2nd March

My class has now grown to 14 people. Which is good as it gives us more funding, and 2 more people to utilise in the gardens and nursery. This morning was spent going back over the past weeks lessons, propagation etc, and a good refresher. For them as well as me, it gave me a chance to see who had missed my explanations in broken pijin and English. By lunchtime I was happier, everyone knew what we were talking about, and felt confident, me included.

Jennifer came back this morning, without questions, but wanting to borrow my book again next weekend. Good luck to her, I have to find someone over the next 2 years to take over the nursery, if the past month is anything to go by, she’s so far ahead of everyone else it is no contest. I’ll wait and see, if the funding becomes available I’ll try to get her enrolled in Brisbane or Melbourne for an Advanced Cert Horticulture course.

We spent 4 hours with Kiethe this afternoon, going over Botanic Gardens plans, future work, funding, sources of revenue we can try for.

I’d really like us to be free of Aid Agency funding, but at the moment, that’s supporting the crew, the Gardens, and it’s getting an education to a lot of people that would otherwise miss out.

We’ve another meeting with Heritage Hotels tomorrow, trying to find out how much they have budgeted for the landscaping. If it’s not enough for the entranceway to be spectacular, they’ll get a load of plants and I’ll try for a 10 yr maintenance contract from them to ensure a steady flow of money.

My yoghurt experiment worked, so I had kumara curry with rice and grated coconut, and cucumber and yoghurt riata. I ditched the flour, weevils left in it or not. I’ll try again this weekend to find some that doesn’t try to climb out of the bag. The Bulk Bin Shop fills the bins out of sacks that are stored in the back room, roller door that almost shuts, sacks stacked on pallets, tin roof etc. So I might have to resort to paying a few dollars more for sealed bags of Australian imported flour from the supermarket.

I’ve mentioned the proximity of Rove Prison before, it backs onto our northern boundary, all razor wire, mesh and concrete walls. Last year there was an Aid Project going that gave the prisoners work for the Gardens, making park tables and seats. The first stage of that finished and we’re waiting for the second stage money to come through now. The Prison Superintendent called up to the Gardens today, and asked if we could run a basic landscaping course for up to 12 of the trusted prisoners to do, so they have some skills to help them find work when they are released. It’s more money for the Gardens, and a bit more work for me, but worth it. It’s just a basic course, paving, planting etc, so it should be fun. Probably 3 afternoons a week, I can work that into the programme now I have everyone sorted and know who will get the work done if I’m not there.

My job description is so far out the window now, it doesn’t really matter. But it’s all good, I’ve got work I love doing, a great place to work in, and great people to work with.

It will all look great on a CV, pity I’m nearly 60, about the only place that would take me on now after this is VSA, so I’ll be a bit of a gypsy for a while after this contract finishes. Go to exotic locations on a pittance, join in the local community, and have fun and work. I could get used to this lifestyle. As Steve told me last week, I’m one of the most low maintenance volunteers he’s worked with so far.

Once I have another camera I’ll be really happy, I’ve almost convinced my sister to call up here in April, while she is in Sydney, and bring the camera with her. It’ll be safer that way, and there won’t be the duty to pay on it either.

I went looking for thumbtacks/pushpins today, the plastic headed sort, to pin up some flags and stuff in the house. I’m getting really frustrated with the cheap shoddy crap here, ok, I know I don’t really need the push pins, but I’m not paying $25 for a packet of 20 that look like the heads would break off in your fingers if you pushed them

When I’m King there will be a lot of people up against the wall for sure

Our trial of putting the coconut husks through the shredder is a bit of a disaster. They are too rotted and wet to go through without clogging the exit vent, we’re going to get the fresh dry husks from the Central Markets and try them next, and I’ll come up with a different method for breaking the old husks down. We get paid to take the husks away from the markets, so it’s got all the things I like about it. Not only are they free, we get paid for taking them. Our potting mix gets cheaper to make by the day.

Pic for today is our shade house and tray of bougainville cuttings

27th February

Every day I spend here makes me so glad to have applied to VSA a year ago. My first approach to VSA was in late January last year, when I was getting so depressed with living in Ireland, the waiting and frustration I had last year, between the interviews, the interminably slow pace of progress with my visa and work permits, were all worth it.

My concept plan for the Heritage Hotel in Honiara, with the waterfall, the carvings behind it, has had every woodcarver and stone carver in Honiara coming to see me today. One man was waiting at work this morning at 6.30am, he came back later in the morning with 2 other carvers, unfortunately, the work they do, despite it being absolutely magnificent, in stone, is not the style I envisage. It was too modern, I’m after the Kastom traditional carvings for the front.

Tiffany bought Kennedy out to see me this afternoon. He is the head carver for the Solomon Islands Museum, I’ll post pics of his works that are in the Museum grounds, I’d seen them last weekend, without knowing who had done them and they are exactly what I want. He arrived, I showed him the architects drawings of the site, and the area I want to showcase. Initially he started describing modern type sculptures, once I told him the effect I wanted was the Kastom carvings behind the waterfall, so that they appeared to shimmer and move, like ghosts of the past, his face lit up, and when he realised I wanted the panel to represent all the 9 provinces, with the ancestors behind the veil of the water, there was no stopping him. We talked about the ties everyone here has with their ancestors, the spirit world is never far away here. He instantly caught the idea that in the daylight, it would look good, but at night, with the uplighting beneath the sculptures, and the water falling and shimmering, they would appear to be moving. As it’s a tourist hotel, most of the visitors would see it initially in the daylight when they arrived, most of the tours arrive back in Honiara at night time, which is when the whole area will be in darkness, with the fountain the only lighted patch in a dark forest of banana and palm trees. And the restaurant will be drawing people in at night as well. They will have to come past the waterfall to the entrance, so it will be a major focal point.

He drew quick sketches, discarded most of them, as he got closer and closer to the idea and feeling I wanted. When he found out I wanted a reverse side as well, with modern style carvings on it for the restaurant side, he really flew. What we’ve agreed on is for the front panel to be the past, with the ancestors ghosts appearing behind the water, as they do to the people here, and with the 9 provinces represented, every person in Honiara will have some link to it. The reverse side, which faces the restaurant, will have modern style carvings, representing the future, no water over it, and downlighting to bring out the forward look of the sculpture.


I have no idea yet how much this is going to cost, I’m pricing water pumps in New Zealand and Australia, we have another meeting with Heritage Hotels on Monday, to show them concept drawings, and also to get an accurate idea of how much they have budgeted for the landscaping. It’s all talk so far, I’d hate to build peoples hopes up, and then find out Heritage don’t want to spend anything, in which case I’ll just fill their hotel grounds with the usual rubbish plants and find another site.

It has to happen though, the idea has spread through Honiara, from the crew at work, and amongst the carvers themselves. I have another man coming around tomorrow, who is also a Master Carver, he is going to have to be good to beat the empathy and insight Kennedy and I shared.

I think it is the size and scope of the carving that has the interest, and the spiritual side with the waterfall giving the impression of spirit beings behind it that really caught Kennedys mind.

I was trying to explain to Kennedy how the whole image just appeared in my mind as soon as I saw the site. There was no gradual process, the whole idea arrived fully formed instantly. His reply was that if the inspiration appears, it is up to me to make it happen, now he is caught up in the fever about it as well.

Jennifer borrowed my Hartman/Kester/Davies propagation manual for the weekend. It’s the Nurserymans Bible, they laughed when I said that in class this morning, but I never saw it being put down and left for the rest of the day. It’s about level 6 or 7, I used it at Burnley Uni in Melbourne, what it doesn’t cover isn’t worth bothering with. I have no doubt that Jennifer will read it voraciously all weekend. And come back with several pages of questions she will want answers for as well.

The people here are so hungry for knowledge. The troubles of the last few years and the things I’m not allowed to discuss, have really caused so many problems. The cost of education alone means that most of the youth leave school at 15 or 16 because the family cannot afford to keep them at school. Then with no qualifications they have no employment, unless we take them on at the gardens, and train them.

My course now has 14 people, and we have hired 6 more people for the crew, our workload has picked up the last week, I’m hoping in 2 years when I leave that we aren’t dependant on Aid money to function, and we are a profit making business. The Botanic Gardens are becoming the largest employer in Honiara, other than the Council, and Government.

We’re covering seed raising this week, after going through the Australian Propagation Course Book, which talks about seed raising trays, seed raising mix, heated beds, spray systems, timers etc, I could see everyones faces falling, wondering how they would pass this unit without all this expensive equipment. I’d asked Tiffany yesterday for as many egg cartons as she had at home, which she bought in this morning. I took a few packets of the seeds I have here, and with the coconut fibre that Imelda and Annie had prepared yesterday, we made out own seed raising trays out of the egg cartons. 12 seeds per carton, packed with rotted coconut fibre, a good soak in water, and into the shade house for the weekend. I looked for the spare cartons that were left this evening as I was leaving, but they all appear to have gone home with the trainees, and I’m guessing the hole in the coconut fibre heap is because it’s gone home in plastic bags, along with the seeds left over.

As I pointed out to them, the joy of using the egg cartons, is that we don’t disturb the plant roots when we plant them out, just rip the egg carton into the segments, plant the nice little parcel the egg space makes, and as it rots into the soil, the roots grow though it.

I have to laugh, at one of the interviews with VSA for this position, great emphasis was placed on could I cope without equipment, tools, resources, basically, everything you would find in a nursery outside of here. Thanks to everyones attitude here, I think we’re doing really well.

We have propagation grit for cuttings from the river, fibre rice bags opened out to use to hold the grit, and we’re going to have a day making palm leaf trays to place the bags in, so I’ll learn how to make them as well, coconut husk to use for water retaining fibre for seeds, egg cartons for seed trays, chicken manure in what ever quantity we need, chippings from the tree pruning and removal crew. Given the rainfall and temperature here, chippings rot in a matter of days, when we put some chicken manure into the heap, it really breaks down quickly.
So there is our bagging mix, with a bit of river sand and grit, coconut husk, it’s as good as I’ve used anywhere.

I was intending to go fishing this weekend, that idea has gone by the board. I’ll be here all weekend doing sketches and detail drawings of the fountain, the planting around it, and writing up a list of materials and equipment for the meeting with Heritage on Monday afternoon.

My screened porch on the side of the house has a table, chairs, so I’ll be out there in the cool breeze all weekend. If only I can remember how to do perspective drawings!

Tiffany informed just as I was leaving tonight, she thought I’d love to give a speech at the Womens Day Parade in Honiara in a weeks time, about preserving the ecology of the Solomons. So she booked me in for it.

I’m not talking to her for the whole of next week

Sunday

Bought my one weekly indulgence again today. Fresh warm wholemeal bread, ($7) and well worth it. The bread shop is opposite the Kukum Fish Market, so it’s just a matter of dodging the buses and trucks on Mendana and I’m happy. Fresh bread, thick cut slabs, butter and honey.

It pelted down with rain while I was at the markets, I was soaked in seconds, muslin top and board shorts, no wariwari, got 2 more large pawpaw ($5 Each), 3 coconuts($0.50 each for 2, $1 for large one), a big hand of bananas(20 bananas $10), some bok choy($5), or what looks like it, dozen eggs($29), I’ve still got 3 kilos of rice, so I’m happy.

Saw a beautiful ripe jackfruit there, $40, far too much just for me, the size, not the price, I’d have bought it, but I’d be wasting most of it. Definitely an acquired taste, once you get past the smell (think of well used gym socks) they are like a cross between pineapple and pawpaw in flavour.

I might buy one next week, it freezes well, apart from going mushy when it thaws, but I can use it in a fruit mix salad.

Yesterday was a mix of good and bad. Good in that Frank Haiku called around in the morning, he’s the wood carver the Solomon Island Government send overseas as our representative to any ethnic symposium on tribal art and culture, so he’s fairly good.

He was here till 3.30pm, from 9am. He had a portfolio of his work, brilliant stuff, traditional and modern styles, then we got to talking about different cultures, NZ, Ireland, the Solomons, and I cranked the laptop up and showed him some of the pics from Ireland. So there went the day for me. He’s ambivalent about the waterfall. If we get the approval and the design is accepted he’ll join in, but as he said, he’s been trying to get more art works and sculpture used here, but hasn’t had much luck. I think he’s got so used to rejection he goes in expecting to be turned down, rather than being positive in his approach and selling the sizzle first.

Found where to get my films developed in town, $20 just for the negatives, or $80 with prints. Scanned both rolls of film, I’ll have to get some fine soft cloth and clear all the dust and threads off the negatives and try again. They came back just stuffed into a paper Kodak bag, with Sellotape holding the rolls together. I lost 3 prints where the Sellotape tore the emulsion off. And the hassle of retouching all the scans to get the bits of dust and threads from the paper off the pics.

It’s still pouring with rain here, nearly 3 hours continuously now, the road looks like a small stream outside the house again, thankfully my little garden is on the one bit of raised ground behind the house.

I’ve got a few diagrams done, trying to do perspective drawings was never my strong suit, even more so when all I have is a 300mm plastic ruler and some pencils of dubious hardness and ability to hold a point. We went shopping for pencils and stuff on Friday, the girl behind the counter just has a blank look when I and Silesa explained what we were after, so it was a matter of accepting the cheap Chinese made stuff, and I’ll make do with that.

I know what I’ll be stocking up with when I get my 12month leave break and go to New Zealand for 2 weeks.

I’m not doing too badly now, if you discount all the stuff I had to pay out for when I arrived to set the house up, wok/pot/mattress, and basic stuff, I’m under $100 a week for food, if I need more rice and coffee it may go to $150 for that week. The sour dough bread got dumped, well the batter mix did, I didn’t look too closely at the flour to start with, when I went to add the flour and make up the dough, I thought it would probably be better to freeze the flour, sift out the weevils, and try again. Thankfully it wasn’t wholemeal flour, I’d probably not have noticed the weevils in that.

I was wondering why every shop in town has sifters for sale, now I know. Tropic heat, humid climate, and flour, ideal breeding ground for weevils. I looked around the bakery today, and sure enough, several large industrial size sifters hanging on the wall by the flour bins.

If anyone ever decides to sell Tupperware here they will make a killing. All the plastic storage stuff here is just absolute rubbish. Two of the large containers I bought last week have already cracked, one across the lid, the other down the side. I keep telling myself it was only NZ$12, but it doesn’t help. $56 Solomon. I’ve seen better quality in the $2 shops in Auckland

The electrical stuff is the same, it’s all cheap copies of the Tiffany and generic Taiwanese and Chinese electrical brands, I don’t know where it is made, but it must be some really low cost country. 250watt blenders, and you know as soon as you pick them with one finger they’ll have trouble blending water, let alone anything with some resistance.

Anyway, I’m living well and cheaply, things I’d probably want in NZ aren’t all that important here, I get fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, sunshine, a good crew to work with, and I’ve got the nursery and gardens to play in.

Making yoghurt this weekend, I’m trying all sorts of experiments in my spare time. I didn’t bring my yoghurt maker, silly, but I’m improvising. 1.5 litre container with the yoghurt mix , inside a 3 litre container with hot water. It seems to be working, it’s going thick anyway, I don’t know if I really need the hot water around it, it’s 30*C all of the time, it would probably set just left on the bench for a day.

I’ve got the washing machine working partly, the washer side anyway. It’s a twin tub, wash and spin drum. It looks as though the motor has burnt out on the spin drum. I’ve seen bigger motors on scaletrix slot cars. Again as above, I can pick it up and carry it with one arm. I think the wash side may struggle with anything more than a couple of shirts, if that.

I was up till 2am this morning sketching and trying to get drawings done for tomorrow, I’ll tidy the rough drafts up tonight, now it’s dark and the rain is cooling the air. Trying to draw yesterday just caused huge sweat stains on the paper, and I had streaks of pencil and colour everywhere.

I’ll go through the blog and resize all the pics so it loads quicker for anyone on a slow connection, they’re all full size at the moment, if you click them. I’ll get them to 600 wide, and put the full size into my webshots album.

Pic is of Turtle Beach

26th February

Another day of constant amazement at the crew at work. Especially the ladies in the Nursery. We’ve moved on from the Soils Unit, and started doing propagation, and selecting mother stock for propagation.

At the moment we’re studying cuttings, soft/semi-hardwood/hardwood. The easiest way for me to show was to get a bougainvillea branch, with a soft tip, back to hardwood. The ladies wanted to know why we didn’t use the soft part for cuttings. In the 30 minutes from the time I took the cutting, to us talking about it, the ends of the branch had wilted, and even putting it in water didn’t revive it. Good demonstration, it stuck in their minds for sure. The Bougainvillea cuttings we took the other day and struck in the river gravel have started roots already, another week and we’ll be potting them up. Oh for a mist system for the shade house, we’d have cuttings to spare and more.

They got confused when I started talking about mother stock, so the best description I could give that they related to, was that our cuttings were the children, and if we looked after the Mother, the children would be strong, and grow healthy and quickly. Jennifer, Imelda, Annie and Susie are really good in the nursery. They work steadily, never complain, and are always thinking.

We had a bit of fun, the guys don’t like getting their hands in the dirt, working with the chainsaws, tools, bush knives, not a problem, play with the soil and mix? Not willingly. I mentioned it to the ladies while we were potting up, and Jennifer came back with, Men! we have the babies, cook, garden, clean, look after the children, feed the man, and all he does is laze around and go fishing, humph!

So I said, well, it’s hard work making babies, we have to rest up

All 3 of them threw clods of dirt at me, and chased me out of the potting area laughing.

Imelda and Annie spent the afternoon rubbing more coconut husks through the makeshift sieve we have, it’s just a piece of 10mm wire mesh from a building site, with a wooden frame. I’d love to get them to NZ or Australia to work in a well set up nursery, they’d be running it within 6 months, their work ethic is so good. That applies to all the crew we have.

My shipping finally arrived today. I’ve got towels! And sharp knives that don’t bend when you try to cut bread. And my fishing rods and reels! Guess what I’m doing this weekend?

Steve called out to the Gardens this afternoon to pick me and collect everything. He’d acquired a washing machine, with a bit of a problem, it could be broken drive belt, I should be able to fix it, so there goes the hand washing outside in the stone tub. I also scored a small benchtop electric grill and oven from him, he wasn’t sure if it worked or not, it didn’t, but it was only a broken wire in the plug, so that’s fixed now and all set to go.

Steve is the VSA Programme Officer for the Solomons, Bouganville, and Papua New Guinea, I’m just one of several VSA people he is responsible for. We were driving through Honiara, and he asked which areas we looked after. He said that he constantly sees our crews out in the town working, and looking happy as they work. It’s something I’ve noticed, all the crew take pride in working, who they work for, and doing a good job and trying to make Honiara look better.

I’ll let them all know what Steve said tomorrow morning, it ties in with what I constantly emphasize in class, and when I’m working with any of the crew.

There are a lot of unemployed youth in Honiara, it is the major problem here, and our crews from the gardens are the best advertisement for us. We get a constant stream of people looking for a job with us, because we have work, and also the fact we put them through Level 1 and 2 Horticulture certificates, which are a guarantee of employment here. We have to rely on donations for the cost of the courses, we need nearly $30,000 for each trainee to cover the costs involved, all of our assessments have to go to Brisbane for verification, although now I’m here we can do it internally. Thanks to the Assessors Certificate I got a few years back from Auckland University.

Most of the temporary workers, the ones that are on the Certificate course end up working for the large hotels, as gardeners on reasonably good pay, with constant work.

When there are people prepared to work as security guards for $4 an hour, at night, you realise there is a major problem looming. I’d be wanting $200 an hour, and my own AK47 to be a security guard at night here.

And a plane waiting ready to go for when it turned sticky.

I’ve unpacked everything, not that there was much, and got the fishing rods assembled and ready to go.

Printer works, and the scanner, so I’m all set up again.

There’s an old time revival meeting going on up the road at the Ba’hai School at the moment, a lot of shouting, clapping, Hallelujah, and singing. The main speaker is very heavily influenced by Billy Graham I think, with a mix of Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King. The music is good, and the singing, but not my thing.

I’ve got an early Bob Dylan cd on at the moment, actually not all that early, it’s Blood on the Tracks from 1975. Simple Twist of Fate, and Shelter from the Storm are the two tracks I like best on it.

A few more people reading this lately, Hi to Stef, Damian, Tarsha, Jesse and Kahu, Moira, Sally Kim, Christopher in Belize.

Realised today, I’m drinking 3 litres of iced coffee a day, and another 1.5 litres of water, and it’s barely going through my system. You really sweat out copious amounts of water here, walking breaks you out in a sweat, just standing outside is enough. You soon learn to walk and work at a steady pace all day, trying to rush is pointless, you get dehydrated so quickly. One good thing, I’ve lost 5kg since I’ve been here, still a few to go, but I’ll be down to 70 kg again soon.

Our swimming hole retaining wall is progressing well, the guys made a few more improvements to my suggestion, and now they are tying the tyres to each other, and putting an anchor tyre behind the front wall, and tying that to the others. Another load of steel reinforcing pins arrived from somewhere yesterday, I don’t ask questions, and don’t want any answers.

We’re getting more people coming out to see the gardens. The bush telegraph must be working well in town, a lot have not been to the gardens since the troubles, and they are really pleased with what has been done so far with the tracks, and the orchid house. I hope I can continue on with what Eric started last year.

I’m trying a sourdough bread recipe, I’ve got a very active starter going, from a really good website, http://www.joepastry.com/, if you like baking, and good advice, it’s the best one I’ve found. Tell Joe I sent you. Anyway, after following the recipe, and using a small plastic bowl, I’ve now transferred it to a large bowl, I get the feeling that 30*C and high humidity really make the yeast culture think it’s on steroids. It climbed out of the bowl and made a break for the floor before I noticed it. It will be ready to mix up tomorrow night, so I’ll have fresh sourdough bread for the weekend.

Pic for today is the coral hills around Honiara. I live behind the left hand end of the ridge going towards the sea. There are three distinct flat levels and possibly more, I’ll have to go for a drive further back one weekend, but I think behind the ones in the pic, it turns into volcanic and basalt base. There is a gold mine on Gold Ridge, I’m seriously considering panning the gravel in the stream when we start digging out the swimming hole.

The evening rain is back, not that it cools down much, but it does freshen the air

25th February

Our classroom doubles as the crew lunchroom, the lights have fused out from the damp, the overhead fan doesn’t, it’s more of a ceiling ornament at the moment. So about 9 o’clock this morning I gave up tying to see everyone in the gloom inside, it wasn’t till some of the darker skinned people smiled I could see them, and we went and sat on the river bank discussing soil types, sub surface strata, sand, silt, clay, gravel, composting.

It’s hard to describe clay here, there isn’t any locally. The land is too new to have developed clay sub strata, and once you dig through the top layers, you hit coral reef. It was funny watching the group, the girls actually dig into the silt/sand etc, feel the texture and get an understanding, the guys tend to try to keep their hands clean. It’s a good way of having class here, sitting in the shade of the trees, feet in the cool water, actually looking at what we’re discussing, and how the layers of soil build up over time.

6pm, and the power just went out. Thunder and lightning, heavy rain, Lovely!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ll shut this off and wait a while, then continue with the battery if the power doesn’t come back.

Wasn’t too bad, only an hour and a half without lights. And fan. The native bush houses win out in that respect. Being made out of woven palm leaves, there is always a breeze coming through, ok, plus the occasional malaria mosquitos. And spiders. Geckos. Centipedes. Perhaps I’ll reconsider that.

Getting back to what I started today with, we’ve been talking about ideal mixes for propagating plants, I’ve mentioned Jennifer and Imelda making the decision to try the river gravel for cuttings, which are doing well, today the girls that went to the nursery for the afternoon with Jennifer and Imelda really blew me away.

We had been discussing ideal propagating mix, 50% peat, 25% soil, 25% sand, and the whys and wherefores of the various constituents. I went over to the nursery about 1.30, and found Doris, Annie, and Imelda busily rubbing coconut husks through our 10mm wire mesh sieve, Kennedy had been sent to the river to get some coarse sand and gravel, and they were mixing up a bagging mix to try with the soil. We’ve got a large heap of rotting husks, and the girls spent a good two hours rubbing the husks through the sieve, they ended up with a good couple of wheelbarrows full, which they mixed with the sand, and soil, and set about bagging the rooted cuttings.

It’s such a joy to work with people that want to learn, and put into practise what they learn.

I’ve mentioned Honiara as the perfect hell for all those OSH Inspectors before. Our tree cutting and pruning gang would be banned in any other country that I know of. We’ve got a few trees here at the Ba’hai Centre to fell, they are in a dangerous condition, one was dead with a large, about 600mm thick branch over the roadway, and they started with that one. I caught up with them just as they were starting to trim the top branches.

Andrew, barefoot, shorts and t-shirt, bandanna and chainsaw holding onto the main trunk with one hand, 20’ up, cutting branches one handed. Then straddling the branches and cutting through them. All the time with a face splitting grin. OK, the red betel nut stained teeth gave him a bit of a piratical appearance, all four of the crew clamber up and down trees with chainsaws and bush knives, hacking and cutting till all there is left is a short stub in the ground. I’ve got pics, but film only, till that gets developed I’ll have to wait to post pics.

One of the trees we have to fell is huge. There is no way our little chainsaw will cope with it. And we’ll need a rope and the truck to pull one of the branches away from the house it is over. I think a digital movie camera would be better sometimes. It is going to be interesting watching how they remove it.

I spent most of the afternoon calculating what size water pump or pumps I’d be needing for my grandiose waterfall. The smallest I can get away with is 4 x 550gpm pumps, feeding the header trough, to give me sufficient water flow for 60’ of waterfall, 30’ front and back. I’ll email a few suppliers in Australia and New Zealand tomorrow with the size of the waterfall and see what they recommend. So far, everyone thinks it is a great idea, I’m beginning to think I should never have opened my mouth about it. I’m meeting up with the wood carver tomorrow or Friday to discuss the carvings, well, to talk about the size, he can use whatever tribal pattern he likes. I may make it into 5 x 2m wide panels, with framing in between, getting timber in long lengths may be difficult.

The 2 pawpaw I bought Sunday, one is finished, the other was still green when I bought it, it ripened very well on the kitchen bench, so with luck it may last me another day. Huge pawpaw, about 350mm (a bit over 12”) long, and about 200mm(8”) thick. Not bad for a few dollars. SBD $5 , NZ$1

Checked my little garden earlier, in the rain. I’m going to be eating well soon. All the cucumbers are up, the courgettes and 2 rows of beans. I’m sure my neighbours have doubts about the mad palangi next door, wandering around in the rain in a sarong, laughing. Just you wait till I corner the market in fresh beans and courgettes, capsicums and chillies!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are a few stalls with peppers at Kukum, but I’d feel embarrassed offering anything for sale that looked like they do. Tiny little things, and they want $4 - $5 each. No excuses, I have to grow better ones.

I’ll pick up some bamboo at the markets once my tomatoes and apple cucumbers are growing and build a trellis for them. Rattan cane ties, and bamboo poles. I’ve only got a small patch of ground that doesn’t flood when it rains, all the rest is a river of mud and stones.

I got bitten the other day when I was rummaging through the bush, tiny little ants, about 3mm long, they pack a huge whallop with their bite, it must be pure formic acid. Anyway, one bite turned a bit nasty looking, I noticed it yesterday, so dug out the med kit, and dosed myself up with antibiotics, and put antibiotic cream and plaster over it. It appears to be healing up nicely now. Last thing I feel like doing is going to the hospital. Tiffanys husband is still in there, a few problems with his arm still, she goes in each day with his lunch. The ceiling fans aren’t working, no air conditioning, and they turn the lights off in the daytime to save costs. So it’s dark, humid, and a bit of a gloomy place.

It’s not the place for arachnophobes, like me, some of the spiders are large, and don’t look friendly, either they have long legs, bright colours on their bodies, or short legs, and large bodies. I’m sure the short legged ones are a variety of wolf spider, they have the jaws and head up display when you get near them, and they hop rather than run.

We’ve got landcrabs burrowing into the soil around the lily pond, only small, the holes are only a few inches wide, and I think all the coconut crabs that used to be around Honiara are now all well cooked and eaten a long time ago.
Pic of a spider on a helliconia leaf for today

24th February

Have I mentioned how good the people doing the level 2 Certificate course are? I’ve not worked with such motivated people for a long time. If I mention anything and they are not sure what I mean, they ask for me to explain it better, so my English is now a mix of Toktok, English and scientific names. Every one is happy knowing the latin names for the plants, they all come from different provinces here, and there is a different common name for everything, so we stick to the latin nomenclature, and we all know exactly which palm/tree/shrub we are meaning.

It’s good for me, I’ve been doing such a mix of trades for the past few years, engineering, landscaping, bakery, nursery work, to settle in one occupation for the next 2 years will be great.

Tiffany and I went to the hotel site, ok, once more I’ve really jumped into a deep hole. There are 3 acres of space to landscape, and also the front entrance to design and build. Thankfully, a lot of the space is going to be carparks, although where all the cars are coming from I don’t know. Most of the tourists here use the taxis, or tour guides to get around. There is a car rental agency, but even so, 200 carparks?

The landscaping around the back of the hotel down to the beach will be easy, mostly a mix of Hibiscus, Bougainvillea, palms and cycas, also a large lawn expanse and paved footpaths and seating outside the open bar and pool area.

The front entrance feature is going to be the main effort. I’m pushing for a water feature, 10m wide 3m high waterfall, into a pool of water lilies with palms, hibiscus, delonix regia, caesalpinia, around the outside. It’s a U shaped front entrance, 33m wide, 15m deep to fill. Tiffany has a local wood sculptor I am going to hopefully get to make up two 10m wide by 3m high wooden traditional carvings to use behind the waterfall front and back, then use uplighting to accentuate them at night behind a sheet of water. The back of the garden has a glass wall for the main restaurant so it has to be a two sided design. It all sounds great, apart from the fact I have 2 weeks to have it designed and costed, and 3 months to have it all installed before opening in June.

Needless to say, I’m going to have a nervous breakdown in June once it’s all completed, if we get the approval first.

My seeds I planted last Saturday have already come through, beans, courgettes, cucumbers, so this weekend will be another digging and planting exercise to get coriander, tomatoes, basil, chilli, capsicums, (bell peppers in the USA), apple cucumbers, bok choy and pak choy started.

We had a few visitors to the Gardens today, two English girls on their big South Pacific tour, and an older lady. She turned out to be the Fijian American Consuls wife, and a close friend of Kiethie Saunders, who is the USA Consul here, and also the main driving force behind getting the Botanic Gardens restored. I’m pleased I took the time to meet and show her around, she is bringing her husband back later in the week and I’ll make a point of being available to show them the walkways and gardens.

I keep finding plants buried in the forest growth and going WOW!!!!!! There is a small grove of Cycas bougainvillea some 10’ – 12’ high, and one full of seed fruits. When I asked back at the office if we still had any growing, apparently last year the nursery was broken into, and all the cycas, and rarer orchids, and the few Delonix were stolen, and presumably taken to Singapore or Malaya for sale. And to make matters worse, the last lot of Cycas seed heads were hacked off the palms one weekend, and again presumably smuggled out.

I’m slowly getting the crew to understand how important it is to keep our plants here in the Gardens, as a repository for propagation and show. And to propagate and grow as many of the native species as possible.

The girls in the nursery, with our make shift propagating tray and river sand, are happy, the bougainvillea cuttings have survived 2 days now, without wilting. I’ll have to write up a proposal for VSA NZ to submit to the NZ Nursery Association and try for a donation of a waterpump, pressure system and spray/mist piping. Hand watering every 2 – 3 hours with a watering can isn’t the best, but it seems to be working.
We suffer from a chronic lack of everything, wheel barrows, we have 2, the others were stolen, chainsaws, the Police bought 1 small (12” blade) chainsaw back after the break in last year, but the other 4 bigger ones are presumably long gone to the forestry by now. Handtools, secateurs, loppers etc, are all highly prized high theft articles, despite the bars and locks we have everywhere. It can get frustrating.

The pothole I hit last week and flattened the tyre in, the wheel rim is damaged beyond repair, running repairs here are constant drain on our funds.

On a positive note, it is finally raining here. Thunder, lightning, and a steady downpour for the past 2 hours.

Gecko watch update. After a couple of days without a single gecko anywhere inside, one climbed up my back, which I didn’t really appreciate much, after finding a couple of large black and aggressive looking spiders on the inside of the mosquito mesh on the windows. But no harm done to either of us, apart from spilling my iced coffee on the floor.

And the large 6” one is back in the kitchen again after the bit of excitement with the stove the other night.

Pic is of the USA War Memorial on Skyline Drive.

23rd February

Monday. It felt like it too. I’ve been misled into thinking this is the rainy season, all it does is get incredibly humid, and hot, and it hints at the promise of rain with every breeze.

There was thunder rolling in from the mountains to the southwest of us all afternoon, and my hopes were high. There was a brief shower earlier tonight, about 6pm, which promptly turned my house into a sauna with steam, and all my shirts I am trying to dry on the verandah went limp with moisture.

9 of the 12 people doing the Level 2 Hort Certificate arrived this morning. 3 are working full time for various hotels and tourist places in town and it’s taking a while to arrange morning leave for them to attend. Only 2 men in the group, 1 is already working for the Botanic Gardens, as are 2 of the ladies.

Thankfully it was only basic stuff today, I’m dreading what they will be like if it gets complicated. They questioned everything, which is good, I’d rather that then finish the 12 weeks and find out they didn’t understand anything. I was having to dig deep in my memory for stuff, we were doing soils/nutrients/ minerals and structure. After a couple of hours drawing and writing over the whiteboard, and having to think as I went, we went for a wander around the gardens looking, touching and smelling the different soils and sand, gravel and forest litter, at the same time discussing the uses, nutrient levels of sand, gravel etc.

By lunchtime we all needed a break, afternoons they work with the crew around the gardens and in the town doing maintenance on the gardens, or in the nursery. What we were discussing must have struck a chord with the ladies in the nursery, Jennifer and Imelda. After lunch they were off to the river getting a large bag full of fine gravel to try propagating with. We’ve now got 200 Bougainvillea cuttings in a makeshift propagating bed in the shade house. I’d love a proper spray system for it, time will tell I hope, until then we’re having to hand spray water on the cuttings every 2 hours or so initially.

I mucked up the pics for yesterday, the pic of the cars and the bridge is the 2 lane bridge I mentioned earlier, where 4 lanes of traffic on Mendana play chicken.

Tiffany and I are into town tomorrow afternoon, one of the new hotels on Mendana Ave has approached us to do the landscaping for the project. If only all of the nursery had survived the troubles, we’d have large specimens to plant out, unfortunately, most of the grown stuff was used for firewood.

We can get 15’ – 20’ palms from outside Honiara for a fee to the landowner, and we do have a lot of smaller shrubs and trees to bulk out the plans with. From the architects plan, there are 100 palms alone around the swimming pool complex, and 20 in the front gardens.

It’ll be interesting, and we may make a bit of money from it.

My begging local (from last week) came back tonight, looking for money to pay for his sons school fees. About 8pm, which didn’t impress me, and neither did his story of how the lady that used to be doing my job and lived in this house, always gave him $700 to pay the fees with, and he made baskets for her. For a start there hasn’t been a lady doing my job, I’m the first VSA person to be working officially for the Botanic Gardens, anyway, finally got rid of him off my doorstep but not before he was on again about what security I had. I know this may sound over the top, but my bush knife is staying close to me for a while at night. And I’m leaving the keys in the back door deadlock so I can get out quickly. I’ll have to mention it to Steve tomorrow, if he comes back, I’ll fill out a police report and transfer out of this house to another area.

Unfortunately a lot of people here equate a whiteface with money, the RAMSI people are paid more in a week than I’ll see in a month, hell, probably 3 months, and then the consultants that are gathered like flies on a rubbish heap here live highly conspicuous lives. So it’s understandable that the locals will try to get some of the wealth, but if I did start paying out it would soon turn nasty when he wanted more than I had.

The Honiara Yacht Club have just increased their membership fees, to AUD$1000 for nomination, and AUD$850 per year subscription. I won’t be bothering.

Still no sign of my shipping, I’ve got used to using the seat cushions for pillows, and I’m glad I packed my Alaskan Ulu knives in my suitcase, they are the only decent sharp knives I’ve got at the moment.

The swimming hole retaining wall is getting rebuilt in stages. We ran out of tie wire, and had to resort to buying some. It is taking shape though, we had several of the local children swimming and jumping in it this afternoon. Once we get the dam completed again, it’ll be interesting to see how long it lasts once we get a flood
Pic for today is one of the province houses in the museum grounds.

22nd February

22nd February

Friday. Went for another exploratory walk through the gardens, it’s a tropical botanists dream world. Found some dendrobium orchids growing high up in the canopy, a lot of butterflies, and birds, all living happily 100’ above everything. There is a tree with large brown fruit like an over grown kiwi fruit, hanging off the branches on long stems. I had a fairly good idea, managed to get one of the fruit down, and checked in my reference files. It’s a tamarind tree, about 3 months away from the fruit being ripe yet though. I asked the crew at work about it, but they said they never knew what it was, and just left the fruit to rot on the ground when they fell. I’ve found another couple the weekend, so I’ll be collecting the fruit when it’s ripe. The pulp is great for Asian style cooking, sour/sweet flavour that is good in soups and drinks.

I’m getting to recognise all the different palms now, they have come from all over the Pacific area, and a few from as far as Madagascar and Australia. Very few Draceana, I was hoping to find more than the few I’ve seen, and I think those have been imports rather than native.

Went out for dinner with Steve and his wife, Debbie from World Vision, and Bruce and Gwen to the Taj Mahal restaurant on the airport road. I’m still not used to the prices here, side stuff like pappadoms, (1) were $10, paratha and naan bread the same for each. Most of the entrée dishes were $30 - $40, and the mains started at $70 for dhal curries, and up to $90 for prawn curry. The meals are nice though, it’s a mix of Indian and Sri Lankan styles, I was hoping for a bit more chilli, they were a bit bland for me.
Thanks Steve for paying!

Just for interest, here are Fridays exchange rates
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01

My poor Nikon digital has finally given up on me. It never recovered from being drowned in the rain a year ago in Scotland at the Runrig concert at Drumnadrochit, it has limped along, sometimes sticking and other times working.

I walked into Honiara this morning, (Saturday) hoping to get some pics of the town. I made it to the Museum grounds, taking pics along the way. Managed to get pics of all the different island houses, each province has it’s own distinctive style, when the lens finally stuck shut, and refused to work again. It’s either some grit in the lens barrel, or the water has finally corroded the drive. I’m trying the last ditch method of putting it in a container and freezing it, if it is grit the contraction by freezing may shake any grit loose, but I’m not holding my breath over it. Back to the Pentax film camera for a while, I’m dreading to find out how much it costs to have film developed here, although I can get away without prints, and just scan the negative as jpeg images.

Something I really noticed walking into Honiara, is just how much rubbish is everywhere. Plastic bags, bottles, cans, household rubbish dumped over the nearest wall or beach edge, into the river, the main shopping area is strewn with cans, betel nut husks, paper, rubbish, even though there are rubbish bins everywhere. The footpath is a mix of concrete, ashphalt and stones and dirt. You find yourself wishing for a major flood to clean it all out. The council do have a crew that go around emptying the bins, but it is a bit haphazard. The YWCA where I was going for Toktok lessons, had waited 2 weeks for their bins to be emptied, the crew from the Botanic gardens are responsible for the bins in the parks and gardens, they go out every Friday on the pick up round, well, half of them, the rest rake the lawns and tidy the Botanic garden area up for the weekend

I’m slowly building up another album in my Webshots site

http://community.webshots.com/user/VWKombi

if you’re interested.

It’s close to another rain burst here, the air is hot, muggy, and you can feel the pressure building. The sky over the mountains is black, or it was just before sunset, I’m hoping for a good rainfall tonight, I planted out some bean, courgette and bush cucumber seeds earlier today, in the little garden patch I’m working on. They’ll need a good soaking, although the ground is still moist from the other day.

At some time in the past there must have been a really good earthquake here, the ridge I am living on, and all the other high ground around Honiara is made up of coral reef. It’s been uplifted about 300’ or more in places, although the higher ledges may be from earlier earthquakes. I’ve got a few pics of the exposed coral just down from my house.

I finally got hold of O2 in Ireland about my mobile phone. They want me to buy €150 worth of prepay card before they will give me the unlock code, about NZ$430, I can buy another better phone for less than that, so it’s bin time for the nokia. I sent off a reply to O2 about how I felt. Buy time for a phone I’ll probably never be in Ireland again to use? Excuse me.

I’m not sure about this laptop, I’m used to being able to use alt codes on the number pad for symbols, trying to find a € through insert/symbol/sans serif/scroll is a pain. Anyone know a quicker method?

Other than hooking up a separate keyboard

Edit: Found out, reassigned some commands so I’m all happy again alt + 1 =
€ alt + 2 = ₤. I’ll be playing all night now, so long as I remember what I’ve assigned without having to keep going back and checking.
$600 doesn’t go far here. I needed a few more plastic containers, there’s only one store in town that has good ones, as opposed to the really cheap ones that crack when you try to get the lid on. $114 for a set of 4 round containers, from about 10” diameter to 4’ diameter. I did score well on the coffee though, 2x 250gm packets of Café Aurora Medaglia D’oro expresso for $117.20. A loaf of bread from the Fresh Bread Shop is $10. They have small denomination coins here, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent, but no one uses them, you get them as change, then just throw them in a drawer until you get enough to make it worthwhile going to the bank and changing them for notes.

Everything here is shipped in, and then sold by the weight and/or freight cost, every shop is full of the really cheap (elsewhere) Chinese and Indian made stuff. Pots, plates (plastic type) knives forks spoons, are all the lightweight stuff that gives up quickly. It’s all lightweight, but still priced at quality prices.

There’s a thriving black market in beche de mer here. The marketing is meant to be regulated, but some of the more distant provinces are being targeted by Korean and Singaporean fishing boats, and areas are being totally denuded of beche de mer and being sold illegally for the Singaporean and Korean markets.

I found out how everyone prepares for the ferry trips here to the outer islands. Near the wharf is a patch of open ground, with a large shade tree (Delonix regia) and everyone gathers there around the betel nut sellers, chews furiously for a while, then wanders aboard the ferry blissfully stoned.

Got caught at the Bulk Bin Shop earlier today, that’s happening to me a lot, I’ll eventually get used to everything here. I was after some flour to make paratha and puri, and one of the bins was labelled gluten flour, which is good for paratha and puri as it allows them to stretch. Anyway, I bought 2 kilos, $60.50, wasn’t till I got home and checked it, it’s pure gluten, great for making glue on it’s own, but I’ll have to get some plain flour to mix with it. I’ve now got enough gluten to last me most of this year, a tablespoon or so in a mix is all I need. And it’s Saturday afternoon, so everything is shut now.

Still no rain, it’s humid, sticky and hot. Thankfully I have my sarong still, it’s almost too much to wear at times though, and I’m sure the locals would have **words** to say if I wore less. You don’t wear brief swimming suits here, other than at the hotels and resorts, everyone wears board shorts and T-shirts to go swimming at the public beaches.

Sunday
Still no rain, if yesterday was hot and humid, today is 20% over that. Pulled the Nikon out of the freezer, and it’s working, sort of, so took the chance and went for a drive up Skyline Ridge and got some pics of the USA War Memorial, then continued on west of town to Turtle Beach for a swim.

It’s about 12 km out of town, past Bonegi beach, which is the one you see in pics of Honiara, all palm trees and sand beach. Turtle beach is a series of small roadways off the main road, down to small, about 5 – 6 car parking places, and not a lot of beach. The water is like a warm bath, and very salty, well, compared to New Zealand. Spent a couple of hours swimming, getting dry, swimming, getting dry, once I had a layer of salt on me I thought enough. And it’s one of the few places you can get away with wearing briefer swimming suits.

The water is really clear, even with out a mask, you can see down 20 – 30 feet, I’ll get a mask and snorkel and swim out to the wrecks next time. One is only 20 m off the beach.

Asked the man collecting the money ($20) what the fishing is like there, he recommended it, so once my rods arrive I’ll go out there for the day.

All the beaches are family owned, you pay on average $20 for access, a few charge depending on if you’re going swimming, fishing or diving. Then it can rise quickly.

Just west of Honiara you go through the Fishing Village, Malaitans who have moved to Guadacanal over the years, some are 3rd generation, and have lost any land tenure on Malaita, so they are landless with no where else to go. The ethnic riots of the last few years were partly caused by the native people of Guadacanal objecting to the Malaitans, and others moving to Honiara and settling. Most of Chinatown was burnt out, approximately 80 people were killed. It was a rather interesting time to be here. Steve was here for most of it, there was little or no law enforcement, some of the more astute sellers were selling bunches of marijuana heads on poles in the Central Market and the Police were powerless to stop it.

Nikon didn’t last for long, a few pics around the War Memorial, then stuck again.

Went to Kukum Market on the way home, the fish didn’t smell the best today, even the stuff in the ice bins, so vegetarian this week. 2 large pawpaw for $5 each, 2 eating coconuts for $1 each, large island cucumbers $3 each, about 2 kilos of kumara for $10. Bunch of spring onions $5, with the rice and curry I have, I’ll be eating well. If I can get the coconuts open that is. I’ll try with the bush knife to crack them.

My fisherman that was meant to be getting me some squid wasn’t there, so I guess my stir-fry chilli squid isn’t going to be happening this week.

Later the same day. Cracked the coconut, only one, I’ll keep the other for later in the week. Pierced an eye in it, drained the liquid out and used it to cook the rice in. Then whacked the husk with the back of the bush knife. It cracked really easily, and the meat inside came out in large pieces. I’m having some success with this island living finally. Munched about half the coconut meat already while cooking, it’s probably one of those really tasty foods that is bad for me.

It’s 6pm, and it feels like a sauna. I don’t know what the temp is, nor the humidity, but I do know I’ve got sweat running down my face, arms, chest. Almost sunset, and the sky is gloomy and dark, perhaps tonight it will rain and cool everything down.

I’ll post up 3 pics, one of Honiara East from the War Memorial, a pic (finally) of everyone in a flat bed truck, and one of the coral formed hills that Honiara is built on.