It has been an interesting summer so far. With no plan of going anywhere particular because John has to work, I end up treating myself to a pretty little fountain on our deck and befriending four Asian women. Vivian from Taiwan, Mila from China, Rai and Uri from Japan. Their common interest is to learn to speak English.

Vivian and I have been scouting out interesting places that are off the beaten paths. We visited the Orphaned Wildbird Sanctuary; the Reifel migratary bird santurary at the beautiful estuary of Westham Island. There were different kinds of owls and birds of prey, we learn about their ways of life, each kind is different from the others. They have many compounds keeping injured birds that will be released back to the nature, unfortunately, they are not opened to the public for fear that they get too used to human being. The centre is runned by all volunteers. Met a nice young man who has been volunteering there for quite a few years. I asked him if he is going to be a vet or bird specialist (for lack of the right terminology). He said he is actually going into engineering. This is only his hobby. Neat, may be someday he will combine his profession with his hobby.
I look forward to go to the Honeybee Centre, the Tuscan Farm etc. Going out with Vivian is fun. She is so sweet and considerate. She never complains even when we were driving in our little car in a temperature over 40 degrees. She prepared all the homemade juice to pamper me. It has enticed me to get a better juicer to make those yummy juice when I saw this ad on the television. Never had I responded to a TV ad so readily. I phoned to order one of them. Then I regret spending the money. I phoned again the next day. The company was offering reconditioned juicers for half the price. I gave in to it.

Mila is a brave mom living with her 10 years old daughter. To think that once upon a time she grew up in the third world is a bit hard to imagine. She's been here for less than a year, yet she is quite up to date with all the technology. She even has a business on the internet, which John and I had failed to do. The other day she came to visit me from White Rock. She had no idea where I am, she came to me with the help of the DPV. She took me out for a drive and showed me how it works. It is neat. May be I can use one too.

Rai and Uri are two young broad smile girls from Hamamaisu, Japan. Just here for vacation at Yuka's house. Yuka has to work sometimes, so she asks me to be the girls tour guide. Rai studies nursing in her hometown and Uri is only 14. Rai is Uri's tutor. They can be pleased easily wherever I took them, even to the grocery store. They both love going to resturants to tried out different food. After I took them to T & T to buy a whole bunch of Chinese ready made food. They told me they like Chinese food too. Rai's little brother wants to have Chinese food everyday. Ha, isn't that something. I thought Japanese only like Japanese food.

Lorenzo, the little man. His dad is helping me to seal the driveway. Lorenzo always like to follow his dad - to help him. He wouldn't even want to come into the classroom at my invitation. He was scraping away the dirt to prepare the driveway.
Later, his dad asked if I like to pick blueberries at their golf course in the evening. Oh boy, do I ever. I'd been driving up and down the country roads looking for a blueberry farm to no avail.
When I got there, Ed drove me and Lorenzo to the far edge of the golf course where the blueberries are. Then he left us and literally let Lorenzo took care of me. Lorenzo gave me all the instructions of how where and what to pick, particularly to avoid the pee-berries on the lower part of the bush. Then he picked a few and ate a lot. He challenged me to a berry picking race and told me a whole lot of things. He kept me entertained. After more than an hour, he was ready to go, but I was not. So he said, '5 more minutes, O.K. Mrs. Smith'. After 5 minutes, I was still picking. Then he said he would count to 25 and that would be it. After his count, I told him he had to count in Spanish, which he did. Then I said, he had to count again in Japanese, which he did. Then I volunteered to count in Chinese. I kept counting after 25. He stopped me when I was in 32. He said I passed 25 already. I asked him how did he knew since he doesn't know Chinese. He said he know somehow I'd passed it. Then he volunteered to count in Korea. He stopped at5 or 6. I said he should carry on. But he said that's all he knew from Taikwonto class.
So I guessed I ran out of luck.

He drove me back to the office in the golf car. It was a fun ride, the landscape was undulating, there were golfers close by. Pond and trees in between. Lorenzo wasn't exactly slowing down. Half of the time I needed to hold on to him with my arms to make sure that neither one of us would fly out of the car, the other half of the time I was waving to people who were cheering Lorenzo and his driving skill. All the while, I was holding on to the buckets of blueberries with my feet because they were sliding back and forth. When he pulled up to the destination, he told me he had to park the car right at the designated spot.

Ed is an excellent dad to Lorenzo. He doesn't has too much education. He regrets not going to college while he had the chance. He works hard at his dad's golf course, has three or four other jobs on the go all the time, a wife and three little boys to care for, with the middle one being autistic. But Ed is always kind and patient to everybody. I can see everyone in the golf course love him. Lorenzo is miniature Tiger Wood. He can shot at a hole 40 meters away and lands not too far from it. He was second in place for junior championship to compete in the State. Everybody chip in to encourage and mentor him. And Ed knows that is very important. While he was working on my driveway, he striked up a conversation with me with Lorenzo listening. He asked since I know a lot of things already (in Lorenzo's eyes), do I ever stop learning. Whereby I was able to say a lot. I guess Lorenzo has been bragging a lot what he knows and his dad realizes he needs the help of the community to raise his son. I am glad I get a second chance to learn from him.