Economic Aid – Recipient: $155.8 million. Note: the Compact of Free Association with the U.S., entered into after the end of the UN trusteeship on 1 October 1994, provides Palau with up to $700 million in U.S. aid over 15 years in return for furnishing military facilities.

Imports: $177.7 million (2014 est.). Imports include machinery and equipment, fuels, metals, and “foodstuffs.” I’m guessing these foodstuffs are processed foods from America so that America doesn’t have to be the highest on the obesity scale. Don’t be fooled into thinking we’re getting healthier. We’re just sharing more of our unhealthy, processed foods with countries that don’t have anything. (I’m making that last part up but it’s probably true).

Exports: $19.1 million (2014 est.). Exports include shellfish, tuna, copra, and garments. Don’t worry, I had to look up copra too. Copra is dried kernels of coconut from which oil is obtained.

WCTC, one of the three big grocery stores here, has a lottery! For every $10 you spend there, you get a sticker with a five-digit number. Every few weeks a number is drawn. If the first two digits match up you win $5, three digits wins $10, four digits wins $100, and if all five digits match up you win $1000! We have won $5 a couple of times.

The two native languages of Palau are English and Palauan. Since all the locals speak both, there is not a lot of opportunity to pick up much Palauan, but I have learned that hello is alii and thank you is sulang.

There is a study manual for the driver’s license test that has some humorous content. Let’s start with the fact that “proven retards” and “imbeciles” cannot obtain a license. On the last page there is a diagram outlining what the three colors on a traffic light mean. There are no traffic lights in Palau. We barely have stop signs.

Night life is scarce. In fact, it’s practically nonexistent. The locals drink, and there is a big problem with drunk driving, but the only nightlife we have found is our group of friends from Sam’s who all go to The Taj on Friday nights to watch The Squids play. The two members of The Squids have both been on vacation and so all nightlife has died completely these past few weeks.

A little birdie told me you can buy an entire marijuana plant on Peleliu for $50.

Most of the local mutts look like some mix between a corgi and a ballerina. They are all short and stout with stumpy legs and toes that point out to the sides. For the record, these are the nice ones that only run away when you approach. The mean ones that get defensive all seem to have a golden retriever-type physique.

Survivor Palau wasn’t the only season that was filmed here. Malaysia and Philippines were filmed here as well, all over on Ulong Beach. You can go visit Ulong Beach along with several dozen boat-fulls of Chinese tourists and a large population of rats.

World-class yachts sail these waters. Look up the Ethereal online. That one was moored up in Sam’s bay for a while. This one is the Russian Prime Minister’s boat. Notice the opening at water level on the stern. That’s the bar. Then after that boat left, a yacht belonging to the second wealthiest man in Russia arrived. He’s so wealthy that he spent $60 having a single carton of full fat cottage cheese shipped over (we only get low fat here). (If I was wealthy I’d spend it shipping cheese over here too).

Limes are orange on the inside. It took me a while to figure out why they were putting miniature orange halves in my rum and cokes at The Taj.

Cans are worth money, but they have to be able to scan the barcode so you can’t crush them to save room in the recycling. Usually the filipinos go around collecting them and get pretty competitive with each other. Set a bag outside and it magically disappears the second you turn around. I left the front door open one day and was cooking in the kitchen when an elderly little man walked right through the front door to ask if I had any cans. They get $.05 per can.

Apparently nobody wants to spend money on advertising in Palau, and so there aren’t any commercials on tv. Well there are, but they are all adds for all of the other shows on that tv station. I’ve seen one Prada commercial.

Being Chinese has become the ultimate insult. There has been a massive influx of tourists from China to Palau, and nobody is happy about it. We were getting massages the other day, just me and Fletch in our own room with our two massage ladies. The massage ends and the next second Fletch’s girl flips on the light switch, blinding everyone. My lady, after scolding her, tells us, “It’s ok, she’s Chinese, she don’t know.” We all laughed so hard.

The following facts are things I have only heard. Since the internet here is too much of a hassle to do anything with, there are a lot of rumors that go around without any fact checking. Therefor the following can be taken with a grain of salt.

Palau has a spot deeper than the Mariana Trench. The people who document that sort of stuff have been trying to talk James Cameron into coming over here and researching it.

The scenery in the movie Avatar was inspired by Palau. There is a tree in Peleliu that the Hometree looks identical to, and the plants that disappear into the ground are modeled after christmas tree worms.