Qualla: Sonsorol https://qualla.com/sonsorol en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:37 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/y/n/sonsorol-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sonsorol https://qualla.com/sonsorol Sonsorol: Introduction https://qualla.com/sonsorol/ Photo credit Gertjan R., CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 6, 1522, the crew of the Spanish ship Trinidad -- the same vessel that had carried Ferdinand Magellan's expedition across the Pacific before his death in the Philippines -- spotted two small islands and charted them as San Juan, for the saint whose feast day it was. Five centuries later, those islands belong to Sonsorol, one of Palau's sixteen states and among the most remote inhabited places in the western Pacific. Forty people live here. They speak Sonsorolese, a Chuukic language found nowhere else, alongside Palauan and English. Their children, if they want to attend high school, must arrange to live in Koror City -- 300 kilometers across open ocean.

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Image: Gertjan R. | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/y/n/sonsorol-wp/wbyn-sonsorol-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sonsorol: Five Flags Over Four Islands https://qualla.com/sonsorol/ Photo credit Cooook-islllannd, CC0. Sonsorol's colonial history reads like a relay race of empires. After the Trinidad's crew sighted the islands in 1522, a Spanish missionary expedition under Sargento Mayor Francisco Padilla arrived on November 30, 1710, aboard the patache Santisima Trinidad from Manila. The Jesui...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/y/n/sonsorol-wp/wbyn-sonsorol-five-flags-over-four-islands.mp3 0:06 2 full Sonsorol: Typhoon Bopha and the Islands That Emptied https://qualla.com/sonsorol/ Photo credit Public domain. In December 2012, Typhoon Bopha tore through the Southwest Islands with catastrophic force. The entire population -- 37 from Sonsorol, 19 from Pulo Anna, and two from Merir -- was evacuated to Arakabesang in Koror. When the Palau government assessed what it would take to rebuild,...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/y/n/sonsorol-wp/wbyn-sonsorol-typhoon-bopha-and-the-islands-that-emptied.mp3 0:06 3 full Sonsorol: Schools Across the Water https://qualla.com/sonsorol/ Photo credit Public domain. The state operates two elementary schools, both established in 1972. Pulo Anna Elementary School has one classroom, one teacher, and -- as of September 2018 -- five students, who must stay on the otherwise deserted island to attend class. Sonsorol Elementary School serves thirtee...

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]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/y/n/sonsorol-wp/wbyn-sonsorol-schools-across-the-water.mp3 0:06 4 full Sonsorol: Reef, Palm, and Countercurrent https://qualla.com/sonsorol/ Photo credit Defense Mapping Agency, Public domain. Sonsorol's four islands stretch from north to south through warm Pacific waters. Fanna, nearly circular with a diameter of 350 meters, sits 1.6 kilometers north of Sonsorol Island proper. Sonsorol itself is two kilometers long and up to 890 meters wide, its west coast holding the...

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Image: Defense Mapping Agency | Public domain

]]> Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/b/y/n/sonsorol-wp/wbyn-sonsorol-reef-palm-and-countercurrent.mp3 0:06 5 full