Thursday 15th October

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Truck with a load of plants going to the new site.


My mind has been on holiday the last 2 days. Well ok, more than it usually is then. Steve sent me the OFFICIAL forms to use for my 6 monthly report that is 3 months overdue, they are full of
“3. Confirm the assignment activities as set out in the assignment description. Indicate whether they have or should be changed and how.

4. Confirm the original indicators chosen for monitoring progress towards achievement of the assignment objectives. Confirm current indicators for monitoring each objective.

5. Provide baseline information for each indicator against which future progress can be monitored”
Questions like that, which make my mind grab a bag and go on vacation. The assignment description is so woolly to start with in the original Position Description I could have been coming here to do brain surgery or digging drains, the range was open.

Being as how nothing is left of the original job, we’re moving out of the Gardens, setting up a new Nursery, the funding that was meant to be available isn’t, I have completely different responsibilities in comparison now, and I’ll be taking days to write up the changes, design new performance and objective descriptions, and completely different progress indicators.

Meanwhile, we’ve got 9,000 plants sitting on plastic at Hasting-Deering, the 2nd container being shifted there tomorrow morning, the office to clear out and move, SIEA to be chased up to connect a temporary power supply, Telekom to chase up to connect a temporary phone and internet connection, all the work crew to keep busy with the normal work as well as shifting and digging up the stock plants, and somehow I don’t think VSA will be getting my report in a hurry at the moment.



Botanic Gardens Nursery now



Botanic Gardens Nursery

We had a brilliant thunder storm all afternoon, rolling rumbles like a badly tuned V8 without a muffler thundering down from the hills south of us. We’re too hidden amongst the trees at the gardens to see any lightning, and I think it mostly happens way back in the mountains anyway. It didn’t start to rain till 3pm, after a couple of hours of thunder warning of it coming. When it did arrive, it came suddenly, and heavily. There is certainly nothing gentle about the rain here, no slow build up or warning, one minute clear skies, the next a torrent of water falling straight down.

I mentioned a few pages back about it looking like a vertical wall of water or similar, it’s hard to imagine until it happens. Walking in it is like swimming in a fast flowing river, except you are standing up and the water is all around you.



Hasting Deering new site



Hasting Deering new site

Tiffany and I were talking today about Komunimboko, and how they manage to live there with very little outside contact. Well we were actually talking about how all the wantok arrive at peoples places and stay and have to be fed, and that lead to what Tiffany sees happening with her family back on Bellona. We’ve talked quite a bit about how everyone is losing the ability to live here now without outside goods, rice, tinned fish, sugar etc. Komunimboko is one of several Rural Training Centres that is slowly getting people back into a lifestyle that is more than subsistence and closer to sustainable and productive landuse.

Anyway, back on track, her family on Bellona have got the habit of contacting her and asking for food to be sent down as there is nothing to eat on the island, and her and David put together food parcels and ship them down. The last time she was down there, the wantok were saying how little there was to eat now, but the pawpaw trees were laden, the taro, kumara patches were all overgrown pineapple and cassava patches were overgrown, and very few people were fishing. Everyone is now dependent on the shop bought goods, and with a lot of the elders gone, there has been no organised agriculture done there for a long time.

Everything is now measured in how much you have from the shop, not by how much you can produce from the fields. I’m not sure how to address the problem, it’s not good for either end of the society. The few that are in Honiara don’t earn enough to provide for an extended wantok back home, and with the cost of everything in Honiara, there isn’t a great deal left from their wages anyway. And with the deeply ingrained wantok system, there is a huge obligation placed on everyone at the same time. Tiffany and David have 12 wantok staying with them, in an unfinished house, none of whom are working, and all having to be fed. I’d be inclined to apply for a divorce from the family, but you can’t do that here.

The Solomon Island Half Marathon is on this weekend, and no I’m not entered. People have started arriving this week, I see what I presume are competitors in the mornings out running the roads, not the usual RAMSI people, I hope we don’t have too many collapsing from the heat. The route goes west from Honiara to Bonege Beach and return, about 21 km, and it’s quite a nice part of the road. Lots of trees, coconut palms alongside the road. You don’t see a lot of the beaches, they are back off the road behind all the vegetation.

All the publicity we’ve been getting the last week or two is paying off. ANZ Bank have donated $10,000 to us today, to help set up, which is really good. We’re still waiting to hear back from Hasting-Deering on the lease, Jason won’t be back from Brisbane till later in the month, so everything is being done by email. He wants to wait till he is back in country before committing HD to too much. But the indications are that so long as what we want isn’t going to interfere with what HD do, everything will be good.

There was a really editorial in the Solomon Star on Tuesday about us, and the lack of support SEB have received from the Council over the years for all the work SEB have done through the town and at the Botanic Gardens.

I’m just frustrated with having spent 9 months and have nothing to show for it all. And it will be another year till everything is in place, or hopefully before then if we can get funding sooner. The good thing is that we start with a clear site, so we should be able to lay out everything properly instead of making stuff fit an existing site. And it is reasonably level as well.

Hi Zoe, hope you haven’t fallen asleep reading all of these ramblings.

It’s 8pm, and for the first time in months there is a choir practising over at the Ba’hai church. Really nice, now the rain has stopped, the air is cool, and the singing is just loud enough to hear, but not that loud it becomes distracting. Nice harmonies, and really clear voices.

I’m going to ask Steve to help me with the assessment report, I’ve been looking at it, and my mind really goes blank. I know a woman wrote the assessment guide, the layout isn’t how a man would have written it, and the wording is all full of fuzzy feel good phrases.

Any comments you know where the comment button is

Singing has finished for the night, I’ve got Paul Butterfield Elektra Years Compilation on now. I’ll have to fill up a few thumb drives with more cds when I get a break next year, Al said he has John Mayall double live albums in Illinois, so I’m going to be owing him heaps by the time I get out of here, if he sends me copies. I just hope The Screaming Orphans are still playing when I get there.

Monday/Tuesday 13th October

Tiffany and Tessie



Tiffany Keithie accepting donation from Eagon Industries

Monday 12th October

Tiffany and I had a nice surprise today. The Korean Consul Attache is in town, he has a house here, and has business interests in Kitano Mendana Hotel. He noticed the improvements made to the town over the past few years since his last visit, and through the Embassy grapevine heard about what was happening. He presented us with a Cheque for SBD$10,000 this morning, which was gratefully accepted by Tiffany.

It’s a start, now if a few more people get involved we’re off to a good start with the new site and beginning.

Tiffany and I are going to draw up a 2 year Strategic Plan, Keithie told us today that she was going to do it, but we both feel that it would be Keithies plan, and bear little relevance to what is possible or achievable. We’ll work up a 2 year development guide as well, and work out what we need to do in each stage once the Lease is approved on the area at Hasting Deering.

I’m already doing layout drawings, working out quantities of various things, crushed coral for bedding, weedmat, watering systems, water tanks.

At least David and Tiffany have worked in Australia for Maryborough Council, and have an idea of what a nursery should look like, There isn’t anything remotely like one here. Add in plant sales so we aren’t just dependent on commercial gardens, and we should be set up in good shape in a year or so.

I’m still sufferring withdrawal from Komunimboko. The 2 days down there were just so nice, quiet, nice surroundings, everyone with something to do, and happy to be doing it. It’s not quite perfect, no phone or internet coverage, I’m not sure now I could really do without it for extended periods now. Too many family and friends to keep in touch with. But then again, none of the people there knew what internet was, most had never seen a television, and the concept of fast food was associated with catching a fish and eating it raw with lemon and coconut cream.

When I think about it, it’s a nice way to live. They have all their food growing there, fish is plentiful, the work load is about 4 hours a day, usually 2 – 3 hours in the mornings in the cool part of the day, and a couple of hours in the late afternoon when it starts to cool down again after the midday heat. They have income from the copra, about $1.80 per kilo at the moment which is the lowest it’s been for a while. Due more to the downturn worldwide I guess, than anything else. Solomon coconut oil is rated the best by the main buyers, almost every bar of soap that has coconut oil in it will be made with Solomon Island oil.

The big copra oil factory is next to the new nursery site, so we get a strong coconut aroma flowing over the field if the wind is in the right direction. It’s nice now, I guess in a few months time we’ll all be sick of it.

Tuesday 13th October

Well, I apologise for all the rude things I’ve been saying about the Solomon Island Post Office. I spent another hour there this morning, and got someone who actually thought about what they were doing. All the parcels are registered in several ledgers, depending on airline, country, and although they’d done the same thing Saturday going through the pages, today he turned back one more page, and hello!, there it was.

Only been there 3 weeks, on a shelf behind several other parcels, now all I have to do is get the phone to work, I may be out of range or something in the house, I keep getting “You are not allowed to make this call” message. Tried it up on the hill, same thing, I’ll let Tiffany sort it out tomorrow.

All of the plants are gone from the nursery now, just digging out the stock plants, carting away the racks and bits and pieces. The office is down to our 2 desks, the computers, Telekom are letting us keep the same number so that is a help, once the 2nd container gets there we can set up in that as a temp arrangement, probably for a few months at least. We won’t be building on the lease ground till next year at the earliest.

It’s been like a sauna today, dry heat, about 32C or a bit hotter, all the work crew came back at lunchtime and promptly fell asleep in the shade.

Clement from Forestry has been down most of the day, settling into the office. We’ve had great pleasure in telling him about al the things he is now responsible for. I think he is starting to realise just how big a hole his Dept Head has dropped him in with the Gardens. We have Woodford School having their Cross Country again later this month, which means 2 days going around all the tracks, repairing, cleaning, cutting the lawn area. It takes us 2 days with 12 crew, Clement has 8, all of whom consider themselves supervisors, not physical staff, so he is going to be having a few problems.

Add to that the Island Sun and Solomon Star newspapers putting items in about how scruffy and untidy the Gardens are looking now that Forestry are maintaining them, Clement has a big job ahead of him.

Oh well, they wanted it, they have it, good luck to them.

Sunday 11th October

I spent a futile couple of hours at the Post Office yesterday trying to find out if either of the parcels I am waiting for have arrived. Rose posted my phone and EPO Vitamins nearly 4 weeks ago, but if they have arrived all I can surmise is that the phone has been stolen and the other stuff in the package has been thrown out. I was talking to a couple of other people there, and from what they said it is a fairly common occurrence, even with registered or parcel-track packages coming into Honiara, for stuff to go missing.
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, when everyone from the Prime Minister down in Government is corrupt, accepting bribes, back handers, it isn’t any great shock to know even the Post Office staff just take stuff without any worry about repercussions. Personally I think it’s time to put a few politicians up against the wall and shoot them. You don’t have to worry about getting any innocent ones.

I didn’t post the pics of Lazarus and his house last time, it was getting too slow with the connection for any more uploads, so here we go. He works for Komunimboko, they don’t supply a house, you build your own. The only tools I saw Lazarus use were a bush knife, some pieces of shell, and a digging stick for the post holes. There are no nails, bolts screws, everything is tied with strips of split cane.

He said it would take him 2 weeks from start to finish to complete, I’m going to be after Steve to go back there soon, once my butt has lost the bruises from the boat.

The roof panels took him 12 minutes to make, probably less if I hadn’t kept asking him to stop while I took a closeup pic of something. 170 roof panels close fitted, probably 5 – 7 per 300mm of roof, it gives a very thick thatch that is really waterproof.

I heard from Carlos in Shull, West Cork this week, well he posted on facebook, with a pic of the flood in Schull, flowing down the main road. An Tigin and the Bunratty were flooded with a bit of damage, Eurospar missed out luckily.

If anyone is looking for me on Facebook, Warren Dennis, I don’t get into it as often as some, the connection can be slow here, up to an hour to open at times.

I’m trying something different this week, sesame bread, using sesame paste. The garlic and herb I made last week was really good, I really need to get out more.

Thursday 8th October

2 days at Kolombano weren’t long enough. Considering that 4 hours of each day was spent being battered about in an aluminium banana boat bouncing from wave top to wave top Steve and I both felt a week would be better. We went down yesterday into the wind, with a slight choppy swell, that had everyone on board soaked in the first 30 minutes. The saving grace was that the sea temp was warm, the wind was hot, and the sun was shining.



We stopped halfway to refuel the boat.



Boat at Kolambano, the palm branches are used as skids to pull the boat over


Kolombano Rural Training Centre is about halfway down the eastern side of Guadacanal, there used to be a road into it, but the floods last February washed the bridges and most of the track away, and it hasn’t been repaired yet. The Training Centre is run for intensive farming training for predominately 20 to 30 year olds, to enable them to return to their villages and use the skills to improve the food production in the villages. They have a huge area under cultivation, I have no idea of the size, in 3 hours walking I only saw half of the farm area. A large coconut plantation for copra production, acres of cassava, pawpaw, eggplant, cabbage, kumara, lettuce. There are normally 20 students there for a year at a time, with very little contact with outside. The copra is taken by canoe once or twice a month to Honiara, and any surplus vegetables taken to the markets for sale, the cash being used to buy supplementary food, flour, salt, sugar, tinned tuna.



Coconut plantation



Aubergine crop

I’ll post some pictures in Google Earth, if you find Honiara, Kolombano is about half way to the South East of there.



Church building

The guest house is good, apart from an amazingly large collection of Huntsman spiders. There is no electricity, water is collected in rain tanks, and also a well. House lighting is kerosene lamps, and bottled gas for cooking in the guesthouse, but over wood fires through the rest of the settlement. Given the large number of people there, most of the food is cooked in a Mutu, similar to a Hangi, heated stones, with banana leaves over them, food wrapped in more banana leaves, then a cover placed over the top and left for 2 – 3 hours. It made me feel a bit homesick actually, even the taste of the food reminded me of New Zealand.





Inside the guest house, comfortable apart from the colony of huntsman spiders

I’m a bit annoyed we only had the 2 days available, I met Lazarus there, he is building his house in the settlement. Yesterday he was only up to the framing stage, and starting to make the leaf panels for the roof. The pictures explain the process more than words, but the panel he made while I was taking photographs took 12 minutes to make, and he needed 170 for the roof. His estimate to complete the house, with floor, walls and roof was 2 weeks from the time he started putting the posts in. No nails, all tied with cane strips, and notched and wedged to fit. The roof will last 7 years before needing replacement. The walls should last 10 years if they are protected by the roof overhang.



Interior of the school house



The first thing Steve and I noticed is that it was considerably cooler there than Honiara, in the sun it was much the same, about 30 – 32C, but at night it dropped to 24C and I actually felt cold during the night. All we could put it down to was the amount of vegetation surrounding and through the settlement, there is very little waste ground, producing food is the main purpose.



Interior of the Kai house, food preparation area

I saw several owls during the night, Steve and I were out on the verandah till 1am talking and in general having a good BS session. I’ve had pics of the Solomon Island Giant Frogs in here before, and mentioned how every fact sheet describes them as rare and endangered. We counted 67 in the short length of the track to the toilet block last night, then spent a few hours with the torch on the verandah spotlighting them through the gardens below. If that is endangered I think someone needs to go do a recount. The locals gather rice bags of them and use them for shark fishing.



Kai house, cooking house to the left

Steve finally realised I haven’t put my 6 monthly report in yet, after 9 months, so I promised faithfully I would have it to him by November. The problem is that I haven’t actually done anything yet, other than have arguments with Keithie since I’ve been here. Still, she has described me as “ a difficult man to deal with”, which means I don’t do everything she wants done.

I can see your head nodding in agreement there Libby.

We arrived back to Honiara mid afternoon, to find crowds of people on the beach front at Rove, then we found out there had been an earthquake a few hours earlier in Vanuatu, and a tsunami warning had be put out for the Solomons. Quite why everyone was down at the beach had me worried about the sanity that prevails here. It isn’t as if no-one hasn’t seen a tsunami and the effects here, we had one at the start of the year, and a major one in 2007 that wiped out most of the northern and western side of Guadacanal. But there they were, camera phones at the ready to take pics of the waves coming in. On the shoreline.

I’m reasonably sunburnt, tired, my butt is sore and bruised from being bounced up and down on the aluminium seats, I’ll let the pictures tell most of the story, and fill in with more once I’ve caught up with some sleep.

Tuesday 6th October

Hibiscus flower in the Nursery




We’re slowly moving everything to Ranandi, to the Hasting-Deering site. It is looking like we may be able (yes I know, there are a lot of looking like, and maybes in there) to set up permanently at the rear of the paddock. Huge paddock, 200 metres by 180 metres not being used for anything other than storage by one of the building firms for their scaffolding at the moment.

The front bit we have got till it is all decided isn’t too bad, a wide narrow strip with a couple of shade trees, and room for 2 containers, one for storage and the other we’ll convert into a temporary office once we can get power hooked up to it. I spent a bit of time this morning with Hendry laying out plastic for weed control, and the first plants started going out this afternoon. Watering is going to be a problem for a while, we’ll have to use our water tank on the truck, fill up from the fire main and hand water samesame as usual.

Bruce and Keithie like the look of the site, Bruce is keen, and can see the possibilities of turning this whole mess around. Keithie was away to the Japanese Consul this week to try to find some way we can still be eligible for the funding grant from them, which would really set us off to a good start in the new place.





I’ve been watching a Custard apple tree (Annona muricata) along the driveway for a while, it finally set some fruit a couple of months back, and I was hoping to finally get one. Jepthtah arrived at lunchtime with the biggest fruit from it, the pest. Anyway, we all got a piece of it, deliciously smooth and creamy flavour, I suppose you could say it had a custard taste, but with a hint of sweet spice in it as well, messy things to eat though, your face gets a wash from it.



Jacinta with Custard apple (Annona muricata)

I’m away with Steve from Wednesday till late Thursday, maybe Friday to the Rural Training Centre in East Guadacanal. We’ve got the boat organised properly this week, I was told to bring the fishing rods, and I’m trying to find mask/snorkel/fins to do a bit of diving as well. My distaste for going to several shops for one thing from each is a bit of a burden though, one shop had good fins, but nothing else, another had snorkels, and fins, I’m still trying to find a shop that has decent masks, not the cheap plastic ones before 10 am tomorrow.

I’m using rechargable batteries in my hearing aids now, finally got a pair that recharge. They are meant to last only 1 day, about 10 to 12 hours, I’m getting 2 days out of them before recharging which is good. I won’t have to worry about going deaf while we’re away, and naturally you can’t get the disposable ones here.

I’m still waiting for the phone Rose sent me 3 weeks ago, Steve and I both believe it’s gone missing at the post office sorting room, along with anything else that was in the parcel. The concept of honesty is taking a long time to filter through here, and now having said that, it will turn up tomorrow in all likelihood.

Although you do notice a tendency for everyone here to prefer to take things, rather than ask for the use of them. The last time I was on Savo half my fish hooks, lures went missing, which got me a bit jaundiced, I did have plenty to pick from, the intention on my part was to have left them with the people I was staying with, and anyone who wanted them, after they just took stuff, I changed my mind.

I’m expecting the same thing to happen down in East Guadacanal as well, so long as my rods and reels don’t go missing I’ll wear having the hooks, lures and traces go missing. Still not cheap though.

I may get a soft bait set when I go back to NZ in February, and try it here. I haven’t seen anyone using soft baits, H.Longs have a few packets, but not the rod and reel combination and braided line to really make the most of them.



Tiffany at the Memorial Gardens, new sign and a big clean up.

To say the Government Finances are in a mess is an understatement. Various Departments now owe the Electricity Department $1,300,000 in unpaid accounts, but the MPs find it perfectly possible to grant them selves a $400,000 termination grant if they fail to get re-elected, to give all past and present PMs a house, car and full pension for life, even if in one case the person was only PM for 8 days till the riots and unrest forced him to stand down, a grant of $50,000 to every MPs wife at the end of each Parliamentary term, and an increase in MPs salaries to $180,000 per year.
It’s a good demonstration of grab it while you can, and to hell with the consequences.

Sunday 4th October

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.

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.



And if you ever wondered where kapok comes from, here's the tree, Cieba pentranda


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.