Restoration in Haiku Valley

This week at Papahana Kuaola:  cleared invasive species (California grass, hau bush, octopus trees), propagated and outplanted native Hawaiian species (pu'uka'a, kāhili, 'uala, kalo, Hwaiian carex, 'uki'uki, 'ākia, hāpu'u, ti, 'ala'ala wainui), weeded 7 lo'i patches, built one lo'i patch, picked ti leaves to make 800 lau lau's, carved rocks, swam in a stream pond, and played Makahiki games.

This is my first hole I dug for the hāpu'u plants!  Hāpu'u is a native Hawaiian tree fern that only grows one foot in ten years!  So it is important to save these ferns since they take so long to grow; wild pigs like to dig them up to eat the roots.  Kapaliku Shirman was teaching us how the Hawaiians used the fern.  They could use the stems to make hats and the fur, pulu, to make pillows.  In the kumulipo, the hapu'u tree fern is related to the hapu'u grouper in the ocean.  It was my first time digging holes like this!  We used an 'o'o, a digging stick, to soften up the ground.  We had to dig the holes a foot to three feet deep, depending on how big the tree fern was.  My team and I, about a dozen of us, planted 75 hāpu'u in just under four hours!  Isn't that amazing!?

I forgot the name of this fern, but it's edible!  It just tastes like a plant to me though...

This is a Hawaiian slipper, made from ti leaves!

I carved this rock from the river myself!  I gave it to Ryan as a welcome home gift!

This is Mahi, he works at Papahana Kuaola, showing us how to use the Hawaiian sling!

We played lots of Hawaiian games!  This is me playing 'ulu maika.

Team Oahu Fire!  I always manage to stay clean!  They had a mud fight in the lo'i and I ran away as fast as I could!  I also am very good at protecting myself from the sun, I have buggy sunglasses!  :)

Papahana Kuaola

This week has only begun and my team and I have been working so hard! We are working at Papahana Kuaola in Kane'ohe this week. The native plants we've been working with are pu'uka'a, kahili, 'uala, kalo, akia, and 'uki'uki. We've also been clearing the invasive hau bush, ginger, and other grasses and plants.

In the lo'i, clearing out all the weeds so that new kalo can be planted.  I love my hat, it keeps the mosquitos away!  :)

Why am I so clean?  I rinsed in the stream water!

This is the stone they found when they were restoring this site.  The ancient Hawaiians put this stone here.  It represents Kane, the god of agriculture, and stands at the entrance to the lo'i.

I learned another native plant today!  This is akia, and it has poisonous berries!

Team Training Week at Camp Paumalu

View of Sunset Town, on the way to Camp Paumalu.

Team training week was a BLAST!!!!  All the teams from all the islands flew in to camp at Camp Paumalu for the whole week!  There were about 150 of us, representing Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui and the Big Island! 

The funnest day was when we went to the high ropes course in Kualoa Valley!  I've never been in there before, it's BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING and GORGEOUS!  We even got to drive by all the places where famous movie stars have been, like the set from LOST, Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, and 50 First Dates!  There were so many movie sets!  I even got to see a giant dinosaur foot print! 

The high ropes course was super fun and also scary!  I was nervous, but my whole team was there cheering eachother on!   The easiest course was the zip line!  You just sit, relax, and cruz!  We climbed like 70 feet up trees and then walked on cables strung from tree to tree!  It was so much fun!  We did lots of other teambuilding activities at Camp Paumalu, but the high ropes was the best!

We also got to do a service project in Waimea Valley!  It's just as stunning at Kualoa Valley!  But it's way more spiritual!  All 150 of us stood in a big circle and chanted an oli, asking for knowledge from our ancestors.  It gave me chicken skin!  My team helped out with trail maintenace, cutting down the invasive coffee trees and planting native Lama and Ohe makai.  It felt good to malama the aina! 

I also have a really good team and a really good co-leader!  My team is so well behaved!  We're gonna have lots of fun this summer!  Our first week will be with Papahana Kualoa, clearing invasive trees, grasses, gingers, and hau bush that are clogging the stream!  Sounds like hard work?  Maybe, but it's work that the land needs and that no one else is willing to do!  :)

Don't forget to bookmark my team's blog, Oahu Fire, where I also post updates!

King Kamehameha Day

Yesterday was my first day off from HYCC, thanks to the holiday!  I love how we have holidays nearly every single month! 

I had lots of errands to do yesturday, so since I was in the area, I decided to stop and say hi to my Papa.  The Windward side was so beautiful and green!

Hawaii State Verteran's Cemetary is lucky to have a really nice view of the Ko'olau Mountain Range!

My Papa's grave site: I didn't have flowers with me but I had some shells!

 

And lastly, one of my errands was to pick up a paint pen that matches the color of my dad's stand up paddle board (SUP).  He is on a mission to find the exact tint.  The one I picked up was close, but still not the right color, so I get to keep the paint pen!  :)

My dad has a cute little air brush compressor!  We were playing around with it yesterday!  It's really fun!

It takes practice and a little technique to get the paint to be consistant.

Inspiring Leaders

Team Leader Training week for HYCC is over!  It went by so fast, but I learned so much!  I feel ready to meet my students and lead them this summer! 

Next week is Team Training and I get to meet all of our students (or Members)!  We'll be camping all week at Camp Paumalu and we'll be doing the low ropes course, the high ropes, even the ZIP LINE!!!!  I'm super excited for all the activities that are planned and I'm super excited to bond with my team! 

Check out all the 2010 Team Leaders for this summer, representing Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui and the Big Island:

Pono and Pai'ea

Today was a fun day at HYCC!  We had a guest speaker, Kiha, come and talk to us about what it means to be pono and how to keep pono in our teams.  It was very inspirational and I learned a lot of leadership tools!

For example, 'sandwiching' is a technique that involves pointing out a problem or critisism, and sandwiching it with positive reinforment.  Try it, it works!

We then acted out scenarios for when we get our students, like bad things that might happen and how to fix them and make it pono again.  It was an eye-opener to all the issues that may pop up with the students, like what would you do if one of your students decided he or she didn't want to work, or was discriminatory, or decided to play ninja instead of removing invasive species...stuff like that.

Then we got to paddle a canoe!  New Hope Diamond Head's IMUA One Blade Canoe Club was nice enough to allow us to paddle in their canoes to learn the importance of teamwork.  It was so fun!  There were three canoes and we raced!  Our canoe was named Pai'ea, which is a type crab, amost like the a'ama, that you can eat but was also one of the names of Kamehameha I.  I told our #1 seat man that I wanted to win, so we started off strong and went all the way to the finish line and won!  Whoohoo!  I'm so competative!  It almost made me want to join a canoe team!

After that me and another team leader jumped in at Rock Piles for a quick surf session!  Last day of team leader training tomorrow!  Then we meet our students next week!  I've got nine of them!

Training Week with HYCC

This is the first week of HYCC!  This week is training week for the team leaders!  All the leaders from the outer islands are here and I've met so many cool people!  I've met a person who is a triplet, someone who was in the Peace Core for two and a half years in Micronesia, a real Hawaiian from Big Island haha, a Colorodian, a New Jerseyian, and lots and lots of surfers!!!  Whoohoo, team bonding in the water tomorrow!  Hahaha

There's a lot to go over like expectations, policies, logistics, and lots and lots of forms!  There are forms for EVERYTHING!  They gave us a Team Leader Handbook, and it's stacked full of papers!

I met my co-leader, his name is Kevin.  He's like a serious hiker man, so I'm not worried about this summer at all.  He's also a PE teacher and lives in Makaha, so he can get the kids back in line when they're bad!  Haha nah he's not moke or anything, he's from New Jersey, but he's a cool guy!

We also learned lots of oli's and chants for our trip to Kaho'olawe that we have to memorize and perform.  There's both a Request to Enter chant and a Request for Release chant, and even a song to sing during the sunrise:

Mele Komo (Request to Enter)

He haki nu'anu'a nei kai                           Indeed a rough and crashing sea

'o 'awa ana i uka                                     echoing into the uplands
Pehea e hiki aki ai 'o ka leo                     How is it that the one lands, It is the voice
Mai pa'a i ka leo                                     Please don't hold back the voice

Mele Noi 'A'ama (Request for Release)


'O 'Awe kuhi o kai uli                              Pointing tentavle of the deep sea
kuhikau, kuhikau                                     direct, direct
E homai i 'a'ama                                      Grant also an 'a'ama
i 'a'ama aha                                             an 'a'ama for what
i a'ama 'ia au                                           releasing me from my obligation as your guest

These are really pretty chants and we had a guest come and teach it to us and he did it as an oli.  The song that helps the sun rise up in the morning is also very beautiful.  You have to do a clap as you sing too, which got me really confused and I kept messing up.  I can't sing and clap a beat at the same time I guess!  For this song, we have to wake up before the sunrise and sing this song until the sun is fully risen.  During this time of year, the sun should be rising right above Mauna Kea!  It'll be so cool to see!

E Ala E


E ala e, ka la i ka hikina                            Rise up the sun is in the east
I ka moana, ka moana hohonu                  In the ocean, the deep ocean
Pi'i i ka lew, ka lewa nu'u                          Climbs to the sky, the great height of the sky
I ka hikina, aia a ka la, e ala e!                  In the east, there is the sun, rise up!

You can YouTube these oli's and chants if you want to listen to how they sound, I like E Ala E the best!

Sorry this post was super long!  Here's my dog Mahina getting a bath!  :)

Koko Head

Today I hiked up Koko Head with some friends.  Everytime I do that hike, I always tell myself that I'll never do it again!  It's one of my least favorite hikes, but it has one of the best views and gives you a great workout!  We cooled off by surfing at Kewalos after! 

Made it to the top!  I think its like 1,000 + stairs.

View of Hawaii Kai and Diamond Head:

View of Sandy's and the golf course:

Goodbye Waikiki Aquarium!

My last day at the Waikiki Aquarium was today!  I almost forgot to clean out my locker and take home all my belongings! 

Feeding Maka some fishy fish fish:

I will miss raising my cute squishy friends!  These are Mastigias papua, or Lagoon jellies:

Ugliest fish at the aquarium.  Someone tried to make him seem pretty, but I don't think you can undo ugliness, nice try.

And lastly, be careful when eating pistachios, you might find a crispy little treat inside!

Ending of a Chapter

Today the Waikiki Aquarium had a goodbye party for me and one other person.  Can you believe I've been working at the aquarium for 3 years already!?  I'm sad to leave because I've made so many good friendships and I've learned so much about myself at the same time.  I'll miss all the animals, especially watching the jellies grow bigger!  Jellies are cool!  I'll even miss the monk seals...

The aquarium has played an important part in my college career and now that I have graduated, I will be moving on.  This is the ending of one chapter, but the beginning of another.  Hawaii Youth Conservation Corps starts next week Monday, and I know there will be a lot more memories and life lessons!  I'm excited!

The Live Exhibits Staff (minus a few):

I surfed at Queens today.  It was so crowded!  Now I remember why I don't surf there in the day time....  I was able to show off my new board, The Stoker, to some familiar faces.  Everyone thinks my fin is ridiculous and were laughing at it!  What's wrong with my fin?  I think its mighty fine!  They must be jealous!  :)

I've been counting down the days to Ryan's return!  Only 21 more days to go!

Summer Time = Summer Waves!

New swell coming in later this week!  And the winds are supposed to die down too!  :)  I gotta get my hands on a camera so I can take more pictures!

Only 23 more days until Ryan comes home! He's missing out on all the surfing!  Maybe i'll be better than him by the time he gets back!  :)

Sail Away!

I just watched Ryan's boat sail off into the ocean!  They powered out from Kaka'ako an hour ago.  I was at work, but I was able to see his boat! 

Sadly, I don't have a picture :( I let Ryan take my camera with him because he lost his camera a couple of weeks ago.  But I think the camera is better in his hands!  He takes wonderful pictures!  And I can always use my parent's camera!

They'll be arriving in the Papahanaumokuakea National Marine Monument (aka the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) in about 4 days, stopping first at Nihoa and Necker and then to French Frigate Shoals.  So, I'll hear back from him once he reaches Kaua'i in about a week or so!  Until then I will have to keep busy!