Palau Blog #2: Seeing Palau Well

PALAU, I SEE YOU WELL                                                            July 24, 2012

Steve Saint is a hero of ours.  His father, Nate, was one of the five missionaries martyred by the Waodani Indians of the Amazon in the 1950’s.  We have met Steve and heve heard him speak. Steve spends his life advocating for the Waodani, to “teach them to fish” by inventing ways for them to learn practical skills such as dentistry. One of the things Steve likes to quote is what the Waodani people say when they understand someone and respect them.  It is “I see you well.”  I am starting to see Palau well. 

As our plane flew over one of the islands of Palau before we landed, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  One road, curving like a snake, spread over every contour of the land, with little houses lighting up the night like pin-pricks: a long diamond necklace.  There is one main street, and a handful of roads.  There are no traffic signals in this country. What I saw from the plane is what I see up-close now, what I drive on, and live in each day. 

We turn down a small road that leads to Emmaus High School for the teacher training. By the size and bumpiness of the coral-based road, I’ll assume it’s just a meager little road for a couple houses and the school.  Nope.  The road leads to a successful wood-carving school, one of the only home-grown industries alive and well on this island.  The school has a huge, beautifully carved wooden sign, no walls, and about a dozen long benches at equally-long tables, with boys bending over differently-shaped creations-in-progress.  My friend Fuana tells me that her former boss’ husband runs this school.  I am surprised, until I remember that in a country of 22,000, everybody almost literally knows everybody else. 

The little corrugated tin-roof box past the carving school is a shop.  It’s like so many other shops along the road in Palau:  family-run, tiny, full of everything including the lime powder and leaves to mix with the beetlenut for chewing, and is busy even late at night due to the sale of alcohol.  Continue past the shop and you may brake for a rooster, a pack of dogs, and a pack of boys.  Even at 10 at night after my evening class, I will see droves of young teen-age boys.  Cars will come from nowhere to pass me, driving in a swervy fashion to eek around the speed bumps while still avoiding ever-present culverts to catch the rain.  Somehow all of us avoid hitting the boys on the road. 

After a week here, I ventured driving to my night class on my own.  This is because the home where we are staying is in the next state of Airir, about 20 minutes’ drive down the road from the school in the state of Koror.  Most of the cars are imported from Japan.  Like mine, they have a steering wheel on the right, and a speedometer with kilometers in a land that was most-recently taken over by America.  So, when the speed limit signs say 20, I have figured out that going about 40 (kms) is a safe bet.  It was tough at first to drive, but now I’m getting used to it. The first two nights I drove in, I almost took out two dogs and one pedestrian dressed in black.    I was a bit shaken as I had to step hard on the breaks as I rounded one of the many turns and found a dog in the middle of the road. 

I can’t figure it out, it’s almost like the sacred cows in India, but the dogs seem to rule the road.   Cars slow and swerve to let the mama dog and her babies keep playing on the edge of the lane.   I have wondered aloud why the dogs do not play in the yards of their masters.  But then I realize that the dogs aren’t really part of a family.  Like the teenage boys, they fit more on the streets than in a nice home.  There are no sidewalks in this land, only those angled-culverts, so it’s not very pedestrian-friendly.  For that reason, when someone wants to cross the road to, say, go to the local shop, he must dart across between the cars.   Because most people really do drive 20 (some drive 15), I see how they think they have time to slowly cross the street.  

I see now, though, that driving is new.  Some women don’t drive here at all.  Some villages had no roads until recently.  The girls’ boarding school was only accessible by boat until six years ago.

We have been told July is a rainier season.  It is not “the rainy season,” as it rains heavily all year, but it especially pours in July, the second of which we chose to arrive—which became the third somewhere in the air.  Because of the high humidity and temperature at our vantage point six degrees above the equator (SE of the Philippines) it can be hard to see at times.  Mists appear on the roads, probably related to the swampy taro fields.   Your windshield may suddenly fog up and become quite difficult to unfog.  Upon getting out of your car, it is common to find your glasses suddenly steamed-up as you go from air-con to the tropics of Palau in July. 

In order for my teacher-training to work—which is based on multiplication as local leaders step up and hand it off to other teachers—there has to be a solid infrastructure of educators who are solid Christians in the community.   Thankfully, we have that in Palau.  I have just trained six women and men who are now running with this Educating for Life training for a crowd three times that size, drawing from neighboring villages and even a couple teachers from the remote Anguar State.    I am convinced that God is forging a strong net for these fishing-people to carry a broader, stronger, biblical education model unlike they’ve ever seen. 

Fuana is the local facilitator who will continue the 9 months of training for the 18-24 teachers.  Incredibly good with people, Fuana has taught writing in a couple different high schools, but currently works as the HR director for the Public Utilities Commission and writes her own column for the paper. She is a strong communicator and a mother of one daughter.  She reminds me of me. 

Seoni is the principal of the 80 year-old boys’ boarding school, Emmaus High.  A Tongan YWAMer, he is humble about how he got the job, and is eager to see his teachers come to see the Lord as their Master Teacher on a daily basis.  Seoni is honest about some of the paradigms that need to shift in his head to embrace this new teaching, even at a Christian school. 

Benita is the counselor of one of the two Catholic schools in town.  She carries so much authority, that she has heard the principal say, “What should we do?” with difficult situations, and then, “I’ll do whatever you think is best.”  

This is a matriarchal society, but none of these ladies lord their power at home or in the work-place. 

Leigh is a humble, Filippina who is married to the pastor of the Evangelical church in town.  This seems to be a hugely-attended church of local people, with a large Palauan service and very small English service.  Leigh teaches kindergarten for Emmaus, and admitted to me that up until three years ago, she had a great fear of white people.  She tells me almost daily that I am “pulling her up higher” as a Christian and as a mom.  I video-interviewed Leigh the other day to find out her thoughts on this training.  She said that while doing the dishes the night before, she was about to get angry at her two small kids.  Then, my face flashed before her mind, and she realized, “I can never treat my kids the same again” after what she learned about the value of a child.

Arlene is the secretary at the Evangelical church, and is busy planning a youth retreat this weekend, where Randy will speak.  Arlene desires to apply this teaching to their Sunday School program, to engage kids more and hopefully, see less behavior problems.  She is stepping up in leadership and has a gracious way as she teaches the local teachers in the second phase of training.  People in the community are talking about how this woman’s confidence has grown through this training. We all see a gift of teaching in her.

Regina (Rehina) is amazing.  A retired teacher, she hails from the remote island of Anguar (whom I wrote about in my last blog; she wants Randy to come to Anguar and photograph the sunsets).  She has been one who has calmed down troubled teen-agers,  coaxing a knife out of one’s hand in the corner of her classroom.  Last night, Regina did not come to class as she had a fish hook stuck in her thumb.  Her husband is a fisherman, and she caught one of his hooks, necessitating a trip to the E.R. 

Please pray for these courageous teachers. I see them well and am pleased to be passing on not only skills but a biblical worldview for them to multiply to teachers from all over this area, that all adults here may see Palauan children well.  

Palau #1: The Rhythm of Palau

THE NATION OF PALAU  IS LIKE A  PERFECTLY-BALANCED TOP.  It spins and spins, balancing naturally, and then starts to wobble. It rights itself and keeps going.  It may slow at times, but everything evens out and…it works.  It keeps going.

Since 1918 Palau has been in a game of Tag out in the Pacific, a plane-ride southeast of the Philippines and west of Guam.  Whichever nation has thought it could get something from this friendly, “Rock Island” nation has done so.  In 1885, Spain claimed it as part of the Caroline Islands.  In 1899, Germany bought Palau from the Spaniards.  Germany had been awarded trade and mining rights in 1885.  In 1901 steamships from Germany began to arrive on Angaur, mining phosphates using local and Chinese workers.

A friend of mine named Rehine (Regina), relative of  Pelauan YWAMer Linda Subris, just returned from an outreach on Anguar. They are still trying to re-balance after that German mining. Bombs were shot off to open up the rock for better phosphate access.   The Germans brought monkeys to the island, concluding if they didn’t come out of the holes in the rock, then they knew it wasn’t safe for humans.  The monkeys survived.  The only problem is, the monkeys were never eradicated.  Now, over a century later, those few monkeys have multiplied and spread to two other regions of Anguar.  They’re ruining their crops, digging up anything the locals plant.  The people plant starts upside down, as they know that a monkey will come after them and dig it up and “plant it,” putting it in now-right-side up.  Houses are pillaged by the primates, fridges are opened, and containers of food emptied.  The frantic folks finally have permission to shoot the monkeys in a too-late attempt to limit their numbers. 

The pay the land owners were given from the Germans for leaving gaping holes in their land and forever-fixing it with monkeys?  Farm equipment.  Yes, they gave them one hoe for one hole.  I know this because it is Rehin’s relatives who own the land.  They did not know that the farm tools were not valuable.  They trusted the white Europeans.  In her visit last week, Rehin found that the local believers at Anguar harbored unforgiveness towards the Germans. In God’s mercy, he provided four Germans on her Impact Team that traveled to love on this lesser-known island of Palau.  With gentle prodding, one of the Germans, a pastor, stood up one day for all the Germans who had taken advantage of the Palauans at Anguar, and said he was sorry.  “Gezuindheidt for putting up with what my grandfathers did to your grandfathers.  Please forgive my people.  We want you to be blessed, to recover and bounce back from this, and to thrive.” 

They received this humble apology. And their hearts were changed. Though a dozen children were expected at the VBS that week, twice that amount came, necessitating a call back to the Koror church office for more certificates.  As Rehin was turning to leave on the boat back to Koror, a woman grabbed her hand.  She was shaking.  She put a note in the hand of Rehin, that said she had been planning to commit suicide.  Rehin looked at the woman and had compassion for her like Christ did (Mt 9:36).  Rehin hugged her, prayed with her, and spoke hope into her life.  The woman stopped shaking and chose life. 

As I climb in the Japanese-made automobile to teach my evening session to the local Palauan teachers, I glance at my watch:  18 minutes should be enough time—if the stray dogs aren’t bad tonight.  The dogs are bad though.  I almost hit two en route to Emmaus High School where we gather.  I swerve to miss one pedestrian, in black, running across the curvy road in front of my white-boxed car.  Thankfully, I miss both.  I slow, and re-balance myself on the right side of the road while driving from the right side of the car. 

On the way home, it is pouring again—another deluge in this rainy season of July—and I am grateful, as I can balance my way home on curvy roads with killer potholes—and no dogs out in the rain. Cars come and go from side roads, and never seem to honk or slam on their brakes.  They just do this islander-adjustment-dance, like a top spinning, until all is upright again.    

As I finish up one of the last sessions training local teachers, I learn of a bias in  “Belau.” It’s towards Americans.  After the Spanish gave it to the Germans, the Japanese took it over in 1914, until the Americans “rescued” them after heavily bombing Koror* as part of the War in the Pacific in 1944.  As Fuana tells me, one man looked out his window and asked, “Which flag is it today?”  But they’ve bounced back.  They honor any American who comes to teach, assuming they must be smarter and wiser and richer.  The teachers wonder aloud how they can teach their own as I step aside and allow Fuana to assume leadership.  “How will they listen to us?”  We will do the dance and I will shift from trainer to coach on the side. The Palauans will lead their own people.

*Palau Dive Sites, History, and Culture  Compiled by Gunther Deichmann, Kevin Davidson, and Ethan Daniels, Dream Time Publishing, Manila, Philippines 2007.