Sand and Sea

Pohue Bay

To include... hiking over the a’a lava, turtle people, camping under stars, witnessing honu’ea (hawksbill sea turtles) hatching, kebabs over the fire, climbing coconut trees, swimming in the lagoon, being mermaids, and washing our hair in the ocean

...Hau`oli Makahiki Hou

unusual, but lovely is this holiday season.

first, alone in an island desert...
now, with two new friends in a studio apartment off waikiki beach. cozy, and although maybe there are a lot of roaches... at least they are small.

when i arrived in honolulu 2 days ago, my friend said, 'hey... you're on your own. have fun." I was certainly more than a little intimidated... not being the 'city girl' type... but yesterday I wandered down streets and aveunes towards the sound of the ocean. as soon as i caught sight of the water -- nothing short of elation washed over me.



the ocean always has this effect.

but the reason i actually started writing this morning... was to share the unexpected blessings of today. i awoke at 7 and decided to go swimming off waikiki beach. the morning air was cool and fresh, and as most of the tourists had yet to collect themselves on the sidewalks... it was a pleasant walk. i even saw a family (or so i imagined) of house finches.. looking quite out of place in this, the largest city of the pacific. i chatted with mom briefly. i love you parents. i love that they love me enough to let me follow my dreams and passions even though it means being thousands of miles away.

i dug my toes into the cool soft sand. unable to decide the colour of the sand.... i likened it to the colour of a light-coloured cocker spaniel.. an odd analogy, i know.

mom told me she and dad tranferred some money to my account for christmas. they didn't have to.

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something about me seems to strike honoluluan people as 'local.'

perhaps it is aesethic... the long untamed hair, brown skin, shells around my neck... and ankles, rubbah slippers on my feet.

but perhaps it is also that i see through the interest in shiny things... and would much rather get to know the person behind the counter than purchase a bejeweled "hawaii" t-shirt.

#1) i am searching for an authentic, carved ancient whale tooth fish-hook necklace, preferably with samoan tatoo designs. the fact that i know this makes vendors think hmmn... so she realizes the difference between the $10 tourist hook, and the $89 real thing. yes, she does

#2) mumus. at home on the big islands, all the ladies wear mumus to church. they are light, colourful, cool, and just kinds fit the rhythm of life. fijians and many other pacific cultures have something similar. yesterday while wandering the international marketplace, i found a cute dress shop with lots of mumus, from the very traditional ruffles and froof, to the spagetti strap short sun dress "aloha print" tourist equivalent. yesterday i tried on a bunch. but couldn't decide whether or not to make the investment. so today when i wandered in, the same young korean girl was working.... i asked her which of the two green .. we both gravitated towards the more ruffles, traditional one .. than the slit up the side hotel waitress one.

#3) buying christmas leis, i bought a few and then retuned for one more... when i came back, the lady wouldn't take my money. she pressed it back in my hand and said, merry Christmas.

#4) next i got some maile garlands for hula wonder... the chinese fellow said.. 'ah very nice choice' (that i hadn't chosen the rainbow flowers... then i asked him if the kuhiko hula chants they were playing were from the merry monarch festival.. he said yes.. we chatted briefly.. and then gave me some free postcards saying they reminded him of me "big island girl" he called me. we said thanks in earnest. the tourist behind me couldn't understand why i got star treatment. he even offered me a cup of tea. crazy. crazy blessings.

#5) i saw an older woman down the lane picking leaves... i know she was either going to eat them or make garlands from them. that made me smile. i liked her. i greeted her with s smile and a true from the heart merry chirstmas... she looked and me, and with a twinkle in her eye returned the sentiment.

and for the first time this year, it feels like Christmas.

Heavenly father, thank you so much for loving us enough to give us a guide, a mentor, a friend, and one who would die that we wouldn't get what we deserve.

Father, in full sincerity and with all my heart.... mahalo.

E komo mai!

... and welcome to Hawai'i

Upon 'deplaneing,' I found myself a bit confused by the airport. There were no walls, and no doors, and people were just sitting on benches beneath the flowering plumeria/frangipani trees. Were it not for the striking number of tourists, and hotel attendants... well, and the lone plane on the tarmac... one might confuse this airport for a county park. and i loved it. i even took a picture.

Soon Heidi and trusty dodge ram pulled up... and Heidi hopped out of the truck and presented me with a ti leaf and orchid lei. (I thought about how much more it meant than the tourist who receive the leis from hotel lobbies)

Looking around the cab of the truck I saw what would soon become staples of the hawaii experience (or delicacies rather) .... hawaiian sun pass-o-guava juice, li hing mui ginger, a dry roasted mac(adamia) nuts.

We drove over to the wharf... wandered along the pahoehoe lava, and stuck our feet in the water. On the reef we caught glimpses of electric blue and bright yellow reef fish. Eventually we made our way back to the truck, and bumped along highway 11 towards the ka'u district... which would soon be called home.

"Oceanview" as it is, exists as a small community of commuters and retirees. it has a marketplace (akin to filmore's jubilee) and a post office (no mail delivery in Oceanview) the desert rose cafe and two lone gas pumps, sitting awkwardly in the parking lot.

those who live mauka (mauna loa side) of the highway get more rain, and the climate zone ranges from rainforest to deciduous forest. makai of the highway, is desert shrubs, some brave euphorbia plants, and lots and lots of a'a lava rocks.



and its windy. lovely clean breezes... that cause the house to shudder at night. from our makai porch we can see the ocean sparkling in the distance and the white foam of the waves crashing of the rocks. on a clear day you can see miles of ocean... but if Kilauea is particularly active, you can't see out at all... though it's still quite cool since it reminds you that you're living on an active volcano.

Since 1983 when Kilauea began erupting, it hasn't rained much in the Ka'u district... which is particularly unfortunate since we're all on catchment system. But when it does rain... there is much celebration...

a new era... of sorts

after spending an embarrassingly long amount of time manipulating the html template... i reached the 'good enough' point. and called it 'good.' ... and, i really am glad that Our Creator didn't have a similar method.

anyway. here i am. and here you are, and having come to terms with the reality that except in rare delightful circumstances (like weddings or conincidental geographic proximity) ...this...e-world will have to do

so. here we go again. if you're reading this and upon noticing yourself not listed among the 'noble minds'... drop me an email... curse at me... you know, whatever.

so basically. where i have been? houghton graduation -> canada -> kenya -> sarasota florida -> recieving the gift of sight -> fort myers -> south india -> sarasota again (where i was attempting to understand the upper middle class mind-set) .... but then Heidi (who graduated with us) called and invited me to come live in her parents house with her in hawaii... and being at a loss for ay reason why not... $310 later and I was moving back to the right ocean (nothing personal against the atlantic) ... so after staying in LA/SanDiego/Orange County for a bit... I became an enthusiastic particpant on aloha airlines flight 346 (i'm completely making up the flight number, i have no idea what it was)

flying over the pacific resulted in increasing amounts of joy... joy no longer suppressed because everyone else on the plane was going to hawaii too... and though they may have thought my delighted squeals a bit odd, they were not jealous.

all that energy must have worn me out because i short nap ensued. ...when i awakened the aroma of fresh chocolate chip cookies filled the cabin and soon delivered to my rumbling stomach along with a glass of cold milk. aloha airlines was getting lots of brownie points.... in fact, i'm now remembering that i think i wrote a song about it... a chart-topper no doubt.

as we landed... glimpses of hawai'i appeared through the clouds:

And this, dear friends is where the next few chapters of life will unfold.