Saying Goodbye to Palau

I promise this should be my last post about our lives in Palau ... and I should soon be able to post a bit about our whirlwind trip back to the USA. I must admit that I haven't even felt like I've had time to process that our time in Palau has really come to an end. Although, after less than 3 weeks, it already has begun to feel like a dream and I find myself wondering, "did we really live there for nearly a year?"

Here are a few images taken as we said our final farewell to our home and to our Palauan family.


Wearing our headlamps for perhaps the last time in a long while ... after using these frequently while cooking, doing dishes, walking out to the bathroom, etc for nearly a year, I am not sad to know that I won't need to wear it again for awhile!

All of our stuff out of the house while we wait for a ride to take us to the harbor.

Last views of the house and also our beautiful tree covered road.

Arriving at our little harbor.

The boat crew ... looking really lively ;-) (and ready for departure?)

At the airport with our friends, Titus & Calista (& one of thier sons, Segal). It was so hard to say goodbye to them, our Palauan family.

Around Angaur

These are mostly pictures of the buildings around Angaur, but I had to start with two pictures that always make me smile...

A person riding their moped with their baby on their lap, and our young friend, Itab's, amazing hair!

This is at the Koror harbor ... the island's old boat has become a planter that the men (including Jason!) sit under for the shade before the boat departs.

The new boat ... as it cruised past our house one morning.

Our beautiful harbor

Our small church, filled with incredibly warm and welcoming people.

Angaur's elementary school ... serving 23 students aged K - 8. This is where we went 2-3 times a week to use the internet and electricity.

Angaur's "hospital." Not sure what type of services they offered, except that there was sometimes a woman there who was supposed to be an RN. Most Palauan's needed to go to Koror for medical services, or often to the Phillipines or Guam.

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One of Angaur's two guest houses.

Angaur's main store - Leon's Green Pine.

One of our Palaun friends' water tank ... the writing says something like ' deadly poison, not to be taken internally, cannot be rendered non-poisonous.' Interesting choice for a water tank.

And, lastly a few pictures of some of the homes on Angaur. They ranged anywhere from new, western style homes to very basic structures that would likely be smaller than a child's playhouse in the US ... each one is beautiful to me in it's own way.

Doing Actual Work - final project

One of our "jobs" for the year was that we were supposed to paint the metal brackets on the house in order to prevent rust/corrosion to them. When we arrived, we noticed the brackets looked like this. Not exactly what we'd imagined. We didn't even know if we should touch these, much less try to do anything with them.

After consulting with the owners and a local repair shop, we were instructed to do what we could toward replacing all of the backets! This was by far our most intensive job at the house. From checking 3-5 different stores in Koror for the pieces, ordering some of them from Guam and having others hand-made, to getting them painted, to removing the old corroded ones (without having the proper tools) and adhering the new ones, it was a lot of hard and sometimes very frustrating work. But very rewarding too :)