Displaced Beachbums

Storyboard from Palau 

Although it was difficult to choose, we decided on a turtle shaped Storyboard which was carved by a prisoner at the Koror Jail in Palau. The Storyboard is carved ironwood and is finished with black/brown shoe polish which causes it to shine and retain the true shades of the wood.  Some say the quality of the workmanship is not as good as a professional artisan but I liked the fact that those in jail learn a craft and are able to make money for when they are released from jail. FM bargained a bit (I’m SO bad at bargaining) so we felt we got a good deal on the storyboard. The money goes directly to the carver. I’m thinking the jail probably takes a cut of the revenue but don’t know for sure.  We don’t know the story of the carver (prisoner) but the legend on our storyboard goes something like this:

The Discovery of the Egg-Laying Cycle of the Turtle
Though the shell of the turtle is prized in Palau, in ancient times the people of Palau did not know how to catch the turtle. Or know much about it.

There was once a youth of Peleliu Island and a maiden of Ngerkebesang Island who fell in love. As the distance between the two islands is very great, the couple decided to meet on Ngemelis island, which lies between the two. As they had promised, they met on Ngemelis on the night of the new moon and, far into the night, they talked of plans for their future.

When the girl awoke the next morning, she found that her back skirt had disappeared, and though the two of them searched the whole island, they could find no trace of it. However, beside the spot where she had been sleeping, they could see footprints made by a sea turtle. Finally, the girl had to gather leaves from coconut palms for another skirt and, having made the skirt, she said goodbye to her lover and promised to meet again on the island at the full moon.

The youth was waiting on the appointed evening when the girl arrived and ran to embrace her. They were sitting on the beach talking when they saw a turtle crawling toward them, and they could see that something was entangled in its flipper. They looked more closely. It was dragging with it the skirt that the girl had lost on the night of the previous new moon. They learned by this that the Palauan sea turtle space their egg laying about 15 days apart.