Tide Pools

Snorkeling at the tide pools. We definitely are loving our waterproof camera.

Check out these pictures. We're still looking for turtles though!

Sunday Surfing!

Shankar goes surfing every Sunday with some of the people living in his house. For our first Sunday on the island, we went with him. The waves weren't great--which was perfect for learning. I only used a Boogie Board, but I caught a couple of waves and had a ton of fun. The kids who grew up here are crazy! I saw an 8 year old boy also with a Boogie Board, the difference was that he actually stood up on his board and was steering it too!

Pramod tried the surf board. I guess he caught some waves too. But like me, he was on his stomach most of the time. He did get onto his kees as some point with Shankar holding the board for him. It's all part of the learning process.

We both had a really good time. We will definitely try to go again!

Saturday Soccer!

Another farm in the area--who we have spent some time with--has Saturday morning activities. From 9:30 - 10:30, someone living on their farm teaches a yoga class and then after there is a soccer game.

The yoga is taught by one of a couple of yoga teachers living on that farm. When I say yoga teacher, I mean someone who has taken a yoga teacher training course. I guess a few years ago, someone came in and gave a teacher training course for anyone who was interested. From our experience in this class, it didn't seem that these people necessarily had their own yoga class. Regardless, it was yoga asana. It felt good to stretch under someone else's guidance and we took it for what it was.

After the yoga there's a soccer game in the park! It's pretty informal--barefoot with as evenly divided teams as possible. I didn't play, but I was excited for Pramod to have other people to be active with. It's good. Pramod even scored a goal!

Beaching it up

On most days, the farm work goes from 2-6 pm. This leaves our mornings totally free to go to town or to the beach or... anything else we may want to do. It seems pretty sweet although I bet it could get old after a while. Since this is our first morning out, it hasn't yet!
This morning, Pramod and I decided to go to the beach which is 6 miles from the main road. Hitchhiking is supposedly really easy here, and since we have no other form of transportation, that's what we decided to do...
One mile later... we're still walking and we have been ignored by several drivers. Our thoughts are moving towards having to walk the whole way AND back every time we want to go to the beach or the possibility of buying cheap bicycles. Finally we were picked up by a nice man from Washington State who retired to Hawaii.

He showed us some sights and then took us to the beach. It's a black sand beach which is “clothing optional” – slightly surprising to see. The water is so warm, but the waves are incredible and it makes swimming difficult. After getting on the other side of where the waves crest, it's easy, but getting back to land from that side was hard! It was a lot of work and of course I got stuck right under a wave. We both made it in and out okay, but I'm not a big fan.

Pramod on the other hand continues to play in the wave as I write this. Whenever I look over he's 1.) diving from the beach into a large wave and when I next see his head pop up, he's been taken way up to shore; or 2.) he stands there to let the wave pass him by but ends up falling and being dragged, spinning, up to the beach. Hey as long as he's having fun! He says that he enjoys the feeling of tumbling in the wave. I don't like that. I think I need to be in control. When I want to breathe, I NEED to breathe. When I want to get out of the water, I don't like the feeling that a force much more powerful that I am is pulling me back in.

Dharma Farm

We met our hosts last night and things weren't looking great. Someone picked us up from the bus stand, she showed us around the house briefly (it was dark, so not much to see – the house is more like a bunch of little houses connected only because they are on the same property). We weren't given dinner (though we arrived at 7 pm), but instead given a key to a cabinet with chips inside. Our room was small and dirty in the way that India is dirty. I'm not trying to complain about the accomidations, just painting a picture. The weather, stickiness after traveling so long, and the unsurety left me with that same uncomfortable feeling that I had when I went to India for the first time. It wasn't about anything physical – more of an emotional reaction to feeling like there's nobody caring for my well being and I am incapable to care for it myself in this unfamiliar place. Little did I know that Pramod, Mr. Capably Independent, felt the same way and that it would lead to a lot of stress the next day.

The next morning, someone was supposed to pick us up and take us to the farm (where we would actually be staying) at 10 am. No such luck. We were pretty much ignored until someone else drove us out there around 1 pm. So we had a pretty miserable day waiting around with this uncomfortable feeling.

Everything got much better when we got to the farm. We were shown around to a few different cabins scattered around the farm. We had our pick of the bunch because there are no other WWOOFers here at the moment. We chose a large school bus with the seats taken out. We're working on getting it all set up as nice as possible. It's connected to the community kitchen (which of course, no one else is using right now). There is no electricity in any of the cabins, so candles and flashlights are what we have.

While at the farm, we met Mike, who will be farming with us. He's the first person we've met who seems to care what's going on with us. That and setting up our living space made a huge difference in how we're feeling. Now we're pretty excited about this experience.

Hawaii

We have made it to Hawaii! I was nervous to arrive because we had no real plan: eventually we needed to get to Hilo (on the other side of the island) and we knew that there was a bus that leaves at 4 pm to get there (though we didn't know from where)_. We asked a bunch of really nice security guards at the airport who all had vague ideas of what to do. We did end up figuring it out, but it meant a $30 taxi ride to a Kmart where we waited for 6 hours... we have so much luggage that we couldn't really go explore either. Oh well. We made it to Hilo, and we had a gorgeous 3 hour drive to get here. REALLY gorgeous! The Kona side was pretty dry and actually looked like the western side of South Dakota as far as the puffs of dried grass growing everywhere.

Hilo is a different story: it's very lush and green. Very tropical. Pramod keeps saying “I feel like we're in King Kong!”. There are lots of plants and birds that remind Pramod of India as well. We could see the golf course-green volcano from the dry side of the island and I can't believe that it's so different from side to side. Anyway, we haven't met our hosts yet—just saw a bit of the island.

Hospitality

Once again, Pramod and I are astounded by the generosity that we have been shown. As many of you know, we are staying in Hawaii for 2.5 months. Our car, however, is staying in California parked on the street of my Grandma's brother's house. John and Kathy are very sweet to let us do this because 1.) it's a little bit of an inconvenience to have an extra car around all the time, 2.) to my recollection, I have never even met these relatives of mine. In addition to this, they are out of town and they left a key for us so that we could crash at their house. The house is wonderful! They have a pool, a gorgeous view out their back, access to laundry and a kitchen, and space to take over while we unpack and repack. We thank John and Kathy for saving us worry, hassel, and money trying to find something else to do with the car!

In addition to their generosity: their neighbor, who let us into their house, gave us some champagne and seriously offered to take us to the airport at 5:30 am! When we declined, he gave us the number of someone who regularly does airport shuttling and he is also John and Kathy's friend. That's who we got to take us. When we arrived at the airport, Jerry rejected our offer of payment! Who are these people and why are they being so giving to strangers? “We are blessed”: Pramod's words when we thought about all that generosity. We really are!