The Toumoa Bell
Extract from email to member of Coastal Cruising Club (CCC): Last week, we were at about 6.5 Deg latitude which is North East of the bottom part of Bougainville. In 2002, we visited the village of Toumoa, in the Fauro Islands. We were the first yacht to visit there in ten years because of the Bougainville Crisis which caused lots of problems for the Solomon Islanders here. This area was occupied by the Japanese during the war. The Allies bombed Toumoa and destroyed all the dwellings and gardens. The villagers were enslaved and made to work with the little ones attending Japanese school. In 2003, we set about trying to obtain a village bell for them. This proved remarkably difficult as bells are not easy to come by. Then Mike DeBurca came to the rescue and was able to get some friends in the marine industry to cast one. CCCA members pitched in with a big raffle and other fund raising to pay for the materials. The people who made the bell donated their time. John Pennefather (then Commodore of the CCC) used his connections and had the bell flown by the RAAF to Townsville. There it joined the Manoora, the first troopship to leave with a peacekeeping force destined for Honiara on Guadalcanal. Coincidentally, our son was on the same ship! A couple of months later, the minesweeper, Hawkesbury picked up the bell and delivered it to the village- much to their amazement. We have just visited Toumoa and found that no other yachts have visited in the four years since we were last here. The bell is mounted proudly in the village meeting place which is run by the chief. It is used to signal work start, stop, meetings and all manner of timekeeping in the village. They are in the process of building a church up on a hill behind the village and when this is finished in a few years, plan to move the bell to their church. They have already (temporarily) taken it up the hill to make sure that everyone can hear it, even when the Tradewinds blow. When we sailed into the lagoon, past the village, there were many people waving and calling from the beach. We had to anchor about a kilometre away from the village. Onboard were two 18 year old Solomon Islander girls; we were giving them a lift as they had been waiting for three weeks for transportation back to the training school on another island. We went ashore and were joined by a fisherman and dozens of kids from the village. We formed a long procession, marching towards the village, with increasing numbers of children. We had 60 or more by the time we got there! The fisherman had stopped what he was doing and kindly took the girls to his home, where his family and other villages took care of them until we were ready to sail again three days later. What great generosity! The village is going well, though poor. The only income is from catching fish, drying it and taking to Bougainville to sell further inland. That's all for now- we will be starting to head towards Australia in 4-6 weeks. So far, we've travelled 3,300NM. All the best, David & Penny, Pastime of Sydney
