Today we wrapped up the class by reflecting back on our time spent here. Palau is a beautiful country that has complex issues surrounding the use and protection of their natural resources. This class showed us both the cultural and scientific sides of the story, which served as a lesson that there is never one straight forward solution to a problem. A large part of conservation work is learning how to communicate efficiently with stakeholders that might hold complete opposite views and how to compromise so that both sides walk away happy. More importantly, if the community is actively involved in the preservation of natural resources then the regulations put in place are more likely to stick.
We would like to give a special thank you to our amazing instructors, Bryan Endress and Scot Heppell, for putting together this course. Without them this amazing class would not have been offered.
Thank you to Ann Singeo and the Ebiil Society for hosting us for a week during this trip. The amazing women that work here are making huge strides in education the youth of Palau so that a whole generation is brought up knowing the importance of protecting natural resources.
Special thanks to Obak, a chief of Ngetkib, who donated his valuable time to us to drive us in his boat around to the different rock islands.
Our MVS (most valuable students) were Daemi and Balang. We were so fortunate to have you both participate with us! Thank you so much for sharing Palauan snacks with us, showing us around, being our moms/chauffers, joining us in the taro patch, and providing modern context when we had questions.
And last but not least, thank you to Chris Kitalong and Palau Community College for sharing your knowledge and time to teach us more about this wonderful country.
Our last group activity – the night market
Music, dancing, loads of food, and some beautiful handmade jewelry. Nearly every vendor in Koror, and a variety of others brought a huge variety of food. This was probably the event that we saw the most tourists at. Taiwan had a fairly strong presence, with a few booths of imported fruits and veggies from Taiwan, and someplace was handing out postcards with “Best Friends Forever – Palau and Taiwan” written on them. The dancing was wonderful. The first group was all women with two younger girls. Second was a group with some more contemporary dances with men and women, that were pretty hilarious. Last was a group of women who accumulated several children standing close by and occasionally trying to mirror their dance.
Last but not least, the best part of the night was when Hannah went up and danced with a man we later found out was named Daniel… Dani Daniel? It was hilariously amazing. He was completely thrilled that she danced with him and showered her with compliments for her efforts. She’s an expert Palauan dancer.
