Week 1 in Honolulu

Hey! So I am too tired to type right now but I wanted Dan to see these pictures tomorrow/today. This week has been crazy. I have tons of homework but we went to some really neat places and that includes the Pearl Harbor. You guys are all good at stuff, you can look at the pictures!
Mahalo,
L

First weekend in paradise

This weekend started off a little sad with Aunty Maggie saying goodbye while we got on the bus Saturday on our way to the Market and to leave Hilo. Aunty Maggie is an amazing person and it was really sad to say goodbye after only a short week. After the water works we all went to the market and I was able to get some souvenirs. We were running a bit late for our flight, but we caught it and made in to Honolulu safely. We landed around 1 pm, and went straight to Frear Hall to check in. After check in we walked down to 7-11 to get our bus passes and then a local grocery store for some necessities. When we got back to the Hall we went to dinner (the food here is only a little better than Hilo, at least the cafe is open longer though). It was about 630 when we left to catch a bus to the Ala Mona fireworks. It was very busy and hectic. The fireworks were only 20 minutes long and not as BIG or constant as Bay City, even though they were supposed to be like 4th best in the nation, I don't believe it. The bus ride back was horrible. It took us about 2 hours and we were stuck in traffic the whole time. Sunday was amazing! We (6 of us girls) went SHOPPING! Don't worry Mommy, I didn't spend too much. The mall at Ala Mona was huge and had every high end store EVER, that's probably why people think HI is so expensive. When didn't get back from that until 4pm, so we had dinner and went to Waikiki Beach to swim and watch the sun set. It was gorgeous, the best sunset I have ever seen! I will chat with ya later!
L

Day 5 in HI

Aloha!
On Friday we went to Paul Neves's house. He is another activist for the Native Hawaiians. When we arrived there were 3 hula boys (Namaka, Kimu, and Koma) lined up ready to dance for us in their uniforms. It was a long day we got there at 10 am after some picture stops and a wonderful tour from Aunty Maggie, and didn't get back to our rooms until 10 pm. We went to Malomawano (not sure on the spelling) beach after a long morning learning how to hula! We also were able to receive our Hawaiian names from Uncle Paul. My name is Keao, it means knowledge of the world. The hula we learned was called Keao Nani meaning knowledge of the beautiful world. After all that and the beach we went back to Uncle's house and made tea leaf leis and flowers that we had to pick from his trees. Then we made an offering called Ho'okupu. For this we went around is house collecting the needed ingredients. I tried a Hawaiian pudding that was coconut, it was delicious! See you in 4 weeks!
Mahalo,
L

Day 4 in Hilo!

Aloha,
Today we went to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We found some fresh Ginger that smelt amazing! We took a four mile hike down the Kilauea Iki trail. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work! By the time we got back to the bus almost everyone passed out! I learned about Pele who is the sacred living deity of Hawaii's volcanoes. We all had to chant to her before we got off the bus at the park and we had to respect her by not shouting or littering. There is also a rule that if you take any black rocks from Hawaii bad luck will follow you. If you are wondering where the volcano is, I found out that when a volcano is inactive it caves in and becomes a huge crater, like in the pictures! I will just let pictures explain today. Enjoy the view!
Mahalo,
L

Aloha!
Today we spent the day at a Charter School with Uncle Keiki. He had us do a very interesting project were the whole group (21 of us) had to move leaves and twigs that were covering the soil by some lava rocks, the interesting part was that we were not allowed to talk and we had to work together the whole time (10 min). This seemed odd to me because some of us were running into each other and there were about 5 piles when we were done. I couldn't really understand him all the time, he blended his words together and didn't really talk very loud, but from what I saw and caught, the Hawaiians have a lot of ancient stories that are fading each generation. I met a kid (Kapu) that was in the eighth grade there and he spoke Hawaiian, he was so smart and fun! Esau was also there helping Uncle show us around, he was pretty shy but very forgiving to our culture. After this they fed us with food that was cooked in a Emu. This looked like a bunch of hot rocks with the food on it covered in layers to protect it from the sand around it.See pictures of white tarp on the ground, that was the "stove". Then we swam in a tide pool, it was warm from the lava under ground (something like that, Aunty Maggie was telling me). We finally got a whole roomie photo! Its Heidi, Nikkisha, Lauren, and myself. Overall today was not my favorite, I wish I could have understood more what was going on with the chants and clean up project.
Mahalo,
L

Day 2 in Hawaii!

Another amazing day in paradise! Today we traveled an hour and a half to Punaluu Black sand beach and had a chat with two Hawaiian activists. The first activist (Pali Kapu Dedman) also is a fisherman and a coffee farmer. He spoke very passionately about some of the problems with the way the limited land here is being used. He showed us a steamboat dock that was destroyed by a tidal wave and never removed, it is just out on the pier. He spoke to us about how changing the environment changes you as a person and that is why a lot of the natives are having problems with all of these changes they stated that some of these changes have ruined their spiritual connection and they are now unable to enjoy and pray the way they once could. Even individual owners are blocking off public property to try and make some money. He made a very valid point that endangered species have laws to protect them and land to live on but Hawaiians don't have either. Then Rocky (the artist/activist) told us some history of what makes them unique. After we listened to these men we went to the beach, the water was too cold and strong for me, it was pretty cloudy by the time we were able to swim anyways. I did get to see some sea turtles on shore resting. Today was a slow laid back day and I am still exhausted. I wish I had my friends and family here to share this experience with. By the way, the girl here in the picture with me is Heidi my roommate! She is amazing, we get along great! Look hard for the picture with the sea turtle.
L

Arrival to Hawaii

Oh Heyy,
So I finally made it to Hawaii! After a whole day of flying and running through airports! Today was the first time we did things as a class and we had three guest speakers and were able to walk around downtown Hilo. First we enjoyed the company of Mililani Trask who is an attorney here and is also involved with the UN and has TONS of interesting stories that really hit home and meant a lot to me. After we ate lunch we took the drive to Akaka Falls and hiked down to see the biggest waterfall I have ever seen. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was, I just wish we could have gotten closer! Then Craig Severence spoke to us about a current problem with the native against some rich people trying to take their land from them. It was very moving. Then we took a walk down to the black sand beach by Prof Onagas' mother's house. After dinner we went into a classroom to listen to Major Kim talk about his outlook on the world. He was very interesting and was completely original, gave me a whole new look on life and word peace. Enjoy some of these pics, check Facebook if you want more!
Love yas!
L