Hukilau

We live on Hukilau Beach, and on Memorial Day a local family did a hukilau. It's as the song we learned as little kids said: They take a very long net out into the middle of the bay, paying it out from a boat, and then take it to the far end of the beach.  At that far end, people start pulling it in and moving down the beach toward the starting point. Eventually they get there, and they pull out the fish they have caught and make a big lunch.

Winding Down

We didn't master surfing. It's very hard and very strenous. We found we lack the strength and flexibility to "pop up" when we catch a wave. We would catch them, but not be able to pop from being prone on the board to standing. I kept getting stuck at kneeling. And paddling is exhausting. 

But we were successful at paddle surfing. It, too, is strenuous and requires balance, but we could do it. You can see deep into the water from the standing position. I watched a turtle fly under my board. And you can catch waves. But I wasn't able to keep my balance. If we lived here we would buy boards and get better at it.

Linda wanted surf shots of us to photoshop onto big North Short waves.

And we acquired a volunteer pet. Look closely at our kitchen counter. 

A month later....

Things have been a little busy. Becca and Austin were here for almost two weeks and Greg had to get a new class in a new term up and running. We finished our kapa class, we started stand-up paddle surfing, the Iosepa canoe got launched in our bay, made friends with Cyril Pahinui--a wonderful slack key musician--and went to a jam session at his house, and the weather changed to summer. It's hot and humid and still now. No more body surfing waves. Lot's of good snorkeling. And less than three weeks until we are back in Utah. 

Greg

Spring

We visited the PCC and Waimea Valley with Chuck and Elaine and Stephanie. New flowers and plants, and some shopping. We found a colorful eucalyptus tree trunk and jade vine flowers 40 feet up in a tree.  Have you ever seen a flower this aqua color?  The center is purple!

Greg

More Kapa

Here's Dalani--on the left--with a kapa. She teaches early monring seminary

Week 2: we trimmed and sanded bamboo sticks to carve a stamp design for decorating the kapa.  Greg did some lovely curvies representing humpback whales breaching.  I did a boring triangle, calling it shark teeth.  We all enjoy the friendly talk during class.  Andrew comes.  Now Greg is no longer the only male. Dalani’s daughter is at the hospital dialated to 6 in labor with grand daughter 2.  The first grand daughter only stayed 5 minutes, so Dalani is very excited.

Week 3: we pounded fermented very sour smelling kapa on hardwood anvils-sitting on the floor again.   Hawaiian kapa is fermented, breaking down fibers and rearrangeing fibers for strength and smoothness—like felt, but stronger.   The loud pounding rules out much talking.  Then we accordion folded our kappa and put water in the bag for more fermentation.   Dalani’s daughter was sent home to wait.  They will induce delivery on Saturday.

Week 4: we pounded again, this time folding once to give shredded strands some coverage.  Greg and I sit rudely sticking our leg out while the others sit politely  in Indian position.  A small film crew comes to film our pounding.  We are starting to learn how to pound; Dalani deftly moves our strands and gives us individual help again.  By the end of class I am so stiff I can hardly walk.  My sit down bones are still hurting Saturday eve during the stake conference meeting—and they are still hurting today—Monday.  

Dalani’s grand daughter is 6 pounds (Samoan babies are twice that weight), but she’s perfect and really cute.  Dalani is sacrificing her baby time to come to class.  Baby is named Bailey, after her gggg grandfather missionary who came to Hawaii.  He was the only one who married a Hawaiian.  He built a girls school.  The others simply intermarried the white missionaries.  Their names are Castle, Cook, and Dole.  Recognize those names?  They got away with huge tracts of land in Hawaii while native Hawaiians wait for a small plot of homestead land to put a modest home on.

Linda

Linda

Hawaiian Kapa Making Class from Dalani

Dalani  has recreated kapa making using only the tools and finished kapa pieces left behind by her ancestors.  She teaches our class at Leeward Community College from 6-9pm each Thurs. eve.

Six of us in the class.  We are all teachers.  Hawaii has 10% LDS, and we find that all but 1 student are LDS.  And the teacher is too.  Greg has her beautiful daughter in law in his lit. class at BYUH.

The first evening Dalani unloaded an 8 ft tree (wauke trees) and a large river stone for each of us.  We sat on mats outdoors as she showed us finished kapas and hardwood pounding tools.  The Hawaiians sit Indian style neatly.  Greg and I rudely stretch a leg or two our straight.  Then she set us to work.  We scraped the dark bark off our trees with the edge of a large round shell.  Then we sliced the inner bark from top to bottom with a shark-tooth knife and peeled the pliable 3/8 inch thick inner white bark away from the center core of the tree.  We threw away the inner core, accordion folded the inner bark, placed it on a river stone, and pounded it to break down fibers.  When class ended, we put our kapa into a large Ziploc bag labeled for each student. (There’s no way I can exchange Greg’s perfect intact piece for mine with shredded half length.) Dalani took the bags home, added water, and set them in the sun to ferment nicely.

Linda

Last Week

Last week was my birthday and my sister, Kelly, visited. We had fun eating the local treats, going to the farmer's market at Sunset Beach, and seeing the ambiguous middle-aged guy from "Lost" at the 7-11 when we were loading up on steamed buns. 

The waves finally settled down enough that we could have a good stay snorkeling at Shark's Cove and Three Tables. We saw lots of very spectacular fish. I saw an octupus hiding under a rock to I told Linda to watch while I moved the rock. I dove down, pulled the rock away, and watched the octopus swim away at full speed, shooting ink. Linda saw the ink.

After Kelly left we were exploring and found ourselves in an old sugar cane town called Waialua, complete with the town bank and the village green with bandstand and banyan tree.

Greg