Mella's Ngasech

Mella is another member of Emadch's family and it just happened that she also had her first baby during the past couple months. Since many relatives were coming in from New York for Emadch's ceremony, the family decided to do the ngasechs on back-to-back weekends. Vaughn and I timed our tickets perfectly to catch them both.


Every morning for the nine days of baths, the 20-25 people helping with the ceremony preparations get a nicely prepared breakfast. Vaughn and I thought it our best opportunity to make a contribution, so we purchased lots of ingredients to make vanilla French toast, melon, and a vegetable/ham/egg scramble. Everything went pretty stress-free, helped a lot by the women who make the breakfast every day and know what needs to be done when and where they can chip in. It was actually quite fun.

[the ladies eating our breakfast and telling us it was good]

Here's a video I took of these guys husking coconuts. I mentioned during the kayak trip that it can be hard to get into a coconut if you don't have the right tools. This is an example of how easy it can be if you do have the right tool: (45 seconds)

Storyboards are Palau's signature souvenir. They each tell a traditional Palauan story from start to finish on one board (without panels). Storyboards have really turned into a big business, complete with a staffed store at the jail. Prisoners have lots of time on their hands, so they have cultured this business into a real money-maker. (No, the irony of giving prisoners access to wood-cutting machinery and hand tools is not lost on me.) Small storyboards go for $50 while big ones will easily go into the thousands. The boards pictured here would be in the $100-200 range.

When I was in Palau five years ago I needed to have some storyboards made as wedding presents. I asked around and this family recommended one of their family members who was in jail for life after a murder conviction. He did a great job for me and I never thought much more of him.
But then I saw him walking around the house during preparations for the ceremony. I wasn't sure of the questioning etiquette, so I just went forth with it to my friend Emadch: "Isn't Sam supposed to be serving a life sentence for murder?"
Emadch: "yes, but he got pardoned by the last president."
Ah yes, pardons!

[completed, just needs to be stained]

Palau - The Kayak Trip, Part Last

The benches and the dog were provided free-of-charge at Ngemelis. Our breakfast was another huge pot of oatmeal with raisins and honey and some potatoes we'd cooked the night before over the fire.

Oh, and my tongue was still combative with hard-textured food, so Vaughn worked on our s'mores ingredients.



This is why you should question marketing. This water is bottled in Koror, perhaps one of the furthest points in the world from a glacier. Palau's water comes from rain that backs up in a dam. Glaciers have about as much to do with Palau's water as penguin pee. Heck, this water isn't even sold refrigerated. But it would be less appealing if it just said "Water" wouldn't it?

We kayaked to a popular lunch island and were let down when no Asian groups came in to barbeque (and presumably offer us some scraps). We did, however, run into a Japanese group and since we like flaunting our Japanese we talked to them way too long. We put ourselves in a bit of a predicament to make it to the island where our return trip was departing from. But we put our heads down and paddled hard and came in with about 10 minutes to spare. Oh, and after kayaking 20-some miles through the Rock Islands from Koror to Carp Island, we were required to wear life vests for the boat trip back.

But the life vests turned out to be our only warmth when we struck this, our first [real] rain on the whole trip. This was a 3" in 15 minutes kind of rain storm.

And then we were back.. Next up, the second first-born ceremony!

What Happens When You Hook a Shark From a Kayak?

I woke up on the last morning at 5am to go trolling outside the reef. I was trolling through the channel, getting close to the reef's edge when a fish hit. I had two poles out so it was a challenge to reel in the extra line while also fighting a fish. Once I got that all squared away I reeled in the fish, only to realize it was a shark. I pulled it up alongside the kayak and tried to wrestle the hooks out of its mouth with my split-ring pliers, but the shark went crazy and pulled my [$39!] pliers overboard. I quickly developed Plan B, detailed below:
(The videos are 2:43, :33, and 7:20 long. Nothing much happens after the 5-minute mark of the third video. Oh, and the speculation I offered at the end of the second video is exactly what I did.)

Palau - The Kayak Trip, Part Five

We meant to leave early this day because we had a long, exposed paddle to our next island, but we didn't get off until after 8am. Fortunately all skin but the backs of our hands was covered in clothing so the sun didn't hurt too much.

We encountered the only rain of the trip during this portion - a strange shower that was only a couple hundred meters wide by about 100 meters deep. And it was heavy rain! It was like one of those showers in the cartoons that is so isolated it only falls on one person.

[We stopped at this beach.. because we had all the time in the world]

[Ncherong - our destination]

I stayed on this island last time I did this kayak trip with my Peace Corps friends and it was a great memory. I wanted to come here both because I had such fond memories of it and because it's placed nicely on the edge of the reef to make blue water fishing accessible.

There were signs in a few places (including on our maps.. hehe) that suggested we should be paying to stay here. We decided to wing it and if worse came to worse, we could kayak to another island. In the evening (after we'd already borrowed the freshwater showers) a Filipino guy came strolling through with his dog. I figured he might say something about us needing to pay, so I jumped at conversation to derail him. Vaughn and I also gathered up all the food we thought we could give away and gave it to him. The guy was really cool. He's been on this island for about four years, working for the family that owns this end of the island. He's cleaned it up nicely and is apparently supposed to be operating it for visitors, though he said there hadn't been visitors for three months. He never asked for any money and he even lent us his dog (dog's preference) for the night. When we left I gave him one of my Japanese marathon shirts.


We went out trolling in the evening. The sun sets really quickly close to the equator so we were hurrying back at this point. But then I hooked up! I called to Vaughn, who came over quickly. Turned out I had a shark on. Bleh! Sharks are a bummer because they often eat the lures enough that you need to get the lure back from them for their survival. But they've also usually done enough damage to the lure to make it unusable. Then there's the 'putting your hand in the mouth of a shark' part, made more interesting from a kayak.

Palau - The Kayak Trip, Part Four

At our next camping spot we were sitting there when a coconut fell from the sky. This inspired Vaughn to open it. While he went to work on the dead coconut, I went to work climbing a tree with live coconuts. The green coconuts are always better for drinking because they are sweet, though their flesh is soft and jelly-like. The water inside the older, brown coconuts has a less refreshing taste, but the flesh is harder (and what grated coconut comes from).


The other advantage to green coconuts is that you don't have to husk them (though you can) to get in. You only need a sharp knife to carve off the [right] end. Vaughn did a remarkable job with his first coconut. Usually people get frustrated and throw them against things, which doesn't really help.

[more sharks perusing the offerings]

[Moorish Idols are so pretty - and even prettier in January when they school together by the hundreds for spawning]

[Giant Clam City didn't disappoint]

[our camping spot - few rats here, but there were monitor lizards!]

[All of the island beach stops have composting toilets, which are the most feasible idea for their remote locations. They work really well, too, with almost no odor (except for one)]

[Ready for the sun]

[my kayak]

Masks

I arrived on Monday - my birthday - at Aka school to find out we were all being required to wear masks. This was due to the flu scare that is embracing our communities. Major festivals have been canceled as well as almost everything non-necessary that involves more than a dozen people gathering.

[Teaching English is hard enough without wearing a muffler]

I think these are pretty strong measures during a flu, unless it's a huge outbreak. But when the flu isn't present, it's just crazy. This week there is ONE case of the flu (not H1N1) between the three islands in our community.

[Not only do we have to wear them, they're collecting money from us to pay for them! Do you think I contributed?]

I was not amused with this requirement but since I feel like I challenge a lot of ridiculousness, I tried to just be quiet. But it's so stifling when it's 32C (89F) and I keep breathing in the same breath. I kept pulling away my mask to wipe away the sweat/condensation that was dripping around my mouth while simultaneously biting my tongue about the absurdity of the situation. Eventually I appealed to the nurse that Zamami and Geruma are not wearing masks (I made this up, but figured she'd call me on it if I was wrong). But it turns out it's the principal's decision. There's nothing to be gained in appealing to him.

[We are allowed to remove our masks during lunch, but we aren't allowed to eat as a group in the cafeteria. The kids have to eat in their classrooms while the teachers spread out in the cafeteria (This picture shows the lone first-grader, whose teacher was nice enough to eat with him)]

On Tuesday I only wore my mask half the day - mostly around my chin - and some of the teachers relaxed about it in the afternoon. By today the novelty of 'saving the school year' wore off and most teachers were only wearing their masks in the classroom (but not in the teachers room). I didn't wear one at all and every time a kid questioned me about it I blew on him or her.

Palau - The Kayak Trip, Part Three

Waking up with the sun became the norm for me on the trip, perhaps because we usually went to bed by 10pm. I walked over to the sunrise side of the island (one minute from the sunset side of the island) and watched this shark hunt in shallow waters. I was awed, so only after his third strike did I think to raise the camera. It was amazing to watch because he almost beached himself to get at whatever prey he was chasing. He actually flipped and flopped a little to get back in the water:

[If you're not fickle about sleeping, hammocks are the best!]

[Why would we shave on a camping trip? My mask leaks if I don't. Took me a few frustrating dive trips back in the day to figure that one out]

[Most fish have latin names for proper classification. These fish are so common worldwide that they are officially referred to as "little blue fish." (I'm joking, I think)]

[clam and coral]

In the afternoon we kayaked to Jellyfish Lake. Palau is renowned for many things, but this is up on the list. Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake that, at some point many thousands of years ago, became cut off from the ocean. When it did this it isolated a population of jellyfish. Those jellyfish continued evolving, except they no longer had predators (which begs the question: what eats a jellyfish in the unprotected ocean?). So they gradually lost their ability to sting. Now there's millions (for real) of them in this small lake and everyday they migrate across it, following the sun's rays. In the afternoon they are close to the trail, so many people venture out to 'swim with the stingless jellyfish.' (For full disclosure they have actually retained a little of their sting, but most of us don't notice it.)

[Vaughn found this little guy]

When you get to the right spot there are clouds of these jellyfish. You can't hardly move without bumping into them. Unfortunately my lens was not very wide so I only got close-ups of individuals.