Palau: Random Observations #1

We are very quickly coming up on a month in Palau, I have been writing down little things I’ve noticed so I can blog about them before they become the norm and I just consider them part of everyday life. I thought I’d start today with a few examples:

LANGUAGE

While pretty much everyone speaks English at a decent level both Amanda & I have been surprised to find that everyone talks Palaun to each other. I incorrectly thought that after being taken over by USA in 1944 that English would be the first language and Palaun a traditional 2^nd. It’s kind of nice that they’ve been able to keep their language but it also makes it a little hard for us at times. Amanda has found that a number of meetings & events at work are conducted all in Palaun, I also had a glimpse into what it’s like to be a Russian hockey player in Montreal when I had a baseball training run a language I don’t understand. We have had a one hour language lesson but it’s not an easy language to learn at all, it sounds very African to me when it’s broken down and there are so many different little tricks to pronunciation. Eg. a ‘ch’ in the middle of a word is a slight pause but at the end of word it’s a normal ‘ch’. After one lesson I’ve given up hope of being able to learn any Palaun, it’s too difficult. 

BUILDINGS
I've noticed here that there are a number of buildings seem to be half built. The concrete shell is complete but nothing else and they look like they've been left like this for a while. It's as if they build in stages when they have the money or they start projects without being fully organised and run out of money half way through.

The photo of the front of this hotel from a few weeks ago makes it look quite run down but most places seem this way from the outside. The hotel is a little old but clean and has a fairly new bathrooms. But when checking out the hotel from the back we've noticed how the concrete is exposed (no paint or rendering) and the steel rebar wires are all sticking out a couple of feet. This too is common, I'm not sure why things aren't finished. I don't know if it's laziness or lack of money. Some buildings also seem like they were due to be another level higher but have been put on hold.

CARS & DRIVING

Everybody drives cars here, we've only seen a handful of push bikes & scooters and there is little walking from what I can tell. Most cars seem a bit run down, we even saw one a few weeks ago that looked like it was on fire (while still being driven along). We have see a few flash cars though like a Bently owned by one of the hotel moguls who lives here. A median price for a car is about $4000 and typically they hold their value well. 

Like a lot of things here, driving reminds me of the 80s in Australia. Palau like USA drive on the right side of the road however most cars are imported from Japan so the driver is seated on the right side of the vehicle therefore driving in the gutter. But there are also US cars here too, so it’s a weird mix. You don’t really notice how much you look at drivers in other cars to make sure they have noticed you until you can’t work out which side of the car they are in. 

Seat belts seem to be a suggestion and not compulsory here. I’ve noticed kids climbing all over the place and hanging out of windows. While I don’t like to see this it doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue here as the max speed limit is 25mph aka 40kph and often through the busy sections you are just plodding along at about 20kph (for no apparent reason). I understand there is a low rate of accidents and most of them are drunk drivers running themselves into a tree. The alcohol limit is double that of Australia at .10 and I believe they don’t test unless you have an accident. There is a big ongoing campaign to stop people drinking & driving but I doubt it’s overly successful. Along with the lack of compulsory seat belts you’ll often see a bunch of boys or kids sitting in the back of a ute just like Australia in the early 80s.

Drivers are very passive here as well, frequently letting other people in and even slowing down to let pedestrians cross the main street even if they aren’t near a zebra crossing.

Did I mention there are no traffic lights as well? Apparently they were implemented at some point at 2 or 3 main intersections. There was a massive campaign leading up to this to inform the locals on what to do: green means go, yellow means prepare to stop, red means stop. However once implemented this became an issue, because some sections of the main road are long and straight It meant you could see the traffic lights from quite a distance away. When the light went red some drivers would stop hundreds of meters away from the lights because they could see it was red. So instead of re-training everyone they decided to rip the lights back out. Honestly I don’t think they really need them due to how passive and slow everyone drives.

Along most of the main street there is a middle lane that is used for vehicles to turn across traffic or to pull into when trying to turn onto the main road. It seems to work fairly well but there are still a few spots where it gets interesting, again lucky most people are pretty passive. It’s nice to see how so many people can drive without getting annoyed at each other but I do get frustrated at someone doing 20kph endlessly in the 40kpd zone, especially when you are stuck behind them for kilometres. I’d love to see this policed as it definitely causes some of the traffic issues through peak hours. 

INFORMATION

Something that has been driving me nuts of late is the lack of quality information around the island and viable ways to find said info. The Belau (Palau) games are on at the moment, it’s like Palau’s own internal Olympics with sports including things like Baseball, Swimming, Basketball, Weight lifting, wresting, canoeing, fishing and MAA (not MMA) Micronesian All Around. It’s a pentathlon event with sports like spear fishing and coconut tree climbing. The games seem to be a pretty big deal, but how do you know what is on… We’ve been able to find a list of what days certain sports are on but little other details. 

There seems to be no central location that you can look to find this information. There are some notice boards at various locations like the grocery stores and post office which are heavily used in an official and unofficial fashion but these have no games info.

A few weeks ago when I enquired about playing baseball I was given a schedule. So far the schedule has been vaguely accurate. We caught a game on the first day that was to schedule but I was told about night games that weren’t listed. Tuesday I went to see a second game, it started half an hour late. Yesterday I’ve twice gone to the field and there has been no one there, the schedule and even yesterday’s newspaper list a full day of games back to back. WTF?!?

This is just one example of the frustration of information gathering here. It very much seems to still be word of mouth.

OK that'll do for now. I promise I'll soon put up a more personal update about what we've been up to lately.