One Month Check-In

 

Perfection

I’ve been in Hawaii just over a month and from one side it feels like I’ve been here for a few short days, and from another it feels like I’ve been here a lifetime. In the words of Janis Joplin, “It’s all the same fucking day, man.”

I suppose I haven’t reported back in a while because there haven’t been many fireworks or volcanic eruptions per se (ha ha bad joke), but it is the little things here that I absolutely geek out on. For example, my favorite flower in the world is the plumeria. So to find perfect little plumerias lining the driveway absolutely does it for me. I love mangoes. When I went over to Monica’s brother Mason’s house and found he had a tree chock full of ripe mangoes, we sat under the tree and gorged on mangoes until we were covered in sticky juice and had tummy aches. Then we went surfing, and then to the local dive bar. I mean… Can you ask for a nicer afternoon than that?

Chock full o’ mangoes

The other day I was reading in my cabin while Captain, the dog, sunbathed on the steps outside my door. I heard him snarl, take off running, heard the squeaking of a dying animal and instinctively knew that he had killed a mongoose. Mongooses (mongeese?) are an invasive species, brought here by brilliant sugar cane moguls who thought they would solve the rat problem. But rats are nocturnal and mongeese (I like that version) are diurnal so it was not a well thought out plan. Mongeese cause a lot of damage on the islands so nobody is too sad to see them run over by a car or killed by a cheeky pup. My satisfaction came from knowing, without seeing, exactly what had happened. Like I said, it’s the little things.

One not so little thing I’ve accomplished since being here is finishing James Michener’s Hawaii. I highly recommend the first 20 pages (out of 1,068), which give a fascinating description of the creation and geological evolution of the Hawaiian islands that I am still trying to wrap my mind around. The other 1,048 pages paint an occasionally interesting, fictional portrait of how present day Hawaii came to be, culturally and socioeconomically, from the point of view of an old, American, white dude. That said, it is based on historical facts one can verify from current events. See this article about how the US navy poisoned an aquifer in Oahu... oops. 

Yes, I’ve been reading a lot. I like having an understanding of wherever it is I’m traveling. Monica and Ryan have a copy of Captain Cook in Hawaii by Terrence Barrow, which is agreed upon by both haoles and Hawaiians to be the most accurate account of the realization of the existence of the Hawaiian Islands by a European (don’t say “discovered”). Plus, the book is embossed with gold so it must be factual. It also gives a first hand description of Captain Cook’s death at Kealakekua Bay, which is coincidentally right at the bottom of the hill below the farm.

I haven’t gotten to the part where the Hawaiians kill Cook so I can’t comment on that, but I’ll give him props for two aspects of his character: one, he accidentally stumbled across Hawaii as his ships were sailing north from Tahiti, looking for a northern passage across North America. Upon finding the islands, Cook didn’t plant the British flag – didn’t claim the land for Britain – he merely wanted to replenish resources, chart the islands and move on. Second, he forbade any of his men from having sex with the local women because most of the sailors had venerial diseases, which he knew would decimate the local populations. Unfortunately, his men didn’t obey his orders, and the local populations were decimated. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, right?

The Monument with local flair

Last weekend, Monica and I hiked “The Monument” which ends at the monument to Captain Cook at the north end of Kealakekua Bay. His monument has been adorned with local flair by red paint that says, “YOU ARE ON NATIVE LAND.” Hard to argue with that one. Then Monica and I went for a delightful snorkel and hiked the two miles straight up back to the road, which nearly killed me.

The mongoose killer in the pineapple patch

Other than that, (and writing my own Michener-esque account here) I’ve been getting a lot of pleasure out of tending the pineapple patch up by my cabin, going for afternoon snorkels, learning new songs on guitar, giving the cats and dog lots of good scratches, and keeping the kids happy. Next on my list of things to do is see more of the island.