Weekend Update with Hannah Gibbons!

Good evening, I’m Chevy Chase, and you’re not…..

This week at Hana Tropicals, big changes in both weather and personnel has swept through the farm faster than Lindsey Lohan can stay out of jail! Okay, that’s my one and only crack at being a true SNL skit… A MASSIVE thunder and lightning storm crashed down on the eastern side of Maui on Wednesday night. As we sat down to a lovely farewell dinner to Amy in Krista and Ian’s outdoor kitchen, winds picked up and the rain started gushing down, which didn’t stop until periodically the next day. I watched that night with Happy as the bursts of lighting lit up the entire sky, showing dark mountains contrast with a crackled background, in instant spurts creating majestic images. 

As tears fell down our cheeks saying goodbye to our beloved Amy the next morning, Maui cried as well, as the rains continued to splash down. She left fond memories in our hearts, her painted footprints on the stairs leading up tours the Diggs, and like a true Canadian, a hand made hockey stick out of dried up palm leaves, with a tiny buoy as a puck. 

Losing one of the “triplets,” as people have started calling us, was difficult enough, but to make matters worse, Chelsea has left for the week to the other side to explore what the western side has to offer. Yes, I am going through severe withdrawal if you’d really like to know. The solitude didn’t last too long however, as our newest worker, Larissa, joined that night. After six years traveling the world with the Air Force and another year wondering around South America, her life has taken her to Hawaii, where she’s truly embracing the aloha spirit.

After about three days without internet from the storm, it clicked back on today, so I finally could reconnect myself today with the rest of world through the wonders of Facebook and CBS’s full length episodes of Survivor, and of course, this blog. So if you’re part of the few, the proud, the strong blog readers anxiously waiting for my next post, don’t worry, it’s all better now.

In more fascinating news, the chickens are nuts, and literally wait in line at a certain nesting spot, as well as cluck on and on about nothing. We received a new piece of kickin' machinery (a John Deere none the less, like true Americans once we got rid of that Canadian…) And I think I officially am getting too much sun as my face looks like a tomato!

Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!

Aloha :)

There's no crying in baseball

As you can imagine, football’s not too popular here. I probably won’t be hearing too many updates around town about the madness in March either come to think of it. Since its essentially summer all year round, surfing of course seems to be the biggest thing around; that is until this past weekend. This past weekend, baseball claimed its spot as Hana’s main source of entertainment. 

Hana’s very small, did I mention that? And like most small towns, a sporting event means community gathering. Woman sitting around a baseball field under the lights, groups of friends and their coolers lined on the streets to watch, children running and scootin’ around…. A weekend tournament to open up the highly anticipated season took place this weekend, ending on Sunday night. We heard from a  little birdie that the final game would be at 7 on Sunday, so headed down to the field, disappointed to find out it had already been played. However, live music had already started, and an older woman graciously gave us as much food as we wanted for free. She probably wanted to get rid of it, but the gesture was appreciated so we filled our plates with pork and much more!

A feeling of being slightly local, by knowing two band members  (a local artist, Scott, who’s unofficial studio is at Hana Tropicals on the drums, and Macki, Mr “Got anymore beer!?” from our earlier jam session in the Oasis on the bass) quickly ended as an announcer for the band took time to thank the “Haoles” for coming out. And he further flicked away that local feeling by defining the definition of Haoles, in case we didn’t know… Haoles being foreigners or people of lighter skin. Apart from a couple straight out of Woodstock solo dancing away in front of the band, Chelsea, Amy and I were the only Haoles in the whole bunch, which easily was around 200 people.

Apart from little things like being on a city bus in Syracuse, I’ve never really experienced being a minority in a given community. It’s not something I stretch to notice, or care about, but it’s never pointed out blankly like it was at the baseball game…With all the tourists around Hana, it’s not something I feel, and even in that whole pork eating, band listening evening, it didn’t enter my mind until a Hawaiian pointed it out.

You can never really tell what Hawaiians think of the Haoles coming on their territory. Most of the older adults are extremely friendly, warming and give hugs when they meet you. However, it’s tough to tell with the Kids. Kids in Hana are a tough breed, and seem to be very definite in their personalities. The ones it’s hardest to tell with however, the slightly intimidating 20 something’s….

Hawaiian pride is seen all over the place, mostly on pickup trucks. They sport maps of Hawaii and sayings like “Maui Born” or “Hawaiian Native,” but one truck takes the cake. The other day on a jacked up pickup, I saw a bumper sticker that said, “If you don’t like Hawaiians, then why the f*@# are you here?!?!”

I like Hawaiians! Let’s hope they remember that….

Aloha or should I just say goodbye?

“I’m on the right track baby, I was born this way”

It doesn’t always sink in with me that I’m in the middle of a tropical rainforest. Beautiful, yet manicured lawns span much of the surrounding areas of Hana, that you forget it’s not really supposed to be that way.  But boy I’ll tell ya, it takes a whoooole lotta work to keep that jungle back. Yesterday, we took a hike way back in the true jungles of Maui to the Hana V waterfall. After a two or three mile winding road off the already winding Hana Highway, we parked on the side and headed into the thicket.  

Walking through the jungle (me the only one not barefooted…) we eventually reached a stretch of pure bamboo. An incredible sight like none I’d ever seen before, it curved and took us down to a fairly wide, and rapidly flowing stream by the edge of the crashing ocean. After navigating down the stream, crossing it about five times, a remarkable misting waterfall appeared in our grasp.  In a small pool at the base of the waterfall, water circulated at such a speed, it would have been an extremely difficult swim, even though it looked incredibly refreshing…

Hundreds of dried up tall grasses stood along the side of the stream, which produce remarkable little beads. Well their not real beads of course, I really don't know what you would call them, but Chelsea, Amy and I kept stopping to collect and fill our backpacks with them. Ever since, we've been stringing them through fishing lines to make necklaces, adding an artistic flare to our farming life. :)

Today, to change the pace up a little, Krista and Ian took us out for a lovely Sunday drive in the Toyota Tundra to stop at local artist’s studios. For the first time ever in Hana (and the outskirts, which takes about 45 minutes to get to,) an organized day took place in which artists opened their studios for company to stop for a visit. Krista joined us in the back, ever so sweetly playing what we called “Truck bed driver,” yelling to her husband to slow down. Now she knows what it’s like in the back when Ian’s driving, a very bumpy road indeed. As we traveled from each unique artist to the next, we were fortunate enough to see some absolutely incredible houses and studios, most of which had breathtaking views of the ocean. Two of Krista and Ian's friends visiting from Lake Tahoe joined us, and thankfully they enjoyed the free food at the studios just as much as I did....

Driving along the Hana Highway on any given day, we see a lot of tour buses. With Krista (who knows everybody) in the back with us, we’d stop to quickly have a word with the bus drivers, who of course Krista knew and loved. One tourist, God love her, sitting in a window seat facing us, smiled and kept waving around her hang loose hand pose the entire time we were stopped. (Hang loose or surfer hand gesture, being the thumb and pinky up, if that’s unclear…)

Riding in pickup beds, cruising down the highway, sun beating down and sparkling across the ocean...what a  way to travel. 

Aloha.

“Maybe it's about stringing together all the little things, like wearing these pants or getting to a new level of Dragon's Lair...”

It’s almost been one month since I’ve arrived in Hana. One month of 25 hour work weeks. One month of becoming a beach bum and browning my pale skin. One month of fresh coconuts, papaya and mangos. But like any place, this slice of heaven has its down falls. Coming here, there were obvious parts of my life I knew I’d leave behind in New York, driving my beloved Rav4, watching Syracuse Basketball or any T.V. for that matter, walking my four pawed best bud, smoochin’ my fella, and shoveling snow (ok, that one’s not too bad…). Other parts too insignificant to think of before arriving, only hit me recently when I realized I hadn’t done them in awhile, including sitting on a couch and drinking a glass of milk. As strange as that may sound, when you do get little bits of your normal life back, it’s like a million Christmases wrapped in one. This has happened recently to us, in our simple lives of rice and beans, sleeping in the Diggs with our cockroaches (Brad and Angelina,) and me scratching away at my over 60 (yes I counted) bug bits and scrapes on my legs alone…. And it all happened thanks to three things, Costco’s, the Kia’s and Lynn & Gerry. Don’t worry I’ll explain…

We’ll begin with Costco’s. If you know Chelsea, you know that she’s obsessed with cheesecake.  I mean this girl get’s it at any restaurant she can, and hasn’t shut up about it ever since we got here. Ian travels down the sickening road to the “Otherside” once a week, and along with him he’ll take our list of grocery needs. Knowing he’d be stopping at Costco’s (it’s like BJ’s or Sam’s Club, I hadn’t heard of it before coming here…) Chelsea, Amy and I made an impulsive decision to call him on his cell after he left, urgently informing him he needed to add cheesecake to that list. He comes back late on those days to the otherside, but it didn’t matter. We politely told Krista to send Ian down to the Diggs as soon as he returned (time was no question,) to deliver us our cheesecake. We each wolfed down two slices when it arrived. It wasn’t the best tasting cheesecake by any means, but defiantly the most satisfying. Chelsea and Amy have been eating it for breakfast….

The Kia’s, ooooh the Kia’s. Here at Hana Tropicals, a lovely little Bamboo Cottage sits on the property, which travelers staying in Hana rent out, usually for no more than two or three nights. Since we don’t like calling them “The Guests,” we’ve begun to call them whatever rented car they’re driving, the Wranglers, the Dodgers….you get the picture. Yesterday, the ever so generous Kia’s left the Bamboo Cottage. The Kia’s consisted of a lovely couple in their late 50’s with one of their mothers, a friendly lady who introduced herself very effectively, “I’m from Arizona and I’m a rodeo photographer!!!” Anyways, they left LOTS of food. Two boxes filled with goodies, including an uncut pineapple, milk, apples, cheese, honey, two bottles of wine, chips (so naturally we made guacamole) and yes, even flavored spam (this is Hawaii after all). This may not seem like anything special; but to us, it was heavenly. When we open our fridge, smiles cross our faces.

Lastly, Lynn and Gerry. Lynn and Gerry, two friends of Ian and Krista’s, invited us to dinner at their house last night. Excited to go out, we cleaned up, actually wore make up (well two out of the four of us…) and Chelsea even wore a dress (believe me that means a lot). I’ve been to their adorable little two story bungalow house once, and Gerry (a horticulturalist always sharp with a joke, “You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t bring a whore to culture…”) showed us around his extremely impressive grounds, which includes almost every type of tropical fruit tree imaginable. After a delicious dinner of pasta and sauce (with sausage!) and a salad topped with star fruit (I literally dreamed about those star fruits last night,) we went downstairs to watch T.V. and sit on a couch. WHAT a lovely day. :)

Aloha. (and Go SU!)