![]() Now, they were sending him to California to live with a family member to finish high school. Just enough to give him a taste of life outside of Palau. He’d gone to high school in Koror, but a year or so back, his family had also arranged for him to go to school in Agana, Guam. Since we were now both alone, would it be OK if we flew together? I said, “Chochoi!” Yes! They’d gotten off and he was now alone for the first time – and afraid. He’d flown from Guam to Ponape by himself, but there had been other Palauans on the plane going to the Community College of Micronesia. On his flight from Koror, he had had a family member and friend with him until they reached Guam. ![]() His name was Jesus Ngirabelochlech, she told me. I hadn’t been long seated when Deedee approached and asked if I’d mind if a young man sat next to me. “’Dilly’ll turn into “Doozy.” On and on it went until Dilmei finally said, “Just call me D.” “D” soon became Deedee – and she’d been fine with that ever since. “Better not use ‘May’”, they’d said, “unless you’re ready to say “May not!” a lot.” “’Dill’ sounds like a pickle,” they said. She was Dill, Dilly, May, even Delma, Della and Mamie. When she had first enrolled in Flight Attendant training school, the other girls began to use variations on her full name, Dilmei. Yes, she said, it was an unusual nickname for a Palauan girl. Anyway, she spoke Palauan to me and made me feel at home as we settled in for the long flight to Hawaii.Ĭuriosity got the better of me. Maybe I wasn’t becoming as far removed as fast as I thought. Her name was Deedee, and as she told me, she knew somebody who knew me, and she thought she’d even seen me at such-and-such a place once when she was home. Although I didn’t know her, she knew that I’d lived in Palau. The stewardess on our flight – yes, she was still a stewardess back then – recognized me. Each stop, each leg put further distance between me and the previous two years of my life.Īfter a few days in with Cop, it was finally time to leave Ponape. Many of the familiar faces and much of the language I’d come to speak and enjoy would not be reboarding. In Guam, we had to deplane and wait for a connecting flight east through Truk to Ponape. ![]() With each stop, my hold on the last two years grew a little less tight. The flight was fairly full, lots of Palauans, some going to Yap, more heading to Guam, some to Honolulu. The first leg, Koror to Kolonia, was uneventful. After a short layover in Hawaii, it would be back to the mainland, through Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and finally Elmira, NY, and home. (That, in itself, is another story for another day!) After a few days in Ponape, I would leave Kolonia, stop in Majuro, the Marshall Islands, and finally arrive in Honolulu. I had planned this route so I would have a stopover in Ponape to reconnect with my great friend “Cop” and have a few days of vacation with him. From Agana, a hop to Truk, and then to Kolonia, Ponape. The itinerary I’d planned took me from Koror, Palau, to Colonia, Yap, then on to Agana, Guam. Truth be told, it was unlikely any of us who had shared that life would ever see each other again. But I would also be leaving behind family, friends and a life I had come to love. True, I would see family and friends I had not seen in years. Going home after the experience of living – being completely immersed – in a no-longer strange or foreign culture was going to be both happy and challenging. A long time ago, leaving the airport in Koror, Palau after two years of Peace Corps found me filled with mixed emotions. Hearing Janis Joplin sing Bobby McGee always makes me want to cry – and it usually succeeds. There are song to make you laugh, and songs to make you cry. There are songs of love, songs which tell stories songs which arouse patriotism and songs of protest. And finally we show you how to play the intro riff.There are songs to make you sing songs to make you want to dance. The strumming pattern is pretty simple and we go through it slowly to make sure you get it. You can use G and D instead of G7 and D7 if you want to make it even simpler. ![]() The chords are G, G7, C, D, D7 for the first part. Within each key, it’s basically a 3-chord song – so this song is kind of like two 3-chord songs in one! Me And Bobby McGee Chords: This easy 3-chord song is quite simple, but there’s a small catch – there’s a key change halfway through the tune! We start in the key of G, then switch to the key of A. Learn how to play “Me and Bobby McGee” by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster. ![]()
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