Life here part 1

After nearly a full week here we began to find a routine. Wake up- this is the view when we wake up. It is super cloudy this week, but you can see the water from here:








Head down the cliff side to the Barn for breakfast. Here is the outdoor sink/kitchen area:

Then we head off for about 2 and a half to 3 hours of work. All this week we've been doing the same project as we were on Saturday. Its still a lot of fun which is good.

One of the most fun parts of this place is the bathroom setup. This is the shower:


















This is the bathroom door, a screen slides out and locks from inside:



































Otherwise things have kinda settled here. On Monday I finished my mural sketch and Mojo seemed to like it-- hopefully I'll have time to do it. It all depends on how soon I can get working on it.

I realized last night that we won't be here much longer and that time is going super-fast. We started to look at our new farm options and will be calling a few of them soon. I really love this place, its going to be hard to leave. There is an idea nagging at me that this won't be the first time I write that about a place though.

"Sundays are laid back here..."

A quote that I heard in the barn as I walked up for breakfast which was quickly followed by "every day is laid back here." At which point I will explain that no one works on Sundays in Pahoa. Nothing is open, and none of us are expected to work either. Really laid back.

With this in mind we caught a ride to the farmers market just north of Pahoa. It was full of different foods- Vietnamese, Thai, Crepes, anything. Fresh vegetables, exotic fruits, and all manner of kitsch filled 3 rows of stalls. We stocked up on produce, chatted with a local wood worker, and then went for a mushroom cheese and onion crepe. It was AWESOME!!!

Then we grabbed a ride to Kehena Beach for the afternoon drum circle. While we were hanging out there, Dj met some jugglers working with pins and beanbags. He made a good effort to learn to juggle the pins. Kehena on Sundays is a really rich experience. There is incense burning everywhere, combined with the amazing blue of the water, the black of the sand, and the background rhythms courtesy of the drums and the waves. At one point it started raining so we all just hid out under the cliff side until it abated. We were just about to wrap ourselves up to find a way back to the hostel when a ton of the people that we knew from the hostel came down the cliff to the beach too. After they stayed about an hour or so we grabbed a ride back with them for dinner. It was a really gorgeous day.

Hard Labor, day two

On Saturday we woke up for our daily dose of labor. A little sore from the day prior, but after a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal we got our boots on and got ready to work again. We were brought down to the edge of the property and shown yet another method of beating back the jungle. We did a combo of breaking down the cane grass covering big sections of land and then harvested the grass underneath. We needed to sort the big rocks to build walls to plant new young trees, smaller rocks to reinforce the road, and so on. It was A LOT of fun. There was something really fun about digging in the dirt-- even if it was just digging.

We spent the evening at the hostel. There was a local rave, but we were ready for a night off. Apparently, so was most of the hostel and we ended up making a huge family style dinner. We made a sweet potato hash out of the local purple sweet potatoes, banana peppers, zucchini, green peppers and garlic. One of the other girls made a huge salad with local lettuce and fruits and veggies. We all split what we had, and finished the meal with a huge fruit salad. It was great. The papaya tasted nearly floral.

Hard labor, day one

So after our initial first three days being guests here at Hedonesia, it was time to roll up our sleeves and get working. I will hopefully be doing a mural here, I'm working on sketches now. In the meantime, Dj and I offered to do some hard labor to get in shape for future farms. For our first day we began by fighting back the jungle in some of the ornamental plant plots. It was fascinating-- really interesting to see how the jungle weeds literally attack the other plants to gain a leg up on soil space or sunlight. We had to untangle vines from plants, pull up cane grass, and generally clear weeds from the various plots. We did that for three hours, then went out to the warm pools and another local beach in Kahena.

This beach is wicked! As you pull up on the side of the road, there are a handful of cars all parked together in front of a street sign. As you walk towards a little pathway, you find a cliff that has rocks arranged into a rough step pattern allowing a person to climb down the wall to a hidden black sand beach. The beach is mostly full of nudists and neo-hippies and some really friendly locals. Dj went into the water with a few of the other guys who drove with us and I sat and watched whales spraying out in the distance. Soon everyone forgot about the whales because it had started to drizzle and a huge rainbow appeared, beginning in the little cove where we were. We were literally at the end of the rainbow. After a little while a girl named Rain dropped by and offered us coconuts and lilicoi. The 6 of us there split the fruit and realized that the coconut was awesome dipped in the lilicoi. Really tasty. The beauty was just amazing. We climbed back up the cliff and then headed back to the hostel for a great night's sleep.

Photos for Pele

On our last day before it was time to start working we hopped a ride with Lucy, another volunteer here, and Ollie and Snowey- a couple vacationing here who just happened to have a rental car. Ollie had the yen to go snorkling where Captain Cook died. We decided to take the scenic route through Volcanoes Park. At all the scenic stops along the way we stopped the car to look out and take photos. It was gorgeous-- I posted photos to blogger and I've enclosed a bunch here too.

The old lava fields are awesome. Its really cool to see that people still leave gifts for the Hawaiian gods there.










Near the end of the park we saw the petroglyphs-- they were spectacular. The little holes are where ancient Hawaiians put the umbilical cords of their babies to ensure a long life.
After getting through the park we realized that we still had a long way to go, but the scenery was amazing.

By the time we arrived at Captain Cook's monument we were all exhausted and road weary and just wanted to get into the water. Unfortunately the spot we chose didn't seem to be the safest place to hop in. Instead we turned around, headed back the way we came and hit a beach about 3 miles up the road. It was picturesque with cliffs and all the other tropical trappings. The water was chilly but not too cold, and there was brightly colored coral and fish. We all managed to snorkle for a while, then piled back into the car to head back. We stopped at a local spot on the way back to get fish sandwiches. It was a super long day and we all barely dragged ourselves in for bed-- but it was totally awesome.

Hedonisia Hawaii

This place is unbelievable!!! We are beginning our stay working in a fair trade work arrangement with an eco-hostel in Pahoa, Hawaii. The owner picked us up at the airport and brought us to one of the most amazing sushi restaurants I've ever been to, then drove us on to the hostel. We pulled in and the one of the managers, Heidi, showed us to our jungle hut. It is a serious hike to get up there, but the view is stunning. From lying down on the bed, you can see all the way out to the ocean. We dropped our things off, got the tour (I hope to take and upload pics of the whole place in the next few days), and were soon offered a ride to the nearby hot pools by the two managers and another wwoofer. This place was magical, it is the only way to describe it. It is surrounded on 3 sides by palm trees, and the third by the ocean. It was about 90 degrees and full of tiny tropical fish. After a little while a pocket sized gray kitten padded over near the pool.
Today we met up with a couple from Serbia and Whales respectively, staying here at Hedonisia also. They had a car and asked if we wanted to explore a little. We went into Hilo and spent some time visiting shops and then went to lunch. On the way back we met a local fisherman who had recognized me from the day before by my tattoo. We spoke with him for a while about his catch and Hawaii. The people are really amazingly friendly here. It seems like almost everyone we speak to has a huge smile and a great story to tell. After bumming around Hilo for a while we went to one of the nearby surfing beaches and watched the waves break on the rocks.
After we got back I broke out my art kit, and started working on a sketch for a possible mural. A lot of the other people here love to make different kinds of art too. After about 10 minutes the room was full of people drawing, working on photoshop, playing guitar, or making hemp bracelets. Its really awesome.

One back post-

I wrote this post while waiting to be picked up at the Hilo airport:

After our 4 and a half hour delay at Newark airport I found myself mildly disappointed about not being able to see what I was flying over because of the late hour. Fortunately, the moon was full and the views were spectacular. Mountains were awe inducing in greys and sepia tones. Then somewhere over, I believe it was South Dakota, there was a series of roughly boxy shapes. Farm plots divided into different midnight tones most punctuated with a little light from a house or farm. It really reminded me of a Mondrian painting. The rest of the flight, while long, was uneventful. Upon arrival I smelled something oddly familiar, but couldn't figure out what it was. After standing outside in a light misting of rain, I recognized the scent. The combination of dried jasmine flowers, sandalwood shavings, and patchouli (what exactly is patchouli any who?) from my bridal shower.
Shortly after that I called my sister, Jenna who demanded that I called "even if its 3:00am". I called and there was no, "how was the flight?", only a "What does it look like?" Well for Jenna-- it looks like an airport, only it January and warm, and smells good. There are tropical trees also. Otherwise I don't see too much difference between Oahu and an interesting amalgam if different parts of Jersey rolled into one and very small. A mixture of the port Elizabeth section and some of the southeastern peninsula...
We've just landed in Hilo on the big island and its very clear we aren't in Kansas anymore.

Quick update

We arrived safely in Honalulu a bit after 11:00pm (Hawaii time) last night. Turned around and were on a 9:20 am flight to the big island this morning. I hope you will all forgive a quick post tonight, I'll post pics tomorrow with a full update. For tonight -- Aloha!

Almost...

But not quite.... We arrived at scenic Newark Airport, checked our luggage, took our shoes off to walk through all manner of contraption, sent our things through more contraptions, wandered through the little avian city, and sat at our terminal for a while, exhausted from the end of our moving this morning.

After a little while I saw a sign that said 1:20 departure now 4:30. Ugh! However Continental has comped our lunch (There is a such thing as a free lunch!) and we have found electrical outlets and cheap internet access. We are truly having our lemonade with our lemons. Honestly, I'm sure I won't feel this way after the 11 hours on the plane, but its just nice to sit still and make a little art, even if it is just a postcard.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Just a few more days till....

This is our last Friday night in New Jersey for at least 5 months. We spent the evening saying good-bye to our cats and cleaning out the apartment. Tomorrow we'll finish painting our apartment back to white, say our good-bye's to Dj's father, our couch, and the rest of our stuff. Sunday we are going for church, bringing a final box to my parents, and having a last dinner with my brother, sister, and parents. Then Monday morning we drive to Adam's house to be driven to the airport. We will be hopping on an 11 hour flight to Honalulu to wwoof (www. wwoof. org) the following day for an Eco- Hostel in Pahoa on the Big Island.


We will have to see how this all goes.