Tiny island

Just behind Teop Island, there is a very small, uninhabited island. There’s not much there other than some trees and the rocky, coral ground.

The rough coral ground:

When the tide is low, it is possible to walk/wade there from Teop Island. Here are a series of photos showing the little island as we progressively got closer to it:

Finally, as we arrived at the island, we could look back and see Teop Island with the larger Bougainville island and mountains in the background. Nice view.

Teop sunset

Another beautiful sunset view of Teop Island. We just have a great view and sunsets, so I seem to always have photos to post. Hope you can enjoy the view through the photos. You would enjoy it even more if you were here though!

Namasiora views

We visited an inland village called Namasiora one Sunday and shared during a combined church service (four denominations were represented). On our way to Namasiora there was some nice views and we could see Teop Island. The following two photos show the view.

From a distance:

Closer up:

Living at Teop Island

Sorry it’s been a while between blog posts. I hope you had a good Christmas and wish you all the best for the new year.

We lived at Teop Island for four weeks and we were comfortable there – after our toilet was finished. The first week without a toilet was a challenge! They did build us a very nice toilet though. Here it is:

We stayed in a lovely couple’s house. They are Christians whose faith and love for the Lord is very evident in their speech and actions. Here are some photos of the house:

I did our cooking up on the verandah – I felt a bit like a TV chef on a stage!

This is the back of the house:

The Teop people also built us a nice shower house:

We stood on this concrete inside the shower so that our feet didn’t get muddy.

Walking to the island

Yes, WALKING!! If you can’t get hold of a canoe, at low tide you can walk to Teop Island (or to the mainland if you’re at Teop). It’s not very far; it takes about 15-20 minutes, and you have to walk slower than you normally would because you’re walking through water some of the time, although it’s only about ankle depth.

You can’t walk to the island from the place that this photo was taken, but it shows a lot of exposed reef.

This photo is taken from the point where we usually cross over. You can see how there is exposed land and shallow water all the way.

This is the low tide view from Teop Island looking towards where the photo directly above was taken.

Village views

Irue, the village I mentioned a couple of blog posts ago, is always in view from Hiovabon (unless there are thick clouds). Here is a photo which shows the stretch of land that Irue is on, leading to ‘the point’. To give you a sense of distance, it took only 9 minutes to get there by motor boat.

From Hiovabon, we don’t have a very big view of open ocean to watch ships sailing past, only a small bit between the point and Teop Island (on the right in the photo below).

We could see Hiovabon from Irue too. In the photos below, Hiovabon is circled, with an arrow pointing to it (in case you can’t see the circle).

Teop Island is the land mass on the left in this photo.

Teop Island

Teop Island is where we are hoping to live eventually, as it has a large population, which is great for language learning. It is a pretty small island, and if you know where to look on Google Earth, you could see the size.

The island has a short side and a long side. From our current village, we see the narrow part, so it makes it look even smaller than it is, but if we go for a walk a few villages away, we see the island from a different angle and are looking at the long side.

I have a couple of photos to show you those sides. First, here’s the short side, the view from our current village:

This is the long side, although I think it’s hard to get a good perception of the length in this photo.

Welcome to Hiovabon!

Rebekah and I went to Hiovabon village on 9 October and stayed there until 25 October, when we went back to Buka town for three nights to unpack the items we shipped over and to purchase more supplies to take to the village too. We are returning to the village tomorrow morning and will stay for three weeks, then return to Buka for only two nights to catch up on email and purchase more supplies, and then we’ll return to the village again for another three weeks.

We are staying at Hiovabon village which is opposite Teop Island, while we wait for our house to be built on the island. The village is between the sea and the road; there’s probably only about 100m from the road to the water, so both are really close. The name of the village, ‘Hiovabon’, means ‘Sit until night’ and when you see the views, you can understand why it has that name. Here are some scenes from the village.

In this photo you can see the bench that people frequently sit on and enjoy the view with chatting with others. I usually call Mum and Dad while sitting at this bench. The beach is enjoyed by all, as you can see the old man resting on the bench here, and a village dog sleeping on the sand.

And yes, here’s me!

Stay tuned to my blog while I’m away, I’ve set up a few posts to come up automatically on certain dates.

A few days in paradise

My visit to the Teop language group was like a few days at a tropical paradise, and in comparison to other villages, it was luxury too! We had a modern house to live in and a room each with a foam mattress, pillows and mosquito nets provided. There was tables and chairs to sit at too, so it was very comfortable and we had million dollar views. (Our house is shown in one of the pictures above).
 
We were staying on the mainland of Bougainville, but one day we went and visited the island across from us, where there is also a village. We were able to walk across during a low tide, and in the afternoon we took a canoe back. (See one of the pictures above for a view of the mainland from the island).
 
People from the island go to their gardens or school on the mainland during the day, and they return to their village via canoe in the afternoon, so this was a good time to go for a walk along the beach to the 'canoe terminus' and socialise with the people. I enjoyed spending time with the people showing them my photos and learning some of the Teop language. (One of the photos above is of me with some of these people. They are so dark that for their faces to look good in a photo, the camera has to over-expose my face. I am not really as white as the photo shows!).
 
Our toilet didn't smell because it wasn't a pit, it was the ocean! We went into the mangroves when the water was low, but you had to watch for the bits sticking up from the ground. Overnight the tide came in and washed everything away. (See one of the pictures above which shows our toilet spot).The only concern was privacy, there was no little hut to hide you!
 
The people were very nice and the language was very strong, which was encouraging. The little children spoke the language a lot and parents spoke to their children in Teop too. In some parts of PNG, parents are using Tok Pisin to speak to their children, so the children grow up speaking Tok Pisin and the language gradually disappears.
 
I cannot yet say whether I will be working with the Teop language group. It all depends on what what God's will is and also the thoughts of my future team-mate. I think it would be a good option though.