Hard Work in Hot Places

Well it seems for some reason that everyone in town is drinking, and lots of our staff are included in this and not showing up for work.  At this same time my boss bought some commercial timber machines for planing, ripping, and joining timber.  With this new timber business our staff is having to work, instead of just sit around a lot of the days.  Well it always seems when you need people they never show up. 

That being said I have been learning lots about timber, and struggling a bit as we don't have gloves or boots, and it is quite hot and dusty.  Just moving the mulch from the planer is pretty touch as it keeps piling up and up and up.  I spent a good 2 hours today just shoveling it into wheel barrels, and moving it into the yard to clear up work space.  I don't know how I got here working at a dive shop, or studying Software in University.  I guess we never know where life will take us, but we are always learning, just sometimes it hurts our backs a bit more.

Trying to Surf

I had this past Saturday off, and headed out to a village named Titiana to try and learn how to surf.  I have a friend Will and Dennis that are staying out there and building some houses for a school.  So I bought some mince meat, and a few beers and rode the dirt bike out, and got there for an early lunch.  While I think town can be boring life in the village can def be more mundane.  Dennis had just finished widleing (no idea how to spell that, tried about 10 times?) a chest board, which defiantly took some spare time.  We had the first game on it and I lost.

After the game we started to paddle out to the break, which took about 20 minutes, after which I was pretty exhausted.  I defiantly will give surfers more credit in the future, as it takes a lot of work.  The problem also with surfing here is that it is all shallow reef breaks, which means when you fall you hit hard sharp rocks.  So the first run I just tried it laying down and caught a long wave all the way back to shore, which meant, having to paddle all the way back out!

The next one I got, Dennis told me to paddle really hard, as most people don't paddle enough, I then paddled as hard as I could, and looked back just in time to see the wave break on top of me, I had paddled to hard and passed the wave.  So it broke on top of me, and I bounced across the reef a bit, but only got a few scratches, nothing serious.  However, when trying to get out of the surf, was hit by a few more waves, which broke the leash off the board (which was borrowed), so I took off to get it.  I finally got to it, and Dennis came surfing in to help me out of the waves.

I did catch one more wave in by using my head, literally.  So I was told if you feel like your coming off the wave to put more weight forward on the board, so I paddling as hard as I could, but falling off the wave so I put my forehead down and pushed on the front of the board, it worked!  I caught the wave and rode it back in. 

After the surf I was pretty exhausted, 3 hours of paddling around in waves is defiantly tough.  So we came in and I grilled some nice greasy burgers, then headed back home.  It felt good that I finally tried it, but I have learned that surfing takes lots of dedication and time, which I don't think I have.  I think I might try boogy boarding, as that you can wear fins to help you get out!  It would still be pretty fun, as we have some large waves here.

Well I hope you all at home enjoy thanksgiving, its next week I think, and I would love some of that Turkey!

Luke

WWII Tour

I have to start this and tell you about some poor guy in Australia that is now going to have a huge phone bill.  It cost about $1 AUD a minute to call here, and he called the shop with a wrong number and spoke for twenty minutes.  First our office manager answered the phone, and neither of them could understand each other, so I got the phone.  He wanted a hotel in Honiara, and I told him the wrong number.  I looked up the number he needed, and gave it to him.  He then asked where I was from, as I did not sound like a Solomon Islander. I told him from Atlanta Ga, and he asked where that was in the Solomons.  Then he asked about why I was here etc, nice guy, but expensive call for a wrong number.

Yesterday I had a bit of a day off from diving, I had been teaching a lot of open water students, and been out on the boats for the last five days training people.  We have a film guy here making a promotional movie, and we needed to take him around the WWII stuff in the area, so you might see me in it!  It was a nice day, but a long one as it involved driving around for about eight hours to see all of the things you would usually do over a few days.  I got to see some stuff I had not seen before, and it was nice just having a few people in the boat, running fast as the weather was nice. 

In the photos you will see some local guy with sails in there dug out canoes, there was a strong westerly wind so they must have decided to start going home, and made sails out of palm leaves propped up in their canoe, they were going quite fast and did not need to paddle, only steer.  They were going from Rendova to Renoga, which is probably about 45 miles, a long trip, that would take 2-3 days.  When people do things like that here, they don't take much with them, they fish for food, drink coconuts, and live off the small islands.  And we think driving a car without cruise control for a few hours is hard, these people are defiantly tough.

Luke

Mt. Biking

I had the day off Tuesday, so decided to do something different.  We just got a new mountain bike here, so I planned to ride to a village about halfway across the island in the mountains and have lunch then ride back.  I did not realize how hard or fun it would be.  The road that goes there is a hilly one through the middle of the island called the inland road.  I made it to the village in about an hour, but was walking and trying to ride up steep hills, at some points you had to peddle in the lowest gear, but the back wheel would slip because of the force it took, at that point you had to walk up the hill.  Then coming down, I was passing trucks with both brakes on all the way.  Was a cool rush flying back down the hills.

Lunch was nice, but ran out of water, and the village does not have a good water supply, as it is high up with no streams.  And to have a tank to catch rain water cost lots of money.  The village was just relocated into the hills after a tsunami two years ago, when the one by the sea was destroyed.  I did have a nice local lunch of rice, cabbage, peppers, noodles, and some reef fish.  So I did eat some vegetables, and even lived through it!

When I left I just decided to keep on going to the other end of the island, then do a loop by taking the other road back, the coastal road that runs flat along the coast.  Now that road was also destroyed in the tsunami, but is getting redone now.  Only about half was finished which made it quite interesting.  At some points caring the bike over bridges that were simply a single coconut tree laying over a river or stream, and having to walk it down the beach when the road was impassable.  It is amazing how quick the bush grew on the old road, where sometimes it was not even recognizable.  It was nice though, going through all the small villages, I brought a bunch of lollies for the kids and would give them out, then get something to drink. 

I ended up riding for about 4 hours before making it back to town.  But can now say I have travelled every road on the island, even the ones that have disappeared in time.  Some expats that work for unicef saw me and wondered what my fund raiser was, as no one would do it for no other reason.  When I got back to the dive shop, I looked very dirty, and all my staff thought I was nuts, but I did get to see all their houses, and meet lots of their kids in the different villages, as everyone recognizes you here.  I did enjoy it, and think mountain biking might be a new hobby.

Luke

Slow Times

Things have slowed down now, November and December are some of our slowest months.  Our staff from other places in the Solomons generally get four weeks annual leave to go back home.  It is odd most of them have lived almost their entire lives in Gizo, but live in rental properties here, while they own a house in their village and go home and work on it.  Odd they have a vacation house but not a house to live in most of the time.

I have had a few students coming in, and am keeping busy teaching open water classes, and able to make some pocket money.  I do look forward to getting another big group of divers as they are always fun, and I get to do some deeper diving that I don't get to do with students.  This last group of divers had a guy my size in it, and he was nice enough to leave me his "old clothes" which are much nicer then my clothes.  So I got two nice pairs of boardies, and a few tshirts.

The picture here is one I just came upon.  It is a bed Anne Marie (Chelsey from fatboys mom) made up for me when I stayed at her unit in Brisbane.  She was so sweet to make me feel at home, she even put a teddy bear in it.  Keiron, her grandson, is pretty jealous that i got to sleep with his teddy, so this is really to make him a bit jealous.  And I loved staying with her as she spoiled me and dave with food and drinks, and was very hospitabal, the teddy is proof of that.

I hope everyone is enjoying the cold coming, and gearing up for the holiday season!

Luke