In order to get to Teop from Buka, first you have to cross the Buka Passage, the water between Buka Island and Bougainville Island. As you can see from the photo, it is a pretty narrow passage, so it is just a couple of minutes on a little motor boat to get there. After that, there is a two hour or longer trip on the back of a truck to get to the Teop area, and there was no shelters over the top on the trucks we travelled on, so we were exposed to the sun the whole time. It's a bumpy two hour trip on dirt roads, sitting on hard wooden planks, squashed between two other people and with cargo at your feet. But it's not too bad and there are some nice mountain views. There were also some river crossings, some had good bridges, while at others, the truck just drove through them (the water wasn't high). In the photos above, you will see me on the truck on the way to Teop, and a photo that I took of how packed in we were on our return trip. I think I counted about 42-44 people on the back of the truck.
Today was the first time I've driven a car in a long time. I drove to town (Buka) and drove around to various shops there. It's a manual car and I took to it straight away, no stalling, but at first I wondered why the car wasn't moving, and then I realised that I hadn't turned the engine on!! I will be driving in to town on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to do shopping for the kitchen during some meetings/courses over the next 3 weeks. There are a lot of unpredictable pedestrians around, so please pray that I will drive safely and be very alert. Watching for pedestrians today reminded me of the days when I had to watch for kangaroos that might run in front of the car! It's a similar sort of alertness.
Here are some photos of the kids around here. The one at the beach was taken when we were at the Teop area, and I took the other two photos at church this morning.
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.
I arrived at Buka in time for the graduation from the Translation Training Course. Eight language groups attended this course and learnt about Biblical background, Hebrew, language, and translation. They also did some translation and will be taking it back to their villages for checking with the people. The picture at the top shows all the students singing a song at the graduation. It was really amazing - they sang the song 10 times, in a different language each time - Tok Pisin, English and the eight languages of the students. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am going to visit the Teop language group and stay with them for a few days (I will have someone accompanying me too). I have met the people that will be looking after me as they were at the TTC, and they are lovely people and very excited about me coming to visit. I'm sure I'll have lots to tell you about the trip after I get back on the weekend.
I realised that I forgot to attach the picture on the previous blog post and since I am blogging via email, I don't have the ability to edit the post and add it in, so here is the picture this time, in a separate blog post!
(Pictured above are the volcanoes at Rabaul, which are still active). Kokopo is the new town built after Rabaul was buried in ash in 1994, although I believe there are some businesses operating in Rabaul again. I stayed in Kokopo for 3 nights on my way to Buka. I really only had two whole days there, and on those days I visited town and did some shopping (where I was staying was a little bit out of town). The food shops in Kokopo were brilliant. The best I've seen in PNG so far. They had a lot of products on the shelves that we can buy in Australia, for example, Kantong brand sauce packets. They had everything I could possibly want to buy for cooking with. I also went to the second hand clothes store and bought more clothes for me to wear while I am at Buka. I realised that I didn't really have very much with me. I am really happy with the two skirts I got and I think I will be keeping them for a while.
