*I apologize in advance for any typos and mis-spellings you may encounter (including any in this here sentence...or the entire site for that matter) On The Right - A Rainbow Over the Lagoon, March '05
Yap is one of the four states that make up the Federated States of Micronesia. It's an island group made up of small and smaller islands in the Western Pacific Caroline Islands. The four states are spread out over an area more than half the size of the continental United States. The main island of Yap is called in Yapese, Wa'ab, and is itself four tiny clustered islands all connected by small channels (except one that can only be reached by boat). There are also some small islets that dot the reef. Driving from the southern most point up to the north is like driving from San Jose to the airport in San Fran. You wouldn't think it would take so long but the roads wind precariously across the island and you're always running into someone you know. Most times you'll have a few beers and make stories before you make it on your way again. (Not that I drive or anything! Peace Corps aren't aloud.)
I live on the main island of Wa'ab, Dalipebinaw Municipality, Kaday Village, Toway (the village area), Blarowal (the land where my house actually sits). If that wasn't enough information, my village is also a border village which means the next municipality, Weloy, is also responsible for us in Kaday. (If you're a stocker, please disregard the information above, thanks.)
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My Favorite Things To Do
- Hang out around the house when the grandkids come over and make pancakes and do movie lines the whole time.
- Crashing an afternoon barbeque because you're related to someone there.
- Watching the amazing island sunset at the park in my village
- Doing crafty projects in the library. It's amazing how resourceful I've become.
- Drinking at the local store and making stories
- Drinking at home with ma and pa
- Drinking...ok, I drink too much, I get it.
People & History
People: - 11,241 as of 2000, with about 65% living on Yap Proper
- Yap was settled over 3,000 years ago, apparently by migrations from the Philippines to the east or from Indonesia to the south. Local legends tell of the first humans being sent by spirits to Yap from Malaya and India.
- Yap is a sea-faring society that became highly organized and powerful, enough to exact tribute from islands as far away as the Hall (?) and Western Islands in Chuuk State.
- As many as 40,000 to 50,000 people may have lived on Yap at the beginning of the 19th century. With European and other outside contact, foreign diseases declined the population to about 10,000 in 1862, and 7,464 in 1900. During German and Japanese occupations, the population continued to fall, dropping to about 2,500 in 1946.
- Following WWII, the population began to grow again as improved medical care decreased the death rate.
- There was little intermarriage during colonial eras, Yapese continued to marry traditionally
History:
(Colonial dominations: Spain (1st), Germany (2nd), Japan (3rd), and then U.S.)
- AD 200 Earliest settlement
- 1526 First European contact (Portuguese explorer Dioga da Rocha)
- 1871 David O'Keefe, a shipwrecked Irish-American, began trading newly quarried stone money from Palau to the Yapese for copra and came to dominate the copra trade becoming a legend among Yapese
- 1899 Spanish claimed sovereignty until this date, then sold Yap to Germany
- 1914 Japanese took control of Yap when the outbreak of WWI forced Germans to withdraw from the islands
- 1944 After WWII, the U.S. administered the islands under a United Nations trusteeship until 1986, when the FSM gained independence and formed a Compact of Free Association with the U.S.
Yap Visitors Bureau Website:
http://www.visityap.com/
Yap Art Studio and Gallery - Check it out!
http://www.danielleinpalau.itgo.com/
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