Pieces of Palau

A few days after performing our full-length play here in Saipan, our drama team took flight and headed to Palau for our annual off-island tour. I will attempt to give you a glimpse of our trip..... a few pieces of Palau. (Sorry if it's a little long and very picture heavy.......I decided to do one, big, long post and squeeze it all in!)

Diving Disappointment

People from all over the world - of ever age, race, and religion - go to Palau for the Scuba diving. It's one of the best diving destinations in the world. For weeks before we left, people boasted of Palau's unspoiled reefs, caves, and walls with some of the most amazing marine life imaginable. They spoke of the whitest beaches and gardens of coral just beneath the crystal clear water; lakes filled to the brim with "sting-less" jelly fish; forests, waterfalls and caves that have never been ravaged by man; and hundreds of beautiful rock islands dotting the ocean. They told us about the numerous sharks, turtles, and manta rays that we would see; that there would be so much to look at that we wouldn't even know what to look at first. I was excited to see all these things.

We arrived Wednesday night, and first thing Thursday morning, Bev, Jessica, Sean and I headed down to the dock to get on the dive boat, while the other adults took the kids to go swim with trained dolphins (they had a blast!). The sky was overcast, but we remained hopeful. After renting our gear and purchasing the necessary permits, left dock. We arrived at the first intended dive site but were informed that it was too stormy with too great of a current to dive there, so we headed back inland to find a calmer site - Pincher's Cove. Not only was it calmer, but there was nothing to see there. A few stray fish swam past and an occasional point of interest, but for most of an hour we just swam along hoping for something big. After the first disappointing dive, we ate lunch and then headed to Chuyo Maru ship wreck. This dive was a little more hopeful as we saw rich coral gardens now living on the remains of an old ship that was torpedoed during WWII. It was my first wreck dive, so at least that was pretty cool.

I'm trying not to complain about not getting to see sharks, turtles, manta rays and myriads of other cool things - I should just be glad I got to go to Palau. But, looking on the bright side, I guess I'll just have to go back again during better weather. (We later learned that it was a pretty bad tropical depression, bordering on typhoon classification, that was moving through the area that prevented us from diving, and visiting all the other world renowned spots in Palau.)

** Note: Pictures may make it look like it was a great dive with cool things to see.......but not for Palau standards. **

Bubble coral

A lopha cristagalli - a "zig-zag clam" in my words.

A deadly lion fish

Hanging out on the line on the way up (L-R: Me, Sean, Jessica, Bev)

Crown of Thorns Starfish

Crinoid on whip coral

Tomato Clown Fish in his anemone

Lunch break at the dock

.....and then a nap - we were exhausted.

Getting ready to go for our second dive

This was the closest we got to the rock islands

Maiaiis pretticus (that's my scientific name...according to John)

A cool, fatty Nudibranch - he was huge, as far as nudibranchs go.

Fan corals

Tridacna squamosa (my favoritest thing from the two dives - it's part of the giant clam family!)

Our Ministry

The real work started Thursday night after diving. We practiced for a couple hours for the school shows that we would be performing on Friday first at Palau Mission Academy and then at the Koror SDA Elementary School. We did both of those shows on Friday morning and the spent Friday afternoon practicing and preparing for Vespers that night and the full-length play on Saturday night. We were supposed to perform for Sabbath School on Sabbath morning, but we were double booked, hence cut from the program. But our drama team was pretty much in charge of the church service at the Airi SDA church, everything from scripture and prayer to preaching the sermon. It went well and we were warmly received. After a short rest in the afternoon, we headed down to the jail to perform for the prisoners (which apparently are mostly Adventist.....interesting). And right after the jail performance it was straight to the church to prepare for that evening's show. It was a very busy weekend! But it was a lot of fun performing for the very responsive audiences. And some of our performances were even better than the ones we did here in Saipan!

Sean, introducing our show at the prison

Our girls with all their male fans after the Saturday night show

Our team with the Palau drama team

True Service

I was very impressed by the true service and missionary spirit of some of the SM's in Palau. Being a missionary myself, there are times that I often feel obligated to serve even when I do not feel like it, but I did not get that sense at all from 3 of the missionaries that spent most of their time with us. They were generous with their time, giving selflessly of themselves to help us with anything and everything we needed. Especially AJ - he was our go-to man. It seemed like he was always there to drive us where we needed to go, help set up and take down for shows, bring us food when we didn't have any, and solve any last minute problems that came up. I saw Jesus in these humble, willing, selfless missionaries.

AJ.........

........showing off his classroom

Just for Fun

Since it was cloudy and stormy all weekend long, we didn't get to do the Rock Island tour or visit Jelly Fish lake on Sunday as was originally planned. Once again, this was disappointing since Sunday was supposed to be the "fun day" - a reward after working so hard all weekend. So instead of doing all that fun stuff on Sunday, we slept in, had an extra long worship with singing and story after story, and then we headed into town. After lunch we stopped at a little "ice abai" for slushy-like drinks, and then we went back to the school to watch the Palau drama team perform for us, a farewell gift from their team to ours. It was a nice day......lots of hanging out with cool people.......but not overly fun as one might have hoped.

So, long after the sun slipped behind the horizon, Jessica and I decided it was time for a little bit of fun. Bev was watching the kids so Sean, Barbara, Jess and I headed down to the bridge that connects one island to the next. We had been told that there was a platform that people often jumped off of into the water. When we got there, it was almost pitch black making it hard to see what we were really jumping into. We climbed down to the shore to "test the waters" - we wanted to make sure it wasn't low tide before we jumped. The water was eerily dark and we were a little frightened by the size of a fish that jumped out just below us, but we knew we hadn't come this far to not jump. So we did. It was like jumping into a black hole at first because you couldn't really see and didn't know when you'd hit the water. After the first jump, it was no longer scary anymore. We did it over and over again - hold hands, pinch nose, jump, bob to the surface, swim to shore, and scrambled up the rocks to do it again.

On about the 3rd jump, the platform was starting to get slippery from our wet feet. On the count of 3, I jumped, but Jess slipped and plummeted straight down towards the water. Since she was still grasping my hand tightly it pulled me off balance and I hit the water on my side, completely winding me. I surfaced, sputtering and gasping for breath, paddling towards shore as quickly as possible. I collapsed on the rocks, and lay there, lungs heaving, until my breathing finally returned to normal. Since I couldn't let that less-than-ideal experience be my final jump, we jumped several more times, but I no longer let Jess hold my hand.....I think it's safer that way!

Jumping into darkness

The jump that winded me (you can see that Jess is already lower than me)

The aftermath of that jump......recovering on the rocks

A few jumps later......smiling again!

Overall, although some aspects of the trip was a little disappointing at times, it was still a good trip filled with great memories. I'm glad I at least got to go!

More pictures from the trip....

At the airport, ready to embark on our trip

A beautiful sunset from the airplane on the way to Palau

Welcomed in the traditional Palauan way

A view of the chapel, where we stayed, from the science room

The view from the balcony of the Chapel

Our student director, in her adorable turtle towel
We tried to go running on Sunday morning, but it started to rain, painfully hard. So we turned around and had fun taking "jumping pictures" (Jess's favorite pastime) in the rain since we were already soaked.

Looking pretty on Sabbath morning :) (if you haven't noticed, our team is entirely made up of girls, with the exception of Sean).

The church in Koror, next to the elementary school

Lunch at a little Japanese restaurant

Hanging out at the ice abai
Enjoying some last moments with Bev.... :(