work tomorrow when I post this.
Geelong by 2 goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Cattters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Caught up with Steve today finally. Or rather he finally called into the Gardens with my mail from the past month. So I’ve finally got the letters Mother has been writing. Thanks Mum. Still waiting on my phone to get here though but never mind.
We’re slowly getting ready to move out, making arrangements for the tools, the office stuff, and trying to get a container moved to the temp site in Ranandi. It is a bit rough at the moment, but if we can go ahead we can turn it into something workable. The only problem is going to be funding for us. The last cheque we got from the Ministry of Infrastructure for the Road Contract bounced, and it took an extra 2 weeks till the Govt had enough to cover it, in the meantime we were out $19,000, and copped a $250 charge from the bank for presenting it. I’m hoping we have enough in the bank for next week, I’m still waiting for the $7,000 I used last payday for everyone, and I don’t have enough left to cover it again yet.
I’m really stuck for stuff to do at work, we are all winding down, knowing we’re really moving now, so the urgency of jobs is declining. I had the crew do a big tidy up in the Botanic Gardens today, David couldn’t understand why for a bit. He wanted to know why I wanted it all tidied up when we’re being thrown out, and it was hard to put into words, but I feel that we’ve looked after the place for 10 years, and improved it immensely, to leave it untidy knowing Forestry will be quick to publicise the fact isn’t something I wanted to do. Well, I don’t really care what Forestry do or say, but I didn’t want the Gardens looking uncared for when we do leave.
I filled the afternoon in googling everything and anything, then found the new Triumph T100 Bonneville Classic and it was love at first sight. All I need now is $15,000 plus a few extras, like a helmet, jacket, trousers and oh yes, a bike licence and I’ll be away. Beautiful bike, Triumph have managed to keep the classic look of the 1968 Bonneville, upgraded the spec to fuel injection, disc brakes etc, and an 850cc motor which is plenty big enough for me. Although the touring bikes are nice lookers as well, but at 2100cc and quite a few kilos I don’t think so.
Saturday
We’re getting closer to moving, slowly. Monday Tiffany and I are sorting out the files and boxing stuff up to go to BJS Office, and some of the clutter as well. We haven’t heard about the container going to Ranandi yet, but hopefully that will be sorted this week.
Our lady at the Japanese Consul is having a meeting with the Honiara Mayor on Tuesday, trying to sort out the facts from the BS. According to the Mayor, he knew nothing about HBC forming an NGO, Solo Enviro Beautification, but our paper trail of letters and meeting minutes from the past 10 years shows different. Same with Forestry, it’s a small victory, it won’t change anything, but Chie thinks it may help us keep the funding as it is not our doing that has caused the problems.
Along with that, the Mayor called out to the Gardens on Thursday, to inform us we weren’t to call ourselves Honiara Beautification Committee any longer, as he is calling the Parks and Gardens Dept that. I think he will have a few problems if he tries to go ahead. The name is registered to us, plus we have a 10 year prior usage, although the way things are here that means nothing. It’s more a matter of trying it on, and if you can get away with it you do.
I can see a huge upheaval coming here soon, with the things that are happening with the present Government. There are ministers making decisions over the courts, accepting bribes blatently, well, ok, bribery is a way of life here, so it isn’t a big thing. But it is going to rebound over the next year leading up to the elections.
I’m noticing more and more the attitudes and frustrations amongst the people in town, especially around Central Market. While it is still reasonably safe there, it isn’t somewhere I’d spend a lot of time, not that I have anyway. Adrian got involved in a bit of a push and shove match the other day there. Luckily he had his small bush knife, a bit of a Crocodile Dundee one, and once he pulled that out the guys giving him a hard time changed their minds about taking it any further. It’s mostly the kwaso and marijuana sellers causing the problems, with the buyers getting drunk on the spot and then getting a bit aggressive towards everyone.
Another reason why I prefer Kukum Fish Market.
I’ve been going around the house at night lately, trying to get a pic of the fruit bats in the mango trees. All you hear at night now, is a rustle in the branches, then a loud “plop” as the mangoes fall to the ground. In the mornings the ground is littered with mangoes, all with a couple of bites taken out by the fruit bats.
I found out never park a vehicle under a mango tree with fruit on it. Fruit bats crap all over it during the night.
If anyone is following the South Pacific mini Games being held in Rarotonga, or if you aren’t, here’s a name to watch out for in the coming years, Betty Babalu. She’s a 12 year old from the Solomon Islands, races barefoot, and won the 5,000 metre race on Tuesday, came second in the 10,000 metre race in 42.8 minutes, and I haven’t heard yet how she did in the 15,000 metre race today yet.
Along with which I haven’t yet heard how Geelong did in the Grand Final against St Kilda today. I’ll check from work tomorrow when I post this.
Geelong by 2 goals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Cattters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday 21st September/Tuesday 22nd
I know I shouldn’t be like this, but I’ve given up any semblence now of actually working. It’s just too frustrating to be making plans, not knowing if we are going to be in the Gardens, or where we can go. I’m meant to be running the final Level 2 course for the year starting this week, that hasn’t happened with the uncertainty over the whole tenure thing. Plus the lack of funds, and the length of 12 weeks for the course for which I’d like to be in one place for that time.
I’m taking tomorrow off, if I can get hold of Steve we’ll go to Solcane Furniture, they make cane and rattan furniture but don’t have any formal training or qualification system set up for it here. The owner is after the Govt or SICHE to provide the training, but I know I could write up a training programme for them up to whatever level we can work out for the trade. I’ll end up knowing as much as the staff by the end of it, which isn’t a bad thing to have tucked away in the memory banks. It’ll mean assessment schedules, assessments, training modules, all reasonably easy to write up once I get back into it.
Anyway, it’s just one of a few possibilities, the other being the rural development programmes which are probably more in line with what I’m here for. Small scale horticulture and sustainable food crops. So long as they are near a beach preferably.
Terry from the South Pacific Development Council called out today. I met him on Saturday night at Barbaras, he has met Tiffany last year when he was here. Anyway, he has $30,000 available for landscaping work in Honiara if we can come up with some ideas for it to be spent on. Tiffany and I would like to put flower beds around the trees in the main street, in an effort to stop people just piling rubbish around them then burning it. I know the rubbish will just get dumped into the gardens anyway, like all the other ones we have in town, but it is a start I suppose. It will certainly look better than just the bare tree trunks coming out of the dirt.
I’ve finally made a start on a sci-fi story I’ve had kicking around for years in my mind. I must be past the bored stage. And into the just do something before you go mad stage. I’ve set a goal of 500 words minimum a day, which is just over a page in word, or close to it. So far it runs to 2,500 words and I can see where it is going, which is a good thing when you’re writing I suppose, putting thoughts into words isn’t quite as easy as it appears though, and I keep going back and having to alter stuff as I realise the incongruity in some of the earlier facts. But it’s keeping me sane, or whatever passes for sanity with me.
If this one works out, well, I get it finished anyway enough to satisfy me, I’ve had the Story of Job in my mind for years, as a cross between JC Superstar, and drama play. I’m not sure about the musical side, but the technological side is what appeals to me for it. All I need to start is a 10’ hologram of dice, and a good sound system, plus some method of lifting people off the stage into the air over the audience. And some good speaking voices, preferably if they can sound like Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. And a high resolution screen backdrop, and.....and......and
Plus my half finished version of The Famous Five go on Safari, which is a scam based Famous Five version. I know Marianne had a giggle over the first few chapters, I’ll have to keep at it and get it finished.
As I said earlier, I’m going spare here doing very little with my time.
Tuesday 22nd September
Well I guess it’s all over bar the shouting now. Fred from Forestry called down today, I was having a mental health day and hadn’t gone in. Tiffany ended up sending a car for me so I could be there for the meeting.
Fred got there about 11, spoke about what a great job SEB have done with the Botanic Gardens, how we should all be working together, and could we please get out by the end of next week as Forestry are moving all their office equipment down.
Right out, he meant, Forestry refuse to work with us now, in the future, at any time etc.
Then to make an insane day even more spectacular, Honiara City Mayor rang up to tell Tiffany that we are not allowed use Honiara Beautification Committee name any longer, as Council are going to form their own Parks and Gardens team and call themselves that. Which is going to go down really well with Keithie when she gets the email later today. 10 years we’ve been called that since the HBC was formed, so I think the Mayor is going to have a few problems.
I’ve been here just over 6 months now, and not achieved a single bloody thing I’m meant to be doing.
It’s no wonder Aid agencies fill up with people with a really good sense of the absurd and a slightly off beat sense of humour. You’d go crazy if you let all the personalities, the tribal infighting, the sheer bloody mindedness of the people get to you. A bit like it’s affecting me at the moment actually, but I know by tomorrow it’ll be past, and I’ll either have something else to do, or somewhere else to go.
What really annoys me most is all the work the work crew have put into everything in Honiara, and now they’re being cast aside over some tribal wantok obligation.
You may recall a few months back I had a landscape plan that Heritage Hotel wanted drawn up, and I wanted to put a waterfall, and local tribal sculptures around the main entrance. And Heritage knocked it back due to the expense, and how it wasn’t quite what they wanted.
I’ll get some pics later this week, they hired Frank Haiku, the sculptor I was talking with over my original idea, and he’s now got 7 huge statues exactly like we drew up in place there. And the landscaper at Heritage is claiming all the credit for coming up with the idea, and how it is a showcase for Solomon Island art and custom. I could almost spit sometimes. They took my design, dropped the waterfall and kept and used everything else. Bastards. I hope they have an outbreak of food poisoning in the restaurant.
Good for Frank to get his work in there though.
I have given up trying to figure out how things work here.
I’m taking tomorrow off, if I can get hold of Steve we’ll go to Solcane Furniture, they make cane and rattan furniture but don’t have any formal training or qualification system set up for it here. The owner is after the Govt or SICHE to provide the training, but I know I could write up a training programme for them up to whatever level we can work out for the trade. I’ll end up knowing as much as the staff by the end of it, which isn’t a bad thing to have tucked away in the memory banks. It’ll mean assessment schedules, assessments, training modules, all reasonably easy to write up once I get back into it.
Anyway, it’s just one of a few possibilities, the other being the rural development programmes which are probably more in line with what I’m here for. Small scale horticulture and sustainable food crops. So long as they are near a beach preferably.
Terry from the South Pacific Development Council called out today. I met him on Saturday night at Barbaras, he has met Tiffany last year when he was here. Anyway, he has $30,000 available for landscaping work in Honiara if we can come up with some ideas for it to be spent on. Tiffany and I would like to put flower beds around the trees in the main street, in an effort to stop people just piling rubbish around them then burning it. I know the rubbish will just get dumped into the gardens anyway, like all the other ones we have in town, but it is a start I suppose. It will certainly look better than just the bare tree trunks coming out of the dirt.
I’ve finally made a start on a sci-fi story I’ve had kicking around for years in my mind. I must be past the bored stage. And into the just do something before you go mad stage. I’ve set a goal of 500 words minimum a day, which is just over a page in word, or close to it. So far it runs to 2,500 words and I can see where it is going, which is a good thing when you’re writing I suppose, putting thoughts into words isn’t quite as easy as it appears though, and I keep going back and having to alter stuff as I realise the incongruity in some of the earlier facts. But it’s keeping me sane, or whatever passes for sanity with me.
If this one works out, well, I get it finished anyway enough to satisfy me, I’ve had the Story of Job in my mind for years, as a cross between JC Superstar, and drama play. I’m not sure about the musical side, but the technological side is what appeals to me for it. All I need to start is a 10’ hologram of dice, and a good sound system, plus some method of lifting people off the stage into the air over the audience. And some good speaking voices, preferably if they can sound like Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. And a high resolution screen backdrop, and.....and......and
Plus my half finished version of The Famous Five go on Safari, which is a scam based Famous Five version. I know Marianne had a giggle over the first few chapters, I’ll have to keep at it and get it finished.
As I said earlier, I’m going spare here doing very little with my time.
Tuesday 22nd September
Well I guess it’s all over bar the shouting now. Fred from Forestry called down today, I was having a mental health day and hadn’t gone in. Tiffany ended up sending a car for me so I could be there for the meeting.
Fred got there about 11, spoke about what a great job SEB have done with the Botanic Gardens, how we should all be working together, and could we please get out by the end of next week as Forestry are moving all their office equipment down.
Right out, he meant, Forestry refuse to work with us now, in the future, at any time etc.
Then to make an insane day even more spectacular, Honiara City Mayor rang up to tell Tiffany that we are not allowed use Honiara Beautification Committee name any longer, as Council are going to form their own Parks and Gardens team and call themselves that. Which is going to go down really well with Keithie when she gets the email later today. 10 years we’ve been called that since the HBC was formed, so I think the Mayor is going to have a few problems.
I’ve been here just over 6 months now, and not achieved a single bloody thing I’m meant to be doing.
It’s no wonder Aid agencies fill up with people with a really good sense of the absurd and a slightly off beat sense of humour. You’d go crazy if you let all the personalities, the tribal infighting, the sheer bloody mindedness of the people get to you. A bit like it’s affecting me at the moment actually, but I know by tomorrow it’ll be past, and I’ll either have something else to do, or somewhere else to go.
What really annoys me most is all the work the work crew have put into everything in Honiara, and now they’re being cast aside over some tribal wantok obligation.
You may recall a few months back I had a landscape plan that Heritage Hotel wanted drawn up, and I wanted to put a waterfall, and local tribal sculptures around the main entrance. And Heritage knocked it back due to the expense, and how it wasn’t quite what they wanted.
I’ll get some pics later this week, they hired Frank Haiku, the sculptor I was talking with over my original idea, and he’s now got 7 huge statues exactly like we drew up in place there. And the landscaper at Heritage is claiming all the credit for coming up with the idea, and how it is a showcase for Solomon Island art and custom. I could almost spit sometimes. They took my design, dropped the waterfall and kept and used everything else. Bastards. I hope they have an outbreak of food poisoning in the restaurant.
Good for Frank to get his work in there though.
I have given up trying to figure out how things work here.
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