Growing Up

I've been on these here islands for six months now and am preparing to leave in just two short days. My time here has been exactly what I needed and nothing that I had expected. For one glorious half-year I have not needed to worry about work, bills, relationships or much of anything other than how to get my tomatoes to ripen and how many beers to drink at the beach. Talk about relaxation therapy. So now I'm headed back to the hustle and bustle of the mainland, or as I have been referring to it in my head, the real world. I will need to find gainful employment, rent a house, pay bills and enter once more into the rat-race of life. I am both ready and anxious.

To soothe my worried soul, I've been spending a little more time in the garden lately than usual and find that it calms me more than ever. I have grown things with my hands. My attention to detail and delight in small things has expanded by caring for these little seedlings and noticing their changes day by day. And as I look back, I realize that I have helped to create something beautiful and big in my time here. When I arrived at the retreat that has become my home, there was just some dirt and myself. I was the first WWOOFer here and I have helped to create both a beautiful garden and a volunteer program to sustain it. I wanted to share these pictures of my daily work area both to remind myself of how far I've come and to show all of you the beautiful place that I have spent my days these past months.

August 2009

January 2010

Pig Daddy

Two months ago, I used to start out my workday by making a cup of tea, chatting with my co-workers and sorting through a mountain of emails. Times have changed. I began my gardening detail yesterday by walking up to the shade house and having the bloody jaw of a wild boar greet me at the entrance.



This is where I introduce you to my delightful colleague, Pig Daddy. He's a native Hawaiian, born and raised on the Big Island, and he loves him some pig. In case you weren't aware, Hawaii has all sorts of previously domesticated animals who have gotten loose and now roam in wild herds. There's cows, dogs, cats, chickens, horses, even donkeys that freely run around the wide open spaces. The most destructive are pigs. They tear up orchards, ruin gardens and wreak havoc on landscaping of any sort by rooting around with their big tusks. They're a real nuisance in these parts. My fellow WWOOFers were constantly fighting the pigs in Puna, continually building better fences to keep them out of the gardens. We don't have that problem here because we have our own resident pigger on the property. I'm not exaggerating when I say that Pig Daddy knows whereabouts of every wild boar in a 10 mile radius. He sets traps for them all over the property, making sure they stay the hell away from the lodge, and keeping tabs on when they'll be big enough to eat.

Apparently, the pig that ended up on my work table yesterday had met the weight criteria for eating. So here I am, looking at this bloody jaw, wondering how the hell it got here and eventually Pig Daddy came around and proceeded to tell me, in relatively incomprehensible pidgin, the story of the pig's demise. (I find that I understand about half of what he says. The other 50% I can fill in with hand gestures and enough ribbing to make him repeat himself.) It was a "big fella" walking across the road, there was a chase on foot, one shot, and now we all get sausage next week. As he said "my morning start out wit a bang!" Word. So did mine. When he saw that I took a picture of the jaw, he immediately insisted that it would make a much better photo-op if we were to unite said jaw with the rest of the pig.

So I followed the proud hunter over to his kill. All that was left was the head and hide, crammed into a 10 gallon bucket. Somehow I wasn't grossed out and obligingly took a picture with the reunited body parts. He gently pushed up the pigs ears so that it looked more expressive. Or maybe so it looked cuter, I can't tell. The only thing I really noticed was how the hairy, prickly hide of the animal so nicely mirrored the hairy exposed shoulders of the man holding his prize. I just kept thinking, "It's only 8:30, and already this guy has killed and dressed a wild boar. The Marines have got nothing on Pig Daddy."

My New Hood

So this WFOOFing thing is turning out to be a really prime deal. I am staying with a family on the north shore of the Big Island in Hawaii. They have a sustainable retreat with a big main lodge, some beautiful yurts and a spa area (currently under construction). The owners have been building the property from the ground up with their own hands for the past 8 years and it is truly amazing to see the fruits of their labors. They just opened a few months ago and I was their very first WWOOFer! You can check out the resort at here. There's a lot of love that's gone into creating this space and you feel it the moment you step onto the grounds.

I'm there to help put in a sustainable garden to feed everyone at the lodge. It's a small garden with about 12 raised beds, but soon enough there will be fresh vegetables and herbs for a retreat center full of guests. Down in the gulch next to the retreat, it's pretty jungley and there are lots of fruit trees with everything from ice cream bananas to passion fruit.

North Kohala is a rural area of the coast with two small towns, Kapa'au and Hawi. Both are towns in the are "blink and you'll miss it" sense of the word. Seems like there's about 10 stores in each one and maybe about 1500 residents between the two of them. It took me a couple days to realize that they were actually different towns with different names. A little Kohala history: North Kohala is the birthplace of the late, great Hawaiian king, Kemehameha I who united all the island under one rule shortly after Captain Cook discovered them in the late 19th century. There's a big statue of him in Kapa'au that gets decorated with leis and every year on King Kemehameha Day in June. Kohala used to be booming with the sugar industry (i.e. plantations, immigrant labor and cheap wages) up until the 1980's. Then the bottom fell out of the market here and now its mostly cute little shops for tourists. This means of lots of art galleries and restaurants. Ain't it quaint?

About five miles down the road from Hawi is the house I'm staying at with my host family. Its down a quiet lane with lots of cows and grass and mesquite trees.

It's a short walk down to the water and an awesome stretch of coastline. I just walked down tonight to see the sunset and check out the tide pools. Big black lava rocks and beautiful snorkeling water just steps from where I'm staying. Magical is probably the right word for it.