Sunday morning, after breakfast, Wakana and I were discussing what to do for the day. I had plenty of work to do what with taxes, financial aid papers, mailings, etc. The day outside was overcast and we could see rain down on the bay. I half remembered something about kite demonstrations down at Asan Park and suggested we go "check it out". What a great idea!

When we got there, about 11:30 AM the crowd was just building. There was a giant purple ray in the air with a long tail and a string of kites reaching way up into the sky. The chain had 150 kites on it with the string going through the middle of each diamond shape. There was another kite flying with a painting of a rabbit on it. That kite was rectangular with an open rectangular area for a tail. There were dozens of smaller kites in the air, in all shapes and sizes. A stage had been erected with a big sound system and an MC was up there making announcements and calling for the teams to assemble.

Asan Park is the area that Wakana calls "Little Waikiki". There is a parking lot near the road and a large field of grass. Down near the beach there are many stately palm trees and beyond that the surf crashes on the reef after a lagoon of peaceful water. It is undoubtedly one of the prettiest areas on the island. Sixty years ago it was also a bloody battlefield.

There was no memory of that today. Wakana and I walked around the central ground and watched the kites. We stopped to talk with the Japanese team and get our pictures taken with two of their smaller kites, each of them two and a half meters tall. Then we wandered down to the water. Off at the other end of the field a set of four kites were doing an aerial ballet, weaving in and out in intricate patterns, blazing red and white across the grey cloudy sky.

On the beach Wakana was enchanted by the pink stones she kept finding. She picked up a handful and washed them in seawater. We wandered out to the point and then up a path on the rocky hill that forms the southern boundary of the park. It was still and warm up there. The trees and brush crowded the path. We saw papaya trees and breadfruit. There were weedy plants with dark brown berries and shrubs with small white flowers. There was a bench up there and we sat to watch the water and rest. Farther on we came on an intersection of three paths and used the downhill path to go back to the field.

There were even more kites in the air. The sky was dotted with color and movement. We saw kites shaped like square rigged sailing ships, whales, crocodiles and one was even a motorcycle under a set of red rectangles. We didn't see that one fly.

We bought drinks and a funnel cake, Wakana's favorite. ("I'm Japanese, I don't like sweets. Please pass the chocolate sauce for my toast.") We bought a kite to fly. Wakana was amazed that the thing practically flew itself. No skill was required. We put it together and it flew out of her hands and up over her head. We flew it for a while and then went off to find some shade and to watch the proceedings.

At one point I saw a man and woman carrying a white wicker basket. It looked heavy. I asked what they had and the man said they had 49 homing pigeons inside. He cracked the lid and I looked in to see that the box was crammed with white pigeons. They were standing on each other! We moved the box into the shade and I learned that I had been right. It was heavy.

The demonstrations started with a team from the Philippines. They had flight of four stunt kites that they danced to the music from the sound system. I had thought the system was too large for what they intended but it was just right if you kept away from the speakers. The Philippine kites danced and bobbed across the sky weaving intricate patterns in time to the music. They would fly towards each other and jump into a line and swirl around chasing each other. It was beautiful.

They were followed by Ray Bethel from Canada. He was introduced from the stage and we could see that he wasn쳌ft wearing a shirt. The MC made several comments about that. (쳌gWhat쳌fs taking so long, Ray? Trying to decide what shirt not to wear?쳌h) The locals were amused that someone would go out in public, especially a performer, without a shirt. It wasn쳌ft as though he was a young man with a fine body to show off. Still he had his own style. His performance started with one triangular kite trailing a long tail and long blue streamers from each wing tip. The kite danced in time to the music and then dipped down to the ground. It disappeared behind the crowd and then flew up trailed by two other kites! These had the same long tail but different streamers. The three kites danced in the sky, weaving about each other, sometimes the lead kite would hover while the other two danced and swung below it. The kicker is that there was only one person, Ray Bethel, controlling those three! That was an amazing show.

The Japanese brought traditional kites. Their 쳌gperformance was merely to decorate the sky with their art. The big kites hung up there, brilliant colors depicting traditional themes. They were beautiful.

We watched the whole show. It was wonderful, a magic Sunday afternoon. The clouds cleared away and the blue sky was that particular hue that I have come to think of as Sunday blue, clear and dark and gorgeous.

This morning, after breakfast, we went for a walk around the neighborhood. Believe it or not we have been here since September and had not yet taken the time for that walk. We found that our little piece of Guam is a very nice place albeit full of abandoned cars and overgrown with brush and scrub. Most of the houses are neatly kept and pleasant to look at. There are some older homes that have been retrofitted and upgraded. There are several that could use the gentle ministrations of a bulldozer. But overall the neighborhood is a very nice place.