Covid-19 Coronavirus

Boring Bella  

On Thursday, Grant woke up with a slight cold. Yesterday I did. Naturally we are now on high alert for anything about the corona virus that is ravaging China and putting the rest of the world in a panic. The big pottery sale where I wanted to look for Shias today has been cancelled, and there is talk of relocating the Tokyo Summer Olympics to another country.

I had hoped that being in Okinawa would give us enough geographic isolation, but because the Diamond Princess, a infected cruise ship, had docked in Naha, there are several cases on the island. Evidently, a pre-symptomatic but sick passenger had been driven around by a local cab driver who is now infected and has passed the disease to his family.

We offered to take Mary and the children back to the US before Ryan left on his 3+ week detachment to the Philippines, but they decided that traveling with a 4-week-old was riskier than staying here. I respect Ryan’s opinion as a doctor and a concerned father. I just don’t like either option.

So we continue our daily routine. We walk around around the neighborhood which gives us exercise, Bella a nap, and Mary a break. We discovered the factory store of a commercial bakery, which means the walks are not a negative calorie event. Twisted cinnamon sticks, curry pockets, and banana bread come home with us.

Feeding Fish Old Bread

A few blocks away, there is the Shisa Waterway, a narrow alley between apartment buildings with bridges over an artificial stream filled with fish, snails, long armed prawns (macrobrachia), and a few crabs.

Photo By Shane Miller

When he was elementary school aged, Patten wanted an aquarium. Rather than buying the same old, same old, our biologist friend Joe convinced him to collect fish from the river behind our house. In the addition to the black gobies, one day he found a macrobrachium in his little fish traps. It lived in the aquarium for several years.

Many of the fenced backyards have gates opening to the parklette and stepping stones across the stream. Like so much of Okinawa, little areas are full of flowering plants which seem to be tended by people living or working nearby. It means there is often a randomness to the landscaping, but I’d think this generates a community and feeling of ownership.

Bella throws in old bread with much glee. I figure inhaling its penicillin mold dust might help us heal.