Mokauea Field Trip
Today we went to the Mokauea island with Malama Honua. Throughout this field trip it continued to amaze me on how isolated this land mass was. There was no unlimited source of water, to flushing toilets. As people would say, it was like roughing it. The small island itself was beautiful, with a small fish pond and numerous amounts of oceanic life. We learned about some history and how there were so many fish ponds in ahupua'a close to Kapalama. Our main focus there was to work. Throughout the day, we would pick up trash, clean the fishpond and look at marine life. One thing interesting to me was the jellyfish in the fishpond. Our guide told us that if it would sting us, it could be fatal. There were so many in the fishpond and it was taking over! We cleared about 3/4s of the jellyfish in there but had to stop because of the murkiness of the water. It was a really good field trip and I learned a lot.
Waimānalo Field Trip
On the announcing of this field trip I was really excited and stoked to go out in the community and help and give back to the smaller communities of our island. The project and work they were doing at this Waimānalo farm were very interesting to me because they were growing organic and substance sufficed plants. The work we did was very minimal but the experience was amazing. To learn about all of the different plants and the connections they had with each other was quite interesting. Overall it was an amazing field trip and I think I will be going back for community service days every first Saturday of the month.
Quarter 1
In this quarter I have learned numerous things, in the beginning of this quarter we started off by learning how to take care of our mala or garden, we have numerous gardens on campus and they all need to be tended and taken care of. This was a good lesson for me because I have always wanted to start my own mala at my house, from the beginning of the quarter my father and I built planter boxes for plants to grow in, then we got the soil and the seeds to start it off. I waited until I knew how to properly take care for a garden to start growing the plants I wanted to. All of this knowledge I have got from this class in the first quarter. I also learned about the place where I live, its cultural significance and the usage of the ʻāina I live on. My family are fishermen and have always told me stories about what they did in the olden days and it was intresting to see that they were right about everything they were talking about, I always thought the stories they told were just moʻolelo but they were true historical facts.
What is a Hawaiian?
In the article Walaka, it talks about Hawaiians spending time in nature, doing things like observing birds chirping and the sound of the rain falling. In todays time we as Hawaiians are trying to rekindle our fire for our culture. We need a reawakening, but in order to do so, we as a Hawaiian people, need to become educated. Most of us students barely have time to finish homework when we get home after our extracurricular activities and there is literally no time to be sitting out in nature just being calm and listening to birds chirpping. I wish that we could, I would much rather do that then do homework, but what needs to get done needs to get done and I feel this is the only way we can rekindle the fire of our culture
Before Mokauea
Mokauea has played an important part if my high school career because I paddle for our school and practice is near Mokauea, we have races around the island. I am a steersman and have seen a lot of the islands in that general area. We as a paddling sport have gone there before to clean up and I am excited to see how much progress they made on the island. I cant wait to go back and give back to Mokauea. The island of Mokauea is beautiful, with a fishpond and beautiful coral reefs. It is very disappointing that the state would dredge out a channel right inbetween these island just so boats and cargo ships can come in and dock. Also, the history on the island and the islands around mokauea are very sad, they burned homes, kicked people off of the island, for what. The state did all of that for what. It confuses me to this day and until we go there and I can ask the question I will never know.
What is a Hawaiian Scientist?
First lets start of with the word scientist, someone who studies a certain thing and becomes informed with numerous amounts of knowledge to share with other people. Incorporate Hawaiian in there, a hawaiian who studies a certain topic. I know in the olden days Hawaiians were all scientist, they were so connected to the elements and nature that all hawaiians were scientists. To me a Hawaiian scientist is someone who pays attention to the elements. For example, the wind, the moon, the sun, the weather, the stars, etc. These things are based off of nature and the way they see these certain details about the world around them can help them predict what is going to happen and what kind of weather there will be.
Hurricane Lane Day 3
Date: August 25, 2018
Location: Waiahole, Oʻahu
Day3 of Hurricane Lane, throughout the day the sky will partly cloudly with consist down pours of rain. The weather set a sleepy mood throughout the day. The wind was around 20 miles per hour and the waves had picked up quite a bit, I could not see the sunrise due to the amount of rain and clouds in the sky.
Location: Waiahole, Oʻahu
Day3 of Hurricane Lane, throughout the day the sky will partly cloudly with consist down pours of rain. The weather set a sleepy mood throughout the day. The wind was around 20 miles per hour and the waves had picked up quite a bit, I could not see the sunrise due to the amount of rain and clouds in the sky.
Hurricane Lane Day 2
Date: August 24, 2018
Location: Waiahole, Oʻahu
Day 2 of Hurricane Lane, today the sky is filled with clouds with very little sunlight to be seen. The cumulonimbus clouds covered the sky blocking out any sun shine. The visibility in my area was around 10-15 miles, I could see the Kaneʻohe marine base from my house and also looking towards Kualoa I could still see Mokoliʻi. The tide was rising and dropping throughout the day bringing in small swells during high tide and showing reef surfaces on low tide. The wind had started to pick up and you could hear the rustle of the leaves in the trees.
Location: Waiahole, Oʻahu
Day 2 of Hurricane Lane, today the sky is filled with clouds with very little sunlight to be seen. The cumulonimbus clouds covered the sky blocking out any sun shine. The visibility in my area was around 10-15 miles, I could see the Kaneʻohe marine base from my house and also looking towards Kualoa I could still see Mokoliʻi. The tide was rising and dropping throughout the day bringing in small swells during high tide and showing reef surfaces on low tide. The wind had started to pick up and you could hear the rustle of the leaves in the trees.
Hurricane Lane Day 1
Date: August 23, 2018
Location: Waiahole, Oʻahu
The first day of hurricane lane was nothing like I expected, I was predicting Cumulonimbus clouds and strong gusts of winds and heavy rains but instead the sky held altostratus clouds and a sunny sky. This was the calm before the storm everything seemed so calm and gentle and I knew that something was coming in the next few days.
Location: Waiahole, Oʻahu
The first day of hurricane lane was nothing like I expected, I was predicting Cumulonimbus clouds and strong gusts of winds and heavy rains but instead the sky held altostratus clouds and a sunny sky. This was the calm before the storm everything seemed so calm and gentle and I knew that something was coming in the next few days.
What Mālama Hōnua Means to Me
The topic on mālama hōnua has grown on me during the past four years. During my first year in highschool I would constently hear the phrase “mālama hōnua” but it never really meant anything to me personally. I have always been an ecofriendly person due to the way I was raised but my whole perspective on mālama hōnua had changed during april in my sophomore year. I was presented with the opportunity to go to Tahiti with Hōkūleʻa and the world wide voyage. Before we embarked on the trip, we had to do research about the places we were going to see. This project had opened my eyes on how much we are impacting the hōnua. We waste so much and pollute not only our oceans but our air as well. This had opened my eyes to see how much we needed to take care of the place we call home. No matter the cost, we caused the distruction of this world and we need to do something to fix it. After my Sophomore year in high school I have taken my concept of mālama hōnua and have been trying to do my part as a kanaka to try to heal this earth. Simple actions can sometimes go a very long way and something as simple as picking up a piece of plastic could save a honu for mistaking it as food and digesting something that isnʻt meant for them.