Milk ppllleeaassseeee

So fresh milk is one of those things I enjoy along with other dairy products like cheese and even cream for coffee. One of those downfalls of traveling to what one may call the middle of nowhere is there are no cows. No cows, no milk, no cream, no cheese. Then that means no macaroni and cheese, pizza, ice cream, milkshakes. . .unless you want to drop lots of money. I have been told about a lady in Pohnpei who runs a store which sells fresh milk and cheese, and its not cheep. A gallon of milk flown from wherever is around 5 times as much as gas (in NC when I left) fifteen Washingtons. And a one-pound block of cheese is twenty-five hard earned dollars. With limited land availability it is hard to do lots of farming and difficult do grow many vegetables because of water. Not that there is not enough water but there is too much. Other than that the day before leaving Palau we went with a group of guys working for PCS, Palau Conservation Society who were measuring corals in a protected area in Palau. This was an area thought to have survived a major coral bleaching which also has some of the biggest corals in that area. In the pictures the stick they are using to measure is 3 meters long to give you a reference on how big these actually are. Well when we were done there I left my hiking shorts which I was using as my swimsuit in their truck. So yesterday here in Yap I went looking for a replacement swimsuit. After visiting I believe every place on the island I found 4 huge swimsuits at a dive shop a handful of kids suits in the back of a grocery store and finally I found one. There was a small clothing store filled with primarily traditional hand sewn clothes and a few other random items. And there it was, the one bathing suit in their store hand sewn by a local Pilipino lady, and gold. It had that island look with the flowers on them but they are more like roses. They are not the most attractive things but they remind me of drapes hanging in a fancy house. Every day the weather is about the same, mid 80s, partly cloudy, humid with a mid day shower and like that through most of the year. So swimming is one of those nice things to do when you have a chance to cool off and enjoy the water. So yesterday we jumped off our 4-foot balcony into the bay with was refreshing and fun at the same time. The since of community on these small islands is just amazing. Everyone really does know everyone and if they don’t know him or her they have most likely heard their name. Along with that every one is so nice and so helpful. If you need something people don’t have a problem dropping what they are doing to help out. We were in a restaurant across the street and my cousin went to use the phone to see if the lady she was meeting with was at the hotel yet and the hostess said oh no her cars not here. The man who drove us from the airport knew everyone my cousin was meeting with as well. They are just normal people not famous nor stand out figures. It’s just so nice the differences where people actually know who you are. As short of a time I have been here I even recognize people on airplanes and every time I go out recognize faces of passerby’s. In a place the size of Raleigh I could walk across town and may not even see one familiar face. I went over to the post office to mail some things and checked to see if I could mail things in Yap with stamps from Palau. I found out I cant, sure doesn’t make much since but stamps have to match with the country they are sent from. I find so many people amazed by the traveling involved in the trip but they don’t know about what I am doing while I am here. Other than my family I have been meeting with many biologists, naturalists and conservationists that are known through the country, through the pacific and through out the world. The scuba diving is not necessarily just a typical place to go scuba diving. It is written about in books, magazines, and online and people pay thousands to travel from Australia, Asia, and all the way from Europe and everywhere in between. I have meet people from Greensboro, NC, Utah, Texas, Michigan who come to dive. I talk to them and they say you are learning to dive in one of the world’s premier locations in pure amazement. I have learned so much about the history and the environment along with animals, plants, foods as well as myself. A couple times I have thought of studying marine biology in California or Hawaii because the oceans are so interesting. Time to go save the world.