It has been far too long! November as my last post...so much has happened. In my last post, I detailed my first trip to Kalaupapa. I have only been down once more since, but considerably improved my time and enjoyed myself much more. Oh! And one of the uncle/patients I met has been arrested on meth charges! Like I said...too much has happened.
I will try to sum this up as best I can. As the details gets fuzzier, I don't want to forget any of my amazing adventures/experiences/heartbreaks. Heartbreaks that have nothing to do with boys.
Since November, I have experienced a Hawaiian Christmas; my friend became ghastly ill; saw the most beautiful waterfall and swam beneath its icy embrace; learned a kane hula; gotten a tattoo; interviewed a Grammy winner and the Catholic Bishop of Hawaii; coached a swim team; and slept on a white sandy beach, among many, many other things.
Most of these things, thankfully, I am able to experience because of my job. A job that I love. A job that I have to leave soon. While I am constantly torn – about guys, clothes, friends, politics – I am notorious for fearing to leave a place. Thinking back to my first week here, and those blog entries, I cannot believe how much I have grown. This is a place that both welcomes and is suspicious of outsiders – and I find it to be my greatest accomplishment that when I walk into a building, people know who I am, say Aloha! and offer every thought of theirs under the sun.
This is a place that is cold in upcountry, but is the freshest air I’ve ever smelled. Molokai is a place of too many drinks, not enough pupus, short of talk story time and a never-ending Monday-night dinner at Hotel. It is a place I cherish for what I have been lucky enough to learn – how generous people can be (thanks again for the purse Kanoe!), what `ohana really means, what money really means, how the best night you can spent doesn’t cost a penny, except you need a really good truck to access it.
I think what I will miss most will be the stars. Nowhere else I have every traveled, however extensive or puny it is – depending on the person – has given me the sky the way Molokai has. The moon is brighter than any florescent light, the stars exposing constellations I have never seen to my naked eye, and the truth of how extensive this universe is is mind-boggling. I often have physics discussions with my brother, and I have a friend who is an astronomy graduate student, but nothing can teach me as much as just staring at the sky on a nearly-empty beach, or walking home from Paddlers. Light pollution will be my downfall in the future.
So why am I leaving? If I didn’t have a compelling reason, I would say sorry parents! The universe wants me here. Which I still feel it does – these days I’m putting a lot of faith in the universe and its instincts. But alas, I have a cool wedding/family reunion to attend, and my mom is having knee surgery, calling back her free nurse.
So I will willingly fly home to take care of my `ohana – because here that is the most important thing. I can’t take care of the `ohana I’ve built here while my flesh and blood has asked me to return. But that doesn’t mean I can’t come back…I’ll leave that up to the universe.
However, I am giving it a nudge. I’m stopping in Seattle, Washington for a few days before returning to the Quad-Cities, to check out jobs and the feel of the city. You know, it’s only an average $300 flight back to Hawaii from there…
More soon my dear friends.
