Tembagapura Blog

Hello to everyone from Tembags. We arrived in about January of 1982 and left in May of 1985. I remember with great fondness our good friends such as the Herrs, Crafts, Foulds, Rendons, Carters, the Johnsons, the Steels (sp?) and many others whose name, but not faces, escape me. My father, like many others, worked in the mine, my sisters Tamara and Vanessa and I attended the school where my mother, Twyla, was the General Music teacher. It would be really great to meet with others townmates we knew. For those of you on My Space, I’ve created a new group for the Tembagapura. Feel free to join by going to http://groups.myspace.com/Tembagapura. In addition, I am there under www.MySpace.com/paraaz Love, Jack Lopez-Turner

Bob Foster’s wife Terri Foster has passed away. The Fosters were long time residents of Tembagapura.

Hello to all Tembagapurans! What a great thing to find this site. Wonderful to see all the names we remember and the photos from the reunion, even though it was three years ago. We were Tembagapurans from 1986 to 1991.

We put up some photos of us then and now.

I have been with Stillwater Mining Company (Platinum/Palladium) in Montana for 6 years. I’ve worked here with several TPRA vets, as one would expect: John Arrasmith, Bob Schuler and Jim Phipps are here now. Bob Taylor, Allan Schappert, Denny Stout, and Ed Wernett have been here previously. Ralph Barker consulted here a few years back. And a couple of RAM Raisers are still alimak-ing and have been through here as well.

Thanks to Jason Scarabin for keeping this site. It is great to see new photos. Are they joking . . . A Tembagapura shopping mall?!? A Sheraton Hotel in Timika?!?

TPRA was our greatest experience and we are happy to see so many who feel the same.

Doug, Sharon, Tacey, Zachary, and Nathan Jones

Jones 2006 Christmas, Billings, Montana. On the left are Zach, 18, and Tacey, 20. They are the two blonde kids chatting with the natives in the bottom photo, taken in 1990. Next is Sharon, 39, and Nate, 15, who was 8 months in the oven when we left TPRA, so he kinda lived there as well. On the right is me, Doug, also 39.

Doug Jones 1987 at the Dom Site. Grasberg is directly behind me the way it usually appeared, in the clouds. There was no Grabserg activity then, but a few crazy geologists thought there might be something there worth going after.

Color Contrast - Tacey, Zach, and Natives 1990

Registration is open again. After you register and you’re certain you don’t know me and I don’t know you… please e-mail me to let me know who you are and what your interest in Tembagapura and the site is… otherwise, you’ll be promptly purged from the system. Also worth noting, if you have old postings, guestbook entries, etc… and you want to edit them or delete them or add to them, you will be able to access them once you’ve been changed to author and your name attached to the old posting. If your registration fails for some reason, it could be that you had registered at the main site and your data has been moved to the blog, so just follow the instructions for losing your password at the login screen of the blog.

After returning as a family for the first time since 1982, the Scarabin Family makes a departure through town and up the road until… they get a flat tire just before reaching the tunnel… on their way to Timika.  See the 10-plus minute video here!

In lieu of having video posted on the blog, it’s (sorta) being placed back where it was but more organized and better looking at http://www.tembagapura.com/media. Because of server migration, some files must be uploaded again, so please be patient and check back later to see all the fantastic video footage available on the site.

The main site at http://www.tembagapura.com has been updated significantly to enhance visitors’ experience.  Take a look!  So much of what you”ll find are remnants of what the site once was.  The blog has really made it easier to manage because the information is now in a database and can be modified so much easier than in the past.  For what it’’s worth, I hope you”ll find visiting the site a pleasurable memory-inducing experience.  If nothing else, it’’s a great place to show your friends and family where on earth you lived, are living or will live. Worth noting: Since this original post, the site is in the process of migrating to new servers which may take a while before the updates described above are enjoyed.

The September 8, 1979 Glacier video has been updated. Though the quality is still terrible, the inadvertent pauses were eliminated. You can also find this and other videos by clicking here!

 

 Flash Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A couple days ago I received a welcome email from Jason Scarabin. Thanks Jason for making me exist in your wonderful web! It means a great deal of to me and you know what reunion really means, my friend!. It wakes me up again with my old memories and suddenly it’s now time for me to share to you all. I love being the part of this community. All the past memory is unforgettable for the rest of my life. It’s been already seven years since I finally left Tembagapura from resignation. I had begun working at Freeport project in Engineering & Construction Dept as an administrator from March 1992 until December 1998. I do browsing and find out many familiar names around here including the owner, Scarabin’s (Mine Legend). So, well..I’m breathing fresh .. let me just write anything to you again and again and hopefully we create mutual friend relationship for a better value of our lives in the future. See you then