It’s been a hive of activity at the office last week. I had a feeling that soon after coming back from Honiara we would be getting very busy with projects and people coming from all over the place (ok, if you call New Zealand, Australia and Honiara all over the place) there are a number of great things about this activity. Not least that it pulls people together and creates community spirit. The setting up of the VSAT has been a great example of people pulling together and during the week everyone came together. I think everyone knew that getting this thing built meant we would be out there in the wider world; ok, we always were with dial up but this new system will make communication with the outside world a lot easier.
Two of the boys were mixing cement, J was in the ceiling cavity, an older builder guy was on the very high roof in scorching temperatures installing the solar panels to the roof, David was taking care of the electronics and one of the kids was up and down Coconut Palms retrieving drinking Coconuts for us and there I was trying my best to match it with the young Solomon Island guys and give the impression that I do hard out physical work every day of the week. For some reason whenever I go to do anything physical the guys say, “No Scott I will do that”. I’m left thinking, wow, I really must look that soft.
At the end of last Monday alone we had achieved a hell of a lot. There were solar panels on the roof, a nice metal pole concreted into the ground and the whole systems wired up. At the end of this very hot day it was all into the sea for a swim.
There was another pleasant surprise for the week with the arrival of an older kiwi couple in the bay. They were from Whangamata and were ex dairy farmers originally with a farm on the Hauraki plains. It was nice to see some kiwis and that familiar welcoming kiwi attitude and an openness that I always associate with kiwis. Their catamaran had everyone here really impressed as it was at probably nearer the larger (and more costly) end of the spectrum of recreational yachts. I honestly can’t remember the last tourists here and I am not sure really if the 3-4 whitefellas I have seen about town in the past 3-4 months have been tourists, with NGO programmes or RAMSI. It’s more likely they weren’t tourists.
Ngaire and Lloyd invited me onto their yacht for dinner and with kiwis, no matter what generation, there is always some degree of common ground. I thought to myself that these guys are definitely true blue kiwis when they started pulling out the family photos for me too look at. It was a very kiwi touch to a great evening.
According to the other kiwi volunteer who is here, there is meant to be another kiwi on their way out to work in a police mentoring role. So that will mean the kiwis will be the largest ex-pat group, actually I think we are the only ex-pat group here now. If only we just had another eight we could field a soccer team to challenge Sipuzae FC.
Being out here with minimal distraction and urban stress allows a fair bit of time for the mind to just wander and the outcome of this so far being 1) A resolution to investigate doing a masters with a focus on some aspect of ecology/sustainability in the Solomon Islands 2) Investigating writing a book about the relationship between New Zealand and the Solomon Islands (WW2, missionaries, volunteers etc). There are at least two stories in Choiseul alone where kiwis have made their presence felt. There was formally a missionary by the name of Lucy Money (sp), who was based in Sasamunga and translated the bible to Babatana, the local language of the area and probably the most commonly spoken local language. There is another story of a kiwi guy with a wartime connection to the Island and as a result left this organisation a reasonable amount of money when he passed away. It would be awesome to find out who this guy was and what he was doing on Choiseul.
As I have the time and space while here it would be silly not to try and be as productive as possible. Ideas just seem to come at me out from out of the blue here and usually in the mornings, only to be quickly forgotten during the heat of the day if I don’t actively write them down.
Now that it’s early Feb I am more than a little aware that I am closing in on another birthday and this one’s a biggy as it feels like I am closing in far too quickly on my mid 30’s. It’s a scary thing when I stop and think just how incredibly fast the last few years have gone.
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