Friday, 17th October.
Dominic leaves for the mountain. The Citrus wakonai are mainly in the red circle in the next picture.
He will send on the fruits either to Bolubolu or to Alotau.
The two mountains are 2500m and 2300m high.
I set off at dawn to Vivigani to take the dinghy to leave.
The dinghy and its pilot are waiting for me on the beach but no-one else is there. The other passengers didn't turn up.
Trip cancelled. I go back to Wakonai to wait for Dominic.
As I sat on the platform with a mango in one hand and my knife in the other, I plant the knife in my right calf. It's time to leave this place!
In the evening, the village headman arrives and begins yelling at me. He wants his 200 kinas and says that the man in charge of the census did not have the right to accept the new arrangement. He threatens to take me to the police commisioner in Bolubolu. I try to explain to him that I had no longer had 200k. He gets even more angry and accuses my host of charging me for the accommodation and keeping the money for himself. This begins to annoy me. I explain that because of him I was only able to spend 13K for my hosts and that you can't call that much of a profit!
He calls me a liar. My host says that it is the truth. The villagers, who begin to gather around us, start to take my side against the chief. They say that Chris does not lie because he is a good Christian (every morning and evening I heard him say his prayers). Feeling the atmosphere changing, the leader leaves, saying that tomorrow morning he will come to apologize. Why tomorrow? I do not understand.
In the night Dominic returned from the mountain. He did not find any fruits. The trees were all in flower.
Saturday, 18th October.
In the morning I hurt my left foot on a piece of coconut that was lying in the grass. It is a curse!
The village headman arrives with the census book manager. The headman doesn't apologise at all, and the census manager - this is a young man who until now was friendly - starts calling me all the names under the sun, but finally finishes by saying they accept the deal! His statements sounded false, as if he was playing a game. I think he did it so as not to lose face with the village chief.
Anyway, one thing I know is that I must leave this place as soon as possible. This afternoon a 4x4 should come from Bolubolu to re-supply food for a training course for new primary school teachers in the region. I'm going to wait and try to leave with them. In Bolu Bolu, on the way to Wakonai I got on with and ate together with the Inspector General in charge of the course. We spent an hour talking about teaching and education.
For this trip, I had brought stocks of ballpoint pens, razors and analgesics - that's what is in high demand in Africa. Here, I found that there is very little demand for painkillers because of the good provision of primary medicine. So, given the reception in the village, I had decided that I wouldn't give anything. But later I thought that children were not responsible for the stupidity of their parents and so I gave pens for the school and razors to those who had been friendly.
I realized that my anti-mosquito hammock had disappeared yesterday.  It really is time to go.
Today is market day. It distracted me a little.
It takes place under the mango grove at the end of the Vivigani runway.
I take pictures of the family and the house, and I wait for the pickup.
When it comes, it is full, but I beg them to take me. I ride between the bunches of bananas and other passengers.
A few words of farewell to my host family and I (finally) leave. A last look at the mountains.
And so to Bolubolu.
I spend the rest of the day in the rain waiting for an opportunity to get transport to Alotau.
At night I walk away from the people and houses and I settle for the night under a tree in the tall grass behind the sports field.
| 
