On friday, periods 1 and 2 of Hawaiian studies class got to go on a field trip. YAAAYYY NO SCHOOL (: While our classmates were stuck in school reading stuff out of text books, we got the hands on experience. First we arrived to the He'ia fish ponds. We helped staff out by rebuilding a broken wall caused by a storm. We lined cylinder blocks into the water as a foundation to use for the new repaired wall, then another group transported the coral (gotten from a quarry located in Wai'anae), onto a dock then into the stacked cylinders. The third group loaded the coral into bucket that was then loaded onto a john deer cart. Not only did we help out but we also got a tour of the fish ponds and learned a bit about its past and where the staff hope it will be in the future. after we finished loading the pile of coral into the buckets we washed off and were on our way to the Waiahole lo'i patches, my favorite place. Upon arrival, we loaded our items into the backof the truck then hiked our way up to the patches. The bus took us as far as it could go, but where we were going was a small trail big enough for only a truck to pass. Guava fruits lined the trail, it smelt soooooo good. At the patches we listened to stories and then we got to run around in the patches to loosen the soil. We threw mud, tackled each other, played sharks and minnows and played tug of war. Now heres the best part, we got to rinse off in a fresh water steam a little up from the lo'i patches. The stream got a little deeper than four feet and could fit 33+ people. The water was freezing!!!! It was like ice water but it was so clean and clear. That was my favorite part of the day. I have never seen such a clean and deep river like that ever before. I would definitely ant to go back there again and help out. I enjoy these all day field trips because what you read in a handout doesnt even compare to what you learn when its hands on.

What is culture?

What is culture?! In my opinion, culture is what builds bonds between people. Take hula for example, hula is a strongly practiced culture. I have made many friends by taking hula classes. Culture is what makes a race or religion unique. The cultures practiced between a religion or a race makes them different from others cultures practiced. Culture is what makes a person unique.

A friend of mine has a culture very different from my own. Although we both live in Wai’anae, our practices are very different from each other. Seen through his families eyes, im a straight up haole. I dislike anything in the raw fish area. Whereas his family loves raw fish. Seeing through my eyes his family is very native!

One day they decided to swim to a lava rock “island” off the mountain of Lahilahi, and I decided to join them. For me I love the beach but I HATE deep water. No joke. Whenever im in the water deeper than I can touch with the tip of my toes, I start to get mini panic attacks. Mainly because I was scarred from watching JAWS 1,2,3 and 4. Now I know why my mother never liked me watching those movies. But leave it to my dad to keep it to that channel while im watching tv with him -.- So, going back to my story, we swam out to “shark island” ß nice title right? (the name freaked me out more while swimming there) and when we got to the island we picked opihi and ha’uki’uki. After our return to the house I was forced to try the ha’uki’uki and opihi. RAW. ALIVE. As Shelby scraped the poor slimy opihi out of its shell I could almost hear it screaming, “PLEASE, NO, PUT ME BACK!!” its antennas squirmed around as I bit into it. The texture of the opihi overwhelmed my mind and I could not focus on the taste. I quickly swallowed it down and drank some water. Next was the ha’uki’uki. Amazingly inside of its purple, wana-like shell, it was orange, like the color of a ripe mango in summer. But it didn’t taste anything like a mango. It was salty and had a crunchy texture due to its pieces of broken shell. I quickly swallowed it down, and was happy I was done J.

Thinking about it now, im glad I tried a culture different from my own. So, culture is a practice that not everyone may enjoy but its good to try new things, right?