First Impressions of Palau

I've been here a few days now and I'm slowly getting into the rhythm of life in Palau. Things move at a slower pace here and there is a small town atmosphere. Everyone at the court, from the clerks to the marshals to the judges, knows who I am already even though I haven't even started work. The Paluans are all very friendly to me and have answered all my questions.

Downtown Koror is fairly developed and there are some nice buildings, but most buildings look like American strip malls. Koror has one main road that runs East-West the length of the island. Periodically, a side road leads into a self-contained maze of streets and alleys that we Americans would call a subdivision; here, they're called hamlets. I live in the hamlet of Ngerchemai. One of the consequences of not having any named roads is that there is no such thing as a street address. This is not a big deal for delivery of mail--there is no delivery here, where everyone has a post office box.

Once outside of the downtown stretch of road, the houses are older and more decrepit. I would equate Palau to some of the islands I have been to the Caribbean, however my initial impression is that the poverty is not as pervasive here as on some of those islands. Lots of concrete and corrugated tin roof housing scattered along the roads.