先年、母の元に帰省した際　母は「本箱に面白そうな本があれば持ってらっしゃい」と言ってくれましたので、料理のページが気に入った熟年層むけの雑誌をスーツケースに詰めて帰ってきました。今日、「桃のコンポート」をつくったついでに他のページをぺらぺらめくっていると、「歌ってみたいシリーズ」と題したぺーじに「ゴンドラの唄」が楽譜入りで載っていました。出だしの「いーのちーみじーかし」を楽譜でなぞってみて、これまで「いのーちみじぃかぁーし」間違ったところを伸ばして歌っていたことに気が付き、作曲の中山晋平さんには失礼なことをしたと恥じ入っているところです。

Milestones! Trina and I celebrated 18 years of wedded bliss on July 4th. We snuck away for some  quality alone time. Our darling Daisy turned 10 on June 22nd and Justus turned 13 on July 1st. Now we  have 2  teenagers and a tween. Daisy had an impromptu party with the neighborhood kids  (they  planned it!) and some friends from Tennessee gathered for Justus  graduating to the rank of the often maligned group known as teenager.





Flash flood! Well it wasn’t really a ‘flash’ flood, but Trina woke up and was downstairs in a flash when Daisy notified us that our downstairs dinning room and living room was full of water (I  hid under the covers initially after a really  rough night with stomach problems). There was a 2 hour torrential downpour in the early morning hours that flooded  parts of the city. Thankfully nothing was ruined, and after finding the problem and 2 hours of mopping we  were as good as new. Just  another exciting part of living overseas I guess! Yeah, call me the optimist. It could have been worse! Really! There is a video you can see of more water streaming in the house as I go outside to try and figure out what’s wrong in the link at the bottom.

Shave Ice Anyone? We hadn’t returned our friends’ shave ice machine so we arranged to make some Hawaii style treats for the kids at our local orphanage. We had a hoot of a time with those cute kids and our children were active participants. We taught them some English through the “Head/Shoulder/Knees & Toes” song and the perennial favorite “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands (Trevor lead on guitar). We also read to them and even 4 year old Riley got in on the reading! There are some great pictures of this fun at the link on the bottom.

Coffee time: I’m making hand over fist connections with coffee people out here. People are  really trying to get me to get the ball rolling with roasting coffee for more people than just myself out here (Truthfully, I think they just  want their fix). I have a good friend who is keeping me supplied with green (raw) coffee from Laos so I can roast my own. The neighbors surely must not mind my  coffee roasting smoke as they burn imitation money to their ancestors at the end of every month.

Escape the City! I organized a day trip out to Vietnam’s oldest national  park (1962). The  park was   great; the bus ride was not (6 hours for the day). I pulled together 4 families  from Texas, Tennessee, New  Zealand and Hawaii, plus  our kid’s Vietnamese tutor and split up the bill  for an adventure into the forests  of northern Vietnam. We climbed up to a cave and poked around with flashlights  (rental  fee for flashlights was 5,000 Dong each; well…in US  currency it was only .25 cents). We saw bats, big lizards, bigger spiders, and sadly my Vietnamese brother Jay had a couple of blood-sucking leeches  latch onto his feet. It was a bloody mess, Trina bandaged him up though. That’s it for now. Still keeping busy learning the language, customs, teaching English, learning  new things, sweating, mopping, roasting, blessing others, and thinking of all of you.

With much   aloha,
Vince, Trina & the Fab Five:)

In about a month I will have to go back to school in California.

I don’t want to, because college is a lot of work, and California is boring without a car.

I will miss my friends in Hawaii because I haven’t really made good friends in California yet.

Hawaii is very unique, and I will miss everything about it. I wish that I could have a career in Hawaii but I think it would be hard, since I’m a film major.

I don’t really know what I want to do once I have my degree, I guess I’ll just focus on graduating and then see what happens. There are so many other things I like to do, like makeup and baking, that I don’t know if I’ll be happy doing film as a career.

I wish I would just win the lottery, it would make life a lot easier.

 ナコスで、英語と日本語で、楽しい語らいの時間を持ちました。
自分の小話から、話は広がっていきました。

　先日書いた４画で書ける名前ですが、ものすごい妙案がうかびました。

 　女の子なら　「心」　と書いて……

 　「きゅん」　はどうでしょうっ！！！

　　きゅんちゃんは、関西弁をしゃべる女の子で、少し大きくなると僕にこう話しかけてます。

　「おとうさん、きゅんなぁ～、おとうさんにおにぎつくってん。」　はぁ～、胸がきゅんとします。

 　ちなみにこの案、目を輝かせながら妻に話すと、即　「却下。」　をいただきました。

ヴァイオリンケースには、四角い型と、ひょうたん型があります。私は、湿気から楽器を守るために、常に、四角いケースにCushy というカバーをかけています。３０年前に日本で買ったドイツ製のひょうたん型ケースは空っぽのままに転がしていました。が、未だにがっしりとした造りのひょうたん君に、ふたたび愛着がわいてきまして、新しいCushyちゃんを購入しました。ミズーリ州から取り寄せて到着。ひょうたん型なら気軽に肩にかけてバスにも乗れますし、どこか涼しい大木の下で弾くのも悪くないかも。。。

雷の電波地球を巡りけり





かみなりの　でんぱちきゅうを　めぐりけり

和夫　

  「無事についたよ～！」　と妻からのメール！

　旅行にいったわけでも遠出をしたわけでもない。なんのことはない、３キロ弱離れたドラッグストアからの報告メール。実は今回、妻にとって、はじめてひとりで車を運転してでかけた買い物だったのである。そして無事着いたのが嬉しかったのか、よほど心配していると思ったのかこのメールが送られてきたようだ。

　感想を聞くと、助手席でガミガミいう旦那がいるよりひとりの方がはるかに運転しやすいとのこと……。

　トホホ。まぁ厳しいトレーニングあっての今ですよ！ということにしておきましょう。

　これからどんどん活動範囲が広がりますなっ！

When I was a Shoe Salesperson, I had many opportunities to help Japanese Customers. I remember once when a customer said “Kyuukutsu” and I thought she said Cute shoes, not knowing she had said tight shoes.  Then knowing only very little Japanese, I said, “ooki?” And she thought I said ” OK! “  Then we looked at each other, she expecting me to get bigger shoes and I waiting for a responding answer Yes or NO.  We both looked puzzled!  This is just one happening where miscommunication can happen. Now as I’m learning Japanese, I can recall certain instances that happened and say “oh!” I understand now.  Lucky I’m learning Japanese.

因島の蚊にかまれた箇所が今更めちゃかゆい。
おととい、足を５箇所くらい一度にかまれたんです。

かゆい。かゆい。ボリボリ。かゆい。
「あんまりかくと跡になるよ！」　と叫ぶ私と、
「だってかゆいんだもんっっしゃぁないやろ！」　と逆ギレする私。
あぁかゆい。ムヒがほしい。