Written By Adi
11/7
Aloha! Our week started off at the Ulu co – op where we met Anissa, she started off by giving us a tour of the 4 acre farm where they have trees such as Ulu (Breadfruit), Papaya, Lilikoi (Passionfruit) , and many many ti leaves. We harvested some Ulu and Papaya and got to work cleaning up tarps, digging in the very rocky ground that 2,500 years prior was a lava flow and planted about 20 trees that consisted of banana trees, mamaki leaves, and pomelo trees. The group had a really fun time and Anissa played some fun music for us, we made friends with the centipedes, millipedes, and what seemed like a million mosquitoes. After work, Anissa cooked up a yummy lunch of Ulu and curry powder and papaya lilikoi salad. We ate off of ti leaves and enjoyed the delicious food she made for us right out of her garden. Afterwards, the weeks leaders Adi and Ukiah, set out to get the weeks groceries with Forrest as the rest of the group headed back to camp. Stomachs full and possibly going into a “food coma”.
11/8
Tuesday morning we had plans to meet at the Miloli’i Beach Park to learn throw net with Aunty Laila, Uncle Will, and Uncle Ted. Many of the communities kids/ junior apprentices joined us and we learned about the history of throw net and how to use it. Aunty’s and Uncles had gone spear fishing the day before and brought back some Kole Tang fish for us to prep, clean, and take measurements. Aunty Laila told us a little bit of the importance of the moon in connection with the tides and how Hawaiians in the past have used this information to help with their livelihoods, this being a fishing village and when stores weren’t a thing Hawaiians had to rely on the moon and tides to indicate how much food they would be getting that day. We descaled, cut open, and removed all of the insides, scaled them and wrote it down. Some more successful than others. After a hot, fishy morning some of the kids we had made friends with joined us in swimming at the wharf, doing backflips and cannonballs off the pavement, everyone had a blast. Right before we were supposed to be heading out we hear a shriek coming from Aunty Laila and Uncle Will when they were out snorkeling in the clear blue waters and when they came back Uncle Will was holding an Octopus! Everyone got to touch it and Uncle Will started to “prep” it. I’ll keep that part mysterious. We invited the kids over for dinner and got to play a few games of Presidents, BS, and Cyrus’ favorite, throw the cockroach.
11/9
We got to sleep in on Wednesday morning and met with Uncle Wes, his kids, Julia, “Boy”, and Rev and Uncle Ted. They introduced us to the art of traditional spear fishing, they gave us snorkel gear and we headed out on the wharf to catch some fish! After almost 2 hours of unsuccessful spearing and “swimmers ear” we saw way deep into the ocean a long spear with a Yellow Tang fish on the end and cheers coming from all over. Forrest caught the only fish and we were very proud. Once we got out, Uncle Wes, Ukiah, and “Boy” grabbed some sea urchin for our afternoon snack, it was interesting to say the least. We topped off the afternoon with solo time and ended the night with yummy chicken, salmon, and veggies.
11/10
Thursday was a day of getting ready to leave Miloli’i and say our final goodbyes. We had a late start with our daily stretch circle starting at 9:00am and a swim in the near by beach that we had all to ourselves. After lunch, Uncle Kaimi and Aunty Linda met us back at camp where we got to “talk story” and Aunty Linda brought the “Kū’ē Petitions” book where 21,269 signatures of women of all ages and boys under the age of 21 signed against Hawaii’s annexation to the United States in 1897. It was a really educational experience and one the group found really interesting to learn the history of Hawaii becoming a part of USA. After our meaningful discussion we had plans with O’hana (family/community) to meet up that night. Issy and Will cooked up some yummy quesadillas that got tossed after seeing what o’hana had brought us. Trays of delicious chicken, pork, veggies, and rice entered our campsite and we all had a nice, big (second) dinner. The Miloli’i volleyball team was hosting a fundraiser the coming weekend and though we couldn’t be there in person, we helped by making Lau Lau’s, we had an assembly line of a few people stacking taro and ti leaves, then pork placed in the middle, handed to the salt masters, then off to the wrappers who were the real artists. It took longer than expected but everyone helped out and had a really awesome time together. We cleaned up, headed to our tents to finish packing and catch a few hours of sleep before the move to our last campsite.
11/11
Friday morning stretch circle was for 6:30, we ate breakfast, packed up our things and began packing up the kitchen. We were set to leave at 9:00am but had finished packing up the cars by 8:15am and got out earlier than expected. One car headed to the grocery store to pick up staples and the other headed to the trash dump. We met at Kona Coffee and Tea where the group connected to wifi and enjoyed some phone time with coffee. Sadly, we couldn’t stay forever and eventually headed out to Hapuna State Park where we swam in clear blue waters and tanned on the nice warm sand, after being at rocky beaches for the last few weeks. Eventually we headed back to the cars and made our way to Kohala/One Village, our new and last campsite of the trip, we we’re greeted by beautiful rainbow eucalyptus trees and Vanessa showed us to our campsite which is called “The Crown” it’s the highest point of the whole village and where the first King Kamehameha would hangout, from the crown you can see the whole ocean and a little bit of Maui. Kamehameha would use this spot to see where the currents were going and to see if there were ships headed toward the island. We settled into camp and Issy and Ukiah made a delicious veggie curry and rice in honor of the cold we had been missing.
11/12
Our first night at One Village went really well and mostly everyone adjusted to the colder weather. Friday morning we got ready to head to Star Seed Ranch to meet Nick and Cody, the stewards and their dog Va’a. Most of the group worked in the taro field weeding and the others sickled banana trees to use as mulch for the taro, we got to know the stewards and had a really fun time talking, laughing, and getting muddy. After work, everyone ran to the showers and got to have a group discussion about the journal entries we had finished up in Maui. Stace led an insightful discussion about patterns, inside and outside of our lives and mantras that we made for ourselves. I think mine was the best. We ate a leftover dinner to get rid of the food we have and settled into the night with rainy tents and giant spiders.
11/13
Sunday morning was a treat, we got to meet Aunty Nani at Konea O’ kuki she gave us a short tour of her 22 acre property and told us about how she is the 7th generation owner of the garden and told us that before her the garden hadn’t been worked on since the 1950’s. Aunty Nani started working on her garden by herself 22 years ago when she felt she couldn’t control the epidemic of narcotics in her community and she turned her struggles into something beautiful for her children and visitors of the property. She hosts Narcotics Anonymous meetings at her property once a week and she helps recovering addicts focus their energy into working on her garden, she strives for a better world where people who have faced trouble get a second chance at life and that is a powerful and difficult path to take. She treated us to delicious ice cream at her food stand where her two sons and daughter-in-law work. After, we headed to Beach 69 where the group tanned, swam, and dodged the huge rocks in the water, we rinsed off and changed into warm clothes and headed to the mall/movie theater. Everyone got to pick what they wanted for dinner, and go shopping before heading to the movie theater, collectively we all headed to the Croc’s store and bought some “fresh kicks”. We headed to the movie theater for the 6:00 showing of Wakanda Forever and it’s safe to say everyone had a great time.
This week was super eventful and we’re extremely lucky to have experienced and met all of the people throughout the week. We’re looking forward to our last week together as a group and to make more memories. Mahalo.