I just received the good news from Craig that Canada won the Men's Hockey Gold! The women also won gold, so to most Canadians that means we won the games, believe it or not. All the other sports are important of course, but the hockey games are near and dear to our hearts, like cricket to the UK or Australia.
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Yap Islands: Is a group of four islands In the middle of the Caroline Islands west of the Philippines. They were given to Spain by the Pope in a dispute with Germany ages ago. It was a Japanese trust at the start of WWII and was eventually to be pivotal to Victory in the Pacific. It is a very tiny island yet more than 1000 US ships were anchored in it's lagoons during that conflict.
It is also the home of Stone Money, usually the size of auto tires but some the size of a car. The money was not transported around but merely represented the value that it was designated with. The idea never caught on obviously. Now the stones have a traditional value more than the monetary aspect of it.
The islands are now an independent country using US$ as its official currency and it has a Free Association with the US which enables Yaps, or I suppose, Yapoleans or maybe Yapanese, to get in the US without visas etc. and to attend universities without restrictions. In return [?] the US is responsible for the defence of those Islands.
We visited The Old Airfield that was Japanese and then American during WWII. It is now just a long clearing in the bush. If you take a minute while there and try to imagine all the activity that went on there during the war, it is not hard to imagine the scene.
There is an interesting situation here regarding modesty: A women is considered improper to show her thighs, yet bared bosoms are not. It was not uncommon today to see natives walking about in the stores with grass skirts and no top. Unfortunately some women have taken to the beetle-nut chewing and subsequently, spitting. A difficult combination of femininity to imagine I know!
We had an interesting morning ashore today, we went on an independent tour with us four in the front of a small pick-up with two other passengers in the back of the pick-up. It was not a spectacular excursion but we did see lots of stone money, a wrecked bomber in the jungle and a few other interesting sights. It seems that there is a coastal road, paved, with dirt roads leading off into the bush where there are villages some few hundred yards in the bush where family groups live, parents, uncles, cousins etc. When a woman marries she goes to her husbands village and is eventually buried in that village's cemetery. The predominant religion is Catholic.
There were two wrecked aircraft we came across today. One was a US F6F Hellcat from the US carrier Enterprise. It was shot down September 6, 1944. The other, in the bush, looks like a larger plane of some sort, likely American from a bit later era.
A good day, but not a great day. Next is three days at sea to Manila, the Philippines, for a two day stay.
Pics:
Fellette finally has her face on money.
Next three, Jim, Gail and Doug with various coins.
Next two, more money.
Jim on a brief canoe ride in the lagoon.
Dancers in the park by the ship in the afternoon. [Jim and Gail went].
The Grummand.
Next two the US aircraft.
Our driver and car on the old airfield.
A Yap licence plate.
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