Mbambanga, Solomons

January 14, 2008 Mbambanga Island, Solomons

Today I spent my day rust-busting as the ‘Alevie’ back in Port Vila put it. I was chipping rust bits off the area where the main mast meets the deck, and then I painted the chipped areas with rust protectant/primer. I still need to paint the area white after another coat of the primer, but it looks a lot better than it did. After I was done, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning up the rust chip mess I made all over the deck and then when cleanup meeting came around, ‘we’ decided to run the deck pump for maintenance! So frustrating! I wouldn’t have took so much effort to get the crap off the deck if I would have known we could have just blown it off with the deck pump water. After cleanup, when we also had to clean the pilot house roof (where we collect our rainwater), that was just a fun tid-bit to throw in there too, I straight up told Kitty, “Can you tell us at the beginning of the day what maintenance projects are going on so I can work around them?” A simple ok, you’re right, I guess I should have mentioned that earlier would have been fine with me….but nooooo! It was basically my fault, and I should have waited to clean up my project during the clean-up time. Give me a break! That should be the title to the Solomon chapter. Everyone gets so caught up in their rules, regulations and lining people out, they don’t even act like real people anymore! Really urked me. I spent the rest of my afternoon asleep and reading in my bunk.

Michel and I cooked a great dinner tonight. Watercress salad with lime/honey dressing, pan seared rainbow runner topped with grilled ginger and green onions, rice, bok-choy, and pineapple crisp for dessert. Yum. It was delicious and pretty easy in the kitchen with Michel too. He did a lot of the dishes, which is unlike Michel usually. Max is back to stay. Surprise, surprise there. Could have seen that one coming, he just wanted the weekend off (well just say so then, don’t cause a big uproar about yourself). Oh and he told Michel that he doesn’t feel safe on the ship. Michel asked me while we were cooking if I felt safe. Well if Max keeps pulling these little stunts, no I won’t feel safe then. It’s like the kid is a danger to himself and everyone he drags along with him. Why do I have so much pent up anger for this kid? It’s really starting to bug me. My computer battery is on its last legs. Hopefully I can find one in New Zealand to replace it. Right now it can’t hold a charge for longer than 15 minutes! I’ve also decided to fly to Honiara the day before, so I can be all set for the plane at 1:00 the next day, and I’m also going to drop off some immigration papers to the Indo embassy in Honiara for the ship too. In Auckland, I’m going to have to figure out my visa for Indonesia. Tomorrow is more crew work on the deck, work on the play, John and Kris come back from their stay in Gizo, and we get a new volunteer in the evening. Heidi from the US. We’ll see….


January 15-16, 2008 Mbambanga, Solomons

On Tuesday, I spent my day doing more rust chipping on small things around the deck and then painted them with 2 coats of primer protectant. Mid-day Orla bought some cuttlefish and lobsters from a guy passing by, so I went ahead and cleaned them while I was all dirty. The lobsters here are a beautiful species, bright green, pink, and yellow ornate colorings on a black background. Zack and I took the classic lobsters on the head pic. In the afternoon, I had a little down time, and then Heather and I put together our Polynesian dance routine. I’m amazed we were able to put something together and get the dance synced with Kris and Nicole to the music. It’s only about 3 minutes, but its still good. We’ve been practicing it a lot, and really getting it down. Tuesday night we picked up Heidi from the airport, and then dinner and we went right into the dress rehearsal for the play. Dinner was delicious by the way. Orla grilled the lobsters which was different than I usually have them. Heidi is not the stereotypical Heidi that Zack and I were betting on. Not a blonde haired Swede! Ha! That’s so stereo typical! No, but she seems really nice and excited to be here. She’s a brunette, from North Carolina, just graduated college in biology (semi-nerdy), and wants to do marine science in grad school soon. She should really be into the science aspect. Sitting there at dinner last night with her reminded me of when I first got on the ship and the first meal I had with the crew. Just quite, not asking many questions, trying to play it low key.

The play is coming along. Our big grand premiere is supposed to be tonight (Wednesday), but it’s been pouring down rain with big swells all day, so we might have to postpone it. I really am dying to go into town for a bit, pick up my package, and do some emailing, but the weather is just crap. It would be crap on the day I really need to get into town. Just my luck! Oh back to the play, Orla, Clementine, and Max are going to be guards on the ship when everyone else is in the village. Liked the way that decision was made, just at morning meeting it was said straight up. Max hasn’t participated any, (last night he went to bed during our dress rehearsal) and Clem is just well, Clem. Too bad Orla can’t come, but an officer needs to be onboard. Excited that everyone else gets to stay for the whole event though, even Heidi (she’s doing technics and lighting), and we’ll all be able to see their dances too. Grrr! I really need to pick up my perishable package that was flown in today. Well actually, I’m not even sure the plane came in with the package, b/c the weather.





January 17, 2008 Mbambanga Island, Solomons

I can actually say Mbambanga for this journal entry and feel good about it. I finally made it in to the island we’ve been anchored off of for weeks now. We worked on our play all day today, and I made a trip into town over lunch to pick up my package from James (complete with 2 blocks of nice vintage cheese! It’s so awesome! You really appreciate the little things living on this boat. I also managed to get my plane ticket out of this joint from Gizo to Honiara on February 11th. That’s exciting news too! I need a break.

After dinner, we went into the village to do our play. We were waiting around in the maniaypa (big thatched roof building with mats over the sand for the floor, and fluorescent lights run by a generator) for everyone to come gather for the play, and all the little kids came and sat down waiting for us to start. Well, Kris, she’s such a kid lover, decided to play games with the kids. They were all so cute. John, Kris, Nicole, Heidi, Kitty, and I all played rhythm maker, hokey pokey, and sung Ole McDonald with the kids; they loved it. The play went really good though. It was nice to see it all run so smoothly. My Polynesian dance scene was a little screwy as the music was already playing before we were on stage, but we jumped in there and caught up. They were all laughing, because we were basically imitating their dances. TJ was a real star throughout the performance. Surprising, but he was a real crowd pleaser, just adlibbing and acting so funny. It lasted a half and hour and then it was time for their exchange of dancing that lasted 2 ½ hours! Super late night, it was crazy how they kept going! We got back at midnight, and then there was still another trip in to pick up the other half of our gang with the rest of the props. I took a lot of video of the dancing. It was basically the same songs over and over, but the dancers started from about age 4 and got to about age 60 as the night was wrapping up. These islanders have been relocated from somewhere in Polynesia, and they have developed a new group of people here in the Solomons. Their music really has that French Polynesia sound. It was the first time I had heard the infamous beat box that I’ve heard so much about on the ship. It was amazing. All the big men, young and old, gathered around a wooden box that sits on the floor, and they just sit around literally singing and beating this box with their hands. Really an experience to hear the songs and see the dancing that goes with it. I wanted to go try to play, but it wasn’t really our place to go try.

For their dancing, Michel had this awkward camera setup, with his video camera set up on a tripod front and center in front of the dancers. We couldn’t be in the picture so we had to sit outside the frame by these posts on the sides. It was ok, just a little rude. I wanted to sit right in their with the rest of the crowd, all the old ladies getting the kids ready and singing their hearts out for every song. We were really divided, with us on one side and all of them on the other. There were beautiful flower leis around all the dancers heads, head ornaments made from plastic straws, and grass skirts made from slit trash bags and palm fronds. Both men and women danced to the beat box music. A line of women dancers would come out to the same song and really shake their hips. Even the 4 yr old girls could really shake it, the crowd was cracking up from the little girls that were really giving it all they had.
I was so exhausted when we got back home, and all I wanted to do was use the bathroom and go to bed. Well in both toilets there was stinky, standing pee! I totally flipped out at 12:30 at night! It was just Clementine, Max, and Orla on guard all night, so it was one of them. I raged on Clementine, kind of felt bad after the fact, but I didn’t apologize, I’m not sorry, she’s ridiculous! I had to teach her how to flush the toilet after she’s been here for 2 months! Gross! What has she been doing all this time! Grrr! The freaking French are out of control.


January 18, 2007 Mbambanga, Solomons

Thank god for a late wakeup this morning and no night watch because there were deck sleepers. I really needed all the sleep I could get. I haven’t been sleeping so well lately, all this stuff just keeps spinning through my mind keeping me up. All day today I focused on derusting the part of the main sail boom that connects to the mast. The joint there was rusted really badly. Heidi worked with me, and she was a great help, which is a nice new addition.

Just a side note. Clem was polishing the stanchions with a sponge on her feet and it was the end of the world when she dropped the sponge over board and had to jump in a get it. Umm maybe you should get off your ass and do some freakin work!

We derusted the boom piece all morning and then I slapped a coat of primer on it before we were done for the day. Quite a job, just even the setting up took about an hour. We laid tarps everywhere, and then had to take the sail off the vertical sliders and pull it back out of the way. Tomorrow another coat of primer and then I’ll paint the rest of the deck projects with white epoxy paint, and then be done with ships work! Saturday we leave to head to a bay around the big volcano close to here (about 25 miles away). Do some hiking and relaxing for a few days before we come back to the anchorage here and start the science up next week when Paul and Katie arrive. After dinner we watched this documentary about this crazy writer, William Burroughs of the beat-nick generation, that was friends with Jack Keroack. Really interesting for me as I’ve just finished reading On the Road by Jack Keroack, and Will Burroughs was freakin nuts. I really enjoyed watching the documentary of his life and hearing his readings.