Na Kahumoku visit Waipa foundation

Waipa is an almost intact ahupua'a adjoining Hanalei bay on Kauai, Hawaii. (An ahupua'a is a historic method of land division running from ocean to mountain incorporating all the resources that exist at the different elevations). It was saved from development in the early 70's by a hui of families and now serves as a cultural community center and a place to raise food locally -- particularly taro, which is pictured basking in the Kauai sun at left.

Kaipo Like served as one of our hosts during the visit. Here he explains the maintenance of the lo'i (taro) patch.

Na Makuakokua

Before I add more history, I have to tell about the Thursday night gathering of Na Makuakokua. While we expected 30, the turnout was more like about 60! -Uncles, Aunties, Tutu's, grandads and community supporters. Na Makuakokua means 'adult or parent helpers'. The beginning of the evening held little promise. The school had scheduled our space to someone else so when we arrived the space was crammed with HSTA people, my projector gave me technical difficulties - so no slideshow. The parent were sitting with arms crossed as if to say 'So what are we here for?' But as the evening progressed everyone loosened up and warmed up. The food was great, the hula performance was great, the chanting was great, the student's question and answer panel was great and the audience participation was great! Almost everyone who attended signed on to volunteer for something. We felt quite heartened by the show of support from this group. The DOE officials who attended were particularly impressed because usually parent attendance for any school related program is scant. They wanted the list of attendees to add to their 'stats'."

A word about the meaning and concept of Na Makuakokua. It amounts to mentoring. The success of an environmental program can be gauged by the size and the efficient organization of it's volunteer cadre -- Na Makuakokua. No amount of money will solve the the environmental challenges we face. Only determined people who set aside "differences" and work hard together are going to effect lasting change. We hope to utilize a mentoring framework where each Kahumoku has a "poki'i" -- a younger sibling, in whom they take special interest and to whom they give quality time. This system for Na Kahumoku is in its incubation and has not yet come to fruition. It is a major focus of future grant efforts. We hope to begin with this at Kealakehe High School in the near future.
For the present, we do have a powerful cadre of volunteer scientist and former educators and environmentalists as well as parents who are eager to assist.

Now back to bringing us up to the present with our "history". I left off with recounting how Hau'oli Mau Loa entered into partnership with us.

After making the connection between the vog and my ill health things began to look up -- for me and for the Kahumoku program. I now knew that I needed to MOVE to Kohala. It was a stroke of good fortune that I already owned a place there. Although Kohala is only about an hour and a half commute I knew that I could not spend a lot of time in the Kona air. So in the spring of 2008 I began the transition. My luck and the program's luck was beginning to change. Daniel Benner stepped forward and applied for my job and I became his supervisor working "from home" as much as I could.

Daniel did a wonderful job for the next year. In March of 2008 another stroke of good fortune -- Hau'oli Mau Loa, a private foundation, approached us and asked to visit. They even offered us a stipend for "taking our time" to observe our program. Pictured above are left to right, Brant Chillingworth, of Hau'oli Mau Loa, Hannah Springer, on our advisory board, Art Souza, district Superintendent, and JoAnne Freed, director of Family Support Services. The students greeted the guests with an 'oli, hosted a luncheon, performed polynesian dance and sat on a panel to answer questions from the foundation about Na Kahumoku. As it turned out, their dream for Hawaii and its children and its environment is very close, if not identical to ours! We received word shortly afterward that the program had been granted $100,000 per year for the next three years!

Today we are heading out to do a service cleanup at Kiholo, a beach about seven miles north of Keahole airport. We will be hosted by Hannah Kihalani Springer. While I wait for that to begin I will post some more Na Kahumoku history. I think its easiest to do by choosing favorite photos and talking about them.

The first year consisted of after school activities, paddling, service projects and hikes. There was only one staff person -- myself. But I received a lot of help from a young man who was working in the same room with me-- Daniel Benner -- at left. Daniel was on fire about the environment and was a self admitted ex-kalohe (rascal) as a teen. He had/has a gift and a passion for this kind of work. As the year progressed I realized my health continued to fail. By the end of the year, I was pretty convinced I had one foot in the grave! I caught every virus and bug that crossed my path -- my immunity was down to zilch. I was pretty convinced I would have to resign and close down the program.

About this time I took two Kahumoku, Akira and Rio, on a weekend hike at Pololu valley. Miraculously, I suddenly felt much better and my energy returned for the day. Was it nature connection, the joy of being with the kids, the sheer beauty of the vally??? We stopped by the cabin that I owned in Halawa gulch, to gather lemons and say hello to the tenants that had rented from us for the last twenty years.

During the hour and a half commute back to Kona we looked into the distance along the shoreline back toward home. The whole island in that direction was shrouded with what looked like smoke from a forrest fire. Vog! I suddenly recognized the source of my malady.

As I was saying... Canoe paddling was one of our earlier program endeavors. To the left you see Koloa, paddling coach and ocean kumu Thiebert Lussiea, Chase, Peter and Lei'aloha. This was a wonderful experience due to Thiebert, who generously opened his heart and his facility to receive Kealakehe Intermediate Kahumoku. Most of these students had few oppourtunities to be mentored by such gifted and talented athletes and coaches. Thiebert was assisted by a group of other young men who worked at the Kukio community. The paddling program began in the first year when Na Kahumoku was a exclusively after school activity. Engaging eighth graders in staying after school necessitated having some very attractive activities and this was one of them.

Our most helpful and accomodating computer expert, Walter, at Family Support services has just given me an intital tutorial on blogging. Being an early baby boomer, I guess I am on the cusp of those who can (or won't) get aboard with the current wave of information sharing. We discussed the best ways of information sharing about Na Kahumoku and he convinced me to try this. Soo... Here we go. I will begin by doing blogs about things that have happened in recent history of the program and try to work my way up to the present.

The picture above is of one of our earliest endeavors. I think it is one of my favorites because it emanates joy! The kids had just recieved a lesson on how to steer while paddling an outrigger and as they were coming in, it began to hail, which is a rather rare occurence in Hawaii. Most of the kids had never experienced it. As we ran back to the van the balls of hail began to increase in size and was starting to worry some one would be injured! The Hawaiian girl in the back knew what to do! She sighted a lava tube. We all ducked under and waited for the storm to pass.