Letter from you leaders

Aloha Bridge Hawaii students,

We hope you are gearing up and getting excited for our upcoming adventures island hopping through Hawaii! We are here in base camp at the beautiful Windsor Mountain International Summer Camp spending long hours in the office getting all the details sorted, and we are both eager to get the program started! In addition to bringing the Windsor Mountain spirit to a youth center on Molokai, we will be exploring volcanoes, helping out at local community gardens, snorkeling, and learning about Hawaiian culture. As you may know, we have one day set aside for surf lessons on Maui, which we need release forms for in order to participate. If you received that form, please send it in so we can check that off of our to-do list. If you did not receive the form, please contact us immediately so we can send one to you. (if you have any other outstanding forms…send those in as well!)

We hope everyone is prepared to learn, to be challenged, to face new situations, and most importantly, prepared to have fun! You will be living and working with new and old friends (some you may even have for a lifetime) on beautiful islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean …how much better can it get?

In order to be well-prepared for some of the situations we will come across during the program, we have a little “homework” for each of you to work on over the next few weeks before we head west:

1.) Bring a notebook with 5 games, 3 recipes and 1 song written down. We are planning a bunch of group activities for the Molokai Youth Center, so come with plenty of ideas so we are prepared to plan and implement these activities. Also come with ideas for daily group rituals—things to do at morning meeting, at meal times, etc…

2.) Although Hawaii is one of the 50 states, there is definitely a way of life that is unique to the islands. Do a little research on Hawaiian culture. Research Hawaiian cultural identity issues. Compare and contrast “old” Hawaiian culture to “new” Hawaiian culture. You also might want to rent the movie “Whale Rider” because although it takes place in New Zealand instead of Hawaii, it is a pretty good representation of Pacific island culture. Here is one article that we came across that is worth a read. See what you can find! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Renaissance.

3.) Read up on the land issues that are occurring on the island of Molokai. On what side of the issue do you stand ? How do you think the locals on Molokai view tourism? Is the island changing? Please do a little background research on the island of Molokai before you meet us; it is very different from the other islands, and the more research you do beforehand, the more we will be able to delve into when we get there. We will be focusing a great deal of our program on issues facing the people of Molokai and whether or not changes and development are going to be a positive or negative for the people of Molokai.

Thanks ahead of time for working on all of this. We will be sending out another e-mail later this week about a special initiative we are busy planning for y’all.

One more thought: remember, pack really light- the weather is consistently warm, aside from the occasional rainstorm. You need to be able to carry all of your belongings by yourself in one trip. This is very important—if we can’t fit everything in the vans we might have to send things home!
OK, That’s it for now…we will be calling each of you over the next few days so we can check-in with you and answer any questions you may have!

Looking forward to seeing you all very soon!

-Kate and Taya