I apologize, I have not written in a while. Although this is pretty much for myself :p
Been quite busy at work - which I love. I'm one of those people who need to be busy constantly. It keeps me in routine and organized, which equals out to me being productive. That month and a half I didn't have a job? Lounged around at home all day, in my pjs, drinking coffee and watching Law and Order: SVU. Man, was I a steal.
The biggest highlight of my time here in Molokai so far was being able to visit Kalaupapa. At the bottom of 1700-feet-high sea cliffs (the highest in the world) is a small parcel of land that looks like a leaf (indeed, Kalaupapa means flat leaf) that juts out into the ocean. It is one of the most isolated places in the world, and it's where they quarantined the victims of Hansen's disease (old-school: leprosy) from 1866 to 1969. How they still were able to essentially kidnap people and leave them on that 'natural prison' as the Department of Health called it a full 15 years after a cure for leprosy was found is beyond me. Anyway, Kalaupapa is really what brought me to Molokai. I've been spending the last six weeks (has it been that long?) researching the life of Father Damien, now Saint Damien, the priest who voluntarily went to assist the exiles from 1873 until his death in 1889. So I of course have to make it down to the very place I owe my job to.
For all it's terrible history, the treachery of the Board of Health and the utter contempt these innocent victims of disease had to face, the peninsula is the most tranquil place I've ever been. I was unable to make it to the east side, where Damien lived and worked for most of his life in Kalawao, but the only 'town' now, also called Kalaupapa, has more churches than stop signs (take a page from my colleague Dan) and the definition of the Aloha spirit. We were down there to interview some of the patients for our stories -- something that I cannot express into words how amazing it was to witness. Uncle Norbert Palea was taken from his mother at age six, put on a plane with a dozen or so other kids, he being the youngest, everybody crying. He still lives in Kalaupapa, the only home he's ever known, but there is no bitterness. Not in his face, his voice, his stories. He told us of his life, and his experiences visiting Belgium and Rome for Father Damien's canonization last month, with surprising liberation. It's known that the patients are very private - it's incredibly difficult to get to Kalaupapa, and you need permission from either the Department of Health or a patient to be able to visit, and on the tours it's not as if you get to meet or talk with the patients. But after talking with Uncle Norbert and Uncle Boogie, it seems the administartion is more concerned for their privacy, and as they get on in their age (Uncle Norbert is the youngest at 68), they seem to want to share their stories. Many have, notably the amazing social historian Anwei Law who spent 20-odd years talking to as many patients as possible, as well as some patients writing their own memoirs. To be a part of that legacy, even to witness it, makes me so grateful, respectful and flabbergastedI somehow was one of the few.
From the top, amazing.
From the bottom, not so much. Three-and-a-half miles have never been so excruciating before. You think on the way down, wow this is going to be hard on the way up. You start up, knowing just how long it is, how steep the path is, how uneven the steps are (I have very short legs!). But, it's amazing the simplicity that goes through your head. You are constantly going up! There is no break! It's all up, for two hours, being passed by someone you had an hour's head start on!
And I'm sad to say, I'm afraid to do it again! Kalaupapa is a wonderful place, for personal and of course professional reasons. But like the dentist, it's something I dread that I know I have to face in the future, at least once more. You know that clip of Chris Legh in the 1997 Ironman, when he collapsed? I hope it's not disrespectful, but I feel like I knew a bit of what he felt like!
Overall, being able to visit one of the most isolated settlements in the world, on one of the more isolated islands in Hawaii, one of the most isolated archipelagos in the world - I'm starting to feel surprisingly at home.
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