Sorry everyone, due to many changes afoot, I haven’t managed any updates recently. After some very careful thought, we decided that Yap was not going to be a long-term home for us after all. It is an amazing place for visitors - especially divers - but we just found the realities of life for the local people rather depressing. (I shall try to explain a bit about it below (punctuated with photos to lighten it up a bit!).
Yap has a very complicated caste system that permeates every aspect of life. For the Yapese, their mother’s village, and the ranking of her family within that village determine a person’s status from birth. So, no matter how well educated or talented you are, if you are low-caste, you will never be allowed to hold a position of authority or be treated with respect by anyone from a higher village. Not surprisingly, this lack of meritocracy creates apathy in most people and problems in the workplace for others.
According to an ex-teacher, low-caste students sometimes refuse to answer or fail tests on purpose, for fear of insulting a high-caste student. One lady we knew could have been a Senator, yet she will never be promoted in the government because of her low-caste status. This has driven many low and mid-caste people to leave the island, working in Guam or Palau or by joining the US Army – who frequently visit the island on enlistment drives. One chap we met was an excellent athlete who was continually left out of the national team because of his outer-islander background (Outer-Islanders have to defer to Yap-Proper Islanders). So he finally gave up and moved to Palau and now represents them in International competitions!
Despite the fact that status comes down maternal bloodlines, the women themselves have very limited authority. Women are forbidden to fish, climb or inherit their parent’s property. There are no laws against domestic violence and bruises on married women are so widespread that it rarely even raises an eyebrow. In the event of a divorce, the husband gets everything, including legal custody of the children.As you can imagine, being unable to prevent certain staff ‘lording it over’ lower-caste (yet infinitely more capable) staff was difficult. Having to watch staff limping around following beatings from their husbands, and being powerless to stop it, was just unbearable.
Outside of work, we found that there was little to do either. The local people are very family-oriented so unless you have children or like being around them, your opportunities for socializing are somewhat limited. Each village owns the land and the water ‘up to the reef’, so you cannot walk the coastline or through the countryside freely. We felt rather trapped in the town and having worked on very remote, sparsely populated islands, it was hard to adjust to the litter, traffic and noise that comes with thousands of people.
So, we resigned at the end of our 3-month probation period but agreed to stay on for another 5 weeks while the owners were in Europe. Our trip home, via Guam, Cairns, Sydney, Singapore and London (thanks to a stupid credit-voucher from Qantas) will start with a week’s diving holiday in Palau.
We certainly don’t regret our time in Yap, it was a fascinating experience and we shall miss the staff. They are very unique people, who loved a joke and also showed great stoicism when things were bad. We also met some great visitors, including the ‘Survivor’ TV crew, Steve & Michelle (who we met in PNG and came to Yap as part of their honeymoon) and Gini, who was circumnavigating the world in her catamaran. According to her dailongwan.blogspot she arrived home safely in Hong Kong on 9th March 2008. Congratulations Ginni!
From a diving point of view, Yap is not to be missed if you are in the area. Make sure you dive the 'Magic Kingdom' to see the acres of hard coral - not just the incredible Mantas in the channels and the Mandarinfish at Rainbow Reef! More on Palau to follow shortly.
