Heading towards Christmas

Howard and Jill left today heading to the Sunshine Coast for the rest of their holiday. Was nice to be able to introduce them to our life here, so they have a better appreciation of what life in Honiara is like - the highs and lows.
The kids enjoyed the attention and fun of having grandparents around.

Now the count down is on for the end of school in 2 1/2 weeks and then Christmas and a holiday in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. Most of the staff at IRD starte heading off for 6 ++ weeks leave from early December so things grind to a standstill. There is very little evidence of Christmas here though - the commercialisation of Christmas just doesnt exist. Not sure if I am looking forward to doing ALL my Christmas shopping on the 2 days I have in Brisbane before Christmas !!!!

Savo and Beyond

After a very wet arrival in Savo we had a lovely relaxing weekend which included walking to some thermal areas (dramatically called the Volcano walk) and some totally fabulous dolphin spotting. Pretty hard to get any decent pictures but did get one mid flight as proof. Probably 40 or so large dolphins swimming with our boat, jumping and dancing right next to us...magical.

Sunday we went visiting the local village but ended up taking refuge in their little ramshackle church with a pile of local kids because of more downpours of rain. ..yes seems the rainy season might have arrived here.

The trip home was another white knuckle experience but we did manage another cool moment when a large marine turtle popped its head up next to us before swimming off.

Sunset Lodge where we stayed is owned by Sir Alan Kemakaza, a former SI Prime Minister. Sir Alan and his wife Lady Jocelyn are lovely hosts and have a fabulous team of girls who provide great meals, clean up after the kids and generally keep the kids happy and entertained. Sir Alan is currently embroiled in the political crisis with both sides claiming he has signed his support with them. All we could get from Sir Alan was "don't believe everything you read in the paper" which has to be an understatement of the year for here!!

Each day the paper is full of full page ads- some paid for by the Government and some the Opposition - accusing each other of all sorts of crimes of fraud and corruption. I don't think people really care too much about the substance of the claims anymore..they just want to know who really has the numbers to rule.

The RAMSI helicopters are back in force this week flying low over the city with armed police and army hanging out the side..just a less than subtle reminder to everyone that they are around.

Nan & Grandad at Savo Island

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

Thought it would be nice for Howard and Jill to get out of Honiara for a few days while they were here, so we headed off to Savo. Now every boat trip to Savo has tested the nerves and been pretty exciting - this one was no exception.

Hope you like these snaps:

Will post more pics of the weeekend soon!!!

PS: In case you are wondering where Carl is during the trip - yes hiding in the boat's cabin!!!

So what do you do at work Sharron?????

Thought you might be interested in some of the crazy stuff that comes my way at work!!!

Today we had a visit from a Indonesian guy who wanted us to consider selling fake residency letters for international yacht crewmen. There are a whole myriad of tax issue for these guys as they travel the world working, but this scamer thought we may like a new stream of income for the government by creating a type of tax haven for these workers. For a set up front annual tax payment ( scam fee!!!) we could give them fake residency letters that "may" help them avoid tax anywhere in the world. They probably wouldnt be worth the paper they were written on but may have kept some tax adminstrations at bay. Needless to say we told him we weren't interested but he will probably go over our head and someone above us may think it is a legitimate income stream for a country desperate for revenue...and if not this country I suppose he will find somewhere obscure that will do it!!!

7 days in Solomon Island Politics!!!

Seven days is a long time in Solomon Island Politics!! A week ago our Minister was demoted for political reasons so led a charge to overthrow the government. In the last week most MP's have moved to and throe between the government and oppostion, vying for power, position and money. Is near impossible to know who has the numbers or where things we end up...but as is often the case in Melanesian politics the longer they have to lobby the stronger the government's position to win back the numbers. It would seem that $$$ are all that is necessary to dissolve opposition. Now we have the crazy position where the government has even managed to convince some of their old foes that they have previously deposed from power back into the fold. Is really a very sad state of affairs for the general population and future of the country.

We have a new Finance Minister who has recently been convicted of corruption but ended up getting off being sentenced on a technicality. Apparently if you are a MP you aren't a public servant so can't be convicted of defrauding public funds.

Is very unsettling times for all Solomon Islands and those of us who are guests in this beautiful country

So far the antics have been limited to the politicians and the general public is playing a wait and see game....they are a very tolerant and long suffering population!!!

On a lighter note we have 3 new fluffy family members...Blue, Fuzz and Sugarplum!!! Sorry about the names...I had nothing to do with it and by the time I got home from work it was signed and sealed. Names aside they are very cute little chickens that Carl bought from a village out of town. We hope they may supply us with eggs in due course...but the jury is still out on whether they are girls or boys!!!!!

Millie spent the morning with Nan at the local Childrens Day celebration where her Kindy was set up as model demonstration. Crowds of people, stinking hot but think she survived and enjoyed the mornings activities.

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Rain, rain, rain!!!!

The last 36 hrs has seen endless torrential rain and cool weather. Any drainage here is usually clogged with vegetation and rubbish so roads and backyards quickly become riverways As most of the roads are dirt or coral they quickly deteriorate into muddy traps!!

During the break from the rain me and the kids decided to go out for a muddy walk.
We weren't disapppointed!!! Half way through the sky opened again and we quickly took refuge on a school verandah!

A couple more Birthday Girl Pics!!

Nan and Grandad in Honiara

We are enjoying having Nan and Grandad to stay with us. They are our first Kiwi visitors and it has been fun showing them around and sharing our life in Honiara with them.
Today we headed out to East Guadacanal for a look at rural life and stopped at this river for a snack. We were soon joined by a crowd of kids, and a few extended families who had driven down to the river for their weekend ritual of a river car wash!!!

Usually when you stop anywhere people will turn up ready to charge you $$$$. By the time we'd shared our food and drink with the kids and taken their photos with the promise of bringing them copies back they must have decided against the "river fee"!!!

Where ever we go we take photos of the kids and then promise to bring them back copies of the pictures. We now have 4 piles of prints waiting for return trips!!!

What does a Solomon 7th Birthday Party Look like!!!

Well today is the our big girl's 7th birthday. ...... and the celebrations have the same ingredients as back home.....,cakes, games, fairy bread, cheerios, pressies, dancing and lots of excitable girls The celebrations started yesterday as Poppy has her 3 closest friends Angela, Betsy and Azalea over for the afternoon, sleep over and then to the beach today.

Poppy is also very lucky to have Nan and Grandad here from Tauranga for her birthday, so has been great to have them here to join in the celebrations.

In somewhat normal Honiara style the power went off right on tea time and we ate tea by torch light, but luckily came back on in time for the DVD.

The good thing about 7 year old sleep overs is they do sleep - no sitting up all night talking thank goodness....but they are old enough to self entertain and hang out in the pool.

Tonight we will go out for dinner as a family.

and voila...we now have a 7 year old in the family. Seems she has grown up very fast. She is a sparkly, funny, sensitive but somewhat crazy kid with a wicked sense of humour and we are very proud of the way she has embraced the new life she lives here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS

Its Hard Work Playing House!!!

My friend Fiona ( in Taupo) found this photo of Clean Up Honiara Day on the net. ( Thanks Fiona) Makes it look all very "foreign correspondentish" the khaki's and the smoke!! I didn't look at all that dramatic wearing boring office clothes. Honiara is still pretty clean although we're had huge rain the last couple of nights which means all the drains overflow pouring debris and rubbish over the roads.

Exciting week coming up for us. Carl's parents arrive on Tuesday. Our first visitors so we are really looking forward to that. Then Saturday is Poppy's 7th Birthday. We're bracing ourselves for a sleepover - only 3 friends so should be ok!!!