Report from the Pacific Festival of Arts

Hi guys, you’re probably wondering about what the “Ladies” from Palau, as Mr. Dan Ho would say, have been up to. Well, as for me, I was one of the lucky dancers that had the chance to attend the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts that was held in Honiara, Solomon Island, from July 1st until July 13th. The theme of the festival was “Culture in Harmony with Nature.” The theme of the festival signifies each of the islands in the Pacific Region’s unique culture and God given gift of nature and its aspects. In addition, it highlights the relationship between culture and nature and the importance of conserving and protecting our environment.

Dancing, is one of many cultural ways that helps conserve our traditional heritage, way of life, and culture alive. Each region that attended the festival had the chance to present and show their traditional dance and explain to others about what the dance signifies. We, the dancers from Palau, portrayed our traditional women’s dance, along with the modern dance and gave a brief explanation about Palau women’s traditional dance. Through dancing, we got to learn the different types of dances from each of the islands, and how we can preserve our culture and traditional way of life, through dancing, for our future generation.

With the ongoing entertainment at the village and each island’s tent full of locals and different friends from the Pacific, a youth conference was held. The youth conference mainly focused on the environment and how our culture, custom, and way of life play an important role in our nature today and our environment, which we are currently living in.

Each region, had youth representatives that spoke on behalf of their island. Palau was lucky to have such an intelligent and intellectual youth representative that wasn’t only knowledgeable about Palau’s environment but also its culture.

Ms. Elsei Dianne Tellei was the youth representative for Palau. Mrs. Faustina K. Rehuher-Marugg, Palau’s Minister of Cultural Affairs, was the keynote speaker of the youth conference and gave a brief yet vivid and understanding speech about Palau’s culture, custom, and way of life. With theme of the festival “Culture in Harmony with Nature” and the focus of the youth conference which is mainly about the environment, they awarded Palau as the overall winner of having such astounding and astonishing for both marine and terrestrial beauty. That would be all of the interesting segment from the Young Champions of Palau.


/s/ Lyan Kazuma 

Hi Everyone!

Just want to update you guys with what we have been up to. 

Well, for the past week, we have been assisting the Education Department at the Palau International Coral Reef Center prepare for the Arts and Crafts Week, which will be held from June 4-8, 2012. Arts and Crafts Week is a public awareness tool targeted at children ages 6-10. Its aim is to train young children to become aware of the importance of our reefs. By learning more about the different marine animals that make their homes in their reef and their basic needs for survival, children at a younger age can understand the need to keep our oceans clean and appreciate these natural resources. 

During Arts and Crafts Week, children use their artistic skills to sketch and color the animals they observe in the aquariums, learned about the basic need for different marine animals to survive, and use their creativity skills to assemble and design crafts with marine themes, and painted marine animal patterns on fabrics. Participants bring home with them all the crafts and artwork they create during the week. We attended the classes which was from 9:00 am-11:30 am, and assisted the kids with their artworks and activities. 

In addition, the class went on a field trip to Dolphin Park to learn the importance of the marine environment and Palau’s eco system.

That’s what we have been doing lately ! So stay tune til’ next time.  


The Ladies!☺.

Arts & Crafts Class of 2012 with Mrs. Sandra Sumang Pierantozzi, CEO of PICRC

Coral Collecting and Temperature Assessment

Hi Everyone!

It's been a while since you’ve heard from us since our last blogging which was about a month ago. So we just want to update you guys with what’s been going on.

We have been assisting the people from with the Aquarium Department to do temperature readings. We went to collect corals at Ngerchelngael, which is a rock island known to have a variety of living corals. We then brought the corals that we collected, back to the Center and placed them in the Outer Reef Tank. But, before placing them in the tank we had to clean the tank, by taking out the dead corals and placing the corals we collected in an orderly manner.

In addition to the coral collecting, we also did temperature readings for all the tanks in the Aquarium. We had to record and make sure that tanks are at the right temperature to prevent fishes and the marine animals from dying. After checking and recording all the temperatures, we had to consult with the Aquarist and make sure that all the tanks are in the right temperature. Well, that’s about it.

That’s basically what we have been doing for the past months here at the Palau International Coral Reef Center.

Until next time,
- The Ladies

The Ladies' 1st Blog

FB Communications

Hello everyone! We're the young champs from Palau and you can call us, Dilu and Lyan (or as Dan Ho would put it--the Ladies.....LOL). 

As you might tell we haven't had the chance to blog earlier because we got on the program late in February. Anyway, let us tell you all what we have been doing for the past weeks or so. We've been helping out at the Aquarium at Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) with informational posters and touring school children around the aqaurium. 

Touring kids from Ngeremlengui Elementary School

With the informational posters, we picked out a sea creature and basically did a background poster. For example, for our first poster we did a background poster for the lobster. We found out that there are 38 different types of lobsters found in the world and then named the different types found in Palau which are Panulirus vesicolor (Painted Spiny Lobster), Panulirus penicillatus (Pronghorn Spiny Lobster) and Panulirus longipes femoristriga (Longlegged Spiny Lobster). Out of those three, the painted spiny lobster is the least common in Palau. As for the tour guide business, we help out as much as we can. We had to read a manual on the proper ways of doing a tour guide of course. Luckily one of us--Lyan to be precise--had the chance to act as co-tour guide for the Ngeremlengui Elementary School during Awareness Week for public schools. A tour with students is fairly easy to do. It could last for an hour or may be less. The only difficult part of it is speaking loud and simple to understand, and trying to keep the kids' attention at the same time. When we do not have any school kids to tour around the aquarium, we pitch in and help the aquarists clean up the aquarium. We want to keep those tanks nice and shiny for the visitors! :)