Kennton's Solomon Adventures: Part 9

26.03.2013

Morning friends and family,

As always, I hope this finds you all well.

I know, I know. You’ve been desperately awaiting the next instalment of Hello from Honiara. Well, fear not my fellow friends. After over a month, Kennton is back.

History in the making

Before I begin, I would just like to pay particular attention to a ground-breaking discovery. That’s right, after detailed field work (comprising of asking friends if they know anyone Polish), Lukasz and I have come to the informed conclusion that he is indeed the first Pole in Solomon Islands[1].

Well, the highlight over the last 4 weeks was undoubtedly the arrival of my first visitor and the adventures that followed. The lowlight, however, was that the delayed rainy season decided to coincide its arrival to land with Lukasz’s flight. I think it rained every day while Lukasz was here… Not so enjoyable. Despite the rain, Lukasz and I completed our open water diving course and are now certified divers…hooray! Without elaborating too much (I’ll leave this for my guest blogger), I found the whole thing absolutely terrifying. It wasn’t until the end of the third dive that I completely relaxed. What I will say is that although visibility was not the best, diving in Sol is the best thing I’ve done so far. Anyway, I thought it would be nice to hear first-hand from the Polska visitor…over to Lukasz:

Kenn asked me to do a guest blog entry. As I cannot compete with his witty and colourful updates, I will be very short. If you are not scared of endless hours in the air and innumerable plane changes, do not mind cold bucket showers, temperatures which make you sweat as soon as you finish your bucket shower, friendly malaria mosquitoes, local cuisine consisting of potatoes and more potatoes, and the lack of basic tourist infrastructure for prices you can only encounter in Norway – the Solomons are the place for you. What you get in return for your sacrifice is the most relaxed place you can imagine, with no access to internet and working UK mobiles, the best pineapples and coconuts you will ever have, amazing tropical scenery and crystal clear sea with the best corals and ship wrecks. If you are lucky enough to be Polish, you will also get a bonus of a surprise look of the local people, for whom you will be the first Pole they have ever met. And obviously you get to spend time with Kenn and his Filipino gang.

Thanks, Lukasz! Can I just say that due to the heavy rains, water supply was restricted so we were having cold bucket showers. The status quo is usually cold running showers ;)

Aqua time

Lukasz’s stay also helped me to explore the city and surrounding areas a little more too. Although I was still working during his stay, we managed to do a bush walk along Cola Ridge (yes…in the rain), homemade cinema at the Central Bank’s beach at sunset, complete our diving course in a WWII shipwreck site as well as discovering the city’s only Indian/Sri Lankan restaurant and buying my first bottle of wine from Panatina Plaza (the closest thing we have to life in Fiji – don’t say a word, Fran!)

“It’s better in Fiji”

Ahhh. There’s so much to write about. During Lukasz’s time, we were graced with the arrival of Fran, our Australian pharmacist friend who was interning at the hospital. She, too, has also returned back to Aus before she finally heads back to the superior Pacific island country of Fiji. It might just be us that find the Sol vs. Fiji jokes thoroughly amusing but between Tini, Lukasz, Theo, Fran, Jarrod and myself, we were able to entertain ourselves for hours about how amazing Fiji is and how Sol…isn’t. That’s not to say Sol doesn’t have anything to offer but come one, Fiji has three, yes, three McCafes and two cinemas! I know, right! Just saying. Ugh…if only we had a cinema…we do have a bomb disposal site in Ranandi and overpriced Western goods at Panatina Plaza though. Take that, Fiji!

Drive

One thing that was made more apparent during Lukasz’s visit was the car situation. After careful consideration and a desperate need for cheese and tofu, I’ve decided that it’s time to purchase a car (on a used vehicle already in country). However, I still have the small task of learning to drive. After a hiatus, I’m back behind the wheel again. Lesson three saw me using third and fourth gears and completing my first three point turn. Lesson four, however, resulted in a few setbacks with getting into gear but I guess everyone has a bad lesson from time to time. Onwards and upwards...won’t be long now …I can feel it ;)

Work

Work has been manic…the last three months have been exhausting with the lead up to the publication of the Annual Economic Report, the release bi-annual Monetary Policy Statement and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Solomon Islands securities market, all having been scrutinised at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting last week. It has been mad but really interesting. It’s also nice to still feel that I have a significant amount of influence in my role. However, work is starting become frustrating too. There is never enough time to do everything and I find the expectation to complete tasks at home quite disconcerting. For example, research papers for financial disclosure, financial stability and reviewing the performance of the managed floating exchange rate are all due in the next week. All very interesting pieces of work but no time in the office to complete these tasks.

SIFF

Linked to the work we’ve been producing recently at the Bank, the facts for SIFF in this blogging instalment are economic in focus…

Real GDP grew by 10.7% in 2011 (not allowed to publish 2012 just yet). Real GDP per capita stood at just USD 117 in the same period.
Major exports comprise of round logs, gold, fishing, palm oil, copra and cocoa. Major imports consist of food (mainly processed), fuel (mainly oil), machinery, and basic manufactures (construction inputs).
The currency is the Solomon Bokolo Dollar (SBD), which fetches around SBD 10 for one of our fine British pounds.