Wonderful World of
Finally there was a break in the weather and we got news that the plane had made it from Honiara. So we hopped in the back of a truck and went to wait at the airport. Noilin (in Organge) kindly gave us all traditional pendants and the SDA girls arrived with Frangipani garlands as a parting gift.
Check in was pretty simple (far right) and involved more public weighing. Once they’d refuelled the plane with a hand pump, we were off. 
Everyone was always most disappointed that neither Pam, Belinda nor I have any pikininis to our respective names.
On the other hand, Pam, Belinda and I are a little worried about how God will handle all the prayers in which our names got mentioned as he’s probably never even heard of our heathen existences before.
Wandering around the small township of Lata was lots of fun. Everyone said hello and smiled broadly as we passed by. I guess not much changes day-to-day, so anyone knew is a novelty. In the market we stocked up on fresh fruit and vegies for ridiculously low prices. I met Hilda who spoke great English and helped us make our selections (I’ve never had to choose a
good bunch of slippery cabbage before!) and also made us try different tropical fruit. I made friends by taking photos and showing them the result on my digital camera which always meant laughter erupted. As we were leaving I turned to wave goodbye and found that the entire marketplace was expectantly poised to wave goodbye.
Everyone inevitably asked where we were from – they thought I was half Samoan (well, it’s a change from being Israeli!) and decided blonde Pam was the only “pure blood”.
I met the most gorgeous little girl in Lata. It was suggested to her that because of our pigtails and black and pink attire that we might be sisters. She was a bit skeptical at first but came around in the end.
We stayed in the delightful Lata Motel, which had a nice cold fridge where we put our beers to chill for sundown until we alarmingly realised this was not an acceptable thing to do because drinking alcohol is unhygenic.
The delightful Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) folk at the Lata Motel also invited us to a birthday party for Hilary. They gave us a gorgeous written invitation for 7pm and we duly went downstairs to meet Hilary. Hilary is actually a boy and he’d been to Australia for open heart surgery (we saw the scars) for a congenital heart defect when he was very young. There were many prayers and SDA hymns (none of which I knew) but it was actually a really fun night. They had bought beer for guests, but did not partake themselves. After reading the unhygenic sign I felt too guilty to drink, though - but Pam didn’t!
Our trip to Kira Kira got cancelled because the weather turned nasty and the plane never arrived. We were informed that eroplen hem slip lo Honiara – I like the way inanimate objects are given character in Pijin. I never knew planes slept until I came here.
We were a bit worried a cyclone had set in as the rain was horizontal and the galeforce wind just didn’t let up (although the pikininis loved it and ripped off all their clothes to play soccer in the rain and shower under the overspill from the gutters). The mobile reception was dodgy so we’d take work calls on the public phone (in between sitting on the balcony reading and chatting and watching the world go by).
Well, we set off at the crack of dawn on Tuesday 
morning for Lata. On the left is Belinda checking in. First they weigh your bag, and then they weigh you!
After flying across what seemed like an awful lot of ocean, we landed at the airstrip. The Commandant of the prison met us at the airport in a (well, the – it’s a small place) police car. After dumping our bags, we got straight to work. The prison staff were a truly delightful bunch - enthusiastic, cheerful and so excited that we had 
come. They had even been night diving to catch us fresh lobster. 
After work we wandered around town and down to the wharf where a very large fishing trawler had sunk close to the shore. I asked what happened and was intriguingly told ”Sip? hem lae daon“. Lazy ship!
I have just returned from an adventure to Lata on Santa Cruz Isand (in Temotu Province) which is closer to Vanuatu than it is to Honiara. We were supposed to visit Kira Kira on San Cristobal for a few days on the way back, but the weather was so bad we had to stay an extra day in Lata as the flight was cancelled – then we returned directly back to Honiara this afternoon. We were a little worried that a cyclone was setting in as it was really windy and just rained and rained – but fortunately it was just a tropical low and so the plane was able to get in and out today. Lata is a gorgeous place for a few days, but longer than that and I fear we would have finished our books and gone a little stir crazy!
I did my beginner’s SCUBA-diving course over the weekend. It was exhausting, but fun. It’s odd being under the water and readily able to breathe. The water temperature is a very mild 28 degrees here in the Solomons which means you can just go in boardies and a rashie. Yesterday we did two dives at the wreck at Benegi Beach which was an absolutely amazing experience – lots of coloured coral and sponges and sea anemones and bright fishies and even a sting ray.
I just attended a security briefing and apparently there’s been a spate of home invasions by machete-wielding balaclava-clad very-organised-hooligans targetting ex-pats. It’s always nice to know these things.
I gave the security guards extra food for dinner tonight in the hope that if we’re invaded, they’ll maybe feel indebted enough to call the cops before they run away. The traditional security guard dinner is tuna and rice – but I like to give them fruit and vegetables, too, because I worry that they’ll get scurvy otherwise. Tonight I gave them some left over salt-and-pepper squid – practically haute cuisine compared with the stench of cat food (tinned tuna).
I’m going to have a little chat with Jessica-Susan the dog later about barking really loudly if she sees a machete-wielding balaclava-clad potential home invader lurking around. It could be a little tricky though, as one of our regular guards is very fashion-forward and he likes to wear a funky beanie with his uniform despite the oppressive heat of Honiara (and sometimes he substitutes pre-faded jeans or army fatigue cargo pants on his bottom half). I’m just hoping Jessica-Susan will be able to distinguish between beanie-wearing friends and balaclava-clad foes…I’ll just have to chose my words carefully I suppose.
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