Farming Hawaiian style

Saturday was probably the hardest I've worked and dirtiest I've gotten in my whole life! We got up early and drove to Kahaluu where we worked with a church planter, Ikaika, and his wife Stacey. They have been building relationships with a neigbor of theirs, "Auntie Shelly," by bringing groups in to help her on her taro farm. We met some summer missionaries and students from UH BCM at Ikaika and Stacey's house for prayer, then went to work on the farm.

Ikaika explaining some Hawaiian customs and vocabulary 

One of the traditions he explained was how they asked for and received permission to enter. I didn't expect it to be like this, but I loved it!

 Once we were on the farm, she explained that it wasn't time to harvest, so instead of being in the taro fields we would be clearing land near her house -- getting rid of underbrush and clearing a spot for a garden. We also ended up planting ti (not to be confused with tea!)

It's always fun to use a machete!

taro field

Watering the ti plants

 Story! The guys picked up this log and were moving it to the debris pile when Auntie Shelly asked what they were doing with her bench!! Ha! They put it back and when they did, RATS started running out of it!!! One ran right over Sarah's foot.

 We got more done in less time than she expected, which is what I like to hear. Then she took us on a tour of her property. She is trying to restore the old ways of farming and pass it on to the next generation.

We picked and sampled mountain apples.

The swimming hole felt GREAT!

And of course the views were amazing!

See the ocean back there?

The "bridge" was a little shaky...

More taro fields

See the bananas growing at the top?

The Razorback fans were happy to see pigs. Snort!

After the tour we said good-by and went back to Ikaika and Stacey's house/church for lunch. We had chili with rice, fritos, cornbread and other yummies.

Ikaika prayed and read the Bible in Hawaiian. I love the saying to his right!

We ate and rested a little, then worked on their property for the afternoon! We leveled ground for planting, pulled up vines, and worked on cleaning out a ditch of stagnant water.

Before

 They had a long-range goal of getting the water flowing like it used to, but didn't expect it to happen this day. So everyone was excited and surprised when Mike, Jimmy, and Ikaika pulled out a big tree and heard "glub, glub, glub!" All of a sudden the stinky, muddy water started to drain and soon clear water will be coming from the spring!

After

We stopped at Walmart on our way back to camp, nasty dirty and stinky! It felt good to finally shower and clean up for supper at the camp. After supper we had a time of sharing about the week and what the Lord has taught us. We invited George and Kathy to join us, and he spoke to us and gave us each a wooden cross he had carved. I'm going to hang mine on the Christmas tree. :)

 After share time we all drove, exhausted as we were, to Long's Drug Store to buy Local's, the best Hawaiian brand flip-flops, for $4.99!! (They're called "slippers" in Hawaii.)