PAU

We Pau.

The internship finished up yesterday, the two weeks since we got back from Limahuli were good. Fairly cruisey. Did mainly project work and also skiving project work to pick and husk coconuts. I also improved my rock slinging ability such that I can knock brown coconuts down from the tree. Now I just need to get the force up so I can get the green ones.

We gave presentations yesterday. Mine was good. I think I rambled a bit from lack of preparation but the coconuts were worth it. This internship has had its ups and downs but I have learned so much about people, plants and culture, I'm so glad I had this opportunity.

Now I have some alone time, which is a change. 4 of the interns have left, and all the rest are off at Thanksgiving dinners/lunch so I have used the opportunity to cruise about and prepare to up root and head over to the big island. No real news or stories to tell yet, just wanted to touch base.

Stay well, Mahalo
Harris

This last week at Limahuli Ray and I have been talking story about belauan culture after ethnobotany week. We talked amazing story about belauan culture. So cool. We stayed in this old valley that used to house an ancient hawaiian civilisation. With the gardeners there we built earth ovens with hot rocks and banana stems and ti leafs and cooked breadfruit, wild pig, taro, and we mashed poi and planted sweet potato and taro - which we also learned to clean and process. The food was amazing.

Raining more as we head into winter and the land looks amazing. We just spent 2 weeks after ethnobotany week at limahluli gardens, an ancient hawaiian settlement for eons ago. It was lived in by the community living traditionally until statehood in the 60's where the land was appropriated and was made a national park and the people were removed and the lo'i aquaducts bulldozed. The shit I saw in that valley was more advanced than any roman or greek fucking city. It was a sustainably built irrigation system that fed the earth and the people and didn't give anyone lead poisining. The hawaiian also had a land management sysytem known as ahuupuaa which recognised the area of one stream or river (the catchment) as a single and unique ecosystem and people cared for it the whole length of the valley. Ensuring it was healthy. We spent 4 days in the lower valley removing invasive forest and planting natives. I learned some rad techniques for Australia if I wanna go try do some ecosystem reconstuction there. The other days we were in the garden. We tended the lo'i and made mulch and planted out. Ray and I caught 8 chickens (me 2) in wild chicken traps we made from guava tree and also caught shrimp from the stream with coconut midrib lassoes and coconut as bait. That tree is truely magical. Over 70 uses in belauan culture for all different parts for all different things. I caught and cleaned a bunch of fish too with a throw net. You go out and spot the school swimming and launch the net and bring it in. We got 6 menuenue and cleaned and fryed them up. We also had another imu and built an earth oven and I watched the wild pig (feed up in a pen entirely on food scraps) get butchered and bled and then helped clean and shave the pig and prepared it and the wild chickens for the earth oven. Van ray said that sea meat like turtle and dugong is the best meat there is becuase it feeds on sea grass and sea weeds. There was an old uncle that worked at the garden preserved called uncle tommy and he had lived on country back in the 1930's. He was 76. His 73yr old sister taught us pandanus weaving. He talked lots of story about growing up in what was now a national park. He didn't know how to clean a pig, but he knew how to catch and clean a turtle. Time changes fast i guess.

Got back to the south shore last evening. We saw albatross on the drive back when we stopped at the old lighthouse reserve. so huge. Then Van ray and me went to a garden function with gormet food and dancing and deserts. I got put on security and ate heaps of food and loads of red. Today was spent lax in the hammock with some good meals to intersperse and a movie and dinner with ray.

Hope all are well. Speak soon.

Harris

End of First Limahuli week - reflections

Well another week of the internship up, less than 3 weeks to go. An interesting week to say the least.

Cruised on Saturday with Ray Ray and Keya up to the North Shore and met Keyas friend Kenally who took us to some beaches. Spent Sat and Sun getting settled at the new house and laying low.

Monday to Thursday we worked in the lower Limahuli Preserve, a huge native forest preserve on the North Shore. We weeded and planted and tarped undergrowth and cleared an infested river. I got a small spider bite and then after swimming in the river developed a boil. It got big and I treated it with Hawaiian Medicine and Belauan medicine and me and Ray Ray drained in last night. Under severe pressure from one of my bosses she took me to the clinic today and the doctor said it looked good, because we had done such a good job of draining it, it did not need to be lanced. I asked if it would heal on its own, with out server antibiotics and she said it could, but I should get on them anyway to be sure. Even better, its a whoppingly huge dose because it is an antibiotic resistant strain because of our society already overusing anti-biotics. The boss paid for the script and the visit. $140 for nothing I didn't already know. The boss then said I should start taking the antibiotics, which I reluctantly did and now feel drained and weird about putting clindamycin into my body. The web says it can causes nausea, vomiting, metallic tastes, the runs, jaundice. I should have waited till Monday to start the course, because my body was dealing with the infection by itself. I feel really pressured into not being able to make autonomous discussions about my body and health. What I needed was not a clinic and a script but more rest, fresh fruits and vegetables, a swim in the ocean and lots of rest. No healling like that in the modern world I guess.

In other news there was the American Election. The mainlanders went to a weird shitty sports bar and ate nachos and drank beers. The bar tender was a republican, I ate beer battered artichokes and had a beer (not so good for the leg). We should have gone to the Tiki bar, I'm sure the bartender there would have been happier. I am pleased with the result, mainly becuase McCain was so pro nuclear. I think obama offers hope and inspiriation to millions but am cynical enough to believe that the powers that be, the bankers and the lobby groups and the energy companies et al will not cede the reigns of power so easily. The bailout was a total neocon pillage of the US treasury, being given money for fucking up. If that had happened in a country in Africa or South East Asia there would be furor about corruption and acountability but no, we in the west are doing it and its normal practice to keep things running smoothly. Good thing we paid those taxes. Obama is inheriting a pretty fucked up country and I don't think that the peopel will rise to the challenge. I might be wrong and I hope I am but I don't think people will make or accept the changes required of them to survive.

I got accepted to an organic farm on the big island. we start on the 29th and it does aquaculture and organics and is a peace center too. more on that to come.

I've been cooking bitching soups and eatting coconuts. Nothing better.
Stay well, I have a relaxed weekend of waterfalls and coconuts and healling my leg. stay well, enjoy the springtime.

Slack Attack and Ethnobotany Week

Well, when we last met I had just finished up in Maui and was about to head back to Kauai.

First up we had a rad last day in Hana. We had a big luau with laulau made from local pork and poi, sushi, and a host of other amazing local food. I ate too much and then got drunk with the Gardeners.

Our first day back in Kauai I bought a ukulele. I have played it everyday and its rad. I'm getting good fast and Van Ray can play some so we teach each other different songs and rhythms. I learned belauan reggae songs as well as a few hawaiian ones and all the old standards that I used to play on guitar/mando.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I was slack and procrastinatory. I stayed up every night playing uke and not getting enough sleep. We had lectures about the importance of bird to island ecosystems and went seed collecting which was cool but I was just vaugeing. All night and day I had headaches and tooth pain. I decided to shell out on Thursday and go to the dentist. I had a gum infection on one of my wisdom teeth and got antibiotics and vicodin scripts and had an excellent day off work on friday. Smacked out and listening to trance.

This week was the start of ethnobotany week. Which meant a few things. Firstly we had rad lectures on Monday and Wednesday and Friday about ethnobotany in all its facetes and had some hands of examples of things like traditional medicine preparation, weaving, coconut husking, etc. It was great to meet all the Hawaiian gardeners. Some are from Ni'ihau, which is a smaller island next of Kauai. Ni'ihau is a hawaiian cultural preserve. No outsiders are alowed on the island and hawaiian is the official language. Was a real spin talking and learning from these guys. Thursday we dug an emu (earth oven) pit and friday morning sealed it in and ate for halloween.

To celebrate ethnobotany week I started drinking B. cappi tea which has been amazing. Also lots of yandi to tune me in to plants, people and cultures. Me and Van Ray made a presentation about ethnobotany to emphasise culture over plants or plant compounds in isolation and the need for cultural exchange not biopiracy.

We are up on the North Shore the next 2 weeks to work at the limahuli gardens. This is the first week I've really started loving some of the landscapes of the island. It is getting wetter and more lush and in some of the valleys it is like jurrasic landscape. So rad. Weekend has been cruisy. Got ready to go roadtripping then jsut cruised beaches for a while. Had a barbeque, the usual.

I have also begun organising my wwoofing on the big island when my internship ends. I got positive reponses from a number of farms, I'll post on the blog when I have worked out when and where.

Until next time. Stay well.

Harris