Eric

At St. Joseph's College, I was looked after by a man who works as a teacher there. He is from the Solomon Islands, and he is a very interesting man. He is full of stories. He has four children from various mothers and fled the Solomon Islands at the height of the ethnic tensions there. At the time he had a large tract of land with a big house and a lot of vegetables and fruits. He knows a great deal about agriculture. At the time of the ethnic tensions in the Solomon Islands he had been supplying vegetables and fruits to the airlines of the South Pacific, and had gotten the label of organic stamped on his produce. He also has worked in numerous other countries, usually in the agricultural sector, teaching and growing. He ran for parliament in the Solomon Islands twice, but came in second twice, before giving up the idea. Then the tensions came and he left the Solomon's and has been at the college ever since, biding his time. He is also apparently some kind of cousin to the current prime minister of the Solomon Islands. He comes from Gizo, in the western province and is the son of a preacher in a church, but the grandson of a crocodile god worshipper. His grandfather passed all of the tribal knowledge on to him, including how to worship crocodiles. He has a wide and varied past and experience. Maybe. There are so many stories and so many things that he has allegedly done, it seems a bit incredible that one person could have done it all. And in some of his stories, little details changed a little bit from telling to telling. (For instance, the first time he told me about his first defeat in the elections for parliament, he lost by four votes. Later it was by 6. Little details. They will get you every time.) I think some of it all is true, but I am just not sure how much of it all is what really happened, or really happened to him. But he certainly is a heck of a character and I was very glad to make his acquaintance.