Day 16

Um not much about today. Made breakfast for nine, seven showed. The rooms are filling up now so that’s cool. We finished to sofeting on Reiners house, just a bit to finish on the connecting bridge tomorrow. Then Jeremiah and me went to K-mart and got Band-Aids for his snorkeling wound on the bottom of his foot (sharp rocks!). Now we’re home. So hmm, when the wind blows palm trees rustling sounds like rain. There are ants everywhere here. Its not like “oh we have an ant problem!” they are just everywhere.

Day 15

Work was the usual today so I’ll just skip over to the after. We went to Kee’I beach, our usual haunt, and I think this was my favorite day at the beach so far. I know I say that about Christmas, and that was great, but today was different. Physically this is the first time I swam a lot and felt comfortable, one with the ocean and the waves I suppose. Also I have been having unsuccessful attempts at snorkeling, but I snorkeled a lot and saw beautiful fish and corals and things and it was just perfect. I laid down and listened to music, wrote a letter to Alana. We got a ride in squeezed in the back of this rental mustang with some tourists, the rocky road into, wasn’t ideal for them and I don’t think they like our beach, but whatever. Today on the beach was the first time since we got here that my mind rested too. I wasn’t worried about what I’m going tomorrow, what do I need to do to be a good worker, how am I getting, back, what activities should we do tomorrow, oh my gosh I’m in Hawaii what the crap. I go to ponder life and what comes next, the big picture, I felt calm and completely relaxed and comfortable. It was just a peace of mind I didn’t realize I hadn’t had since I got here. Anyway so we were trying to hitchhike home and this sketchy looking van was coming up so we put our thumbs down, but it was too late they stopped. It was two crazy older guys, but a rides a ride and it was getting late. They both were yelling and talking at the same time, it was hard to communicate much. Jeremiah told them we felt like the hitchhiker in fear and loathing and the guy starts quoting and totally gets the reference, it was pretty cool. We weren’t scared, but our ride givers were definitely inebriated and scattered brained, it was bat country : ) But there were beer bottles littered throughout the back. At one point out of the blue the driver says “ I was born May 4^th’ for no apparent reason. As ill fated as this ride could have seemed I found that kind of an odd cosmic connection weird thing. It put me at is and made me realize again what small world it is. We made it home safe and had an amazing avocado veggie burger and fried potatoes, the best meal I’ve had past breakfast since I got here, but I was also starving, it was just good familiar food. So today was just all around really good and interesting and I feel like a hit a point of, yeah this is my life right now and its good.

Day 14

Day 14

Well today we hit the two-week mark, so far so good. It also happens to be our day off (the day you arrived) so it’s easy to remember how long you’ve been here. Anyway we got around lazily and went up to breakfast. Sabina and Eva really don’t get along well at all, they argue and today it got kind of tense, I felt like mediator. I’m glad Jeremiah and me are the mellow kids, everyone here has a somewhat strong disposition, but we seem to get along with everyone, thank goodness. I guess when six people are fairly isolated on the same farm for any amount of time conflict is bound to happen. Then we took the bus to, um, Lulu’s? It’s a restaurant; don’t remember what the area is called. It’s a very touristy part with hotels and gift shops everywhere. Oh we got the evil bus driver on the way there she is sooo mean. There was a disabled lady in a wheelchair on the bus, kind of retarded, and she kept saying the harshest things. Like “I know you said the library, I heard you the first time I’m not def!” We have gotten her before; she’s perpetually in the worst mood ever. Now I try really even harder to be very nice to the drivers and thank them. Anyway today we went to a Kava bar. Kava is some root with medicinal properties that relax and calm you. It smells a bit like cinnamon and tastes, like a root I guess, it’s not bad, but its not amazing, I guess it for the feeling. At first Jeremiah and me noticed our mouths felt numb when we were done drinking it, and I guess I felt calm and relaxed, but I don’t know if that was because I read that’s what it does or it really did it. I was pretty happy where I was, it was a good atmosphere anyway, but probably won’t bother drinking it again. Anyway then we went around the shops and things and wound up at this Open market, exactly like the cramped odd tent markets in Mexico, except smaller. It was you know pineapple, avocado, general produce, jewelry, cheesy paintings and woodcarving. On the way out this large blonde lady start sumo lunging walking toward Jeremiah and I’m like what the heck? Well he hugs her and I can’t believe we ran into someone we know! Its his teller from his bank who he sees every week or so. She is really nice and we ended up catching the same trolley on our way back. Then we went to Tai food, try two so far, and it’s was better then the first place but I have never had as good of Tai food as Tai Beer in Salem. It gets disheartening and I think I should stop trying here or I’ll go broke, got to admit defeat. Such a small world, I thought about it happening, I knew it was possible, and today it actually did. We also talked to this guy on the bus in who told us the smaller and East sides of the islands are a lot less foggy with better sandy beaches, oh well. I hope to explore other parts of Hawaii when we are done here. But he also told us of a really good beach by the old Kona airport, but it a 20 minute drive from where the bus drops you off, so we’d need a car, gosh darn it! Maybe we could hitchhike, I don’t know. The beaches we’ve been to be cool, but it’s either all rocks, or all sand with tons of people.

Big post today. Thought it would be a quiet evening before we go back to work tomorrow. So Jeremiah, Eva, Sabina and I are all chatting on the patio and we hear a pig squeal (they are pests here, they catch a lot in the winter, have numerous traps). A bit of noise and watching from a distance and we hear it get caught in the trap. So Sabina goes and tells Reiner and he calls some neighbors who take care of his catches to come get it before it gets dark. Well it is dark when they get here, there’s some rusting, three gunshots from the 22 and then they drag it down. Oh I wanted to cry, it was so sad and blood coming form its head and I accidently gazed into it black vacant eye, like a dolls eyes (kudo points if you get the reference : ). Anyway after that excitement Jeremiah and I get into fascinating conversation with Sabina about plants and the seed industry and Monsanto and how things are so much better in Germany (and anywhere but the US) with farming and patents and organics. Sabina works in agriculture testing and profiling new plant strains, she’s knows a lot about it and had a lot of interesting things to say, it was a very good conversation. Now I’m typing it all down and really have to pee and its bed time, I get to feed the animals tomorrow while Eva makes breakfast, it’ll be nice to switch things up.

Day 13

Christmas morning. Made the guest breakfast, everyone is happy, piddled around with the raking. Then we (2 women over 60, one over 40, and 2 kids under 25) moved this chicken gate thing and a rusty old tractor first off after breakfast, extreme motivation. Then we hauled the cage to Reiners house so he can catch wild pigs. It was quite a feat and quite hilarious. Such good and odd Christmas memories thus far : ) The rest of the day, which is gorgeous, will be spent at the beach : )

Day 12

Day 12

Chickens, cluck, crow, and sometimes they scream, its quite terrifying. Anyway today is Christmas Eve. Made breakfast this morning for a German family of four. They have a son who is 6’ 9” and it’s the big hubbub that he is sooo tall, the bed is to short, ha ha, blah blah. After that Jeremiah and I helped Reiner put up more soffeting, nice easy day. Talked to Marianna about how long we are going to stay and I think we will be here til mid March, two more whole months, that sounds good to us : ) Jeremiah is feeling much better. Doesn’t really feel like Christmas, its so weird being here. If its warm tomorrow I want to go to the beach. I don’t know if we’ll have to work or not, make breakfast at the least. So after Christmas is our second day off, already? Crazy! Hang drying all our laundry feels so nice, its so warm it just seems ridiculous to use the dryer, they don’t, its for towels only so they don’t get crunchy. Its kind of crazy that me and everyone else on the Hawaiian islands are closer to president Obama during Christmas then anyone else in the world. I mean what are the chances that me and him and his family are in the middle of the pacific at the same time. It’s a small world is all I’m saying. So we piddled around until it was time for our Christmas dinner at six. It was so awesome to get to hang out with everybody without work in the way. I feel like we all just get along and laugh. Even though I have only known these people less then two weeks, one less then two days, we already feel some comfortable with them, enough to celebrate the holiday with. Dinner for us vegetarians was plenty of wine, baked potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, and salad ( a lot of veggies). Then we all piled in the back of the truck and went to sing carols at church. There was candle light and the Christmas story and a lot of singing. Then they served fancy cheese, champagne, and cake afterwards. It was 11:30 p.m. by the time I went to bed and since we get up at 6:30 that the longest I have stayed up in a while, so we got and extra fifteen minutes to get around the next morning. Anyway for new people, no presents, it was a lovely and spiritual, beautiful familial, Christmas celebration. I loved it.

Day 11

Day 11

So this morning I decided maybe Eva can make breakfast and learn with Marianna and I’ll do the sweeping, raking, and chicken un-pooping of the main pathways for the guests. So I did it was all right. Less stress for sure. I also met Sabina who is a long time friend and WWOOFer of our hosts. She is a happy and very precise person, German as well. She’ll be working with us and hanging out for about six weeks I think. Its cool to hear so many different languages while being here. So far Finish, Swedish, German, Italian and English : ) Anyway since Jeremiah is needing to do easy sick stuff we cleaned the big room, the crow’s nest. Its huge and pretty dang cool, that took forever. Then I helped Eva make passion juice and tangerine juices. I took a five gallon bucket of rinds and had to take it deep into the tress and bury it with leaves, felt like disposing of the body or something it was fun. So now I’m watching ANTM, terrible! I should go to the beach everyday, but I don’t know, I need to do laundry too, ah must make a to do list. There is so much I just give up and watch TV, lame! Which by the way, the usual SciFi channnal is now SyFy? Lame! How dare they succumb to the “oooh we misspell abbreviations how awesome!” Quite disappointing. Anyway I did laundry and we went to this pretty cool pizza place. I had Long Board Kona brewed bottled beer, very good, probably my fave right now. Somehow mid dinner Eva appeared at our table, she has a way of knowing everything, omniscient, omnipotent, eh, I haven’t learned those since like fourth grade, anyway that was cool. Then we got ice cream and are now home watching ANTM and paranormal activity, each person’s favorite show, respectively. I’ve got to stop lazing about. I’m in Hawaii, Go explore, meet new friends. Aye Caramba! Get it together girl, work ain’t that hard. Okay that was a bit of self degradation, sorry to subject you to it : )

Day 10

Day 10

So after no sleep, but some trippy dreams. One which led me to a would you rather question. If for some outrageous reason you had to choose between you and your entire family living, or you living plus the rest of the world, but your whole family dying, which would it be? If you choose the world, yeah that’s noble and seems like the most humane answer, but on the other hand . . . you choose just you and your family till the end of your days, I’m talking fairly extended, like aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, you could have reign over the whole planet, but you’d probably go to hell for choosing such a selfish option. Now that I think about it some sort of machinery or factory or something would probably self implode without someone to operate it and then an apocalypse would happen anyway killing you and the fam. Ahh its a good complicated question no?

Okay back on topic, sort of : ) Jeremiah didn’t go to work to today he says he is very sick, but I can’t tell except he’s cranky and refuses to talk normally. Anyway, I’m just tough when I’m sick I guess so I don’t understand it. But I made breakfast and Marianna was back and there are so many little details I just can’t ever seem to do it all right tat once, but she is very particular so I remain hopeful at a 100% success eventually. Then I made passion juice and raked and helped Marianna with her computer. She needs to de-frag and disk clean up pretty bad. I haven’t used windows for so long it was weird to walk down that lane again. Then I raked, picked tangerines, swept mopped the kitchen floor, except they don’t believe in mops, or plastic shower curtains for that matter, in Hawaii, anyway so to mop I used a wet rag and walked around on it. Okay so the rest of today will be dragging Jeremiah to the store to get some remedies for the illness. Oh so I noticed there are no deer, skunks, squirrels, bunnies, little furry anythings here. I asked a guy on the bus and he listed off the few that are specific to each island and what do we get here? What is the only wild thing with fur I have seen here? The Mongoose! They are always darting across the road. It looks like a ratish squirrel whose tail is nor bushy. Pretty cool, haven’t gotten close enough but I think they’re probably kind of vicious.

Day 9

Um Marianna wasn’t here this morning so I made breakfast all by myself and felt pretty good about it. I picked passion fruit and raked and Jeremiah and me cleaned the room after the couple left. Jeremiah came down with some sickness, again, will we ever be healthy? So Eva and me went to the beach and tried to snorkel where they let in the kayaks. It was awkward and terrifying and I didn’t have a life vest and had to jump from this concrete pier, ah never again will I snorkel there. Then we hitchhiked to kee’I beach, which was beautiful, and the water is nice and I went for a little walk down the sand. The black lave rock is so cool cuz it is hard, but it folds and is shaped like goo, well lava, but you know rock like liquid its pretty neat. I slipped and cut my hand, dumb! But it’s not bad. Then we hitchhiked back; oh I think we figured out where the head to the captain Cook trail is. Oh so Eva didn’t know I wanted to go with her and I ran up the driveway, ah misery, she is such a spacey nut, reminds me of grandma Marilyn. Then I came home and made soup and went to bed, after eating of course, I didn’t sleep well at all. We’re in a new room now since Sabina ( old WWOOFer) is coming tomorrow and its inappropriate for two strangers to share such small quarters. Oh but our new room has TV and northern exposure is on all the time. Afterr our trip to Roslyn its pretty nice to watch and say, “I’ve been there!”

Day 8

When I walk out my door in the morning I trip over Macadamia nuts. How crazy is that. Edible, pretty and rolling hazardous nuts, mine for the taking, eating. So today started okay, made a good breakfast for the guests only messed up on cleaning the porch, success! Personal one for me anyway. Then the rain started, our first rain since we’ve been here. It’s been raining about five hours now. Soaking, thunder, lightening, light wind. All the birds went into the sheds or the laundry room under the house for shelter, Solei was soaking wet and shaking on people, Sunshine was hiding on the roof and we couldn’t find him forever. Anyway work today was light and practically non-existent, I felt bad, but there was not much we could do. We cleaned two rooms and polished some stuff in the living room, and the usual breakfast clean up and such. Don’t really plan on going anywhere today. I want to snorkel tomorrow though.

Day 7

We got up all lazy and made eggnog French toast, pretty delish. Didn’t really know what we wanted to do so we decided to take the bus pretty far in its route to the target/k-mart/wal*mart area. Oh but first we went to a thrift store that had a whole front lot of free stuff, I get some good finds, so did Jeremiah. We went and saw a movie, Ninja Assassin, um it was all right. There was an Australian family of seven on the bus they were mildly amusing. After the movie we were waiting for the bus in this grassy area and this exactly (it was his b-day, he thinks) 60 yr. old guy who is natively Alaskan, asked us for a quarter. He commented on my cross necklace and the weather and Nam, and how we should say away from the gov’t and go to college. He was very laid back and chill and harmless and thankful. He used my cell phone and Jeremiah gave him a shirt, which he put on immediately and threw out his old one. One thing led to another and we somehow ended up repeating the lords prayer together. It was cute. I didn’t know what to think at first, was he going to try and sell us drugs? Take our stuff? No he just wanted to chat, didn’t demand much, kept telling us what nice kids we were, he could just tell. It was like ten minutes, but when we walked away from him I felt so peaceful land Zen and relaxed, he just had that effect of everything is going to be okay, it was really nice. Then we went to Tai food, which was overpriced and made me long for Tai beer in Salem. We had time to kill before the bus and managed to find Internet in the grass in front of L&L Hawaiian Barbeque (kind of a chain here) so I frantically updated some stuff. Then we went to the grocery store and got remedy ointment for our ridiculous amount of bug bites, like at least 30 each. There were theses four or five groups of ten people dressed in Christmas running clothes out fits on some sort of scavenger hunt, they ran all over, I took some pics, it twas amusing. Also while waiting for the bus (which never comes!) there was a girl with the red Salvation Army bucket-playing ukulele and singing, she was pretty good. We ended up hitchhiking home with this guy with a purebred Doberman. He says he is a bodyguard for Dog the bounty hunter and is in about seven episodes and so is his dog, we’ll have to look that up. He’s like the only native who shows up in the show or something. So we came home and that’s where I am now, kind of a waste of a day off, it was so muggy here today, air just moist, no sun, anyway back to work tomorrow, we have guests so that means making the dreaded breakfast and potentially cleaning rooms, which is nice alone time, should be good.

Day 6

So today I failed again at helping to make breakfast. I was doing raking and then called to the kitchen. I find it frustrating I cant get a hold on making coffee, tea, cutting produce, essentially the exact thing I did at courtyard coffeehouse, oh well it’ll happen. I just feel like I’m frustrating for not getting the details. Anyway then we had our breakfast and went to help Reiner put up sofeting the rest of our workday. Then we took the bus to the post office, bought some Kona fresh made chips and came home and devoured them with our spinach, artichoke, and Parmesan dip. Today was really really muggy and overcast. The last two days have smelled like burn pile cause there was a big brush fire up behind the high school, its still smoking us out. Then we read and talked to Eva, well she talked and showed us pictures of her homeland. She lived in Japan as a Nanny for five months; she’s crazy but has had a pretty amazing travel life. Then bed time: )

Day 5

So now I’m caught up. Today I got up and tried to start making breakfast for the guests but Marianna wasn’t sure if there was going to be any so I stopped and started raking. Then Eva tells me to go help make breakfast so I do and I learn a lot form Marianna cuz I’ve been getting a lot of second hand how-to and I hate feeling like I’m not doing things right. Eva is cool but to quote our host mother “oh she drives me crazy, don’t tell me what to do!” Marianna is really an amazing and beautiful person. She is so nurturing and patient. She really like s Jeremiah and me and hugs and wants us to stay a while and is so open. I just haven’t quite gotten to be normal and relaxed around our hosts yet but we’re definitely getting there. Sounds like we have some really cool WWOOFers to live up to. Anyway after I made breakfast I folded laundry picked up passion fruit, did little house cleaning things, then it was our breakfast and me and Jeremiah went and helped reiner put up soffeting. He is a really fun guy, says “oh shit” a lot. People with accents are just so interesting. I pretty much played the chick form home improvement with the big boobs and cut-offs handing the men tools and saying, yeah that looks straight, while doing that I washed windows also. Then me and Jeremiah took the bus to, I don’t know kalikuiaehahela, seriously it all seems like that, and had Mexican food, pretty good, overpriced, no complementary chips and salsa! Then we went to some store and I got flip-flops and candy. Then ice cream, then this really cool bookstore the owner like to talk to us and they have a really good selection there, definitely going back. Now we’re home and I’m doing this. I’ve called and kept in touch and wrote postcards. I don’t know, here are some thoughts and reflections on my time here thus far. Since I am not at all experiencing touristy Hawaii and I’m in a small town, it feels comparable to like Newport or Lincoln city, then again it reminds me of Mexico, kind of run-down and crappy, but that is easy to let go because its so relaxed and warm, happy plants and animals everywhere. I like that its dollars, English, I generally get how things work. The bus stops don’t have signs though you just have to know where they stop and pick up and you wave your arms and hope they stop. They are always five to twenty minutes late, wouldn’t want to work commute: ) It is really fun and different and the work is challenging, but so worth it. I just feel like I’ve settled in well and its already normal, I still don’t know a lot though. Anyway I’ll do this every day before I go to bed I think.

Day 4

Ah I can’t remember. But it probably goes . . . raking breakfast, raking, magic sands, oh I cleaned a room for the first time, dinner sleep. Yeah that’s it. On the bus there we talked to the driver and local Tony who works at a nearby Monago hotel. People here either are interested and embrace us or just don’t even give us any hint they know we exist, the locals I mean.

Day 3

Um I don’t remember what work I did, I think I raked the bird refuge area, then me and Jeremiah painted the rest of the porch. Marianna and Reiner built two lovely little houses and we help with the parts still under construction. They are divorced but work very closely together and seem to get along. Then we took the bus to magic sands. It’s a sandy beach but when the wave come its sucks if you get caught when it breaks so we tried to stay out further. Its really fun and quite crowded. Waiting for the bus back we see two guys on a scooter get a flat and then like five scooters stop for them in about three minutes. The people on the bus, including and especially the driver talk a lot and are very friendly, we go to a grocery store on the way back, everything is so expensive. 10 dollars for soda crackers that would be 2.50 at WinCo, ridiculous. Oh on our way home we talked to this guy pouring beer? Hard A? from a brown paper bag into a water bottle at the bus stop. He was from South Carolina. Kind of a sceezy geezer but funny, drunk, had lots of funny dumb stuff to say. At night we make dinner and go to bed about 8:30 or 9. Never thought I would have such a responsible daily time schedule:)

Day 2

The next morning we rake leaves (it’s a daily thing) and make breakfast for the guest, set up the dining porch area. Breakfast is a meal I never cared about but its what I look forward to every day here. It’s the best meal and the veranda looks out over treetops and birds to the Pacific Ocean. It goes on farther then I feel like I’ve ever seen in Oregon. So here are some of the facts. We work form 7:15 to 12:45 with a half hour break for breakfast that works out to five hours a day, in the cool part, yay! Its not so much a farm as a bed and breakfast, animal sanctuary, fruit a plenty, houses under construction place. It is the most beautiful place I have seen in Hawaii thus far and I live here : ) You rake leaves to uncover dirt paths and haul them to the compost pile or some discreet location where hopefully no one will notice. Okay here are just random tidbits. There is an avocado tree in the middle of the all uphill 900 ft. drive way. We managed to get some down with the basket on a pole catcher thing but they won’t be ripe for at least two or three weeks. We get breakfast and make our own lunch and dinner. All the food is supplied but Jeremiah and me like to supplement with some store food. So I got sick on the plane and after work on this day we just went to the store and got Kleenex and cold medicine.

Travel/ Night/ Day 1

Hmm… okay so the journey to WWOOF Hawaii on the rainbow Plantation begins. Well the first airplane was exciting, leaving Oregon just minutes before the cold storm hits. We’re excited we’re happy. Get to San Francisco, eh another airport, eat overpriced food (soon to be a reoccurring theme : ) catch the long five hour flight, look out the window, play cards, listen to music, breakdown and buy a seven dollar snack box, pretty good but not fulfilling. After a total of four flights and several confusing “are we in the right place” “where is our luggage again” transactions, we hit Hawaii. The flight over Honolulu was pretty cool with the lights. Everything is built sloping downwards to the ocean. Every island is a big mountain. When we first get into our new atmosphere the muggy heat is a bit startling. We are hot sweaty bedraggled, been up since 4 a.m. We get our luggage and are directed by waving arms of an airport employee to an old white truck and an old German man, Reiner. It’s a musty old work truck but we’re used to that. He is hard of hearing but has plenty of interesting things to say about his son who works for google and how anyone can stick a blue light on top of their car and call themselves police. He’s a character. We get there and its pitch black. A pretty girl with dreadlocks helps take our bags and we follow unquestionably with the promise of a bed. Shay, the girl tells us to meet in the morning at 7:15 a.m. our home for now is a trailer with an added on living room. There are a lot of things left from other WWOOFers. Flip-flops, clothes, a lot of toiletries, games, weights?, cow posters, books, there’s a really nice vibe here. Laid back, comfy. It feels like summer camp. A few minutes later our house mamma Marianna comes to the door with hugs and sandwiches. She also tells us not to worry about getting up and meeting everyone until 9:00 a.m. Hallelujah! We’re exhausted.

The next morning we wake, I shower, yay! and see the towering palm tress out our front door. We wonder lost in the middle of the jungle and follow voices to the main house. There we see everyone form the night before and Eva our Swiss Grandma and fellow WWOOFER for our stay here. Breakfast is tangerines, passion juice, banana, toast, and bagels, boiled eggs, delicious. Little green and blue lizards appear and beg for some strawberry jam, which we gladly give them on a spoon. Parrots screech hello while we eat. After clearing up we get to work. Shay and Jeremiah go paint a porch and I follow Eva around. I pick up fruit, macadamia nuts, rake leaves, vacuum, get familiar with the chickens, peacocks, cats, dog (solei), sheep, horses, pig (Maggie). Red parrot (sunshine) blue parrot (azul) Green parrot (Ludwig). We get off work and Shay shows us how to hitchhike to the beach Kei’i in the Kealakekua Bay. One thing about the Hawaiian language. It, any word, starts with a “K” maybe has an “L” or “M” in it and more vowels then should be legally aloud, but its fun to try and pronounce. There is a lot of walking uphill and I realize how out of shape I really am. The beaches are mostly black lava rock. This beach has one clear blue strip of sand in wich we swim and stand in for a while. Its hot, but the sun is usually covered by “vog” smog and volcano smoke. We see sea turtles, yellow fish, and striped fish, black fish, surfers, snorklers, local kids; it’s a good first day to see a bit of everything. At home we have a farewell spaghetti dinner for Shay. She knows a lot about how things run here and is very personable, its kind of sucks she had to leave so soon.