A Second-Hand Book Shop

I am very excited today because I have found the most fabulous 2nd hand book shop. They have an awesome selection of kids and adults ones if you're happy to dig through - which of course I am an expert at!!!!
The bizarre thing is they sell them by weight. $3.50/100grams. Now not many books weigh 100g but I did get a "Little Miss Tiny" book which might have today . Anyway in case you've never weighed a book lately I bought 8 great near new books for $70.00 Solomons which is about $12 - $14 Kiwi. Needless to say I am stoked and may be their best customer!!!!!!!

Incidentally there are no public libraries here so it is the only source of books

The Kids at Savo

Savo Island

Had an interesting weekend - both beautiful and relaxing and terrifying - at Savo Island.

The island was beautiful and a nice break from the busyness and dirtiness of Honiara. We swam, visited villages, and just relaxed. We had a trip to see the dolphins planned for day 2 but Poppy came down with quite a bad fever. As there is no communications with Savo we decided we should head home just in case she had malaria.

The terrifying part of the trip was the boat ride, in a small fibreglass boat with a huge crack in it, reasonably rough seas and no life jackets. MADNESS!!!! I was terrified all the way. We made it safely. On the way home we had 2 go twice as far ( 1.1 hr) and 1/2 was in the dark with no lights at all. We did have life jackets this time. We may plan differently next time!!!!!!

The Official Welcome

Last night IRD put on an official welcome function for me combined with a farewell for Anna another kiwi who has been working here for IRD.

The food spread was fabulous and we were given these fabulous leis and head pieces. Even Carl much to his embarrassment got one to wear. The Leis are not really a Solomon Island thing but there is a very large Kiribati community here and they were made by one of the Kiribas ladies at work.

It was very humbling to have such a gracious and generous welcome from people who have so little compared to us.

Bucket Bath

Tobias gets so filthy playing under the house in the dirt everyday.

I was so sick of always having cold showers after the kids keep has used up all the hot water so decided to use a bucket bath to scrub Tobias' feet clean. Of course he wanted to squeeze his whole body in!!!! I did get a hot shower that night so the plan worked

First day at School and Kindy

Yesterday was a big day as Poppy and Millie started school and Kindy. Poppy's teacher is my boss Mike's wife Ingrid so she knew the teacher which was helpful.

Poppy had a gr8 day and really enjoyed herself all helped by the fact she had 2 friendly little girls ( Betsy and Azalea) to look after her. She is the only white girl face in her class so a new experience all round.

Millie had a few sad moments but Carl stayed with her and by the end of it she was fine. She's looking forward to going back today which is a good sign.

Today they both have school uniforms to wear which they thought was pretty cool.

Braided Beauties

Getting your hair braided is the thing to do here so the girls decided they had to have it done.
At only $10 (NZ) its a bargin and I'm sure you'll admit both look great!!

Some more pics

Some pics of the crew

Finding a House

Carl's job this week has been finding a house. Not the easiest of tasks in any new city, let alone Honiara. He's looked at at few and they either wouldn't meet the "RAMSI security " criteria, or you discover the last tenants moved out because its right where all the betel nut sellers congregate and therefore large noisey crowds at night. And then of course landlords try and pump the rent up when they know you are likely to have work covering the rent.

Anyway after a few dead ends and Poppy giving me a serious run down on each house at night we have got ourselves a great house in a nice area, with an access road that only has averagely bad pot holes. Carl talked the landlord down from $SI20,000/month to $SI12,000/month. Dont freak at the $$$ as you can divide by 5 to get to NZ$. Yes still expensive but apparently we got a great deal. Has a lovely view over the Pacific Ocean and our own coconut, banana and pawpaw palms/trees.

A few things have to be done to it such as building a guard house out the front - we get 2 guards who hve the most boring job just sitting there and opening the gate when we come and go - and installing a water tank...but hopefully we will move in next week.

Our gear arrives by ship on the 26th July so all going well the timing will be great.

Will be great to unpack and feel like this is a little more "home"

Well, we've been in Honiara 10 days and are all doing great.

Kids are enjoying playing with our security guards and finding creepie crawlies and frogs & geckos. They are off to visit school today and check out Poppy's classroom.

Carl's doing a fabulous job of finding where to buy everything we need and sorting out bank accounts, houses etc. We are in a temporary house at the moment looking for something more permanent.
Work is slowly falling into place for me. Gradually finding my feet to work out what I should be doing. Alot of the systems beg belief but that's another story.

Lots of new sights, smells and experiences to take in but I think we're going to really enjoy it here

Sorry no photos this time as it won't allow for some reason
Labels: Hanging out in Honiara