Written by Hawai’i Overseas Educators, Fiona & Forrest
After some nefarious weather on the mainland and some heavy delays all of our students arrived in Maui by Friday afternoon! The week has consisted of orientation, snorkeling, starting work at Kipuka Olowalu, and a whole lot of wind. Students have enjoyed marine life, silly games, and have approached every day with gratitude.
Our Top Three Highlights of the Week:
🤿 Snorkeling in Honolua Bay!: Students were fortunate enough to see seven sea turtles, an octopus, a nudibranch, and even a reef shark!
🐳 Whales!: Students thought seeing Whales from the Olowalu Landing was mindblowing, but no one expected that we’d actually be able to hear a symphony when you dive down more than 5 ft underwater. The oceans are alive with pods of whales this time of year and its absolutely magical to share the ocean with them!
🌺 Cultural Practitioners!: Students started this week at Kipuka Olowalu. So far practitioners Ua, Teje, Karin, & Lizzy have introduced us to protocol, oli, mele, canoe plants, adaptive radiation, “Plainting”, and of course some manual labor. Wednesday afternoon students were given a brief glimpse of Hawaii’s dark history with colonization from storyteller Ian.
But transformation always comes with opportunities for growth: What were our main challenges this week?
Camp Olowalu has been experiencing severe gusts and heavy winds. This has made things as simple as sleeping, cutting up vegetables, or holding a sandwich difficult. Students have had to get rethink how they do everyday things. Everything must be tied down and sleeping situations change day to day. Cooking takes longer and sometimes we have to search the camp for something we swear was just on the table.
The silver lining is the winds are set to die down on Friday and the students are getting some recuperation with actual beds at an Airbnb!
Some gratitude of the week: The OE’s are most grateful for our students good attitudes this week. Delays and strong winds could have demoralized anyone. Fortunately for us our students approach every day with a good attitude and are even laughing when stuck under a giant tarp fort in 30mph winds.
Until next time! ❤️ Spring 2023 Hawai’i Semester
