Our shredder works really well, in 2 hours it shredded as much as 2 weeks worth from the ladies using the mesh and hand rubbing. Jennifer is pleased, as is Suzie, Sepa and Imelda. Ok a few teething problems, putting too much down the chute at once, but once we got that organised it worked well. They filled a 55gal (200L) drum with shreds, and would have continued on if they had had anything to put it in.
I need to find the other grate for it, went back to Farmset and asked if they could look for it there, it’s more a bar type grate, and allows wet shreds through which the finer holed grate doesn’t. If they can’t find it I’ll contact Rover Manufacturing in Sydney about it.
We’re still arguing with Telekom SB about the phone and internet connection at the Gardens. The phone line is now dead, and internet is haphazard at best. I was in at 6am this morning to post the previous one, that took nearly an hour to resolve and upload, then it went down again. Shirleyta got hold of them again this morning, and they promised wondrous things over the mobile, we’re still waiting to see anyone.
I’m about 50 metres in a direct line away from the Church here at the Ba’hai Centre. There’s been entertainment for the kids and teenagers here every afternoon till about 8pm, music, mainly, the boys all get up and start practising dance moves, then the girls, they don’t dance together unless there are adults around, and even then it’s not a common thing. The boys tend to copy whatever video or dvd they’ve seen, and they move like they have ball bearing joints in their hips and knees, but the girls tend to do a mix of kastom and modern dance. It’s no wonder that so many of the early European sailors jumped ship when they came through here. The dances aren’t Polynesian style, more a mix, some Indonesian/Polynesian influences, even with the rubbish rap that they play occasionally. Reggae is big here, 3 radio stations in Honiara play nothing else, and some bouncy local bands that have a good following locally.
Unfortunately they’ve copied some of the other reggae influences here as well, marijuana is grown widely through a few of the Islands, some communities have banned people from the Islands for growing or selling it. The further away from Honiara you are the less you’ll see of it. The village elders still rule strongly which is good. There are good things to say about subsistence living, especially here, where everything grows, there are fish for the taking, fruit, garden vegetables grow quickly, rice is plentiful. I’ve been too long in civilisation, I still like some comforts, internet etc, but I can appreciate how possible it would be to just walk away from the towns here and live in the bush. Apart from the mosquitos.
I’m still working on plans to get to the distant provinces, Rennel/Bellona, and Makira especially. Rennel has 23 endemic orchids, 8 or more endemic mammals, and a large list of endemic plants that only grow there. Along with the largest stand of Agathis macrophylla in the Solomons. I think they are macrophylla, I haven’t seen them yet, but every report I read about them describes them as the native Solomon Island Kauri. Browsing on the net when it let me last week, I found a list of plant banks set up in the Provinces before the troubles, with a list of the species grown in each bank. No other information other than the plant lists. I’ll have to contact the people involved and find out if they still have the plants available, and get some planted in the Gardens. All of the written information has been lost over the past 10 years of fighting and arguing, so it’s a matter of rebuilding all the information back up, and then making sure it is spread as widely as possible. Thankfully, the internet is good for that.
I saw a native owl this morning at the gardens, huge bird, light orange brown. Wing span about 80 - 90 cm, I thought it was an eagle at first till I got a good look, big flat face, huge eyes. It was feeding on the lawn area, when I disturbed it, and flew up into the canopy over the river. So somethings are worth going into work at 6am for. I’m getting used to the day length here, sunrise never seems to alter, it’s always about 6am, sunset is always about 6pm, there’s little dusk, it goes light to dark in minutes. By 7pm it’s night.
The guys doing night watch are going to keep an eye out for any cuscus (native opossum) in the trees, and let me know. I’ll go in one night and have a look for them, there used to be several around the office, but the feeling is that they have been poached out and eaten by now. I’ll be coating myself in a lot of repellent, the mosquitos there fly in squadrons in the evening.
I’m getting a list of food trees drawn up, I’d like to plant a few of each in the Gardens, both for visitors to see, and as a supply for cuttings and propagation. The local guava, Psidium guajava, is the huge pink fruited one, it’s almost quince size here. Large baseball sized fruit, We have just one left in the Gardens, I’ve found another Canarium sp. along the river walk, again, they have been bred for so long in each province, they are all separate sub species now. It would be good to have a couple of each growing, but there’s a lot of education needed first to stop them being chopped or ruined.
I cracked a Canarium (ngali nut) open today, still green a few more months to go yet, but they are full of sweet oil even now. The nut is in an apricot type of shell, and resembles an almond. Egg shaped drupe, cling type flesh around the shell that is fairly easy to peel away. Cracking the shell is the hard part without damaging the nut inside. It is meant to be a good cure (?) for arthritis. Or a pallative anyway
My neighbours banana plant got washed down with the rain on Saturday night, huge bunch of bananas on it, about 30 on each hand, and several hands, still small and green, so there goes breakfast in a few weeks. There’re about 5 suckers growing around the base, so another season to wait now.
Our swimming hole retaining wall is finished, tyres right up to the soil surface. Next is the dam again. We’ve had a few good floods down the river since we started pinning the tyres, and they’ve stayed, so the crew are keen to see if the idea of a sloping dam works as well. Once I get another camera there’ll be pics till everyone is sick of them.
Bob Dylan again tonight, Blood On the Tracks, and Blonde on Blonde.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
28th – 30th March
Happy birthday Jesse! 9 years old today. Hope you had a good time on Saturday.
Saturday evening , rain still, I was mistaken about it being the end of the monsoon season, well, the worst of it may have gone, the rain remains.
I’m bored, which is better than I’ve been feeling all week. I’ve got a batch of bread rising, to make in the morning, Mary Coughlan playing in the back ground, a much overlooked Irish blues/jazz singer. Love me or Leave me album is a good compilation of hers to start with. She has one of the better versions of Ride On other than Christy Moores solo with bodhran version.
I gave up at work this morning, internet kept losing the connection, usually at the 50 – 60% download stage, so it became a constant re-connect restart, download 60% disconnect. Got the Nursery plan done for Will, which is good, and made a start on the lesson plans and assessments.
It’s surprising how many people use the Gardens during the day, there are always people walking through using the track to get to the houses on the ridges, or just meeting people away from Honiara. A lot of teenagers, meeting girlfriends/boyfriends, or just hanging out there. There’s a small amount of graffiti, but not what you’d see in Auckland or other places I’ve been. I usually wander around saying hello, by the time I’ve explained where I’m from, what I’m doing there etc, they tend to respect the gardens a bit more. Hopefully it will all pay off in the longer term with less damage and rubbish left around.
Something you get used to here eventually is how much people hold onto you when you’re talking to them, or just being with them. Not between sexes, but male/male, or female/female. I see a lot of the crew in town at weekends when I’m shopping or at the markets, it’s always a shake hands thing, then they hold your hand while they are talking to you, it takes some getting used to. It does come in handy though, everyone around then knows that you aren’t on your own, and it’s a bit of a deterrent to any pickpockets at the markets. I caught up with Kennedy the carver the other day, it must have been 10 minutes we’re standing there talking holding hands, coming from a different culture it takes a bit to get used to. And more so when you’re like me and have an aversion to people touching me. So it’s learning/teaching from both sides.
I missed the second hand bookshop, left work too late and it was shut. Probably saved myself a fair bit of money anyway. It’s got a good system though, you pay by the kilo for books, $7, no matter what the books are. Eric said he picked up some quality books there, for a pittance. With my luck I’ll be stuck with Spiderman comics and Mills and Boon heart throbbers.
Sunday.
Power went off, along with the water, so I thought I might as well be at work as sitting here in the rain. 2 ½ hours of frustration. All I managed to do was answer 1 email, which took me 3 attempts. I reset and restarted several times, kept losing the connection, I still haven’t managed to download the manual for the Shredder. I made it to 35% downloaded once, after that it barely started downloading and failed.
Hi to Chip, out of hospital and hopefully on the mend. I’m having second thoughts about going to a barbque at your place.
Hi to Makayla, in Melbourne, so good to hear from you at last. I keep asking Valerie after you whenever I talk to her.
There are a wide ranging lot of people reading this, Ireland, France, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, America
I hope it’s interesting, or something. Mostly true, only the facts have been changed.
The guys who do security for us at night and weekends have the worst job. All night and weekends there in the building, in the middle of the Gardens, with a torch and mobile phone for back up. I took a few magazines out for them today, National Geo, Australian Geo, Garden and Nursery, so they have something to read when they’re stuck inside.
Mentioned to Les on Friday about putting a couple of guys street cleaning, he came up with the same idea last month and there are now people doing that, when he finds them. I’ll wait a while as he said, and then check back to see how he thinks it’s working. We may still get it eventually.
I’m going to wait for the dry season to start, then go back to Turtle Beach for a try at fishing, the water gets really muddy with the rain washing off the land, and the tidal currents sweep it along the coastline. Although by the time you get to Turtle beach it’s clear water again. Shirleyta reckons it’s not much use at the moment anyway. I’m just curious about where the fishermen from the Markets go for the fish they catch.
There are fish there that people in NZ would give their teeth for just to catch.
Other than the rain, the sunshine, it’s been another weekend
Tom Waits playing, Franks Wild Years, Closing Time, and Rain Dogs. Bit of a change for the neighbours, I had Van Morrison on most of yesterday after a long time when I had too many memories to shake before I could listen to him again. I still like Mary Coughlan for the mornings, she has a nice slow easing into the day feel about her music.
Pic is of Jesse Rainbow, the birthday girl today, and #1 granddaughter. Happy birthday Jesse!
Friday, March 27, 2009
28th March
I’ve missed a couple of days, I’ve felt worn out, listless since Wednesday, no real symptoms, just a lethargic aching feeling. Finally took myself to the Malaria Clinic on Friday afternoon and found I’ve had my first dose of malaria. The doxycycline I take has stopped it, but the initial infection is what has been causing the symptoms. I’d hate to be having a full strength version, Shirlyeta is back at work, Tiffany is now off till Tuesday at least with malaria, coming to the end of the monsoon season and the mosquitos are finding more pools of stagnant water to breed in. While its raining all the time the mosquito larvae get washed out of the pools, now that there’s not as much heavy continuous rain more pools are being left for them to breed in. Apart from this week.
I’ve had a tender spot on my leg since Monday or Tuesday, a bit red and slightly swollen which the Doctor at the clinic said was probably the mosquito bite that caused it. It’s almost gone now, so the doxycycline is effective. The locals get given chloroquinine, which is effective but can take a while to act, and because it’s used so widely here, the risk of causing resistance to it by the malaria mosquito is increasing.
Now I know it’s not just me feeling depressed I’m a lot happier, I spent most of the week going 2 steps forward, one step back, Keithie decided that giving the crew cooking stoves wasn’t a good idea, they’d just get broken/stolen/borrowed whatever, so we have to look for another alternative. I’ll bring it up again at the next monthly meeting anyway with a few more arguments about how it will improve the work times, but I’m not going to get too involved with it. Adrian was all for it, so there’s an unexpected vote. We’ve got to get the idea through that we pay for 8 hours work, and expect a reasonable amount of the time each day to be spent actually working.
I went through this with David yesterday, with the example of him being in charge, quoting a contract for the roundabouts, on a basis of 5 people doing 4 hours per week tidying each roundabout, if he’s paying out 8 hours to each person, but only getting 4 hours actual work, he’ll lose money very quickly. He understands it, but trying to change life styles/habits/attitudes is going to take a long time here. The crews do work well, I’ve mentioned before, but you would lose money of you were contracting on a set price and budget.
We’ve got our coconut mulcher! Thanks to the wonder and technology of Solomon Island Telekom, Keithies email never arrived on Wednesday giving permission to go ahead, it wasn’t till Friday when she got back from Brisbane I was able to contact her, the price dropped even further in the meantime so that was good.
Rover Shredder Mulcher, list price SBD$11,875, our price SBD$6,875. 5.5hp petrol Briggs and Stratton motor, 3 rotating flail blades, the ladies are really happy. I told Jennifer and Imelda that only 4 people to use it, themselves, me and David. If you let everyone use it, I’d give it less than a week before it would have parts missing, or be broken. It is going to make life a bit happier in the nursery, no more kneeling and hand rubbing coconut husk through the mesh.
Hi to Luis in Portugal, thanks for your note.
We had Les from the Honiara Council Works dept call in Friday morning. He’s in a similar position to me, here as an advisor from Perth for 2 years, he’s got another year to go. There’s been a bit of non-co-operation between the Council and the Gardens, mostly personality clashes I think now, between different sections of the Council and the SEB, thankfully Les never got involved or wanted to. He’s keen to see the gardens bought back to life, and will be giving us a list of streetscape trees and shrubs to grow for the Council for planting out. Also, as the Council have responsibility for the Gardens, again personality clashes involved, he’s going to let us have the use of the Council heavy equipment for digging drainage, he’ll supply the back hoe, bob cat and truck with drivers for any work we need done. That will help when we start draining around the lily pond and playground area and also when we put the retaining walls in on the river bends.
My gecko family have either migrated, or they change colour in the different seasons. All the ones inside are now a dark brown with green and gold speckles, even the smaller ones.
I have a drawing plan to do for Will before Monday, showing the size of the Nursery expansion, I’ve found going into work at the weekends I get more done without the distractions, and also, I’m not tempted to go wandering through the Nursery or Gardens to catch up with everyone. Trying to find stuff for the class is impossible. I’m going to be spending most of what free time I have writing up lesson plans, assessment schedules, learning packs while they are out on practical work, and downloading what I can find on the net, if Telekom let me have uninterrupted access.
I spent most of Friday afternoon trying to download the manual for the shredder from the Rover Manufacturers site, pdf file, the best I could do was 55% downloaded before Telekom disconnected, and I had to repair or change the ip address, then start again. I gave up after 3 hours. Early mornings and weekends are the best times, another reason why I go in at 6.30am and work weekends.
The rainy season continues, it’s rained every day this week, and every night, sometimes heavily. The good part is that it’s not cold like Ireland, you don’t get that chill to your bones like I remember from Tullamore. It’s more like a warmish shower, sometimes like a heavy shower, but tolerable. The walks through the Gardens when it’s raining are more enjoyable I think, less mosquitos for a start, and you get the fresh rain washed aroma from everything.
I’m still finding orchid flowers being washed down off the tree tops, scattered along the paths or off in the undergrowth. I haven’t found any that look like the pictures I’ve got of the dendrobiums or bulbiferums, no doubt they’ll be listed somewhere, it’s just a matter of spending the time searching. Some of the orchids in the Orchid House are flowering now, small tiny white flowers, a few long stalks, but mostly clumps of star like flowers, I’ll have to wait till the dry season, then try to wrangle a trip to a few of the provinces and get more varieties to bring back.
Hi to Chip, Judy and all the people on the ranch, I hope Chip is following the advice, but I doubt it.
All the trees in the Memorial Gardens are now bridge grafted, and the ant barrier has been cleaned off. Now it’s just a matter of wait and see how successful we’ve been. I have doubts about some of the grafts, but we’ve got plenty of good branches to retry with, and the trunks are big enough to keep attempting grafts on for a few more times.
I’ve had a tender spot on my leg since Monday or Tuesday, a bit red and slightly swollen which the Doctor at the clinic said was probably the mosquito bite that caused it. It’s almost gone now, so the doxycycline is effective. The locals get given chloroquinine, which is effective but can take a while to act, and because it’s used so widely here, the risk of causing resistance to it by the malaria mosquito is increasing.
Now I know it’s not just me feeling depressed I’m a lot happier, I spent most of the week going 2 steps forward, one step back, Keithie decided that giving the crew cooking stoves wasn’t a good idea, they’d just get broken/stolen/borrowed whatever, so we have to look for another alternative. I’ll bring it up again at the next monthly meeting anyway with a few more arguments about how it will improve the work times, but I’m not going to get too involved with it. Adrian was all for it, so there’s an unexpected vote. We’ve got to get the idea through that we pay for 8 hours work, and expect a reasonable amount of the time each day to be spent actually working.
I went through this with David yesterday, with the example of him being in charge, quoting a contract for the roundabouts, on a basis of 5 people doing 4 hours per week tidying each roundabout, if he’s paying out 8 hours to each person, but only getting 4 hours actual work, he’ll lose money very quickly. He understands it, but trying to change life styles/habits/attitudes is going to take a long time here. The crews do work well, I’ve mentioned before, but you would lose money of you were contracting on a set price and budget.
We’ve got our coconut mulcher! Thanks to the wonder and technology of Solomon Island Telekom, Keithies email never arrived on Wednesday giving permission to go ahead, it wasn’t till Friday when she got back from Brisbane I was able to contact her, the price dropped even further in the meantime so that was good.
Rover Shredder Mulcher, list price SBD$11,875, our price SBD$6,875. 5.5hp petrol Briggs and Stratton motor, 3 rotating flail blades, the ladies are really happy. I told Jennifer and Imelda that only 4 people to use it, themselves, me and David. If you let everyone use it, I’d give it less than a week before it would have parts missing, or be broken. It is going to make life a bit happier in the nursery, no more kneeling and hand rubbing coconut husk through the mesh.
Hi to Luis in Portugal, thanks for your note.
We had Les from the Honiara Council Works dept call in Friday morning. He’s in a similar position to me, here as an advisor from Perth for 2 years, he’s got another year to go. There’s been a bit of non-co-operation between the Council and the Gardens, mostly personality clashes I think now, between different sections of the Council and the SEB, thankfully Les never got involved or wanted to. He’s keen to see the gardens bought back to life, and will be giving us a list of streetscape trees and shrubs to grow for the Council for planting out. Also, as the Council have responsibility for the Gardens, again personality clashes involved, he’s going to let us have the use of the Council heavy equipment for digging drainage, he’ll supply the back hoe, bob cat and truck with drivers for any work we need done. That will help when we start draining around the lily pond and playground area and also when we put the retaining walls in on the river bends.
My gecko family have either migrated, or they change colour in the different seasons. All the ones inside are now a dark brown with green and gold speckles, even the smaller ones.
I have a drawing plan to do for Will before Monday, showing the size of the Nursery expansion, I’ve found going into work at the weekends I get more done without the distractions, and also, I’m not tempted to go wandering through the Nursery or Gardens to catch up with everyone. Trying to find stuff for the class is impossible. I’m going to be spending most of what free time I have writing up lesson plans, assessment schedules, learning packs while they are out on practical work, and downloading what I can find on the net, if Telekom let me have uninterrupted access.
I spent most of Friday afternoon trying to download the manual for the shredder from the Rover Manufacturers site, pdf file, the best I could do was 55% downloaded before Telekom disconnected, and I had to repair or change the ip address, then start again. I gave up after 3 hours. Early mornings and weekends are the best times, another reason why I go in at 6.30am and work weekends.
The rainy season continues, it’s rained every day this week, and every night, sometimes heavily. The good part is that it’s not cold like Ireland, you don’t get that chill to your bones like I remember from Tullamore. It’s more like a warmish shower, sometimes like a heavy shower, but tolerable. The walks through the Gardens when it’s raining are more enjoyable I think, less mosquitos for a start, and you get the fresh rain washed aroma from everything.
I’m still finding orchid flowers being washed down off the tree tops, scattered along the paths or off in the undergrowth. I haven’t found any that look like the pictures I’ve got of the dendrobiums or bulbiferums, no doubt they’ll be listed somewhere, it’s just a matter of spending the time searching. Some of the orchids in the Orchid House are flowering now, small tiny white flowers, a few long stalks, but mostly clumps of star like flowers, I’ll have to wait till the dry season, then try to wrangle a trip to a few of the provinces and get more varieties to bring back.
Hi to Chip, Judy and all the people on the ranch, I hope Chip is following the advice, but I doubt it.
All the trees in the Memorial Gardens are now bridge grafted, and the ant barrier has been cleaned off. Now it’s just a matter of wait and see how successful we’ve been. I have doubts about some of the grafts, but we’ve got plenty of good branches to retry with, and the trunks are big enough to keep attempting grafts on for a few more times.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
25th March
Met the Japanese Consul, or the lady who handles Grant applications at any rate. A few more things to tidy up with the application before Monday, then it will be finished and ready to go for acceptance and approval.
Will has done a huge amount of work on it, I don’t know where he gets the time. He is involved with the coffee/cocoa/vanilla orchid trial farms as well, plus different small farming ventures in Thailand/Indonesia. He has a lot of good ideas, one for eventually getting the Nursery to become a training ground for his coffee growers so they can learn propagation and general plant maintenance. Once the nursery is complete and we’ve got the existing contract work out of the way I’ll get that underway next year.
Our cheap mulcher is looking further away each day. Keithie isn’t keen on spending the money in the account, regardless of the cost saving, I’ll have to work on that a bit more, but I get the impression that once the money comes in, it never goes out. In the meantime, the ladies are still sitting patiently hand rubbing about 2 – 3 wheel barrows of husk a day through the mesh.
And the pile of husks gets bigger each week as we clean up around Honiara.
The funding from Japan is for the production of 2,000 trees to be planted around Honiara, streets and parks. I think I’ve mentioned before about how no-one in Honiara is actually from there, they all come from different islands or provinces, so there isn’t any real sense of belonging. Any trees planted get ripped out, hacked with bush knives, used for firewood, including the cages used to surround the trees to protect them. We’re getting steel re-bar cages made, that have to be cemented into the ground in an attempt to stop the trees being damaged. I asked Tiffany and Shirleyta could we make wooden surrounds, to be told they had tried that, most of the surrounds didn’t last the first weekend before they were used for firewood. It takes a while to get used to life here.
David came in this morning, his arm is going to take a long time to heal, and he’s now been bitten by something on his foot. His foot up past his ankle is twice the size of the other, but is he going to the doctor? His answer is that it doesn’t hurt as bad as it did last night, so it’s going to be alright, in the meantime, he’s hobbling about barefooted, obviously in pain, but being a MAN from Rennell Islands, you don’t let anyone know.
I’m 2 more trees up on my list in the Gardens, Ngali nut, (Canarium harveyii) and Mussaenda glabra. I keep asking Tiffany and Shirleyta about the trees, they keep saying “oh we don’t know” but when you ask a bit more, they know the island name, and from there it’s easy to research from all the different botanical surveys that have been done here over the years.
Ngali nut have an almond like nut inside, on a few of the Islands, Isabel is a good example, the local people have slowly altered the nut size by selective breeding so that it is now classed as a separate sub-species, although as Shirleyta said, it might be a bigger nut, but it doesn’t taste as sweet as the small ones on her Island off Makira. And the trees on her Island are a different sub-species again.
Mussaenda is a medium sized tree, several different colours to the flowers, actually the bracts surrounding the flowers, a lot like Bougainvillea have colourful bracts, and insignificant flowers. The tree at Bekikama is a white/green colour, the bracts look like tissues floating in the breeze, I was reminded of Magnolia stellata by it, the same floppy white flower forms. Nice trees, the foliage stays on all year here, it’s possibly deciduous in a more temperate climate. We have a red one in the nursery, totally different flower shape altogether, just a species variation.
I’ll have to go back to Bekikama soon, the Ravenala madagascariensis (Travellers Palm) there that Ben has had trouble propagating, found out that because he has been trimming the leaf and stem shrouds, he’s also been cutting off the flower heads before they form. I’ll have to have a closer look at it next week and see if there are any flower heads still tucked away in the leaf sheaths.
I’ve a meeting with the Works Clerk from the Honiara Council this Friday, I’ll put the idea that we get a couple of small carts made with a rubbish bin mounted, and provide a daily street cleaning service through Honiara township. It’ll be 2 or 3 new jobs, and it’ll help tidy the township up during the day. Hopefully we’ll be able to work out a contract price and get it underway before the next tourist season starts fully.
It’s shows how desperate people are here to work, I’ve talked it over with a few people in the work crew, and I have more people willing to push a cart and broom, shovel around town all day than there will be positions available. I’ve mentioned previously about the status people get if they have a job here, it’s a source of self esteem, pride, whatever, even though most jobs pay a pittance it’s better than not having any employment.
Having the people with RAMSI, and the outside Consultants and UN observers here has really distorted the local economy. Rents, hotels, food, are all way beyond the levels that the local people can afford now. The fishing charter prices out of Honiara are just one example, SBD$10,000 for one days fishing. Ok, it’s AUD$2,000 but even that is pushing the limit. Spending 2 ½ months worth of my living allowance for a day out isn’t worth it for me. I’ll wait till Shirleytas brother gets organised with the boat, and I’ll pay for the diesel for the day. Or half it, depends on what arrangement we can come to.
Will has done a huge amount of work on it, I don’t know where he gets the time. He is involved with the coffee/cocoa/vanilla orchid trial farms as well, plus different small farming ventures in Thailand/Indonesia. He has a lot of good ideas, one for eventually getting the Nursery to become a training ground for his coffee growers so they can learn propagation and general plant maintenance. Once the nursery is complete and we’ve got the existing contract work out of the way I’ll get that underway next year.
Our cheap mulcher is looking further away each day. Keithie isn’t keen on spending the money in the account, regardless of the cost saving, I’ll have to work on that a bit more, but I get the impression that once the money comes in, it never goes out. In the meantime, the ladies are still sitting patiently hand rubbing about 2 – 3 wheel barrows of husk a day through the mesh.
And the pile of husks gets bigger each week as we clean up around Honiara.
The funding from Japan is for the production of 2,000 trees to be planted around Honiara, streets and parks. I think I’ve mentioned before about how no-one in Honiara is actually from there, they all come from different islands or provinces, so there isn’t any real sense of belonging. Any trees planted get ripped out, hacked with bush knives, used for firewood, including the cages used to surround the trees to protect them. We’re getting steel re-bar cages made, that have to be cemented into the ground in an attempt to stop the trees being damaged. I asked Tiffany and Shirleyta could we make wooden surrounds, to be told they had tried that, most of the surrounds didn’t last the first weekend before they were used for firewood. It takes a while to get used to life here.
David came in this morning, his arm is going to take a long time to heal, and he’s now been bitten by something on his foot. His foot up past his ankle is twice the size of the other, but is he going to the doctor? His answer is that it doesn’t hurt as bad as it did last night, so it’s going to be alright, in the meantime, he’s hobbling about barefooted, obviously in pain, but being a MAN from Rennell Islands, you don’t let anyone know.
I’m 2 more trees up on my list in the Gardens, Ngali nut, (Canarium harveyii) and Mussaenda glabra. I keep asking Tiffany and Shirleyta about the trees, they keep saying “oh we don’t know” but when you ask a bit more, they know the island name, and from there it’s easy to research from all the different botanical surveys that have been done here over the years.
Ngali nut have an almond like nut inside, on a few of the Islands, Isabel is a good example, the local people have slowly altered the nut size by selective breeding so that it is now classed as a separate sub-species, although as Shirleyta said, it might be a bigger nut, but it doesn’t taste as sweet as the small ones on her Island off Makira. And the trees on her Island are a different sub-species again.
Mussaenda is a medium sized tree, several different colours to the flowers, actually the bracts surrounding the flowers, a lot like Bougainvillea have colourful bracts, and insignificant flowers. The tree at Bekikama is a white/green colour, the bracts look like tissues floating in the breeze, I was reminded of Magnolia stellata by it, the same floppy white flower forms. Nice trees, the foliage stays on all year here, it’s possibly deciduous in a more temperate climate. We have a red one in the nursery, totally different flower shape altogether, just a species variation.
I’ll have to go back to Bekikama soon, the Ravenala madagascariensis (Travellers Palm) there that Ben has had trouble propagating, found out that because he has been trimming the leaf and stem shrouds, he’s also been cutting off the flower heads before they form. I’ll have to have a closer look at it next week and see if there are any flower heads still tucked away in the leaf sheaths.
I’ve a meeting with the Works Clerk from the Honiara Council this Friday, I’ll put the idea that we get a couple of small carts made with a rubbish bin mounted, and provide a daily street cleaning service through Honiara township. It’ll be 2 or 3 new jobs, and it’ll help tidy the township up during the day. Hopefully we’ll be able to work out a contract price and get it underway before the next tourist season starts fully.
It’s shows how desperate people are here to work, I’ve talked it over with a few people in the work crew, and I have more people willing to push a cart and broom, shovel around town all day than there will be positions available. I’ve mentioned previously about the status people get if they have a job here, it’s a source of self esteem, pride, whatever, even though most jobs pay a pittance it’s better than not having any employment.
Having the people with RAMSI, and the outside Consultants and UN observers here has really distorted the local economy. Rents, hotels, food, are all way beyond the levels that the local people can afford now. The fishing charter prices out of Honiara are just one example, SBD$10,000 for one days fishing. Ok, it’s AUD$2,000 but even that is pushing the limit. Spending 2 ½ months worth of my living allowance for a day out isn’t worth it for me. I’ll wait till Shirleytas brother gets organised with the boat, and I’ll pay for the diesel for the day. Or half it, depends on what arrangement we can come to.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
24th March
Rain and sunshine for most of the day, mostly sunshine till about 4pm, then rain continuously. Went with Tiffany ,Suzie, Jennifer, Imelda to the Adventist School at Bekikama, they have a small nursery for the students. Absolutely beautiful Ravenala madagascariensis growing there, the Travellers Palm. They have been trying for a few years to propagate it, but no luck yet. I’ll go back in the dry and get some seeds to try. There are a lot of suckers growing out the base of the older trunks, we may try cutting them off at some time soon to get some more established.
Found some Hibiscus schizopetalus growing as a hedge, first time I’ve seen it, so we got a lot of cuttings from it, bright red flowers that look like they’ve been turned inside out. Ben the gardener there had a lot of Helliconia and Ginger plants for us, different colours to what we have in the gardens. We’re slowly building up a good range of plants, all we have to do is stop the locals from cutting and hacking them down.
I priced a fishing charter here this morning, through Lalae Charters, nice boat, their website is worth looking at www.lalaecharters.com, but it is AUD$2000 per day, SBD$10,000, so I won’t be going out with them, that’s 2 ½ months pay for me, for 1 day out fishing. I like fishing, but not to that extent. Thanks to RAMSI, and all the Consultants that are here everyone is trying to get as much as possible.
Local wages are SBD$240 per week if you have any skills, less than that for someone straight from a village or rural life.
Spent a couple of hours with David today. His arm looks like it isn’t going to get much better than it is at present. Too much nerve damage, and he’ll be lucky to get any feeling in his fingers. They want to operate again in a couple of months to see if they can improve it, but he’s not keen. It will either improve it, or he’ll lose all feeling in his fingers and hand.
I’ve got him thinking about starting up a separate company of his own over the next year or so, and taking over the contracts SEB have, so they aren’t dependent on Aid money, or someone taking responsibility from them because “these people” can’t be trusted to run a business. If necessary I’ll try to get a business mentor through VSA to come here and help set them up further down the road. He has to start looking at different options, he’s going spare as it is not being able to work, so getting him into his own private business will be good for him.
Adrian is still shouting at everyone, I’ve told him it’s no use shouting at the crew about time keeping, lunch breaks etc, until we have an alternative to put in place, but it doesn’t seem to register. Getting the kerosene stoves has turned into another long drawn out saga. Now I have to write a report about why we need to spend $500 on kerosene stoves, what benefit etc will accrue. Oh well, it helps fill the day in is one way of looking at it, although I’d rather be outside in the nursery, or anywhere outside, than writing up cost/benefit analysis reports.
I have a meeting with the Japanese Consul tomorrow morning, with Will, and we’ll put our Funding Proposal to them. I may even shave, and dress up a bit. All I’ve worn since I’ve been here is board shorts and muslin tops, a shirt and trousers will really surprise them at work.
We may be able to get a shredder for the coconut husks, at cost price, SBD$6,800 instead of SBD$11,850 through Farmset, they have one left that has been sitting in the shop for several months. I’ll have to convince Kiethie that it is worthwhile getting it now, for that price, instead of waiting till October when the next grant money comes through. Another reason why I’d like to see David set up his own business, so we don’t have to go cap in hand to get money that in some respects is ours to spend on improvements.
My kitchen lightbulb fell out last night, the copper fitting that holds the bulb has corroded away totally from the constant humidity. I leave the printer/scanner turned on all the time, just to keep them warmed up, my camera sits on top of the fridge, where there is a hot spot to keep it warm and dry. My leather belt that I’ve just had hanging on a hook in the bedroom had a nice blue bloom of fungus, that vinegar took off but will grow back again. I’ll have to make up a cabinet from my shipping boxes with a light bulb in to keep the new camera and lenses dry when I’m not using them.
As Steve said the other day, humidity here is 95% all the time, if it goes over that it’s called rain. It’s hard to get a tan here, I don’t know if it’s because of the humidity, or what, but I’m paler now than I was in New Zealand, despite being out doors most of the time.
The rain is getting heavier tonight, I pulled up a term from the Hort course, atabaric flow, when the cool air from the mountains flow down to the lower levels, meet the warm sea air, and promptly cause a huge water dump. I think that’s what happens here, the daytime rain never seems to be as hard or heavy as it does a few hours after sunset.
Found some Hibiscus schizopetalus growing as a hedge, first time I’ve seen it, so we got a lot of cuttings from it, bright red flowers that look like they’ve been turned inside out. Ben the gardener there had a lot of Helliconia and Ginger plants for us, different colours to what we have in the gardens. We’re slowly building up a good range of plants, all we have to do is stop the locals from cutting and hacking them down.
I priced a fishing charter here this morning, through Lalae Charters, nice boat, their website is worth looking at www.lalaecharters.com, but it is AUD$2000 per day, SBD$10,000, so I won’t be going out with them, that’s 2 ½ months pay for me, for 1 day out fishing. I like fishing, but not to that extent. Thanks to RAMSI, and all the Consultants that are here everyone is trying to get as much as possible.
Local wages are SBD$240 per week if you have any skills, less than that for someone straight from a village or rural life.
Spent a couple of hours with David today. His arm looks like it isn’t going to get much better than it is at present. Too much nerve damage, and he’ll be lucky to get any feeling in his fingers. They want to operate again in a couple of months to see if they can improve it, but he’s not keen. It will either improve it, or he’ll lose all feeling in his fingers and hand.
I’ve got him thinking about starting up a separate company of his own over the next year or so, and taking over the contracts SEB have, so they aren’t dependent on Aid money, or someone taking responsibility from them because “these people” can’t be trusted to run a business. If necessary I’ll try to get a business mentor through VSA to come here and help set them up further down the road. He has to start looking at different options, he’s going spare as it is not being able to work, so getting him into his own private business will be good for him.
Adrian is still shouting at everyone, I’ve told him it’s no use shouting at the crew about time keeping, lunch breaks etc, until we have an alternative to put in place, but it doesn’t seem to register. Getting the kerosene stoves has turned into another long drawn out saga. Now I have to write a report about why we need to spend $500 on kerosene stoves, what benefit etc will accrue. Oh well, it helps fill the day in is one way of looking at it, although I’d rather be outside in the nursery, or anywhere outside, than writing up cost/benefit analysis reports.
I have a meeting with the Japanese Consul tomorrow morning, with Will, and we’ll put our Funding Proposal to them. I may even shave, and dress up a bit. All I’ve worn since I’ve been here is board shorts and muslin tops, a shirt and trousers will really surprise them at work.
We may be able to get a shredder for the coconut husks, at cost price, SBD$6,800 instead of SBD$11,850 through Farmset, they have one left that has been sitting in the shop for several months. I’ll have to convince Kiethie that it is worthwhile getting it now, for that price, instead of waiting till October when the next grant money comes through. Another reason why I’d like to see David set up his own business, so we don’t have to go cap in hand to get money that in some respects is ours to spend on improvements.
My kitchen lightbulb fell out last night, the copper fitting that holds the bulb has corroded away totally from the constant humidity. I leave the printer/scanner turned on all the time, just to keep them warmed up, my camera sits on top of the fridge, where there is a hot spot to keep it warm and dry. My leather belt that I’ve just had hanging on a hook in the bedroom had a nice blue bloom of fungus, that vinegar took off but will grow back again. I’ll have to make up a cabinet from my shipping boxes with a light bulb in to keep the new camera and lenses dry when I’m not using them.
As Steve said the other day, humidity here is 95% all the time, if it goes over that it’s called rain. It’s hard to get a tan here, I don’t know if it’s because of the humidity, or what, but I’m paler now than I was in New Zealand, despite being out doors most of the time.
The rain is getting heavier tonight, I pulled up a term from the Hort course, atabaric flow, when the cool air from the mountains flow down to the lower levels, meet the warm sea air, and promptly cause a huge water dump. I think that’s what happens here, the daytime rain never seems to be as hard or heavy as it does a few hours after sunset.
Monday, March 23, 2009
23rd March
Another mixed bag Monday. Went in early to try and do the photocopying that I didn’t get done yesterday. Didn’t even make it to ¼ of the stuff, and the printer was out of ink, as usual, it’s only buy as you need it, so there went the morning. It wasn’t all bad, I caught up with a couple of people online (Hi Moira) finally, got some emails cleared away.
Class turned into a shambles, Adrian dragged me off to Heritage, they rang early this morning wanting the wood chipper urgently, despite never getting back to us about the price or quote, and Adrian wanted to see just what the crew were doing. Huge old Agathis macrophylla cut down, full of seed cones which I grabbed for seed, although they are a few months away from being ripe, some of the seeds may germinate.
We’ve only got the one really good specimen at the gardens, they are becoming rare here now, cut down for timber mostly. Endemic to the Solomons and Bouganville.
Spent the afternoon driving around the farm suppliers in Honiara trying to get prices for stuff to go into the funding proposal, only one place that was helpful, the others were really Solomon Island Time with it all, no wariwari, tomorrow or Thursday we’ll get back to you. I only had to have it all priced for Will by 4pm today. Anyway, it’s done as much as we could.
I mentioned back a few days about being an arachnophobe, just as Tiffany and Shirleyeta were leaving tonight one of the biggest huntsman spiders I have seen wandered out from behind the filing cabinet, walked up the wall, and started heading across the ceiling in my direction. The last thing I like is having a bloody big spider walking around above me, managed to chase it outside with a rolled up newspaper, then into the shrubbery. It’ll be back inside somewhere by the morning, they tend to like living indoors.
Other than that, the day settled down into it’s usual pattern finally. Steve called in again, to pick up my Security Plan, as I said to him, no matter what is written in it, if there is any trouble, my plan is to get to the airport and wait in the bar for the next flight out. If the road is blocked, I’ll be in the nearest large tourist hotel, in the bar.
He was going to send that off to Wellington as my Security Plan, well, it’s mostly true, I’ll certainly be in the bar, somewhere.
Found Jesse Rainbows birthday present, but as she reads this, I’m not going to say what it is.
Power off again, it's 9pm, I give up
Class turned into a shambles, Adrian dragged me off to Heritage, they rang early this morning wanting the wood chipper urgently, despite never getting back to us about the price or quote, and Adrian wanted to see just what the crew were doing. Huge old Agathis macrophylla cut down, full of seed cones which I grabbed for seed, although they are a few months away from being ripe, some of the seeds may germinate.
We’ve only got the one really good specimen at the gardens, they are becoming rare here now, cut down for timber mostly. Endemic to the Solomons and Bouganville.
Spent the afternoon driving around the farm suppliers in Honiara trying to get prices for stuff to go into the funding proposal, only one place that was helpful, the others were really Solomon Island Time with it all, no wariwari, tomorrow or Thursday we’ll get back to you. I only had to have it all priced for Will by 4pm today. Anyway, it’s done as much as we could.
I mentioned back a few days about being an arachnophobe, just as Tiffany and Shirleyeta were leaving tonight one of the biggest huntsman spiders I have seen wandered out from behind the filing cabinet, walked up the wall, and started heading across the ceiling in my direction. The last thing I like is having a bloody big spider walking around above me, managed to chase it outside with a rolled up newspaper, then into the shrubbery. It’ll be back inside somewhere by the morning, they tend to like living indoors.
Other than that, the day settled down into it’s usual pattern finally. Steve called in again, to pick up my Security Plan, as I said to him, no matter what is written in it, if there is any trouble, my plan is to get to the airport and wait in the bar for the next flight out. If the road is blocked, I’ll be in the nearest large tourist hotel, in the bar.
He was going to send that off to Wellington as my Security Plan, well, it’s mostly true, I’ll certainly be in the bar, somewhere.
Found Jesse Rainbows birthday present, but as she reads this, I’m not going to say what it is.
Power off again, it's 9pm, I give up
Sunday, March 22, 2009
22nd March
6.45pm, still no water, went into work at 11, sorted out a huge amount of stuff to photocopy for tomorrow, posted the blog update, started the p/copy machine and the power went out. I said a few choice words, none printable, waited around for an hour, wandered through the Gardens to calm down and to try and get out of the rain, well, I was out in it, but the trees shelter a lot. Still wasn’t back on by 1pm, so went to Kukum Fish Market on the way home.
If I stop the extravagant purchases that I don’t use, like the fish the other week, I’m around SBD$100 a week for food, 5 kg bag of rice is $55, which so far has lasted me 6 weeks, coffee I found at the Bulk Shop yesterday at $35 for 250gm (Fair Trade New Guinea Gold) instead of the $47.80 Wings and AusTrade charge. Sugar, flour at the Bulk Shop are about $4 a kilo. I’m going to have to blow a couple of hundred this week on 3 storage bins with clip lids for the flour/rice/noodles and spaghetti, $110 each for ones that will hold 5kg rice, and keep the weevils out.
Papaya (Pawpaw) are still $5 - $7 each, depending on size, got some Cavendish (or they look like Cavendish) bananas today, $10 for 12, the long ones, not the usual Island stubby ones, coconuts still $1 - $2 each, slippery cabbage and Bok Choy $10 a bundle, and spring onions $5. The fish hadn’t improved, I’m going to wait till I can get some time off and go on a charter for the day or weekend. Or Shirleyetas brother comes through with the boat. It really annoys me seeing the fish there, all good kingfish, tuna, snapper out in the sun all day, being ruined. The people wiping them down constantly with a sponge that is just dipped into the water in the ice bins doesn’t improve the image either, and the rags on a stick moving the flies around.
I’ll put this back in again, exchange rate SBD$ to various currencies
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
Went through Central Market yesterday, it’s my grand-daughters Birthday soon, I was hoping to find something there for her, but no luck, I’ll go to Bekihama, the traditional carving and jewellery outlet and get her something there. The fish at Central are in the same state, so I’m not in a rush for any yet.
Wings and AusTrade have meat, mince (ground beef) at $50 per 500gm and up, steak and lamb start at $80 kg, chicken pieces for soup are $30, about 1kg, sausages are $45 per kg.
They have tried raising cattle for beef and dairy here, it’s been a mixed reaction, the natives have no history of using dairy products, so it’s mainly the people like me and the ex-pats who would be buying it. I’d be inclined to raise water buffalo here, for beef and dairy, they’re more suited to the conditions, wet swamps and lush water grass, than conventional cattle. There is very little flat or gentle sloping land here, it’s either swampland, like around Honiara, or vertical cliffs and rainforest.
My bread attempts are improving, got 2 round loaves today that would be equal to the ones we used to make in Schull, so I’m pleased. No doubt Pat will be as well in Schull when I write and tell him I did learn something from him.
The rain hasn’t stopped all day, it almost turns to drizzle, then changes its mind and comes down heavy for a bit longer. Thank God I have the water tank outside, ok, the shower/toilet kitchen sink are useless without the main supply, but at least I can fill the jug and boil up washing water for the kitchen dishes.
Oh joy, the water is back on, hot and cold! Dishes from last night, this morning, and tonight all done finally, toilet flushed, and I’m going to soak in a long hot, well warm, it’s too hot anyway for a hot shower, but long shower before I go to bed.
I’m giving the neighbours a treat tonight, Gaelic Storm, Bring Yer Wellies CD, Thanks to Una Flanagan from the sadly defunct Midwest Irish Internet Radio, well, it’s not defunct, but Una isn’t on it anymore.
If I stop the extravagant purchases that I don’t use, like the fish the other week, I’m around SBD$100 a week for food, 5 kg bag of rice is $55, which so far has lasted me 6 weeks, coffee I found at the Bulk Shop yesterday at $35 for 250gm (Fair Trade New Guinea Gold) instead of the $47.80 Wings and AusTrade charge. Sugar, flour at the Bulk Shop are about $4 a kilo. I’m going to have to blow a couple of hundred this week on 3 storage bins with clip lids for the flour/rice/noodles and spaghetti, $110 each for ones that will hold 5kg rice, and keep the weevils out.
Papaya (Pawpaw) are still $5 - $7 each, depending on size, got some Cavendish (or they look like Cavendish) bananas today, $10 for 12, the long ones, not the usual Island stubby ones, coconuts still $1 - $2 each, slippery cabbage and Bok Choy $10 a bundle, and spring onions $5. The fish hadn’t improved, I’m going to wait till I can get some time off and go on a charter for the day or weekend. Or Shirleyetas brother comes through with the boat. It really annoys me seeing the fish there, all good kingfish, tuna, snapper out in the sun all day, being ruined. The people wiping them down constantly with a sponge that is just dipped into the water in the ice bins doesn’t improve the image either, and the rags on a stick moving the flies around.
I’ll put this back in again, exchange rate SBD$ to various currencies
SBD$100 = US$12.84
= CAD$16.25
= NZ$25.30
= AUS$20.23
= €10.20
= ₤9.01
Went through Central Market yesterday, it’s my grand-daughters Birthday soon, I was hoping to find something there for her, but no luck, I’ll go to Bekihama, the traditional carving and jewellery outlet and get her something there. The fish at Central are in the same state, so I’m not in a rush for any yet.
Wings and AusTrade have meat, mince (ground beef) at $50 per 500gm and up, steak and lamb start at $80 kg, chicken pieces for soup are $30, about 1kg, sausages are $45 per kg.
They have tried raising cattle for beef and dairy here, it’s been a mixed reaction, the natives have no history of using dairy products, so it’s mainly the people like me and the ex-pats who would be buying it. I’d be inclined to raise water buffalo here, for beef and dairy, they’re more suited to the conditions, wet swamps and lush water grass, than conventional cattle. There is very little flat or gentle sloping land here, it’s either swampland, like around Honiara, or vertical cliffs and rainforest.
My bread attempts are improving, got 2 round loaves today that would be equal to the ones we used to make in Schull, so I’m pleased. No doubt Pat will be as well in Schull when I write and tell him I did learn something from him.
The rain hasn’t stopped all day, it almost turns to drizzle, then changes its mind and comes down heavy for a bit longer. Thank God I have the water tank outside, ok, the shower/toilet kitchen sink are useless without the main supply, but at least I can fill the jug and boil up washing water for the kitchen dishes.
Oh joy, the water is back on, hot and cold! Dishes from last night, this morning, and tonight all done finally, toilet flushed, and I’m going to soak in a long hot, well warm, it’s too hot anyway for a hot shower, but long shower before I go to bed.
I’m giving the neighbours a treat tonight, Gaelic Storm, Bring Yer Wellies CD, Thanks to Una Flanagan from the sadly defunct Midwest Irish Internet Radio, well, it’s not defunct, but Una isn’t on it anymore.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
