I can't believe it's that time of the year again. Didn't we just do this about a year ago? The worst thing about Christmas is the music! We only get one radio station over here, well I take that back, there is an all Christian radio station that plays nothing but Christian music all day long, only to be occasionally interrupted by "Dr. Bryan Ebstein's prophetic ministries of the world" or "Reverend Earnest Angely speaks out" so that station really doesn't count. The other station has started playing Christmas music ever since the months started ending with "ber" and to make matters worse the radio station only has a very limited collection of Christmas CD's so I've heard the same stupid songs over and over again. There should be some kind of law that says that a radio station can only play "Christmas music" forty eight hours before Christmas, and let's say maybe twelve hours after. Plus they should throw in that it's illegal to play the same song more than three times in any given hour. I don't think that's too unreasonable.
Why it is that nobody writes any "New Year Eve" songs? There is just the one, and I must admit I haven't got a clue as to what the song is about, and I pretty sure no one else knows what it's about either, but are too embarrassed to admit it.
As usually Palau is all decked out for the occasion, all the shops have put out their best Christmas lights. The Presidents of the republic of Palau's brother has gone way over board with millions of white lights all over his house, the locals are not that impressed as they think he's just showing off as to how much money he has made since his brother has become President. Which is no little amount I might add now that the Taiwanese and the Chinese have been slowly but steadily taking over, most if not all the shops are owned by Chinese, and they really get into the Christmas sprit, with all sorts of multi -colored, semi - coordinated, flashing lights. Most of them haven't got a clue what Christmas is suppose to be about, but that hasn't stopped them from making substantial profits off the Palauans. I'm not sure but I think that they don't actually know that because it's "Christmas" you put up the lights, but perhaps they think that if they put up the lights people will come into their shop and buy more, so they keep the lights up most of the year. I've tried to explain that to Mr. Chow Tie but he just keeps smiling and bowing and says "Oh, Mr. Lenny, you very funny person." Then again he does that no matter what I tell him. Even though we have this little problem of communicating, we've become good friends and wave vigorously at each other each and every time I drive by his shop. I guess the only difference between the Chinese and me as they have found a way to make some money while I just get irritated by the music.
The other thing that happens at this time of the years is that we become extremely busy with divers from all over the world, and this year will probably be no exception even though there are over fifteen dive shop here now, most of the other dive shops being Japanese, as the Japanese make up by far the largest group of divers that visit Palau. The Taiwanese are matching them in sheer numbers but they unlike the Japanese do not dive. They in fact don't even know how swim.
One of the first groups of Taiwanese tourist that came here a few years ago went out with us to go snorkeling, so we took them to "Soft Coral Arch" which is or was an extremely beautiful under water arch that is or was completely covered with soft corals of every color and size. We gave them all masks and snorkels and told them to "jump in." One thing that you soon lean when you work with people from other countries that do not speak "English to good" is never, I mean never, say anything that can be taken literally as they all jumped in at the same time and proceeded to go straight to the bottom! We almost lost the whole boat full. We were pulling them out of the water not unlike drowning kittens struggling to get out of a brown gunny sack! I can still see the terror in their little eyes. The only way I can make any sense of it, is that they come from a culture where if someone says "Jump" they not only "jump" but "Jump" with enthusiasm.
You might have noticed that when I mentioned "Soft coral arch" I used the term "was" as it no longer incredibly beautiful as most of the corals have been destroyed by the large numbers of snorkel's that visit the site every day. The ones that do know how to swim will dive down and rip off a chunk and bring it back to the surface so everyone can see! I really can’t’ blame it all on the tourist as a large part, if not all, the blame must go to the guides who do not tell them not to do it. But unfortunately most everybody here is trying to get rich quick and not really too concerned about the future!
This time of the year is when I have to go and get my work permit and resident green card (only its kind of orange) renewed for another year. This entails going to immigration office and filling out the form that must be typed written which isn't so bad as I can't write free hand anymore, and then go to the jail/police department to get a police clearance, then over to the photo shop for two 1" x 1" identical photos that have been taken "recently" then the best part, my annual physical check up! I always go to the SDA Clinic (Seventh day Adventist) as I can usually get in and not have to spend the entire day sitting around waiting, as I have much more important thing to do, such as sitting around all day at the dive shop.
Anyway they take a sample of blood and check it for all sorts of things, and I always have them check my Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol and Triglyceride as I have always been a little high. OK, a lot high, but this year my Cholesterol dropped from 194 to 142 which is still a little high I know but compared to what it usually is. It’s just a drop in the bucket. My good Cholesterol (HDL) went up from 36 to over 67 which is really good because the normal range for a male is 29-67 and their test could only go as high as 67 and mine was "above analyzer range." They were out of the reagents to check my Triglyceride but they assured me that they would have a new supply in the very near future. They checked my height, 5'11" and weight which was 179lbs. down as much as 10 lb. as I don't make enough money to buy food anymore.
Last year I had this old white doctor from the States who insisted that I should read the Bible more often and become ''born again" I told him that I was pretty much happy the last time I was born and didn't really see why I should have to repeat it and besides I thought it might be a little harder on my Mom this time round. He didn't appreciate the humor. Besides I kind of lost confidence in him because at the bottom of the form where they make comments on the results of their exam, he had written in large, bold, and not entirely ineligible letters "Well adult female!"
This year I had the new Female Filipino Doctor. I think she was slightly embarrassed when she asked me to unbutton my shirt so she could check my heart beat and I stripped down to my birthday suit. But after an exhaustive exam she was "very impressed" and said I was in extremely good shape and had the heart of a much younger man. I asked her if she was going to do that thing where the Doctor asked you to "cough" but she said that she could tell that everything was "OK" just by looking. I was so excited after my check-up with the low cholesterol and everything that I went straight out to a local restaurant and stuffed myself with some the local delicacies such as “spam surprise” and some “canned beef delight”, followed by a large "fried pig fat burger'' (It’s an acquired taste), and a diet coke. Don't want to waste all those calories on a stupid cola now do we. Well, that's not entirely true, I hate diet coke.
I hope this news letter has brought back a little of the true meaning and spirit of Christmas for you as it has for me, as I'm once again spending Christmas by myself here in paradise, well I won't be entirely alone on Christmas day as we are completely booked with Japanese divers, and who knows maybe we can pass the time by singing Christmas corals (get it?...you know, corals, as in reefs and corals, as in songs? Ah, forget it)
Mom & Dad
See I told you I'd send dad's glasses back, so it only took 4 months what's the big deal. I haven't heard back from anybody in Hawaii yet but I'm sending out follow up letters this week, so I'll just have to wait till I hear back. Other than that thing are pretty much the same, we were busy for Christmas and New Years but things have slowed down now until February when they should pick back up again. It's Chinese New Year and Japanese Golden week or something like that all at the same time. The post office is about one month behind in delivering the mail, I don't think that it affects the out going mail but everything coming in is from way before Christmas. I still haven't heard from Eric but if he wrote it may be some time before it gets here.
Not a whole lot to report other than I'm getting a little burned out on diving six to seven days a week for very little pay, so I hope something comes out of the Hawaii thing as it would be good to have some money for a change. Hawaii can be expensive to live but the people that I've met will help me find a cheap place to live. I went to the New Years Eve party over at the Palau Pacific Resort and they had a drawing for two round trip tickets to Guam, Guess who won it? Yeah, only I don't know just what to do about them as I really don't want to go to Guam so I'm going to try and sell them this week. The only time I've ever won anything and I can't use them, just my luck. Anyway I love you guys and if this thing works out in Hawaii I'll try and come home first.
Love always
Lenny
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