Oasis Restaurant in Yap

We tried a different restaurant in Yap and found it very delicious.  Andy treated the whole group of teachers to a buffet dinner here on our last night.  
Jack and Waka loved the Sashimi.  Raw fish
I loved the vegetable burger.  No burger just lots of sauted vegetables.  Yummy.
Cutting sashimi on the dock of Manta Ray.
Never saw this sign posted on a trash can in Japan or USA!  It says, "Don't spit in this trash can thank you!"  The spit would be beetlenut, which is kind of the pasttime of Yap.  Chewing beetlenut mixed with lime and then of course the lime cuts your gums and makes them bleed making a big red wad of stuff that needs to be spit out someplace.  

ESD

ESD stands for Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection.  Last year the city here had the annual poop check and they said for me to get a colonscopic exam to check out the bit of blood in the poop test.  Well, they discovered some tumors down in the colon near the rectum.  The local clinic sent me to Chiba University Hospital to do a more detailed check.  They did the photo shots up my bum again and put me in line for the new ESD technique.  This is still in the testing stage, hopefully it will prove successful and be approved by the National Health Care.  I feel so great and had a very quick recovery.  Spent 9 days in the hospital even though I felt so good, because they had to make sure I could pass the poop without blowing a clamp.  Now I have to wait until next month for the pathology test to come back to see if the tumors were cancerous or not.  

Thanks for coming back to my blog.  I'll post photos again soon.

ESD

I'm back after spending 9 days in the Chiba University Hospital.  I had an ESD surgery.  That is my question for you.  What does ESD mean?  It doesn't mean, Early   Stage Dementia  or Ear Saphire Diamond implant.  Tomorrow I'll give you the answer and then get back to other things.

Quiet for a week or so

Sorry, but I am going to be away from on-line for at least a week--maybe two.  So please check back next month.  I still have photos of Yap and Guam.

Yap Stores

Above is one of the few things you can buy that show you have been to Yap.

Below is a shot of the canned imported stuff in a the grocery store.

Andy and I are smelling the Papaya to see if it is ripe.  We discovered even if still green if there is a smell of Papaya it is still yummy.  In the foreground are bananas.

Yap crowns and leis

Here is a close up of the flowers braided into the string leis we were given at the airport.
My favorite style is this crown weave.  Here one of the high school girls shows me how to do it.

It is not so common now days as it takes longer and more flowers than the simple braid.

Here we are with our crowns presented to us by the high school teachers.  Below we are posed with our welcome leis.

Hilltop Hotel in Yap

Our kitchen.  Also had a rice cooker but no toaster or microwave.  
Our bedroom.  The kids had two single beds and we had the two doubles.  We only used one and the kids only used one too.  
Fine bathroom...everything worked and drained okay.
I had to laugh at this sign.  I asked the manager how many people smoked inside the fridge?Jack waves from the entrance to our room.  The rail was fine to hang our set stuff on.  The management said they never have a theft  problem so don't worry even with scuba stuff.

Yap Continuted

The store in downtown Colonia (more of a village) sells the school uniform.  This is quite nice since the kids from Kindergarten through High School all wear the same uniform it is hard to distinguish the rich from the poor.
Here Andy is talking to the kids.  He talked to them about Beetlenut, Tobacco and Alcohol use from a medical point of view.  After the talk he let the kids ask him questions.  The high school kids had no questions, but the middle school had lots.  During the speech Andy mentioned having to cut off some fingers that were cancerous because of tobacco use.  The first question a boy had when he asked for questions was, "do you use a chain saw to cut off fingers?"
Here Andy is talking to Norma.  She is the only girl left in the school who was his student 10 years ago.  She was kindergarten then...now she is 9th grade.  Several of the original class are now overseas going to school and some have just dropped out of the mission school system.
Andy stopped by the Yap Hospital to visit with the doctor there.  He is also a family doctor who is there on a government pay back system.  If Andy could be guaranteed a place like Yap he would try to switch over from military to the public health system which puts doctors in these primitive places where doctors are so needed but the people in that area can't afford to pay the salary.  This guy was actually a classmate of one of Andy's fellow resident doctors in Camp Pendleton and she introduced them.  This doctor is engaged to marry a Yap girl and plans to stay in Yap, but would love for Andy to come and spell him off sometime.

clearing customs

This is how they bring the checked in luggage to the terminal.  Below Andy and I are waiting to go by the final check.  Note the flowers around our necks.  These were given to us by young Yapese teenagers as we cleared the immigration desk.
Below you can see what is another natural animal of Yap.  Dogs are everywhere.  Not dangerous  noisy ones but little quiet skinny things that are too wild to pet, yet too tame to run away.  Maybe they are the natural garbage collectors for the beach and yards?  They seem to leave the chickens alone.  I only saw one cat--maybe they like them better.

natural wildlife on Yap

This little toad/frog sat so still we  could get really close and he kept so quiet and didn't move.  We saw only 2 on our trip and both never moved.
Chickens are everywhere and you can hear the babies peeping almost on every trail and in every yard.  These were right in the schools yard.  Hard to get photos as they are not tame but run away whenever anyone approaches.  All chickens seem wild and I never saw anyone collecting eggs.  We never needed an alarm clock as the fathers were very vocal every early morning.

Tamilyog Trail

We parked at the side of the road and walked down this trail.  It is typical of trails of the old days between the villages, before the roads were made.  These trails are mostly uneven rocks so people must watch where they step instead of being peeking toms!  We walked the Kadaya village tour trail with a guide years ago and she explained about these trails.  But we like this trail just as well and since no one was around to pay it was free!  In the village by the bank (see yesterday's post) we talked to a young guy and asked him how much we  needed to pay to take pictures and look around and he wouldn't take any money.  Most villages require a fee and tourists are advised to always offer to pay and ask permission before viewing or taking photos.
Andy and Waka at the entrance to the trail.
A huge mud crab hiding in his home.
A branch off to a different trail--maybe a house?  With a small stone bridge.  No water in the stream, but during a downpour, it will be quite high.
A typical scene of the beautiful trail.

Stone Money

These round flat stones are what makes Yap famous.  These stones are not native in Yap, but have been brought over from Palau.  They are not valued based on size but on how and when they came over from Palau.  The older ones came over by raft years ago when many were lost at sea.
When there are various stone money in one place, usually the village center, it is called a bank.

Tomorrow I will show the trail leading to his village.

High school classes

9th grade is above and 10th is below.

11th is above and 12th grade is below.

More classes at SDA school

Above is 8th grade and below is 7th grade.

6th grade above and 5th grade below.  The 5th grade teacher is a nephew of my former student from Pendleton, Oregon SDA school 40 years ago!  Wow have I been teaching that long?

Yap Mission Trip--classes at SDA school

Above is the 4th grade.  I gave the students a chance to take 2 photos.  One serious and then a funny face photo.  Below is  the 3rd grade.

2nd grade above and 1st grade belowKindergarten is the smallest class.  2 were missing and the teacher is the principal's wife who is substituting for the teacher who had to return home because her father was very ill.