"Subject: RE: News From Guam
From: Naemanson - PM
Date: 15 Feb 04 - 08:41 PM

Well, Nick and Carmela's party was a big success. Lots of people, lots of food, laughter and beer. They were celebrating five birthdays. The festivities started at 1:00 and there were hula dancers to entertain at 3:00. When I came out of my half of the duplex I found my front yard full of people. I filled a plate and joined in the fun. I sat with the old men, the patriarchs, and talked of Guam and the world, solving all the problems, as I watched the rest of the people. there were little kids and their parents and grandparents. There was an inflated jumping pad out in the field next to the house. A few of the older kids were tossing a football in the street.

At 3:00 the hula entertainment began. It is a dance company located here on the island. Their instructor is from Hawaii but they do dances from all over the Pacific. It was odd seeing those little girls, the oldest couldn't have been more that 14, doing the sensual dances from Tahiti. It just didn't seem to fit. But they were graceful and beautiful and very good. There were some movements I didn't think possible for a human body.

After the entertainment I retreated into my house and left the party to the locals. It isn't good for me to be in the company of women these days. I start to think about the benefits of a relationship and I don't want to go there again.

I forgot to mention something funny that happened the other night when we were working on the cardboard canoe. we had stopped for supper and I was talking to the host's two kids, 7 and 9. I was obviously the oldest person in the room so I decided to have fun with them. I told them I was the oldest person on earth and had them try to guess my age. We got up to 100 and I was still saying "Nope, older!" Finally they began to ask for the anser so I told them I was older than their dad. That was easy to see. So I told them I was so old that when I was young I had only black and white TV. That didn't impress them. So I told them that I was so old that there were no computers when I was born. The older boy's eye got big and he said, "That's even before the pilgrims!""

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Subject: RE: News From Guam
From: Naemanson - PM
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 06:44 AM

Wow! This place continues to amaze me. Last Saturday I met two amazing and interesting people. One is a racing sailboat captain. He works for a very rich man who has a deep and abiding interest in racing sailboats. His employer owns 5 boats, 40', 50', 75', 90', and a 115'. Al's job is to coordinate the 9 permanent crew members and keep them trained to a fine point for winning races. They are based in Hong Kong but he doesn't like living in Hong Kong so he lives in Guam and does most of his work by remote link. He is currently rebuilding a damaged catamaran and building a power trimaran to use to explore the Pacific islands and to carry mail and cargo between them.

The other person is a Japanese woman who is attending language classes (English) at UOG. She is a carpenter in Japan with a shop and all her own tools. Those of you familiar with the chauvinist society in Japan should realize how unusual this is. She was extremely interested in the carving on the canoe parts working her way in close to help as best she could. Unfortunately she had to leave before she could get her hands on an adze and do some cutting.

One funny thing happened. When I saw my middle sister two weeks ago she gave me a T-shirt she had decorated with Japanese characters. She told me it meant "wisdom". At the canoe Wakana saw the characters and asked me if it was the name of my girlfriend. While one reading of the kanji is "wisdom", or "smart head" as Wakana put it, the other interpretation is "pretty girl" and is used as a girl's name in Japan. My sister got quite a laugh out of that.

You know, adventures come in all shapes and sizes. ..."

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Kinda pins down the before and beginnin', don't it?


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