Happy St. Patty's!

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays in the US. I usually mark the occasion by taking sick leave from work, wearing my Celtic football jersey, watching college basketball the entire day and witnessing the collapse of my March Madness bracket whilst drinking cold Guinness and blaring Irish music way too loud.

I did none of those things today.

It was a cloudy, damp day- a cyclone recently went through the northern part of the country and we have been experiencing its effects. There were very strong winds for a few days, flights to the island were canceled. Sadly, the flight that was supposed to carry the camera man for my music video on the island was canceled as well- but we have rescheduled for 2 weeks time.

A cargo ship arrived last week, so the stores are well stocked with supplies at the moment. The ship came for our community project's timber- 52 cubic meters in all. We sell for around $500 a cubic so we will make over $25,000. I am proud of all of the employees, they worked very hard while I was away in Vila and we were able to attract a ship here entirely through their effort. It had been about a year's time since the last shipment of timber, when ideally ships should come for our timber every two months.

The ship delivered 8 large bags of a special kind of grass for our work horse to eat. Spent two days sweating in my garden making a nursery for it all. Made a new garden area for tomatoes, onions, lettuce and cabbage that I fenced in with chicken wire as well. (If you do not fence in your garden, chickens destroy your hard work with their relentless scratching and pecking.)

The old timber project manager has finally been terminated by the Board of Directors! When I returned from Port Vila, the Board had yet to make a decision and were planning on continuing to use me as "Acting Manager." Being a business advisor, I do not appreciate being used as a free employee. It is my job to work with the locals here, teach them to fish instead of tossing them a free meal. So I shut down work for at the timber project. I told the Board that work would remain closed until they elected a replacement "Acting Manager" and disciplined the old manager. They did exactly that and now the project is up and running again.

I believe that the police may come for the old manager as I hear rumors that his case is not finished. The police actually did come over a month ago and attempted to take him into custody, but he fled into the bush when it was time to board the plane to leave Aneityum. Anyhow if the woman's rights group funds another police expedition here, maybe the police will be more successful on their second attempt.

Brian the thief is now in custody on the island of Tanna and Okis (who attacked his grandfather after stealing from his store) is awaiting trial on the island of Efate. Maybe there is some justice in the country...

I have been slowly contributing to the decay of my mental facilities by watching Entourage, Seasons 1-4 the past few weeks. Just started reading The Pearl / The Red Pony by Steinbeck, which my family thoughtfully sent me, to counteract my loss of brain power. Super Man the puppy is growing remarkably fast and demands to be fed more every day. My friend John and I are building a small house in my nakamal to hide from the rain while we drink kava. Life is good.