Hello all,
I was reading a friends blog and she was writing about how she neglects telling about her everyday life because it has become ordinary to her and what may seem exciting to every one back home, is common place to her. This got me thinking about my sad little blog. I only seem to blog when something really cool or exciting happens. Life here in Palau has become so ordinary to me that I forget that most of you back home probably don’t have any idea what an ordinary day is like for me, or even much about the country in which I live. I know that when I hear about missionaries in other places I like to hear about everything they do because it helps me feel like I connect with them a little better. So now that my year is coming quickly to an end, I am going to start to try to explain (probably in a series of blogs) about what my life is actually like here in Palau. And possibly include some pictures too.

First of all, for those of you who don’t really know, Palau is a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean, about 6 degrees north of the equator and somewhere between Guam and the Philippines.
Like I said, it is very small, although there are about 200 islands in the country. Most of the islands are uninhabited rock island, which are very beautiful and make great camping. The main islands are Babeldaub and Koror. Koror is financial capitol of Palau because that’s where the city (yes singular) is. Koror is connected to Babeldaub by a bridge. Babeldaub is a much larger island and less populated. It is divided into several small states. Palau Mission Academy (where I reside) is in Airai state, which is the first state after you cross the bridge. The national capitol is also on Babeldaub (although I don’t know how to spell it, which is pretty much the norm for me when it comes to Palauan words). At the south of Palau, are the islands of Angaur and Peliliu (this is where a battle happened during WWII). There is WWII artifacts everywhere here. Which is pretty cool (you know, since I’m a history nerd).

Palau is always hot (being that we are about 6 degrees off the equator, I believe). At first I didn’t think I would last all year with the heat and humidity, but after a month or so, I didn’t seem to notice any more. And now, I actually get a little chilly when it rains. It rains a lot here and the rain brings cool weather (of course all you unfortunate souls who are enduring a cold North American winter would probably think I had gone off my rocker for thinking this is cool weather). The rain is good though, besides cooling the island down a little, it also brings drinking water. We catch rainwater in huge tanks then filter it for drinking and cooking. We also use rainwater for laundry, and showering and such (when our rain tank run out we have to switch to river water and that comes out of the faucet brown).

Palau is a tropical island so there are lots of coconut trees and pretty flowers everywhere. My favorite flowers are the Plumarias, which come in a variety of colors (I really like the pink ones but the white are most common). There are lots of bananas and papayas here too, and betel nut… lots of betel nut. Everyone chews here. It’s such a disgusting habit. In case you don’t know what betel nut is, I will explain as well as I can. Betel nut grows on tall skinny trees (they kind of look like palm trees with shorter branches). People here pick the betel nut and then put it with some powder, which I believe is made from lime stone. And then they wrap it in a leaf and chew it. This combination produces the effect of getting high. Some people also put cigarettes with it and the tobacco adds to the high, I think. Any way, the betel nut produces red juice that stains their teeth and is spit out. There are betel nut stains all over the ground, so we have to watch where we step.

So that’s probably enough about the country for now. I have more blogs to come...soon I hope.