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Saint Gabriel Church

Volunteer Day Saint Gabriel Church

Locals volunteer work on repairing the Saint. Gabriel church every Saturday in Taravai.   They come in by barge from the main island of Mangareva and work all day.  Since we were in Taravai for the weekend we decided to put our muscles to work.  There were 7 of us cruisers and about 110 locals!  Yep, they came in full force on the day we volunteered.

A morning prayer and breakfast were served before everyone began work.  The mayor (le mairie) is the man in the white shirt with the bright green jacket over his arm.

A group of students were among the volunteer group.  They worked on landscaping from the dock to the Saint Gabriel church (top photo).  The bottom photo shows the crop they planted a few weeks before (taro root, banana trees and sweet potatoes).  The government sat and watched the work (all day).  Impressive that they were there on a Saturday, but it would have been more impressive had they lifted a finger to help.

About 20-25 people focused on the roof.  They had 15-20 people on the roof and another group of people below cutting the wood and passing things up.  Only a few were tied in which was a bit scary to watch.  Surely, they know what they are doing.  Hopefully this roof will stay in place during storms and maramus.

Cruisers Work

The cruisers were set on up the opposite side of the work on the roof (precautionary measures to protect us).  But it was in the direct sun and it was HOT!  We were removing layers and layers of old plaster on the side of the church.  It was a messy and very physical job.

We were covered in plaster from head to toe, but it was rewarding work.  This Eve and I after a short water break.

These are a couple of great shots where you can see the progress of the work.  The lower white sections have been scrapped. The upper gray, blue, and black sections are the old layers of plaster.  The front of the Saint Gabriel Church is difficult to work on because you are on scaffolding and are working around curves, balls, and shells.

Before and After

It is always fun to look at before and after shots of your work.  This is an up-close shot of an area I worked on.  It still needs work, but it is better than it was when I started.

This little collage shows the wall before we began work (top left), us working (top right) and the wall after we were done for the day.  It is nowhere near completed.

This collage is through the faux wall (which is also being worked on) and shows the Saint Gabriel church and steeple. You can see the steeple has not been touched yet and is still gray, blue and black whereas the church wall is white.

Saint Gabriel Church

Saint Gabriel Church

Polynesians here tended to work slowly and take breaks often.  I think it is what they need to do to be able to work the entire day in the hot sun.  However, the cruisers, worked super hard for 5 hours and wore themselves out, me included.  After we enjoyed the very tasty lunch that was served to us, we headed back to the boat.  Must admit, that we all showered and had to recover for the rest of the day.

Events from this blog post occurred during February and March 2021.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

St. Gabriel Church

St. Gabriel Church Repair

The St. Gabriel church is a large, beautiful church that was built in 1868 when Taravai had over 2,000 inhabitants.  However, now there are only about 12 people living on the entire island and most do not use or attend the church on island.  Partly because it is in serious disrepair and also because there is no parishioner to hold service.  When one of the locals want to go to church, they hop in their panga and drive 6 miles to the mainland where they attend service at St. Michael’s church. 

The found loads and loads of wood piled up inside the church the first time we visited in April 2019.  We later learned that the locals planned to repair and renovate the church — at some point.  We were surprised to see that the work had not begun when we returned to Taravai in January 2020.  The wood sat comfortably inside the church when we returned again in December 202.

St. Gabriel Church Taravai

St. Gabriel Church Taravai

Rumors of Repair

By February 2021 we had heard rumors that they were going to start the work on the St. Gabriel Church.  They had a huge fundraiser and the local government was ready to begin renovations.

There are about 12 people who currently live on Taravai.  Valerie and Herve live in the “village” and they told us that they would repair the dock, add two water drains (from the mountains to the ocean), clear the mountainside behind and to the side of the church, and then set up scaffolding and a work tent.  All of this work took about 3 weeks.

St. Gabriel Church Taravai

St. Gabriel Church Taravai

The plan is to replace the tile roof with a metal roof (cheaper and lasts longer), remove all of the exterior plaster (by hand), then begin work on the interior.  Makes sense as why work on the interior when the roof is in bad shape?

Volunteers Begin the Work

The local government decided it would be “best” to ask for volunteers from Mangareva (the main village) to work on the St. Gabriel church rather than pay the locals of Taravai.  Much to the dislike of the locals of Taravai.  We saw the first group of volunteers come over from Mangareva to Taravai to volunteer to work on the church.  Sometimes there are 5/6 people and sometimes 30/40 people.  The volunteers come over on the Tokani, which is a glorified people mover.  They primarily use this vessel to transport people from the main village to the airport which is on a different motu called Totegegie (5nm away).  The Tokani takes the visitors to the lagoon inside Taravai and then the volunteers transfer to a barge to get to shore.  It is a process.

The volunteers begin on the roof.

Roof work

Roof work

The installation of the roof was very interesting. Nobody is strapped or tied in as they work on the roof.  Next, they only use hammer and nails.  They don’t use bolts or screws or anything more substantial to hold the roof.  Workers nailed the support boards to other wood.  Then the volunteers nailed the metal roof to the support boards.  Hope there is not a big wind gust or storm because it does not seem like the roof is secure at all.  I am sure they know what they are doing as this is not their first rodeo but still….

Removal of Plaster

Another group of volunteers begin the work of removing the old, dirty plaster on the exterior of the St. Gabriel Church.  There are layers and layers of plaster on all of the four walls and the steeple.  Workers covered holes, cracks, and weak spots with layers of plaster over the year.  It was and will continue to be a slow process as they remove the multiple layers of plaster with puddy knives by hand.

Plaster work

Plaster work

Update on Church Repairs

Matt and I stopped by Taravai on our way out of Gambier. We had hoped to see significant repairs and updates on the church as it had been 6 weeks since we were last here.

Church repairs as of 1 May 2021

Church repairs as of 1 May 2021

Inside repairs.  They removed the pulpit flooring and removed the cross which had rotted.

They removed the cross with Christ as it was rotted – hope they replace it altogether.

Coming up next is the adventure of our volunteer day at the St. Gabriel church.

Events from this blog post occurred during February and March 2021.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.