If you want my advice..

Last week I started my role at the Ministry of Education. I am (apparently) an Advisor to the Ministry.

An Infrastructure Advisor... Dispensing advice about infrastructure.

Now, I know what you might be thinking.  What experience do I have to offer advice to a government ministry? And it’s a good question… But I am having a bloody good time trying that’s for sure!

So far, it has been a very busy time of meeting people and trying to get a handle on what is going on here.  I’m working in the newly formed ‘assets division’ which looks after all school infrastructure across the Solomon’s 922 Islands. The ministry is responsible for approximately 1000 schools, 10,000 teachers, and 140,000 students. So she’s a pretty big job!!

The assets division has some major issues around the procurement of construction contracts and prioritising/directing aid funding. I think most of my work will be in these two areas, helping to improve procurement processes, and directing aid funding appropriately so that building projects can run more smoothly.

This primary school, located in the middle of a squatter settlement, had 600 odd kids in two classrooms. They double shifted the lessons, with juniors in the morning and seniors in the afternoon. 

I visited a number of urban schools in Honiara last week. This was a real eye opener for me! Every school I visited had extremely poor infrastructure. The best have basic concrete shells, open windows and corrugated\iron roofs. While the worst, have dirt floors and leaf roofs.  No schools I saw had lighting, and none had an adequate toilet facility.

Yet all the kids and teachers are just getting on with it and making do. The Kids are so happy to see you, and the whole community is really welcoming. Even if they kids all think a gigantic, excessively sweaty white man is the funniest thing they have ever seen!

Picture of cool kids!

This two story classroom has been uncompleted for around 3 years, the exposed steel reinforcing on the first floor is badly corroded and there are no windows or doors. This was one of the better schools I saw!

Village life

Last weekend I was lucky enough to stay in a rural village for couple of days.

I got to help push-start a friends van who got stuck down a muddy track with a flat battery. This activity rendered me absolutely sopping with sweat much to everyone's amusement.

For the most part, the family (and whole village) lives outside the cash economy. They build their own houses out of their own timbers, and grow their own food or catch fish.

To make a small amounts of money, there are coconut and Cocoa plantations, from which they produce  Copra and dried Cocoa Beans. These are sold at the Honiara market (for an absolute pittance). Copra is the semi dried kernel/flesh of the coconut which is used to produce coconut oil. 

Copra Drying

While at the Village I was taken to see the local rural clinic which is serviced by one nurse, with bi-monthly visits from a doctor. It was very basic- but a very good building (supplied by Australia aid).

 The nurse told us the biggest health problem she saw was women with domestic violence injuries . Following this, in quite a confronting turn of events, a very young woman arrived with a clearly dislocated shoulder- which she said was inflicted by her Husband. I have since been informed that somewhere around 90% of all females in the Solomons have been the victim of domestic violence, absolutely mind-boggling.

Tamboko Rural Clinic

Village life
This little guy is three. wen were down at the river for a swim with the other older kids. Not to be left out, he jumped into the fast-flowing river from a coconut tree. He disappeared under the water, and popped up 20 meters down the bank jumped out and did it again! 3 years old!!

Mi araev long Solomon Aelan

Mi barava hapi lo raetem mi fas blog leta long Solomon Aelan !!

(I am very happy to write my first blog post in the Solomon Islands) – easy as eh?!

We have had pigin lessons each afternoon for a couple of hours. It’s really easy to pick up and so much fun to speak!

Here are some highlights;

-          Iumitufala= lets you and me

o   Iumitfala go long kilim dae bulumakau

o   which means: ‘lets go and kill a cow (or a bull)’

-          Pikinini = children/child:  

o   Eg: pikinini hem krae olowe bikos hem hanggere

o    Which means: the child is always crying because they are hungry

See its fun eh!?

On my second night here I had to catch a taxi on my own back to the house where I am living. Honiara is not too big but after dark it sis best not to walk around outside, especially alone. It must have been a hilarious (and very profitable) experience for the taxi driver, as I didn’t know exactly where my house was and was hopeless at pigin. So much confusion. But we got there in the end!!

There are 12 other Kiwi volunteers living in or around Honiara. They each bring a different set of skills to wide range of organisations. There are people working in NGO’s, central government ministry’s, and provincial government.

I am so excited to start work properly on Monday. I had a brief meeting with the team I will be working with at the Ministry of Education and the job sounds amazing. I don’t know enough about it yet to say too much, but safe to say it sounds exciting and way bigger than anything I could be involved with in New Zealand!!

Tomorrow I am going to stay in a rural village for a couple of nights. Im looking forward to getting  out of busy dirty urban scene of Honiara- its pretty full on here. There are so  many people here(which reminds me of another great pigin word. staka- meaning lots of). Staka smells, staka people staka cars, staka poverty long Honiara.

I am imagining my stay in the village will be all swimming in the sea, gathering coconuts and fanning myself with a banana leaf... but all will be revealed tomorrow.

Lukum iu (see you later)