SAMARAI AND KWATO ISLANDS

CHILDREN FROM THE SAMARAI ISLANDS ENTERTAIN US.THEY HAD BEEN PRACTISING ALL DAY WITH THEIR TEACHERS UNTIL WE ARRIVED IN THE AFTERNOON. AFTER A WHILE IT WAS OUR TURN TO ENTERTAIN THEM. THEN THE CHILDREN SANG AGAIN. IT WAS A VERY HEARTWARMING EXPERIENCE FOR ALL OF US. Samarai is a speck of an island at the southern tip of the Milne Bay mainland. Just 24 hectares in the China Strait (so named by Captain John Moresby because he thought it would be the most direct route from the east coast of Australia to China), Samarai has seen better times. In its colonial heyday it was said to be one of the most beautiful places in the Pacific and although no-one is saying that now, it's still a pretty place. It's much like an overgrown and untended garden that still retains a legacy of its former, ordered beauty. The island predates Port Moresby and was the provincial headquarters until 1968, when local government realised it had outgrown the tiny island and left for greener pastures. Two years later the international wharf closed and the town's been going to seed ever since. Before WWII it was the second-largest town in PNG, but in 1942 the Australian administration destroyed almost every building in anticipation of a Japanese invasion that never came (whoops). Its postwar reincarnation was built in Australian country-town style. A path encircles the island and you can stroll around it in half an hour. Unfortunately there is little in the way of organised trade since the last trade store closed in early 2005 Kwato Island is a small island set in the China Straits near Samarai Island off the mainland. It lies along one of the oldest trade routes in the South Pacific. Many traders have passed through here as they sought their fortunes in gold, bech-de-mer, mother of pearl and sandalwood. In 1891, Reverend Charles William Abel of the London Missionary Society established the Kwato Island Mission here. In 1930, the Kwato Island Mission Church was built here as well. It is still being used today and is a fine example of English masonary and Architecture infused and inspired by the culture of the Kwato Islanders. British Mission worker, Arthur Beavis, designed it. Its stonewalls were created by extracting and shaping granite blocks into shapes that fit together like pieces of a puzzle, creating a stone mosaic. Shingles for the roof were split nearby and mortar was created by baking coral in a large kiln. The floor is a combination of cement mixed with coral lime, giving it a beautiful polished white color that has never faded over the years. The structure of the building with its distinctive sway back ridge represents the house of the 'Toumana,'which in local dialect means the Head Chief or King of the Paramount Chiefs in the area. The pillars of the church are rosewood. Each pillar is adorned with different animal totems, which represent the various clans upon whose ancestral land the church is built. As well as founding the mission and building this beautiful church, Reverend Abel also left behind another legacy. A passionate cricketer, he taught the locals how to play the game and built his cricket pitch by filling in a swamp with sand and dirt. The cricket pitch, the church and the mission all still remain to this day.