Wakana & I went to dinner with her new friends last night. The wife is Japanese and the husband is Taiwanese. They have two kids. The husband is a programmer and she is a college professor with a PhD in linguistics and anthropology. Once more I was the only monoglot at the table. They are in Guam for a short stay. She had stopped by the school to observe the Japanese language classes and met Wakana. Very nice time.

The kids are 5 and 7 years old. They immediately took to Wakana and she ended up playing with them most of the evening. Wore her out. She'd either forgotten or didn't know how much energy kids have.

There was a purpose to the meal. The professor wanted to know more about the island of Guam and the Chamorro people. Wakana volunteered me because I used to teach Guam history. I pulled up a timeline I'd made back then, updated it, and printed it out for her. I also printed out a schematic of the ancient Chamorro caste and class system. I gave her some sources to use for information.

The parents told us of some of their travels. They'd spent time in the USA, in California and Boston. They regularly traveled to Taiwan, of course.

A couple of years ago the little girl had a serious medical problem. Her heart stopped a couple of times and she had to spend 2 months hooked up to a machine that occasionally took on the work of the heart. She was also on dialysis for a time. Because Japan has universal health care the government paid the bills. The husband told me he'd seen one of the bills, $70,000. Their share was... $200.00.

The meal was a little surreal. I was at a table, with 2 Japanese and a Taiwanese and there kids. They were speaking in three languages, English for me, Japanese between Wakana and the mother, Japanese and Taiwanese between her and her husband and the parents and the kids. We were in a Mexican restaurant talking, in part, about the history of an island in the Pacific Ocean.

I love it here.