Last Update: Hawaiian Names!

Bridge Hawaii Families and Friends,

Greetings from Windsor Mountain...
Our Hawaii team is enjoying their last couple of days in Maui before flying home. It seems they’re having a blast surfing and delving into the rich Hawaiian traditional culture. Unfortunately, team member Nick, had to spend the last few days in the hospital. The team has missed him sorely, but we are impressed with the confidence and ease with which Taya and Kate handled the situation. We have recently heard the Nick will join everyone for the final banquet!

And now an update and some student notes from Haku and Ma'e Ma'e (Taya and Kate’s Hawaiian names - Haku: the chief, and Ma'e Ma'e: clean and pure).

July 15th - Today we visited a macadamia nut farm, and learned all about farming macadamia nuts. Did you know that the macadamia nut tree is one of the only trees to produce fruit all year round? After leaving the farm we found some coconuts wrote a little note, put a stamp right on the coconuts and mailed them home…

COCONOTE: “ALOHA! Greetings from Hawaii! We’ve been having a great time on the islands. So far we have swum with sea turtles, worked at an organic farm, seen a volcano erupt, snorkeled, jumped off sea cliffs into the ocean, and, or course, gone to the beach a lot! This last week we’ve been working at a local youth center, and had a blast playing with the kids on the beach. Good luck at the Andy Upton. We’ll be thinking of you!” Love, Ian, Henry, Margot, Nick, Noah, Ava, Zoe, Julia!, Matt, Joe, Allison, Kate, Taya

July 17th - Today, we went to a traditional fishpond and helped to restore it. We spent the time cutting down invasive trees and replanting in the pond to restore and clean the water. Then we dropped by the airport to pick up Ben and Adam, who had a little mishap with their plane, but they made it, Yeah! Later that evening we had our final banquet at Molokai Youth Center. Henry sang for them, and they loved him. We all had a great time.

Then we packed up camp and went to Uncle Moke’s (not actually anyone’s uncle, but this is a term of respect to one’s elders). Before we were allowed onto Uncle Moke’s property everyone had introduce themselves and give their ancestry, then we sang for him. This is a traditional Hawaiian process. Traditional Hawaiian beliefs are that the spirits of ancestors live in the land and watch over the land, and so if we take care of the land then we take care of them and they in turn care for us. During our time at the farm, Albert, a young man who had been on the farm for years, helped us in everything at the farm and took us to a beach. We were very thankful he was like our third leader.

July 18th –19th –20th - Today we cleaned Uncle Moke’s pond. Very muddy, muddy, muddy…which turned into a bit of a mud fight. We also took three days to paint a peace mural for our host. The girls wrote peace in several different languages, and made a peace sign with their hands prints.

July 19th - 20th - Kapuna Reyes (Kapuna is the respectful term for an older woman/teacher) came to teach us some Hawaiian language, songs, and even a Hula. She also gave us all Hawaiian names. Later, we learned to build a traditional Hawaiian Emu (oven). First we made a fire, then buried it in rocks. We put the food on top and then covered it in leaves and grasses. Over this went a tarp and then dirt. We left it to cook overnight and then dug it up the next day (the 20th)…YUM!

July 21st - Left Molokai for Maui. Took all day to arrive…

July 22nd – Today we went surfing until we were exhausted and so as a little treat we went to see the batman movie: The Dark Knight (Ledger was amazing!). After we went back to the surf site and had picnic lunch. Tonight Nick started having sharp stomach pains so Taya, Ian, and Henry took him to the hospital.

July 23rd – Taya was still at the hospital with Nick, and so Kate took the kids to Paia, a town with locally grown food, local crafts, and crafts people. Then everyone visited Nick at the hospital. Then Kate stayed with Nick and Taya took everyone to dinner at the surf location.

July 24th – We went to a craft fair and then to the beach to enjoy a little sand and surf. After, we went back to visit Nick. That night we went to Uncle Tutoo’s for a visit (this time Uncle actually is Taya’s uncle who is a former student travel leader for New England Adventure, and 4x camp counselor).

July 25th – Today we slowed down a little and took a maslow’s day (time to take care of our minds and bodies) with swimming, playing music, and even some ukulele experimentation. We also met Taya’s cousins and his Aunt Mumulay, and celebrated Tutoo’s b-day. Henry sang for him and we baked him cookies and performed the hula Kapuna Reyes taught us.

July 26th – Our students took some time to plan the next couple days and we all went to Mumulay aunt’s for traditional Burmese lunch, YUM! Later we hopped over to the Hana side of the island to see a couple of waterfalls and a black sand beach. We even got to climb to the top of one of the waterfalls, beautiful.

July 27th – Noah is planning our day today and…we are just about ready to go! See you soon…

That’s about it! Our students will be heading home tomorrow the 30th of July and you should be seeing them and hearing all their stories very soon! And, our leaders will be back in base camp here at International Summer Camp to finish documenting your trip adventures and writing your evaluations.