Republic of Palau: My Home Sweet Home

Home Is Where The ...

I realize that the concept is a difficult one to grasp, unless you're a Third-Culture Kid like me. I am blond, with blue eyes, and grew up in a place where everyone had lovely long black hair and deep brown eyes and skin. Boy, did I ever ache to fit in! I speak the language fluently, so if a Palauan hears me without seeing me they think I'm Palauan. But once they see me, that just spoils everything!

I loved growing up in Palau, even though it was difficult to fit in sometimes (when push came to shove). We lived about 20 yards from the beach and a warm ocean surrounded by a reef. I swam almost daily. The surrounding jungles were fun and exciting places to explore. Especially if we would find WWII leftovers in bunkers.

We played simple but fun games, some of which were some of the early games American Colonial children played: stick and wheel, tops, marbles, carving boats, etc. There were also the Japanese games since they were the last occupier of the islands before the Americans liberated Palau during WWII. Some games like "chosarai" were played with homemade beanbags filled with sand. Other games like "hanahuda" were imports from Japan--a fun thick card slapping sort of game.

Two of the things I loved about Palau are still things that I love in life--singing and flowers. The plumerias (see photo), hibiscus, trumpet flowers, and others made for sweet-smelling leis and "marmars" (head garlands). The "irang" or ylangylang were also headily fragrant additions to any lei or marmar.

As for singing, the Palauans are musical and my family was and is musical, so that was awesome. I used to sing with friends in two, three, and four-part harmony either acappella or accompanied by guitars or ukeleles. The Palauan language is a naturally musical-sounding language, so it sounds very beautiful when put to music.

These and many more things are what make up part of who I am and what I love.

I've always wanted to visit Israel, and almost did since we lived so close when in Turkey. I'm sorry now that we didn't go then. It is my lifelong dream to go there once before I die.

I'd love to visit the home of my ancestors. I've never been there in spite of all the travels we've done throughout our lives. I want to see the area near Loch Ness where our clan used to live and hear bagpipes and see men wearing kilts (is that weird--I hope not) and just see what life is like there. I'd also like to look at church records and see if I can find any family members in them. Wow! How exciting that would be!

It has been 12 or 14 years now since I was last in Palau. I miss the people, the beauty, the Rock Islands, the beautiful white beaches, the FOOD!, the tropical weather, and all my childhood friends.

Palau has amazing features:
1. 600+ species of coral (the Great Barrier Reef has 60!)
2. Plentiful fish and turtles etc. which are carefully policed by the locals (which is why they're still there!)
3. Many, many varieties of delicious bananas from one about the length of my pinky finger to a foot-long green variety. So very good!
4. Super friendly people who are hospitable by nature and by culture, and who are laid back and really spend quality time with you.
5. Modern resorts with all the amenities
6. Very awesome dolphin and porpoise area where you can hug them and pet them!
7. Hundreds of islands that are completely deserted so you can rent them for a day or a week or a month (depending on how much money you have) and stay there like Robinson Crusoe. My favorite thing!
8. Some of the most beautiful flowers west of Hawaii.
9. Lovely-smelling leis, handcrafts, and wooden storyboards that tell the legends of Palau.
10. It is serviced in style by Continental Micronesia (they do have a monopoly, however), but it sure beats traveling for weeks on an old top-heavy ship (that's how we got there when I was 7 years old--and during a typhoon, to boot).

Me and my wild dog, Junior, when I was a teenager.

I've always wanted to do this. They fascinate me, and I think they are one of the wonders of this world. There's a lot of biblical history down there, too. That interests me very much.

I would take pretty much anywhere, but I'd really like to work on a dig in Turkey or in Israel. I just heard recently that in Israel a half shekel coin was found near the Temple Mount that was used for the Temple taxes during the time right before Antiochus Epiphanies destroyed the second temple. That's a very significant find! I would love to just find something like that--a coin or a small shard of pottery with some writing on it that linked it to the Bible. That happens all the time, but I've never been able to do that personally.