Wednesday 24 September 2008

Week 10 – At least rats don’t know what they are missing.

A pretty uneventful week so far, spent most of it on rest and admin. Starting to find this place very boring and cabin fever is starting to set in on the boys. I hate being stuck in one place. It is too hot to do anything outside or to watch movies or read inside. We got to get out and build something on Thursday. Not something useful for the locals like a school or a water tower. No, we were building a porch for the Australians, a much better use of our time. Still, managed to have fun building and it is starting to look pretty good. We were supposed to go back to finish it on Friday but something came up. Something that meant our section got broken up and some are going off to do a mystery task while the rest get stuck here with even less chance of getting out. The remainder of the week was spent, as expected, trapped in our rat cage with little to do.

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Week 9 – And all that I could see, was another fucking mountain.

Did a drug bust on Monday, always a good way to start the week. We went back to the crops we had found in our previous patrol with a few cops and half of the other section. Spent a good five hours ripping up plants. Wound up with at least 2000 plants with a value of $60,000 Sol. However sold in New Zealand it would have been worth a lot more. Although, as I predicted, all the credit went to someone else. Apparently the Solomon Islands Police Force found, removed and destroyed the crop all by themselves. I happen to know for a fact that the pile of weed remained outside the police station for a few days afterwards. Probably drying out.

Tuesday through Thursday saw us pretty much stuck at camp with the exception of meal runs. It is alright in this place but it is always good to get out of here. We also celebrated the little mans birthday with cake and a signed flag as a present.

Friday morning saw us head out past the gold mine to do a bit of a route recce and play some soccer with the local kids. We were looking for a track across the island and we found one alright. Unfortunately we soon got into a game of ‘just around the corner’. Before we knew it we were almost halfway across the island, after crossing some pretty big hills. We also had a great laugh at the aussies as their land rover got stuck going up a hill that our LOVs had no trouble with. Apparently a team is going to do the crossing at some point and get picked up by helicopter, hope it's us.

Wednesday 10 September 2008

Week 8 – Heart of darkness

You know that scene in Apocalypse Now redux, the one where the boat arrives at the camp by the river and it is pouring with rain, the tents are falling down, everything is a mess and everyone is crazy? That is similar to Mbalisuna FOB, with the exception of the river and a few less crazies. The camp is situated smack in the middle of a palm plantation which the Islanders use for oil extraction. It is about 2km as the crow flies from Honiara so it is somewhat isolated, hopefully here we might see a croc. We soon settled into our tent, for once finally separate from the other sections which will be a sanity saver.

From here we set off on a 3 day patrol around the immediate area. This was a mixed bag with someone screwing up the planning and saying our night locations were aware that we were coming; when it turns out they have been abandoned for 10 years! Someone dropped the ball on that one. But other than that the patrol was pretty good, we stayed at schools like last time and showed the kids movies. We treated some wounded locals, shifted some coconut logs that were in the way and talked to a lot of people. Oh, and we found a huge crop of Marijuana growing not 50 metres from the road. However as we were only informed of the general location of the crop and going off a hunch we stealthed in through thick jungle and passed within 10 metres of the locals without them seeing or hearing us. This was probably the first time on the deployment I used the skills I had learnt in basic. Still, we got in and out unobserved, took some photos and a few samples and hightailed it out of there as Breidahl and I had been bitten by some somewhat poisonous spiders. Overall a success I would say, although it is likely someone else will claim the credit.

We finished the week off with a trip out to Bonegi and pebble beach, not so much wreck diving this time and more getting hammered in the surf and off the rope swing. Wrapped up the trip with a chocolate brownie, a chocolate thick shake and a game of spot the white chick at the cafe in town.

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Week 7 – But where’s my steak?

Admin section at GBR is an okay gig. We usually only get one or two taskings a day outside of the usual cleaning and meal runs so it means a lot of personal time for facebook and the gym. Our section was going to boxing class 3 times a week but last class we were down to 5 and now we are not even in GBR so I guess that is the end of it for now. Maybe when we come back in a month. We managed to go out for dinner the other night, wanted to go to the casino restaurant but apparently we are not allowed so instead we went to the Hong Kong Palace. There were some grumbles to begin with as we were looking forward to western food but these soon subsided when the food came out. For the equivalent of less than $20NZD we each had a huge feed of Chinese, Pinfold even had a whole fish, head and all. Although I am still disappointed about my steak. I was expected a slab of meat, but apparently Cantonese style means it is sliced so it can be eaten with chopsticks. I ended up getting maybe 2 slices of it. And chopsticks! Another disaster, still funny to watch. I ended up using a fork that came out with one of the serving dishes. On the ride home we had the sounds cranking and stopped for ice-cream, I reckon the shop keeper had never had that many people say “keep the change” in a row.

The following day we went out shopping in Chinatown and I got myself a $20NZD G-Shock and a $33NZD Omega, didn’t have enough to get the $33NZD Rolex though. Afterwards we went for a swim in the NZ High Commissioners pool which was very relaxing. To finish the week off we are now sitting at the Observation Post above Rove prison and it is raining solidly, probably the first decent spell of rain since we arrived here. The OP is ok because you are away from everyone but I do miss the lack of a gym and internet. Oh well, off to Mbalisuna next which is very similar, but apparently improvements are underway so we will see.