We had spent the previous day in travel to this remote tropical island in the Pacific called Tuam. I had slept at least a few hours that night on the hardwood floor with a wadded up t-shirt for a pillow. But as soon as the moon came out, a rooster started crowing outside my window every 15 seconds! I'm guessing it started around 2am and lasted well past daylight. It was a little more than mildly annoying :)
I finally lifted my stiff self off of the floor and stretched out all the kinks. Then went outside to take a look around. Something interesting about this village is that they have built huge walls out of bamboo posts and palm & banana leaves, many were about 20 feet high. I had seen a couple of these walls yesterday, but looking around in the daylight, I saw that they were all over the place, and all facing the same direction. My first thoughts went back to the movie King Kong! I was thinking what kind of animal are they trying to keep out of here? I was able to use enough Tok Pisin to ask someone what they were for and they told me it was an attempt to block the wind from the ocean. I thought that was a little strange, cause I hadn't really felt any wind since I'd been there.
So they pointed me toward the ocean and I headed that way. I reached the biggest wall yet but noticed a small openning big enough to crouch through. As soon as I stood in front of the openning I felt a blast of steady cool ocean breeze hit me. Forcing my way through, I found myself standing on a beatufil ocean shore with waves pounding the beach! Definately the kind of scene you would expect from a tropical pacific island.
After taking in some of the scenery, I headed back for the house. I didn't want to be late for breakfast and for any of the dedication ceremonies.
We had a breakfast of biscuts and bananas. And headed for the courtyard like area in the center of the villiage. Here are some pictures of the people as we approached.
