Rei Wan the Outsider

The year was 1968, one of the ugliest, most divisive time periods in American history. Half the nation thought the Communist threat in Viet Nam posed an existential threat to the US. The other part of the country felt that warring against Viet Nam was morally indefensible. A young 21-year-old University graduate beckons to the call of the Peace Corps and finds himself winging it out across the ocean into the far flung Western Pacific Islands of Micronesia. Little did he know that destiny was about to offer him the most uniquely exciting two-year experience a young man could ever be afforded, complete with open sea outrigger sailing canoe voyages, typhoon strikes, shark encounters, romantic liaisons and accounts of horrific WWII episodes.


Rei Wan is a first person account of the wisdom embodied in living the totally self-sufficient life style of a so-called “primitive” people who live on a geographical spit of nothingness in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Sent to the islands to prepare the inhabitants to come abreast of the 20th century, the young man discovers that the islanders have more to teach him than he has to teach them. Most important, though, the lessons he learns from these outer islanders could possibly be a lesson on sustainability applicable to the 21st century.