Leong

My Fijian neighbour Moli, who is half-Chinese and half-East Indian, is a really good cook. I like her stews with sea cucumbers and also her duck curry. Her name means "orange" in the Fijian language. Her husband Leong is a good fisherman. The couple often speaks English with a Fijian accent. They know also Cantonese and Fijian. Moli knows some Hindi.

On my way to the pizzeria a second time today, the 27th of March of 2015, I encounter Moli the Fijian in her garden as she trims her bushes in the sculpted shape of penises. They remind me of that old movie Caligula. Her name in Fijian means orange. Her husband Leong, also Fijian, studied sinograms as a child, but has forgotten everything. To each other, Moli and Leong speak a brownish English.

It is now Saturday, the 12th of July of 2014. My Chinese neighbours Irene, Fred, and RJ have a garage sale, from which I buy 8 Chinese books, including the translation of George Orwell's 1984. It is really a prize, a treasure about an alternate history of three competing supernations—Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia—on Earth. All the books are in the most modern form of logograms, often called "Simplified Chinese" as contrasted with "Traditional Chinese." The family are ground floor tenants of Chinese-Indian Moli and Chinese Leong, both from Fiji. Their house with a big back balcony is next to and north of my home on Lulu Island.

Moli, my "grandma" Fijian neighbour of Chinese and East Indian ancestries, and husband Leong, also Fijian of Chinese ancestry, have three children in Canada, Abraham, Isaac, and Sandra, who to me look just like Japanese people. In a discussion during one outdoor party, Sandra joked to others about "making love" to a watermelon.

Abraham my neighbour is the son of Moli, a Fijian of Chinese and East Indian descent, and Leong, a Fijian of Chinese descent. Abraham arrived in Canada at the age of 14, whilst Isaac his brother was 8, and Sandra his sister was 4. So, Abraham, over six decades old now, still has good memory of Fiji. He still knows some Fijian, but his siblings do not. He learned to speak Cantonese for his wife's family. In Fiji, he knew some Hindi from friends.

This reputation sparked the interest of Singaporean photographer Nicholas Leong after he watched Kenyans dominate the Singaporean marathon in 2006.

Wearing grey-black track pants, a bright red Nike-logo T-shirt, a red-and-white bucket hat, and colourful flip-flops, I attended the party of the Wongs' next door, as they celebrated Moli Wong's and her son Abe's birthdays around this time, the 27th of August of 2022. They both have Chinese and East Indian ancestries, as the daughter Sandra, whilst they all have a Fijian-nationality background. Also from Fiji, Moli's husband Leong is Chinese. Sandra's son, Moli's grandson, Darius, who has also the added Negro ancestry, a resulting quadriracial then of Mongoloid, Caucasoid, Negroid, and Australoid, has just got a job in a big boxing warehouse facility, thanks to connections with our Greek-Cypriot neighbour George, whose wife is the Japanese Chika. I talked mainly with Chika in the party in our encoded Japanese-English. The sashimi from Banzai restaurant were really "big." One of her daughters was there, whilst the other was "shopping in Metrotown." I know that they speak Japanese. I really enjoyed Moli's duck curry and chicken curry. It was a fabulous feast, here on our Lulu Island.

Today the 6th of August of 2023 has been a fabulous day here on Lulu Island to do with my Fijian neighbours, the Wongs, who are partly Chinese and partly East Indian. Moli the grandma has given us about a dozen green figs from her backyard trees. (Incidentally, her name means "orange" in Fijian.) In return, Mama has me give them Swiss chard and three green poblanos, grown by my elder brother Fernando in Vancouver. Moli has given us her exotic cooking. In Moli's kitchen, her husband Leong and she are watching a Sunday church television show. I know that the Wongs are Catholic, but the show is not. In the corner of Moli's kitchen is fully decorated with Fijian masks, etc., which intrigue me, being an art collector myself. I talk with her grownup kids Sandra and Isaac. The Wongs resemble Japanese to me. Sandra and Isaac will be visiting Western Europe in September. Sandra and Moli have previously been to Greece. I recount my experience there with amazing whitewashed buildings with blue roofs. I say to them that some Japanese fantasize to live in a Mediterranean village. I say that some of my Greek-Jew ancestors from Greece settled in Panama, so I have relatives there today. My great-grandfather instead went to the Philippines. Sandra has visited Costa Rica. We agree that tourists should not be so "snooty" and should learn some of the local lingo. Such makes friendlier relations. I go home to make "horchata de arroz" or rice drink mix from El Salvador, given by my elder brother.