arrival!

Sunday 8 October

Well, we all arrived in the end, in one piece, with all our luggage, and no major tantrums. The food on the plane was even delicious (SI Air, not Qantas). Pretty incredible I reckon; I take it as a good omen for the year to come. The united women’s rest house is pretty cool; simple but clean and nice people around. Chatted a bit to Betsie and Rose (?), and got very embarrassed messing up PNG/SI pigeon.
The first night we went to a go finis party (don’t know if you actually say that in SI Pigeon) for a couple of other volunteers at Big Daddy’s house. Big Daddy (Emanuel) is a DJ on the local radio station. He’s part African, Kiribatian and Western Provincial (?), and he may take over the In Country Manager when Charlotte leaves in two weeks. He seems like a really nice person from first brief impressions.
An ex-AYAD (Ben) will act in the position until it's filled (by tender process which seems surprising).

The party was pretty impressive – people contributed money for drinks, and there was heaps of food BBQ’d up too (huge plastic carton full of rice, bread, greens in coconut, tuna, chicken, sausages, salad, fruit…). There were other volunteers (mostly of the Aussie variety as far as I met), a few people working for Govt and other mobs, lots of members of a local triathlon club, family of Big Daddy and others in the house, and others that I’m sure I missed altogether. And there were lots of display dances (from Kiribati, Samoa, and a few others) and some fire dancing. It was great to meet lots of interesting people, but a bit overwhelming in such a big group with lots of noise and activity. I hope noone takes offence for the many times I’m sure I repeatedly asked what peoples’ names were…

I was ready to drop by the time we came back (still a bit before pumpkin time), slept reasonably but actually got cold during the night and had to put my only warm top on! Apparently it’s not usually this mild (I hope not).

Today we went to Bonegi Beach, which is about 20 mins drive west from Honiara. A really nice spot – stoney beach with reef about 10 minutes out. Had a great time snorkelling, but got fairly badly burnt on my legs. Thanks to restrictive swimwear codes my knees are in the clear, so at least bending isn’t a problem. And maybe it will keep me warm tonight…