(4/28/09) 6:37 am Palau | 2:37 pm LA
Day 1 in Palau

I found the crackers and ate them slowly. At some point I finally fell asleep for about an hour. When we arrived in Palau, a young Japanese girl/woman who was sitting in the aisle seat went up into the storage bin and took down my carry-on; I kind of panicked and said, "That's mine" to which she replied, "I know" and smiled and proceeded to hand it to me. I thanked her profusely (I forgot to mention that in Guam a man had gotten my luggage for me without even asking) - she was several inches shorter than me and I never thought she'd be able to handle that heavy "beast of mine".

When we got to where Rachel and Shauna live the power was off...part of the rolling blackouts they've been having since the beginning of March due to engine problems.

Off to take a shower. Be back soon to write more.

7:30 am Palau | 3:30 pm LA

Ok, so I was warned well in advance about having to take cold showers (no hot water tank here)...I figured not too big a deal, well, it was colder than I expected and I ended up splashing water on my body so I could soap up...couldn't bring myself to put my head/whole body under the shower to wash my hair so I just ran my wet fingers through my hair. I did manage to get the soap rinsed off my body with lots more splashing of water.

It's raining right now so Rachel and Shauna are taking turns checking their e-mail while I catch up with my writing. Going to start typing this up now.

12:03 pm Palau | 9:03 pm LA

Well we decided to take a ride in the rain for some sightseeing and to exchange a rechargeable light that they got at the Ace Hardware that wouldn't recharge. We stopped in 2 grocery stores (1 that sells local produce the other that sells more of the "regular" food) and picked up a piece of taro root (part of tonight's dinner) and a couple of Arizona ice teas for me...the other store I got some cheese since
they don't eat it and they picked up other items for making some vegan cookies. When we got back home we made some "felaco's" - homemade tortillas, hummus, tomato pesto and a "falafel loaf". For toppings: cut up celery, cucumber, carrots, pablano pepper and they had tomatoes on theirs.

As we were eating on the front porch, their next door neighbor/landlord, Makoto, brought us some 7-8-9 soup that he had just made. It consisted of rice, chopped up pumpkin and coconut milk that he made that morning (we saw him take two huge coconuts to his backyard earlier in the day). It tasted very much like rice pudding but with a looser consistency.

Here comes another downpour. Today's weather has been pretty cool (at least to me) it goes from drizzling to major downpour, but the downpour comes in waves and you can actually hear and see it coming down the street.

7:53 pm Palau | 3:53 am LA

Just got back from eating at Kramer's, it's hard trying to eat dinner (supper) when your body thinks it should be sleeping. I had a nice garden salad with balsamic vinegar dressing and 3 of the 6 slices of veggie quesadilla (very tasty) with some really good salsa. I'm exhausted so I'm going to get ready for
bed...and hope I sleep all night tonight. Last night I slept 2.5 hours was awake for 30-60 min. fell asleep for another 3-4 hours was awake again for 30-60 min. then dozed off for about a half hour.

Good news...when we got back home the electricity was still on. With any luck, they've got the problem solved and there won't be any more rolling blackouts.