Category Archives: Community

Community

Looking Forward

I just got a call about planning for the next “Chef Du Jour,” which is a fundraiser for Easter Seals. Boy, time flies.

 

It’s a food event that Chef Alan Wong and his friends have supported for many years.

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The celebrity chefs of Hawai‘i

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My grandson Kapono, talking story last year with Lt. Governor and Mrs. Aiona and State Department of Agriculture Director Sandy Kunimoto

Dan said, “I’m touching bases with last year’s participants; what do you think?”

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Butterscotch, strawberry and chocolate ice cream with blueberries and Hamakua Springs apple bananas. Yum!

I told Dan that we would like to participate again and that the farmer/chef connection was great.

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June with Oprah’s personal chef, Art Smith

I even enjoyed the plane rides back and forth to Chef du Jour last year, and took these pictures.

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Mauna Loa (left) and Mauna Kea (right)

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Hamakua Springs from the air

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Flying into Hilo airport from the south

I’m looking forward to doing it all again this year.

Adopt-a-Class, Community

‘Ohana Night

June and I were so honored to be invited to ‘Imiloa for an ‘Ohana Night get-together held Wednesday night for the families of teachers and staff of Keaukaha Elementary School. The folks from the Gemini Observatory put on a program for the small kids.

The whole night came about because of the Adopt-a-Class project and the energy generated by this worthy project. First Peter Giles, director of ‘Imiloa, gave a brief introduction. He talked about the Hawaiian culture’s connection with the heavens.

Back in May or so, I told Peter about our new Adopt-a-Class project and that we wanted to tie it into ‘Imiloa’s Hawaiian culture-oriented approach to science. I asked Peter if he would talk story with Kumu Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary.

Peter did not expect Lehua to come see him, as some people in his position might have. Instead, he went to see Lehua. It was an acknowledgement that there is nothing more important than teaching the keiki. And at their meeting, Peter seemed to instantly understand that this is a special place—a special school.

I could tell that the experience affected him profoundly. Now he is learning Hawaiian language from Kumu Lehua. Peter is one of those people who “get it.” I have a lot of respect for him.

At ‘Ohana Night, we went into the planetarium so the children could get a sense of how many different cultures looked at the sky and gave names to the star combinations. They got a feel for the moon’s relationship to Earth.

When we returned to the “classroom” we were asked to demonstrate how far away the moon is from the earth, and other puzzling questions.

June and I were pleased to see the “ripple effect” of our Adopt-a-Class program, as these young kids from Keaukaha have experiences and exposure that will only help to open up their universe.

More than anything, we came away feeling how privileged we are to help teachers accomplish their goals by bringing together people who believe, like us, that there is no more noble profession than to teach our children.

Some photos from the ‘Imiloa ‘Ohana Night:

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“Okay, your job is to make 50 balls of equal size from this 1 lb. ball of Play-Doh. If you make one ball represent the moon, and then roll up the 49 other balls into one big one, you will see the relative size of the moon to the Earth.”

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That’s Kumu Lehua. He says, “Why can’t learning be fun?”

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“Okay, we have to do this right! They said the ratio is 49 to 1, not 49 to 1.2!”

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“Okay, so what you think?”

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Aunty Luana says: “Take the string and make it 30 times the diameter of the Earth, and when you stretch it out, that will be the distance from the Earth to the moon.”

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“Again, students: Thirty times the thickness of the Earth is the distance from the moon to the earth. Got that?” They might have gotten that for the rest of their lives.

Community

Go FISH! 2

Remember when Richard went on a field trip with a 5th grade class from Kaumana School recently?

Karyl Ah Hee is the 5th grade teacher who invited Richard to ride along. She knew of Richard through his daughter-in-law Kris, who until recently also taught at Kaumana Elementary.

“Kris had told me to check out her father-in-law’s blog about Keaukaha Elementary School,” says Karyl. “The first thing I noticed was the title of the blog, Ha Ha Ha!, referring to three generations of the Ha family, and I thought, ‘He cracks me up!’

“Then I read what he’s doing for Keaukaha Elementary and I thought that was the coolest thing. I told Kris I thought he’d love this tour and that he should join us, that he seems to like things like this—doing good for the community and having children learn to do good. We wanted him to see that he was not alone; that children are striving for a better Hilo, too, just like he’s doing.”

Karyl Ah Hee’s 10- and 11-year-olds practice the FISH! Philosophy, adapted from Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle. There it’s a business philosophy, but Karyl has adapted it for classroom use. The FISH! Philosophy is based on four components:

• Choose Your Attitude
• Be Present
• Play
• Make Someone’s Day

She teaches her students about the FISH! Philosophy at the beginning of the year, and points out that she has no classroom rules. None of the “don’t do this,” “don’t do that.”

“We just live by the FISH! Philosophy components,” she says. “It’s a wonderful thing because it’s very positive. If I need to, I ask, ‘Are you choosing your attitude?’ At times I don’t even need to say it. Their peers remind them, ‘You’re not choosing your attitude.’”

“I’ve been tracking it and discipline problems, referrals, have gone way down. They look out for themselves, their team members. They understand it so well that they go home and teach their families. I’ve had a number of families that have come back and asked me more about it.”

It was as part of their FISH! Philosophy that her class raised money for an excursion and then recently took it on the road. “It all started out with, Well, if you are a real FISH! philosopher, prove it. They came up with: ‘Then we need to go out and Make People’s Day.’”

Their bus made 12 stops that day, to places like Hospice of Hilo, the fire and police departments, Air Aviation, the Air Guard and the Army Guard. “We went out to say thanks to the community who serve us so well all the time,” she explains.

They spoke about their FISH! Philosophy and handed out Hershey’s kisses in special packaging they put together, which included a small brochure with the philosophy explained.

One stop was at the Yukio Okutsu Veteran’s Center. “There were only a handful of veterans there, and they were more on the serious side. But as the children starting talking and laughing, and they sang a simple Christmas song for them, one veteran shared that it just made their day. They ate together, they talked story together.

“Mr. Ing, the photographer from the newspaper, had come but they didn’t want to be in the newspaper, they said. The kids said, ‘That’s okay, Mrs. Ah Hee has a camera,’ and they explained the pictures would be just for us. I asked them later what we should do with those pictures and they said we need to take them back.”

So during the holidays, Karyl and her sons put them in frames, one for each veteran, and her sons—also FISH! Philosophers—helped deliver them.

“The people there were so happy,” she says. “They were saying, where are the kids, where’s that girl, I want to talk to her again. Because they want to see us again, I arranged with their P.R. person and we’re going to invite our veterans to our school for our May Day program.”

On the brochure they handed out (they gave out more than 1500 of them that day) they challenged the people of Hilo: “We challenge you, Hilo! After learning about the FISH! Philosophy, Go out and make someone’s Day! ‘We’re striving for a better Hilo, one heart at a time.’ If YOU made someone’s day, we’d love to hear about it.”

Karyl explains that it doesn’t take a lot. “You could hold open a door, a simple smile, a wave, or a ‘hi’ or ‘good morning’ can do the trick. Help someone in need. The feeling inside is wonderful!”

The students still want to hear from anyone who has an example of doing this, at this address: Kaumana Elementary School, Attn: Mrs. Karyl Ah Hee, 1710 Kaumana Dr., Hilo HI 96720. Feel free to drop them a note with a concrete example.

“We are hoping for a big response,” says Karyl, “because it would show the students something tangible to cement the philosophy within. We’d love to hear about it.”

After the excursion, Richard spoke to the kids briefly to thank them and tell them he was proud of them.

Karyl Ah Hee talks about how the way of life impacts her students in other ways, too. She says reading is not a big priority to many of her 5th graders at the start of the year. But by the end, she says, they are self-governing.

“They tell me how much they need to read, how many books, and set their own goals. This past quarter every single one of my students met their reading goals. And I don’t remind them every day. They remind themselves. There was a situation where a great majority had finished their reading goals very early. A handful more was struggling to get there, and the ones who already made it constantly offered encouragement: Go get ‘em, let’s go. The students feel good that their peers are really supported.

“I think it has a lot to do with the FISH! Philosophy and the attitudes they bring to class. When we choose our attitude, we can make a difference in our lives, and in other people’s lives, too. I’m hopeful they will take it with them their whole lives.”

She says she knows she leave “fingerprints” on her students, and always hopes they will be positive ones.

“When we did this tour last year, I asked the students, ‘Is this something you’ll remember for a day? A week? A month?’ One student said, “This is something I’ll remember for a lifetime.’”

Community, History

Talking Story

I got to chat with Robert “Steamy” Chow at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. When I was a kid, people called him “Steam Pork.” But since then it’s evolved to “Steamy.” He was an old friend of my father’s and although I had never met him before, Pop talked about him so often I feel like I know him.

Steamy was a master caliber pistol shooter, as was Pop. Pop was into pistol competitions. He built his own pistol range, made his own koa gun box that he took to competitions, and carved custom koa handgrips for his pistols when the store-bought custom grip did not work just right.

I can remember that Pop would “dry run practice” for hours at home. He put a piece of black tape on the living room wall and practiced focusing. Since a person cannot focus both near and far at the same time, he had a routine. He would focus on, and level, the front and rear sights, making sure the distances through the rear sights were equal from side to side.

Then he kept that relationship steady and refocused downrange, to balance the black bullseye on top of the front and rear sights, which were out of focus but already set.

To become as proficient as humanly possible he exercised to strengthen his shooting arm. The stronger the better. For hours he practiced holding his breath—thinking his heart rate down so that his arm would stay steady.

Pop was amazing. He was not satisfied merely to hit the bullseye. He was more interested in how many times he hit the “x,” which is the mark in the middle of the bullseye.

When live firing and “in the zone,” he could call the shots. He would say, “2 o’clock X.” This meant he thought his round had hit the bullseye on the right upper side of the “X.” More often than not, Pop was right.

He told us: “Like everything else, it’s a mental game.” This was his shorthand for figuring out where you need to be, breaking the problem down into its essential elements and then doing or inventing what you need to get there.

At the market Saturday morning, Steamy said he has followed our farming progress in the newspapers for many years. He told me, “You’re just like your dad.” This reinforced in me the belief that influencing a child early in life can have a positive impact. And because I had such respect for my Pop, it also made me feel good.

Pop always said, “Not, no can. CAN!” I learned this lesson well and I still absolutely believe it. I want to give kids the opportunity to feel like anything is possible.

It’s great to go to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. Talking story with people makes it so interesting and gratifying.

 

Community, Eating Locally

Santa and the Bananas

Santa was at the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market the other day handing out candy cane and our apple bananas. Rusty Perry asked if we could donate apple bananas for Santa to hand out to little kids, and we were more than happy to give him all the bananas we brought that day.

When a woman came to our booth looking for apple bananas, I told her we didn’t have any, but that I knew where she could get some. I took her over to Santa and she got a few.

There was something going on at the Farmers Market the whole time. In addition to Santa, there was a cooking demonstration going on. I was surprised to see so many people sitting on benches in the audience. It was good to see. And every 30 minutes or so there was a “lucky number” drawing.

The market, which is on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon, is sponsored by the Farm Bureau, which wants the actual farmer to be at the booth. Everyone brings good quality, really fresh products and my grandson Kapono and I are happy to be included. This is the third time we have participated and we really look forward to it.

Community, Schools

Go FISH!

The other day, when Richard found himself sitting on a yellow school bus surrounded by a bunch of fifth graders dressed in red shirts and Santa hats, he says he looked around and thought, “What am I doing here?”

Sounds like it took him only moments, though, to answer that question.

What was he doing there? Karyl Ah Hee’s Kaumana Elementary School class had invited him along on its annual excursion around Hilo to show appreciation to people who serve this community.

“The first thing that impressed me,” says Richard, “was that the principal came up before we left the school and talked to the children. He said, ‘Now you’re going to represent our school…’ He reinforced the teachers. It was a big deal.”

The kids took down posters they’d made and hung them in the windows of the bus.

First the bus took them to Hospice, where the kids gave out candies and told the people there how much they appreciate what they do.

The reactions, he says, were amazing. “I’m pretty sure that having done this is going to have a real impact on the kids’ lives,” he says, “because the feedback everywhere we went was incredibly positive. People were really touched by the kids and what they do.”

Then to the fire station. “They brought everybody out and maybe three kids gave a presentation,” he says. “It was a talk about their FISH philosophy, making people smile, making people’s day. That sort of thing.”

The FISH philosophy, according to the handout the kids gave (with candies) as they went around Hilo, began at Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle.

It is used as a business philosophy, but we have adopted it into our classroom. We have NO class rules…we swim with the FISH. Philosophy for life!

The FISH PHILOSOPHY contains four components:

Choose Your Attitude. You decide your attitude. No one can select it for you; choose a grand one. Even if your day is not going as planned, make the best of it! Be proud of your choice!

Be Present. Really focus on what you are doing or the conversation you are having. Don’t let others interrupt, don’t work on the computer or answer the phone when you are talking with someone. Be in the moment!

Play. This means to do whatever you need to do with a positive attitude. Even it it’s something you don’t enjoy as much. If you have to do it, make the best of it! Give it your ALL!

Make Someone’s Day. This is the most important and easiest component. It means to make someone feel great! Look for situations where you can help: a simple smile, holding a door open, a wave, or a “hi” or “good morning” can do the trick! Help someone in need. The feeling inside is wonderful!

The small information sheet ends with this:

We CHALLENGE you, Hilo! After learning about the FISH philosophy…Go and out Make Somebody’s Day. “We’re striving for a better Hilo, One heart at a time!”

If YOU made somebody’s day, we’d love to hear about it.

Our address: Kaumana Elementary School
Attn: Mrs. Karyl Ah Hee
1710 Kaumana Drive
Hilo HI 96720

Richard was impressed that when they got to the police station, there was the police chief, the assistant chief, and all the police officers sitting in a classroom. “They made a special point of bringing in all the detectives, who were in street clothes,” he says. “It was impressive that they really acknowledged how important it was by bringing everybody in. Everybody was there. The same at the fire station.”

“At the police station, there was this helicopter pilot with Operation Green Harvest, who has 40 years in the National Guard. He said he landed at Kaumana School one day in conjunction with the detectives, and the kids there showed him so much respect he remembered it. He said he’d never seen it before. He asked if he could speak to the kids, and he gave a heartfelt talk with tears in his eyes. I thought, ‘Whoa. There’s really something special going on at Kaumana Elementary.’”

Richard says he is impressed, too, with teacher Karyl Ah Hee.

“She’s a very dynamic person,” he says. “What it all really gets down to is that there are teachers like that, all over, but people largely don’t know. It’s good to see them, because you kind of know it intuitively. When you’re a kid you run across teachers like that, who have such a strong impact, but to actually see it as an adult is great.”

He also talked about how reassuring it is that this sort of thing goes on. “And not only in one school. We know it goes on at Keaukaha School, and at other schools. It is so apparent that when people say that there is something wrong with our educational system, it is not the teachers that are the problem. I’ve seen too many dedicated teachers who, like Karyl Ah Hee, work over and above what can reasonably be expected. They’re doing way above and beyond what they get paid for.”

He gave a little talk to the kids before he left. “I told them thanks for inviting me, because it was really that I was lucky to go, rather than that they were lucky to have me. I told them I was really proud of them. And that we had some apple bananas waiting for them when they got back. They liked that.”

“I’m so glad that I went along,” he says. “Our dedicated teachers are making good citizens of our young children, and I wish everyone could have seen what I saw.”

Community, Eating Locally

Yellow Jacket

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This is the second week in a row that we’ve been a vendor at the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market. Now that my grandson Kapono and I know the routine, it’s easy.

Early in the morning Saturday, at 5:30 when we were getting ready to leave for the market, there was a very heavy, pounding downpour. It reminded me of monsoon season in Vietnam, where in two to three seconds, one could fill up a two-cup canteen with rainwater running off a one-man tent. It was faster to catch the rainwater than to remove the cap and pour water from a canteen.

When we arrived at 6:30, it wasn’t raining and we hustled to get the tent up. It was fairly clear during the early part of the day. But around 10:30, there was a major downpour and everyone stayed under the tents for several minutes.

One would expect Hilo people to carry umbrellas. But only one person had an umbrella handy, and he was the only one walking around from booth to booth. It frequently happens like that where no one seems to have an umbrella. I very rarely carry an umbrella, even though Hilo is supposed to be the rainiest city in the U.S.A.

The rain didn’t dampen anyone’s spirit. Here in Hilo rain just comes and goes and it just “is.” No problem.

Farm Bureau sponsors give talks on Farmers Market days. This past Saturday’s talk was on yellow jackets.

It reminds me of when we were in elementary school. I don’t know if these are the same yellow jackets Dr. Foote was discussing, but my brother Robert and I would go down to do battle with the yellow jackets, which made nests that hung from the roof of an old abandoned building during the summer. The plan was that I would throw dirt at the hives to get them really mad. Then we would use a short guava stick to whack them out of the air.

Someone told me that bees cannot recognize a person—that they mostly detect movement. So I figured we could whack at them and then freeze. And then do it again, until we won. But we lost our nerve, got a few stings and ran away screaming.

The next summer we resolved to win the battle. I threw dirt at the hive with both hands. To our horror, bees came out in a cloud. We whacked as many as we dared out of the air and then we froze. Those bees were really mad, and we pretended we were fence posts. They were mad for a long time and one even attacked—he came at me like he recognized me. But I kept pretending to be a fence post and he flew off and circled instead. We did not dare move around, and we ran for home, throwing the guava sticks in the air because they slowed us down too much. But we didn’t scream.

The best thing about the Farmers Market is that one gets to meet and chat with many people. Some are friends from long ago and others are friends of friends, or relatives of relatives. No wonder people come back week after week. It’s fun to meet and chat with people. We met one couple who introduced themselves as parents of our friend Darren Akiona.

I hadn’t seen Ralph Lee for a long time. I asked him, “By the way, how did it come about that you had a 1961 Chevy 409 in 1961?” It was the talk of the school and the whole island if not the whole state at the time. It turned out that his dad was friends with Chuchu Kanuha, the manager of Hilo Motors, and was told of this brand new model car that was coming out. So Ralph’s dad ordered it. It cost a little over $3,000 then. I always wanted to know how Ralph ended up with the hottest car on the island.

Earlier I chatted with Janice Crowl, who told me that she was in a group of Master Gardeners who recently visited our farm. She wrote about that visit here on her blog.

The Kino‘ole Farmers Market is located in the parking lot in front of Kawate Seed Shop. We grew up calling the sweet and sour Chinese seeds one can buy there “crack seed.”

 

Cyrus Wagatsuma, a Farm Bureau member and diversified farmer from Papaikou, brought a wide selection of vegetables. He has a loyal following of shoppers.

People you don’t expect to meet: Tom Beck worked with our son Brian as an electrician at the Canada-France telescope on Mauna Kea. Brian respected Tom and talked about him a lot. Tom is retired from the mountain now and is selling Wagyu cattle and specialty native plants as a hobby. He looks and sounds like he’s very happy. I thought I saw a bamboo coqui trap. It was a gadgety-looking coqui trap, where the frogs would go up the bamboo pole and into a compartment to lay eggs. I have to go back and take a closer look.

Rusty Perry and I have been friends for more than 30 years. He is very active in the Farm Bureau now. Way back when, we started in the banana business together and then he diversified into papaya and orchids. He markets his products on the Internet. His booth had a sweet smell from his orchids.

Aaron and Vionel Sugino run three booths. They make fruit pies, lavosh, taro, sweet potato chips, poi and all kinds of other products.

Vinel operates the incubator kitchen located in the old Fujii Bakery at Wailea, on the old road that goes by Kolekole Beach Park, and she has opened up its storefront. It’s still a well-kept secret at this point—they’ve only been open one week—but people are going to flock there.

Community, Eating Locally

Farm Bureau Farmers Market

This past Saturday, my grandson Kapono and I set up a booth at the Big Island Farm Bureau’s farmers market. It’s on Kino‘ole Street, in the parking lot of the old Food Fair Supermarket close to Kawate Seed Shop, and operates from 7 a.m. to 12 noon. We wanted to see what it was like.

We got there at 6:45 in the morning, and with help from our neighbors at the Keolanui and Olson fruit booth, we were set up in less than 15 minutes. We brought beefsteak, heirloom and other tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers and green onions, and we displayed them on a 6-foot table with a nice tablecloth. We taped up price tags and priced everything in 50-cent increments so it would be easy to make change. Just like that we were ready to go.

One unexpected thing happened. There was a series of strong gusts, so we drove the truck up and secured the tent to it. Next time we’ll copy our left side neighbor, Green Point Nurseries—they tied their tent to five-gallon buckets that were filled with water. That’s a good idea and we’ll have to do that next time.

The Farm Bureau provided Hawaiian music entertainment and speakers talked about coqui frog control and other subjects. The Department of Agriculture had an informational booth about invasive species. It was very informative. Every half hour there was a drawing. Some of the booths were decorated in Chirstmas themes. It lent a festive air to the market.

There were maybe 15 tents. Aaron and Vinel Sugino had their Blue Kalo products two booths down. Their products have a blue and white theme, and their tent was blue and white as was their Christmas theme. She runs the Hakalau Incubator Kitchen, housed in the old Fujii Bakery in Hakalau. She told me they recently opened up the storefront for retail sales.

Rusty and Jenny Perry sold papayas, citrus and orchid plants in a tent close to the stage. I’ve known Rusty and Jenny for 30 years. Their daughter Vicky was over at the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) booth. I can remember when she was a small kid running around barefoot. Now she has graduated from UH Manoa and works for CTAHR Dean Andy Hashimoto on O‘ahu.

Cyrus Wagatsuma had an assortment of vegetables at his booth, which was nicely decorated as well.

It started off slowly but picked up from 8 a.m. to 10:30 or so. The tomatoes were very popular. It was pretty apparent that many people had never seen an heirloom tomato before; some thought they were mini pumpkins. Next time we’ll be prepared to have people sample the heirlooms.

We had two lettuces in glasses filled with water. Our objective was to show hydroponic farming in miniature, but a lot of people asked if we had any for sale. We’ll bring some next time.

It seemed like many of the shoppers were senior citizens on a budget. We’re going to bring some “seconds” bananas and tomatoes next time to see if they appeal to those shoppers.

It was fun to talk to people, explain how hydroponics work and just interact with the customers. Lots of them actually knew who we were and what we did. And now we know what quantities to bring. I think we’ll mark the prices down after 10:30 if we feel like we have too much of a particular item.

Kapono and I are looking forward to next Saturday.

Big Island, Community, Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea Meeting

Yesterday I attended a board meeting of the Office of Mauna Kea Management (OMKM). I was there because I am a member of the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board and a member of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) sub-committee.

Also in attendance were University of Hawai‘i (UH) President David McClain, UH General Council Darilynn Lendio and Dawn Chang of the consulting firm Kui Walu.

Those three were there to present the University of Hawai‘i’s plan of action regarding Judge Hara’s ruling, which addressed the need for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to draw up a Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) for Mauna Kea.

Besides the OMKM board members, there were perhaps 30 members of the public present.

I volunteered for this project sub-committee for several reasons: My dad was one of the bulldozer contractors hired to make the road to the summit of Mauna Kea. I was shocked to see video of him operating his bulldozer, because my family does not have many photos of him. It seemed like a good omen that when I sat there, wanting to do the right thing re: Mauna Kea, I saw Pop’s video.

Also, I used to help put on the Mauna Kea 200 motorcycle race and spent a good bit of time riding my motorcycle on the snow 30 or so years ago. Although it is not politically correct now to admit that, it’s true. I still feel an intense need to take care of the mountain.

And more than all that, I want to do what I can to make sure that if this telescope is sited on Mauna Kea it is done with respect and in consultation with the local Hawaiian community.

My involvement automatically led me to the community of Keaukaha, and specifically its elementary school, where so many Hawaiian people on the Big Island have cultural ties. It is not lost on me that while the TMT is potentially a $750 million construction project, and other telescopes on the mountains are also valued in the multiple millions of dollars, there is nothing tangible in Keaukaha—a nucleus of the Hawaiian community on the Big Island—that relates to, or is a benefit of, astronomy at the tip of the Hawaiian mountain Mauna Kea.

My friend Duane Kanuha and I did not think that was right and so we set out to do something. This turned out to be our Adopt-a-Class project.

Allan Ikawa, President of Big Island Candies, former chair of the UH Board of Regents and one of the first people who volunteered to get involved to protect the mountain, went first and gave a really, really good description of the early days—the passion, determination and selflessness of those original folks who stepped forward on behalf of Mauna Kea.

He described how difficult it was for them then to be cursed and yelled at, especially considering they were all volunteers trying to do the best they could. He made it very clear that UH had a lot of shortcomings—they tended to deal with paper and words, not so much with people. They were, then, mostly about power and control. The result is that, til today, people still do not trust the university.

Then Dr. McClain spoke. Ms. Lendio followed and gave a legal “lay of the land” and then Dawn Chang explained her involvement.

Dawn Chang assured everyone that she wants to do this right because her personal reputation is on the line—and in her business, she said, that is all she has. I kind of believed her.

She and her partner are doing the Comprehensive Management Plan. She assured us that she will consult and include the OMKM’s opinion in every facet of the CMP.

The board talked about transparency and Ms. Chang’s compensation and Ms. Lendio danced around the subject by quoting lawyer/client confidentiality. She did say it was based on hours.

Darilynn Lendio said that Judge Hara’s ruling specifies that the DLNR needs to have a CMP and that they would consult with DLNR ahead of time about the content of the plan—that it will be DLNR’s plan.

Members of the OMKM board were very wary. They expressed their desire to vote the final plan up or down when it is finally done. If the OMKM board votes the CMP down, it would not likely pass the approval of DLNR’s board.

Harry Yada, a former OMKM board member, made clear that it was not about the plan, it was about how it was to be implemented. It wasn’t the paper; it was the people. This sentiment was expressed in many different ways by different people.

I stood up and said: “The words sound good, but I’m not going home and call up my brother and tell him everything is going to be good.”

Barry Taniguchi, as chair, had the last word. He warned the University of Hawai‘i not to repeat the mistake of bypassing the Big Island people.

I cannot help but feel that most speakers there were very understated, so as not to be rude. I hope the UH does not misinterpret kindness for weakness.

So now, the ball is in UH’s court. Let’s hope they see the light, and consult and talk story with Big Island people before they develop their plan.

Readers of my blog know that I am very concerned about the drastically changing energy situation we are facing, and our island’s importation of more than 80 percent of its food. We need to come up with serious solutions to these problems, such as finding ways to produce food locally for all our residents.

We have a long way to go to address these problems, and outside money from new telescopes done in the right way will be very helpful as we work through the transition in order to take care of our island’s people.

This is, of course, in addition to doing the right thing in terms of taking care of the mountain Mauna Kea and respecting our local Hawaiian communities.

Community, Education, Hydroponics, Schools

Nawahiokalaniopu‘u

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Jimmy Naniole, of Nawahiokalaniopu‘u, the Hawaiian language immersion school in Kea‘au, brought some teachers for a tour of our farm the other day, so they could see firsthand what we do and how our farm operates.

We’re going to help Nawahi set up a hydroponic operation. We’ll provide help and assistance as needed, and if we can contribute used but functional equipment and supplies, we’ll do that. We like for youngsters to learn how to grow things.

When the Nawahi teachers were here, Kimo gave an orientation and told them why we do what we do. So now they have a good sense of what their plants will look like as they start producing a crop.

The teachers included Na‘ilima Gaison, Lei Franco, Poha Tolentino-Perry, Loke Rosequo and Pele Harmon.

 

Last week Jimmy took me on a tour of the Nawahi school grounds. I was last there maybe 10 years ago, when Jimmy was turning the outside area into a sustainable, organic operation. He was raising animals and plants and integrating them into the landscape. Water flowed from the roof of the school by a series of pipes above and underground, through a lo‘i (taro patch) and into a low spot, a pond. It was a real Hawaiian-style landscape.

At that time, Kimo took Jimmy some banana pulapula and now all of the bananas on the school ground are from those original plants.

Jimmy has retired since then, but the school has “called him back” to help with its nutrition program.

We’ve known Jimmy from his days at Hilo High School. One of his students at Hilo High was Henry Lovell, who is now our tomato field operation superviser.

When Jimmy was at Hilo High School, he taught by doing things in the old ways. He had students growing traditional plants, such as kalo and ‘uala, and even made an imu where the kids learned about roasting meat.

During that period, the Hokule‘a sailed from Radio Bay in Hilo to Rapa Nui, and Jimmy asked me if I could supply bananas for the journey. He pointed out that in just a few days the voyagers would be out of fresh fruit. So I set out to make the bananas last as long as possible by varying the maturity and variety we provided. We were happy to learn that the crew ate the last bananas as they crossed the equator.

We are happy to be working with Nawahi. The Hawaiians of old had a society that functioned well, and where trading and taking care of each other was part of the culture—and this is something that Nawahi teaches.

They are important lessons. We believe that as oil supplies decline and food prices continue to rise, people will need to grow more of their own food and trade with each other. As we move into a new era of alternate energy, and out of the “Era of Oil,” these are some of the things that we must again learn how to do.

This is why we are so pleased to be working with Jimmy again and with Nawahi.