With the VP of Palau and his wife
Before we departed for Palau, a colleague of FM’s at the University of Guam, Y, suggested that he meet with the President of the Palau Community College. So, he made a call and gave the phone to FM. The person on the other end made arrangements for dinner on Saturday. When FM got off the phone, the conversation went like this:
Y: “OK, you will have dinner with the Vice President.”
FM: “Oh, that was the Vice President of the college?”
Y: “No, that was the Vice President of Palau.”
Turns out the Vice President is a Retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army. I, unfortunately, couldn’t make it to the dinner since we’d neglected to get a sitter lined up (lesson learned for next time) and FG fell asleep at about 7:00 pm
FM really enjoyed dinner with the VP and his wife which made me even more disappointed that I missed out on good conversation and good food.
The next evening, we were scheduled to leave for the airport at midnight to catch a 2:30 am flight back to Guam. I decided FG and I would nap between 7-10:30 pm so we wouldn’t be completely ‘out of it’ when we got to the airport. Due to our non-stop weekend, neither of us had trouble falling asleep. FM chose to go out of the room so he could read, have a beer and a cigar. The phone rang at 7:30 and it was the VP looking for FM. He had some papers he wanted to give him. Unfortunately, I had no idea where FM was reading but I suggested he look somewhere close to the bar. About 20 minutes later, the man at the Front Desk called and said “uh, well, Mrs. P., uhm, the VP is looking for your husband.” I could tell he was trying to figure out why in the world the VP would want to meet with FM.
Anyway, I told him I REALLY didn’t know where he was but that he was somewhere on the resort grounds and to look where there is a light to read.
FM told me later he went to the restroom and while he was in there, he heard someone yelling “John!” 🙂 Too funny. They finally met up!
FM was very impressed with the Vice President’s ideas for Palau. He seems very dedicated to his country.
Good eye, T. It’s very lush in Palau with other vegetation besides palm trees. When we were at Jellyfish Lake, it reminded me a lot of Lake Bled in Slovenia (of all places). That’s one of the things I really liked about Palau ~ very diverse environment.
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Great story! One thing that strikes me about Palau is how “woodsy” it appears. There were a few pics that looked like you could be a lake in Mich or Ohio. What a great weekend getaway.
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