Chayyei Sarah: Friend of Micronesia

In the "Best New Blog (Group B)" contest, I'm running neck-and-neck with (worthy opponent) Friends of Micronesia, who could certainly win an award for clever name/concept for a blog. For those not in the loop, the Federated States of Micronesia is the only country, other than the US, that has consistently supported Israel in the United Nations. This is because of a favor that Israel did for Micronesia many moons ago - I do not remember the details - for which the Micronesians have been grateful ever since. If you follow the links on the Micronesia blog, I'm sure you can learn more about that.

Anyway, just this past Saturday, I was telling Daphna, one of my loyal readers and hostess for lunch, that I think we Israelis should make a concerted effort to spend our vacation dollars, uh, shekels not on places like India and Costa Rica, but on Micronesia. You know, return the favor.

So in the last couple of days I've done some poking around on the internet, to learn more about tourism to Micronesia and how much money I should save up for the trip. You know, the trip I'll take someday. When I have money for such a luxury. Some . . . day . . .

Turns out that Micronesia is gorgeous, and the people speak English, and if I learn to scuba dive in Eilat before going, it could be the most amazing adventure trip of all time. I'd even be willing to survive on canned tuna, crackers, and peanut butter for a week or two. Micronesia has plenty of bananas. I'd be fine. Especially if, by the time I had saved up all the money for this wonderful dream trip, I had, uh, a certain other person, preferably male, who would want to come with me. In my life. Some . . . day . . .

But there are a couple of snags, here. One is that the only way to fly to the Federated States of Micronesia is via Guam or Hawaii on Continental Airlines, and according to the Continental site, the round-trip fare from Tel Aviv to the FSM is over $4300. And involves flying not as the birds do to Micronesia -- which would take me over Asia and into the Pacific Islands-- but rather over America. That is, it involves flying two-thirds of the way around the world. According to the internet search I did, if you leave Tel Aviv on a Sunday you arrive on the islands of Micronesia on Wednesday. Interestingly, when I went back to the Continental site just half an hour later to poke around some more, it was telling me that I couldn't search for those destinations and would have to create an itinerary by calling them on the phone. OK. When I have several thousand dollars to spend on a gratitude-motivated scuba-diving trip to tropical islands, I'll get back to them.

The other snag is that I don't know anyone else (yet) who would want to spend over 4 thousand dollars to go to Micronesia with me, even if I knew anyone in Israel who has 4 thousand dollars, rather than a 4 thousand dollar overdraft. And in the time it would take me to save that money, anything could happen. Of course, the good news is, in the time it would take me to save that money, anything could happen, if you catch my drift.

So, we all have to pray for Chayyei Sarah that she gets lots of lucrative freelancing deals and finds a (preferably male) travel partner who also happens to have a few thousand dollars burning a hole in his pocket, so that someday she can fly . . . and fly . . . and fly . . . and say "thank you" to the Micronesians in person.