First Week in Hawaii

The first week in Hawaii is wrapping up as we are off to see Dave Bouck, he’s been on the Big Island for about three months now and is as excited about seeing us as we are for seeing him. The first week on Mae’s farm, officially called Moon Garden Farms has been great. The weather has been warm and sunny the entire time, which is beginning to worry the locals as the require catchment for their water supplies and are beginning to run low. For the last four days or so we have been pretty much staying on the farm and getting projects done for Mae. Working outside in such great weather is amazing, it reminds me of The Shawshank Redemption when Red quips that “May is one damn fine month to be working out doors.”

Our living arrangements our interesting to say the least. We live in a storage container outfitted with a bed that is roughly shoulder high. It’s been freaking Elyse out slightly, as it creaks a bit when we are in it. Mae has a large farm house with rooms that she rents out. She has four people who rent from her, two are never around except for maybe once a month or so and are therefore completely irrelevant. Wendy and Raynetta are at the house all the time however and add an interesting dynamic. Wendy is a Thia massuse, and a wonderful chef, but fails to exert much personality. Raynetta, I may be is a small, very active women who is pleasant but often unseen. Then there is Donna who lives in Kona but stays at Mae’s house often to get away from the persistent vog. Vog is volcanic smoke which has high concentrations of sulfur dioxide and his extremely tough on the lungs when in it is breathed in. There is also Gail who lives next door and visits almost everyday bringing along her two dogs, one of which runs of batteries, to join Pebbles and Tess, three cats wonder about the property but are rarely seen. So living here on Moon Garden Farms is Elyse, myself, three to six older women and an assortment of animals. It makes for an interesting day, especially if you steal the lone television to watch football all day, you may get some steely looks.

While on the farm we spend our days working for the most part as Mae has a seemingly endless list of chores for us to work on; which is fine by me as she is giving us room and board and for the most part the work is enjoyable. On the days we do get out exploring Hilo has thus far been our most common journey. There is a nice little down town area where shopping is easy and food is plentiful. After two hours or so the novelty begins to wear off and you begin looking for more secluded and less well-known areas of the island. That is what we are hoping to accomplish by meeting up with Dave as he is working and living in Volcano National Park. We will continue our island adventure Saturday when we meet with Sailor Joe, a friend of Mae’s who is going to take us on a “Waterfall tour” of the south eastern part of the Big Island.