Tingwon is a small island off the coast of a slightly larger
island, New Hanover, which is next to the still slightly larger island of New Ireland, which
is where I live. The people of
Tingwon were in need of a tractor so the government not only purchased a
tractor, but arranged for the delivery of said tractor. The tractor was being delivered via
large ship and because the ship was so large lots of people got to go on the
trip. I was one of those lucky
people.
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| The MV Manmantinut, our ride to Tingwon. |
We boarded the ship and headed off at about 10pm at
night. There were over 60 people
on board, but not enough beds.
Lucky for me I got a cabin bunk and was able to get a little bit a sleep
while we steamed over night. I get
really seasick and while looking for the Dramamine my ADD kicked in and I moved
on to pack something else.
Thankfully, though, my ADD did not interfere when I went to grab the
ginger gum which helps with nausea.
The gum worked great! I
felt a little off, but nothing unbearable and no retching. On the gum label it says it’s good for
morning sickness as well all you pregnant ladies or potential moms in the
future.
So, the trip there was pretty uneventful. I half slept while rolling around in my
bunk ready to stop myself mid fall at any point. Funny story… it has nothing to do with this one, but
explains my fear of rolling out of bunks on a boat. While staying on a friends boat I had a dream that I was
calling after a friend as she walked away from. I kept yelling her name but she wouldn’t turn around. I went chasing after her and when I
stepped off a curb and at this point in my dream I woke up… on my hands and
knees… on the floor. I rolled out
of my bunk. And no, there were no
rough seas, I helped myself out of my bunk without assistance. The next morning
when I got up the first person I saw when I walked out of my room was the
friend I was calling after in my dream.
I let her know that I was not happy with being ignored and that it
better not happen again. Then I
showed her my bruised knees. She
found this all to be funny. I, on the hand, was not laughing. After this incident I’m a bit worried
about sleeping in bunks on ships.
The morning we arrived it was go time. There is no jetty where the tractor was
to be unloaded, but there was a reef.
After 5 attempts the ship finally picked the perfect spot to drop anchor
and drive the tractor off the ship and onto the reef. This had disaster written all over it so to prepare for such
an event I grabbed my camera. If
this was going to go wrong I was going to catch it all on film and then cash in
on America’s funniest videos or the Australian equivalent. Fortunately for the people of Tingwon
(and the government who purchased the tractor), it rolled safely off the ship
and onto the reef. I still got it
on film, but that’s not nearly as entertaining as a tractor rolling off a ship
and into the ocean.
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| Bongo admiring the Tingwon from the boat. |
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| Sit Julius (Governor), a village man, and Kuni all discussing which reef to unload the tractor onto. |
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| Lining the ship up with the reef. Unfortunately it was at this point Sir J told up all to get on a boat and head to the village so I didn't get any shots of the tractor rolling off the ship. |
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| Sometimes I like to pretend I'm a real photographer and take artsy photos. |
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| The tractor just after it rolled off the ship. I was on a banana boat trying to get pictures and videos as best as I could. |
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| Proof the tractor actually arrived at the village. |
After the tractor was off it was time for all the speeches and official
business. I didn’t get in to take
my seat because I was too busy snapping photos of the adorable children
everywhere and the speeches began.
At this point I couldn’t very well interrupt by walking in and searching
for a seat so I decided staying outside and playing with the kiddos was far
more respectful of a choice. We
bounced a ball around for a bit and then went for a tour of the island. They showed me the health center and
said no one was sick so no one was there.
Later, I found out from an adult that the reason no one was there was
because there’s no doctor there.
After the hospital we toured the prep and primary school. They have up to 8th grade on
the island, but that’s it.
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| I gave a kid my camera and this is what I got. |
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| And this. First time camera users take awesome shots. Makes me rethink my photographing strategies. Close eyes then shoot. Maybe some of my shots will turn out as interesting. |
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| Just hangin' out gettin' my herr did by the locals. |
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| I loved this! Flower in the hair and pollen all over the forehead. |
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| This is Mae. She was one of my tour guides in the village. She's 11 and in 4th grade. |
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| I said I was going to the beach to look for a shell. (I take a shell or rock from every place I visit). This was my following. |
By this time all the speeches and official business was over
and it was time to eat. Mmmm
food. I like food. Everything looked good so I put a
little bit of each thing on my plate.
Right after eating a bit of what I thought was chicken I heard two
people talking about the turtle meat dish. Then I felt awful for eating turtle. Had I have known it was turtle I
wouldn’t have eaten it, but since I didn’t know it was I got to try turtle
meat.
Once the feasting was finished it was time to head out
again. Getting from the ship to
the island and back was a bit of a task.
To get from the ship to the reef we took a motorboat. Then at the reefs edge we had to get
out and wait for a boat without a motor to come. This boat was pushed up to beach. We couldn’t take a motorboat because it was too
shallow. On the way back they were
taking people literally one at a time in a canoe. To get 60 people back to the ship this would have taken
hours so Bruce and I set out walking out to the edge of the reef. Then we went in a canoe one by one back
to the ship. Once we started
walking a big crowd followed.
We’re trendsetters like that.
This sped up the process quite a bit.
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| Boat ride to the shore. |
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| Waiting at the edge of the reef for the second boat to come get us. |
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| To get to the small boats you had to step through this door and down about 3 feet into the boat. I found this amusing. |
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| Canoes ready to taxi people to shore. |
Once back on the ship we had an 8 hour journey back
home. Thankfully, seas were a bit
more calm on the way back. Over
all it was a great trip to a lovely island.
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| Why sit in the boat when you can sit on the edge at the very tip? |
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| Drift wood... I love drift wood. |
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| The water is so blue, it's unreal! |
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| 6 legged starfish |
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| Not sure what happened here, but I thought this was pretty rad. |
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| Do note the "Bart Rocks" shirt. As mentioned previous this is a small island off a small island off another small island in a remote part of the world and yet T-shirts like these still find their way here. Fascinating. |
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| The ants go marching one by one hoorah, hoorah. This perfect arrow was created by ants. I thought that was pretty incredible. They carved out a gorge that is the perfect shape of an arrow. So cool. |
