MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

King Kamahemeha Day Parade , Hawaii 2008  (photo the author) It’s a new year.  And when I was preparing for friends to visit today I listened to   IZ Somewhere over the Rainbow  He was inspirational…and has now sadly passed.  I hope, as you enjoy the first day of 2012 you also enjoy this inspirational clip. I have spent many months of my last few years with my companion traveling around remote islands while he researched them for his books.  To be able to live with and enjoy and learn from the people of these islands  has been an unexpected gift for me. These buses were everywhere...feeding the  participants in the Pipeline Competition  While the remote islands of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Yap, Palau, Norfolk Island and more have intrigued me, when I  went back, through IZ's music, to the time when I was travelling with my companion in Hawaii in 2008 I found my memories just there.   And here I share...

(Artist: Tommy Tamangmed. http://www.yapeseart.com/) And so, yes, I have returned. The time came for me to leave the “remote” islands of Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia and the tiny nation of Palau and return to western “civilisation”. It has taken a few weeks to readjust to the pace of “modern” life having experienced the tranquillity of living in a mobile phone/ television free environment. The concession of extremely slow and eventful internet connection seemed incongruous in these places of ancient yet vitally living culture. My spirit is uplifted and my sense of pride in the human ability to share kindness and show good manners has been restored. Arriving in Yap in the early hours of the morning was exhausting. A tiny airport, tired passengers, equally tired immigration officials but then the first of many Yapese warm and ready smiles in the arrival hall as I was given a beautiful lei by a young girl wearing only a lava lava and a wreath of flowers artfully draped a...