Work in Palau

Up to now, I haven’t said much about my work in Palau, so I’ll try to take care of that in this post.

I was originally recruited by Peace Corps as a Planning and Statistics Specialist to work for the Division of Planning and Statistics, Department of Administrative Services, Chuuk State Government, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), where my counterpart was to be the Chief of Planning and Statistics.

A counterpart in Peace Corps speak is the person with whom a volunteer is assigned to work.  The general idea is to show the counterpart methods and skills that they don’t currently have, in order to improve what they are doing at their job.  It is not intended that the volunteer actually do the work of the counterpart, but rather to build the counterpart’s capacity to do his/her job.

About a week before departing to FSM, I was asked to change assignments in order to serve as the first Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Palau.  I agreed to take the position in Palau with the Environmental Quality Protection Board (EQPB) provided the position description was changed.  The EQPB had originally asked for an Environmental Engineer to work with an EQPB Compliance Specialist.  Since I am not an Environmental Engineer, it was agreed that I would serve as an Environmental Project Management Specialist. 

Shortly after arriving in Palau, the EQPB executive officer and I agreed that I would:

1. Review the permit application and compliance process to develop alternatives for making this process more efficient.
2. Do project management training and assistance in planning and scheduling special projects undertaken by staff of the EQPB.
3. Develop a system for managing the review of permit applications and the monitoring of conditions placed on permits.

In addition, it was agreed that I could provide project management training and assistance to Bureaus of other interested Ministries.

I spent about 80% of my time in Palau on my work for the EQPB.  The remainder of my time was spent training and assisting a counterpart at the Bureau of Lands and Surveys of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Industries and Commerce to prepare a plan and schedule to complete the on-going land surveys in all the states of Palau by March 30, 2017.  A small amount of time was spent training a project manager at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism to develop a plan and schedule for the Palau Tourism Master Plan.

By the end of December I had completed all the work described above.

I very much enjoyed the work I was doing in Palau, but I didn’t enjoy being away from Connie and the kids and grandkids.  Although originally scheduled to be in Palau for a year, when I realized toward the end of December that I had completed everything I could do in Palau, I decided to resign from the Peace Corps.

Following are some photos I took along the way:

Joshua came with his dad, Carlos, to one of the EQPB outreach meetings.
Here we are having a picnic before the meeting starts.

The outreach meeting explained to the members of this state the work of
the EQPB.  To the left are three EQPB Board members.  Roxanne, the EQPB
Executive Officer, is in the foreground and Carlos and other members
of the EQPB staff are in the background.

Our office had a Thanksgiving potluck the day before Thanksgiving.

Here kids from my neighborhood are practicing for a Christmas
concert a few nights before the concert.  They are in the parking
lot outside my apartment which is located to the far right.

There are very few insects inside buildings in Palau,
thanks to these little guys.

Connie came to Palau for a visit on December 24^th and we stayed at a bungalow overlooking the water for the first few days of her visit.  The view from the bungalow was spectacular.

Our vacation bungalow when Connie first arrived.

Views from our bungalow

Another view from our bungalow

Before returning home together we had a few days of sightseeing in Palau.  Our "grand tour" of Palau included the following sites:

It was quite a hike to see the Ngatpang
waterfalls.  Ken, our tour guide suggested
we use walking sticks, and they were essential.

Connie at the waterfalls

Badrulchau stone monoliths (Palau's Stonehenge).  No one can tell how they got there

This is Palau's capitol, located about 30 miles from Koror.
Most of the government offices have remained in Koror,
where most of the population lives.  I guess this seemed a good
idea at the time, but few people go there to work.

We also took a boat trip to Palau's Rock Islands southern lagoon, designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.  There we snorkeled in Jelly Fish Lake and Clam City, and swam in an area called the Milky Way, where we took a mud bath.

We got covered in this white clay at the Milky Way.

I had been in Palau a little over three months.  Prior to that I had been three months in Vancouver, B.C. with our daughter Amy and her family.  Connie spent six months in Canada.  It’s good to be home.