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.

Betel Nut

The staff at EQPB are terrific.  One of the nicest group of people I’ve ever met or worked with.  At least three times a week someone cooks lunch for the entire staff, and it’s usually a marvelous meal. There’s a small refrigerator in the office, and the cooking is done on a one burner hot plate.  We get lots of stews and stir fry dishes.  Many of the men fish and bring in their fresh catch for lunch.  Both men and women cook.

These fish were brought to the office for lunch

I have a good relationship with all the staff.  However, this post isn't about food or the staff.  It's about my education in betel nut.

Mike is the Compliance Supervisor.  I’ve gone on several long drives with him to the big island (Babeldaob) to attend meetings or inspect sites for permit applications, and more than once he’s come to my rescue at the apartment when something didn’t work.  I single out Mike because he likes to chew betel nut.  He certainly isn’t the only one.  Most people in Palau chew betel nut.  Many chew only occasionally; Mike chews frequently.  I believe he started when he was 14.

Although I had spent a lot of time with him, I realized last week I didn’t fully understand the process of preparing betel nut for chewing.   It was quite clear to me as I observed Mike at the office, at meetings, and driving that a fairly complex process was happening about which I needed more information.  So the other day I asked him to explain all the paraphernalia he and others carried around to facilitate the chewing of betel nut.  His response to me was that I needed to try it to fully understand.

When I started this blog I said the one thing I wouldn’t do was chew betel nut.  I was wrong.  I had to find out what was going on.  The following photos describe what I mean.

Mike laid out on his desk all the things he needs to prepare a betel nut for chewing.  This photo missed a few items.

Above you see a few betel nuts in the plastic bag he uses to carry everything.  There's a knife to peal the nut, a pack of cigarettes, the small white bottle containing slaked lime (calcium hydroxide), and soda bottle which is used as a spittoon. Not shown are betel leaves and a container of cardamom seeds.

Here's a peeled betel nut - the first step.  The betel leaves and resting on top of the pack of cigarettes, and the white jar in the foreground contains the cardamom seeds.

Mike is preparing a betel nut for me to chew.

Mike generally chews only half a betel nut at a time.  He slices the nut in half, saves the unused half for later, and removes some of the inside of the nut (the red stuff in the picture).

Here he is putting some lime on the half I'm going to chew.

Next he places some betel leaf on the lime and nut.  This is what I chewed.

Mike would normally break off a small piece of a cigarette (a little longer than the eraser at the end of a pencil) and place it and a cardamom seed on the lime before wrapping it.  He didn't think I needed the tobacco or the cardamom.  Others might chew a nut with different spices.

Here goes:

My spittoon

Kulie, who took the pictures of me, just after I chewed the betel nut, thought I turned a little red in the top one.  I think it made me look loopy.  Or is that how I always look?  I did feel a little warm for a few minutes.

John with his Pelican box.

The most common way to carry one's betel nut paraphernalia is in a Pelican box.  It looks like a small black lunch box, and you see men carrying them everywhere.  Women tend to use a variety of small bags or purses.

That's my betel nut story.  It's a real thrill watching Mike prepare a betel nut for chewing while he is driving 50 miles per hour.  I couldn't capture that on video because I was too busy watching the road.

EQPB

My primary assignment in Palau is to work at the Environmental Quality Protection Board (EQPB).   Although somewhat similar to a local planning office in the U.S., the way the EQPB operates and the functions it performs are significantly different from U.S. or European planning departments. 

The EQPB is a semi-autonomous agency of the executive branch of Palau’s government.  The Board meets every two weeks and is composed of seven members appointed by the President of Palau.  It is the lead government agency for the environmental protection of the land, sea, and air resources of the Republic of Palau.  Board meetings are usually at night, since the Board members are ordinary citizens.  Most are retirees, but a few have day jobs.  They are paid for the meetings they attend.

Palau’s Environmental Quality Protection Act of 1981 (Title 24 of the National Code) was created to “ensure greater protection of the unique and aesthetically beautiful environment while promoting sustainable economic and social development that would achieve the financial goals of the people of the Republic.”  The EQPB is to disseminate and enforce regulations addressing the following nine topics:  earthmoving, marine and fresh water quality, toilet and wastewater disposal facilities, solid waste management, pesticides, public water supply systems, environmental impact statements, air pollution control, and ozone depleting substances.

How is the EQPB at all similar to a U.S. local planning office you might ask?  Well, here’s how:  If someone wants to construct a building, do a renovation, move some earth, or virtually do anything that might impact the environment, they must apply for permission to the EQPB.  In due course the Board will issue the applicant a permit to proceed.  This also applies to the16 Palau state governments, who must make application to the Board to build or improve roads.

The Board has a full-time staff of about 15, headed by an Executive Officer.  The staff evaluates applications, makes site visits and places conditions on permits.  The staff is also supposed to monitor the work, once it is started by the permittee.  (I’ll have more to say about this in a future posting).  Once the staff completes it's work, the application is reviewed by the Board who approve the permit or might ask for modifications, before the permittee can proceed.  The Board also has the authority to issue fines.  

 

This is the entrance to the EQPB.  It's not glamorous and looks and feels like warehouse space.

Since working at the EQPB I have attended three Board meetings.  At each of those meetings three to five fines of from $2,000 to $500,000 were discussed and issued.  In some cases a person or organization who was previously fined will appear before the Board to appeal, usually represented by a lawyer.  One of the EQPB staff members is a lawyer who advises the Board on the interpretation of the Environmental Quality Protection Act.

Fines over $10,000 are very rare.  The one for $500,000 involved the damage to a local coral reef caused by the accidental grounding of a tourist boat.   This accident occurred in August and was the first known damage to a local coral reef.  An environmental consulting group had made an assessment of the damage and provided ways to set the fine.  They based their recommendations on research done in the Philippines on a similar accident.  I was able to obtained the original Philippine research (isn’t the internet great) and wrote a short paper for our in-house lawyer assessing the consulting report conclusions.  The lawyer did her own assessment, then made recommendations to the Board.

There are some other related function carried out by the EQPB staff, for example, the office maintains a lab for monitoring water quality.  As an aside, unlike many places I’ve visited, the tap water in Koror is perfectly safe.  (That does not hold for other parts of Palau.)

Well this is more than enough about where I work.  I only provided this information as a bit of background for my next posting.