It’s been nearly a week now since I arrived in Kia and exactly one month since I arrived in the country and, while I am settling into the ultra-slow pace of life here, I’m not super stoked about it. I spent much of my first few days sitting around the house, relaxing. It has been an excellent holiday. The only trouble is that I didn’t come here for a holiday. The distant sounds of chainsaws from the logging camps have been a constant reminder that there’s a lot more to be done here than relaxing and catching fish.
I’m now on Kerhikapa Island at the conservation centre for the Arnavons Community Managed Conservation Area, hence I have internet. My time here has been spent hanging out with the conservation officers (three guys from the three different villages with an ownership claim over the Arnavons), going on turtle watch (but not actually spotting any turtles), and patrolling for poachers (which involves a lot of fishing).
I’m getting slightly anxious as the days go by, that I might not have time to achieve anything with this slow pace if I don’t at least make a start sometime soon. After one month I still haven’t been introduced to the House of Chiefs or the church leaders, and as these are the people who will eventually decide what I will do with my time here, I’ve not even defined my work objectives properly. I was always aware that the Solomons works on “Island Time” and so nothing gets done in a hurry, but I’m also rather aware that my potential to be of help here is eroding away by the day.
To make matters worse, the Sasakolo Conservation Area is in the process of being disbanded. Sasakolo was the basis for half of my assignment; half of my purpose for coming over here. The issue at the moment is that there has been an ongoing dispute over land tenure at Sasakolo for several years. The occupier of the land was the one who initiated the conservation project here by opening the door for TNC to establish a conservation centre. The problem being that another chief nearby claims the land as his own on the basis that his family had planted coconuts there some years ago without dispute from any other landholder. He believes that the land is therefore, rightfully his. Petty though it seems, the case is bound for the land court via a waiting-list of five years or so, time I that don’t have.
Three of us are heading back to Kia tomorrow and will go to Sasakolo on Saturday to bring back some of the gear that TNC owns. After that I’m expecting to have to wait for a couple of weeks until the Arnavons management committee meets and discusses my role here before I can start to do any work in the community. In the mean time I guess I’ll just have to occupy myself by relaxing and going fishing... Oh well.
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