Today we had a very delightful relaxed Sunday day, with a long snorkel and reading our books on the typical beautiful tropical beach. Here in the Green Islands it is just what you imagine, the stereotype of what a tropical island with long white sandy beach, cropped by coconut palm trees and astounding clear and warm water. The perfect place for relaxation and getting rid of any pre-return-home worry. Eventually the amount of admirers watching us increased fourfold and we moved on, only to end up playing some fun last card with some local boys, George and Billy.

Later in the afternoon we joined the local village church session, it was a very happy feeling in the sun laying on the lawn with other people who arrived not early enough to fit into the small hot church. Laying on the lawn and listening to the amazing sounds of singing and guitar music, they had very nice voices indeed and the whole service was probably the best we have been too- with very little actual preaching and lots of music. It felt a bit more like going to a concert, admiring the voices, we were feeling very content when a very small and oh-so-cute few weeks old pig stumbled between us, unafraid of the commotion. Eric thought it was a bit like a Jehovahs witness pamphlet, perfect idyllic village view with pigs, dogs and chickens wandering peacefully in the village, while the church overflowed with peaceful people watching and listening. Our only slight discomfort was biting ants where we sat.

After the service we had a very jolly talk to the priest from the Philippines and then later the chief. The priest without any prompting told us much about what was happening in the world with politics. He talked about Helen Clark, John Key, Obama and Somare (PNG prime minister) He educated us on Bougainville, of which the Green Islands are part, the people consider themselves Bogainvillians- with many banana boats every day going to Bougainville and back, despite the long 3-4 hour journey. For us this is fantastic, we get a taste of Bougainville without risking our necks or feeling in danger. Come May 2010 there is an election for the government in Bougainville which is relatively significant because it paves the way for whether they want to be independent from Papua New Guinea. In five year we are told there is supposed to be a referendum for this independence.

One man we met called Lawrence was definitely in favour of such independence and very scathing of the rest of PNG. "Where is Bougainville's investment in infrastructure?" he said, "How is the Government in Port Moresby looking after us?". Then another man from the same village was not so sure about this independence, his son was on a Government scholarship to become a secondary school teacher.

The Philippino priest explained critically that the current Prime Minister was doing nothing about infrastructure , but the politicians could still afford a jet. He did not have much power and kept getting votes of no confidence against him, forcing Parliament to close, apparently the Parliament this term will be unable to meet its constitutional obligation to sit a certain number of times - even if they sit every day from now until 2012!

Today is a significant day because, as it is the end of January, tomorrow all the pikininis and adults still in education start school. This means boarding school for many and a passenger ship is expected to carry school children, or rather school adults, to Buka and Bougainville, it will also be bringing teachers and some children for the school here. The end of their holiday and their visit to their village and back to work in cities for many too. A change in the population will probably make a difference to all the villages we visit.

This will mean no more pikininis visiting us constantly. We have a great time talking to pikininis, coming back and forth with many things to trade, the same pikininis just keep on returning - desperate to trade for more lollies and other various items. One particularly funny moment was one of the canoes filling with water looking quickly like it was going to sink. The little pikinins had to jump out, and with the help of neighboring canoes bailed the canoe out. Being made of wood they cannot sink, but float just below the surface of the water. They were laughing so much as one of the girls sat in the canoe underwater. Anyhow all this trading has meant no more rice, all our salt and sugar gone, all our flour too, we traded some of our tins, all our soap, our ropes are disappearing and fish hooks and line. But we are now enjoying chewing on sugar cane and eating many new fruit. Fresh tomatoes are a treat too.

One man trading some fish tells us the story of his recent arranged marriage. He is 25, the normal age of marriage here he explains- he was away at school in Bougainville for vocational training and when he got home his parents told him that he had a wife. She is a girl from his village so they already knew each other, it must be strange though, no wonder the pikinini boys and girls tend to hang out separately. They have one newborn child now but he will be going back to school in Bougainville tomorrow. While he's away learning to be a mechanic his wife and daughter will be staying with his mother.

We are feeling relaxed after our gentle stroll back home to the yacht tonight during which we came upon many a ribbeting frog, hopping everywhere. It seems like maybe they flourish because of the abundance of mosquitos - do frogs eat mosquitos? Or maybe they share a common breeding ground. Anyway, both frogs and mosquitos are represented in greater numbers than we've seen anywhere else.