The visit with Wakana's mother was a big success. They worked on setting up the kitchen while I made another round of visits to banks, merchants, and the police department. Then they worked on cleaning and repacking books as I hauled truckloads in from the old house. The landlord had a pile of concrete pavers stored in the way so I laid themout to form a patio where we could work comfortably. It was funny to see those two small women reaching out to help move the pavers. These are four feet long by two feet wide by four inches thick with re-bar inside. I can just barely carry one and preferred to just lever them into place.

But we got a lot of work done and in the evenings had long conversations with Wakana translating. I think it was good for Wakana's English skills and told her mother so. Wakana wasn't pleased about that but had to agree.

When Mitsuko-san left I named the brook in her honor, the Mitsuko River. She was pleased with that.

Yesterday Wakana, Gordon, and I finished moving our stuff out of the old house. We gave up on cleaning it as we moved it. That was just too slow. Instead we have stacked it outside in a corner of the house that includes an outdoor closet. There a blue tarp and a large overhang protects it from the weather but I have to get the books and stuff into the house ASAP. Our next priority is to build bookcases and unpack the boxes. It makes as much sense as cleaning and repacking the boxes and might not take as long.

Moving sooty boxes and stuff out of a sooty house is dirty work. In the evenings the shower water flowed dark around my feet. My clothes were dark with soot that managed to get through my shirt and on to my skin. The sweat and soot seems to have turned me grey in places. It may take a few showers to get back to my usual color.

Today we need to go back to the old house to shovel the leftover debris out of the office and pick up a few odd bits of trash. Then we will be done.

Here's a memory out of the blue. When we moved into the new house I ordered the new cable TV service. As a surprise for her I included the Japanese public TV station, NHK. The first night we watched a program on a kite flying competition that took place last May. Two teams were trying to fly giant kites and these things were huge. They measured 6 meters by 22 meters. One of the kites couldn't get into the air but the other team managed to fly theirs. What a sight. Try to imagine a billboard flying in the blue sky. The lines came down from the kite's edges to meet at a junction into a rope that ran to the crowd of people on the ground. It was obviously a tug of war between that kite and the ground crew. Great stuff.

Wakana is very nervous about our security since the fire. She wants to leave Guam. We've been discussing possible future homelands. So far I like going to the Pacific Northwest USA (or Pacific Southwest Canada), or Australia/New Zealand. Wakana is worried about racial prejudice in Australia/New Zealand but is interested in the USA/Canada. She thinks of Japan as an option too though I doubt I could be comfortable in a place where I am so much larger than the furniture and bathrooms. We are open to suggestions. I think we will stay in Guam for a while longer but be leaving before the middle of next year.