In the Beginning...

On Februray 24th, 2011 at 6am I departed Auckland Airport bound for the Solomon Islands to do 10 months of volunteer work alongside two NGOs (who shall not be named here just in case I get my butt kicked for slagging them off). I had been tasked with helping to organise a waste management system (including sewage and rubbish disposal) and to help out with the local marine reserves. I was be based in Kia Village, a small, sea-side village with no roads and no electricity.




Here’s the low down on my trip. Enjoy.

Saturday 5th March

This morning, I did some more research at the office before heading out the back to the beach with my spear-gun to have a go at some of the travelly that I saw earlier in the week. On the way down I was stopped by a big Auzzie guy who warned me to “think twice about that, the sewage outfall's just on the other side of those rocks”. After having thought twice I concluded that it was much the same as spearing around Dunedin, only here there was probably more sewage coming out of the streams nearby than the sewage pipe.
Once I’d retired with no fish to be seen, I skulled a can of Coke. Word on the street has it that Coke’s the bee’s knees when it comes to disinfecting ones stomach so no guts ache for me.
This evening I went back to see the guitar playing locals who I met last weekend to see if they were playing in town anywhere tonight. It turned out they’d had a busy week. They’d gone to the SolBrew brewery and played them the little jingle that they played me last weekend. They were immediately offered a recording contract for a radio ad – it was their lucky break! With all the attention though, they were knackered and weren’t playing in town tonight so I congratulated them and left them to their well-deserved SolBrew.

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