EATING CHILI WITH CHOP STICKS

One of the things that I enjoy about living on the Big Island is the mix of cultures.  As this summer season has many social gatherings I've been reminded of that.  July is the month for the annual Hakalau Paka celebration which is especially well attended by Hawaiian families and also on the following weekend the Wailea  Kumiai Potluck whose attendees tend more to being of Japanese descent or "mainland" retirees.  At both all ethnic or racial groups are equally accepted as far as this old retired hippie can tell.  It seems the most important thing is to wear a smile and show aloha!
                                                                           I've written before of the Hakalau Paka celebration  so I'll not say much expect to note the difference this year was that we had a few less people, about 350 compared to 400 last year and this year the County Mayor, Billy Kenoi, arrived to speak to us about youth activities (pictured at left). We had more children (about 100) than last year.  In fact 23 of the keiki (children) were entered in the youth surfing contest this year.  The younger divisions competed over the gavel bar and the older a bit beyond that.  The Hakalau is not the best surf spot around partly because boulders make it unsafe to ride in close to shore unless you are right in the middle where the gravel bar is so surfers usually need to bail within about 4 seconds.  But the tide and the waves were just right for the youth contest on that day and I suspect most of them will be back with friends next year hoping to win one of those great surf board prizes provided by sponsors.  I am always impressed with how well local business supports even small events like this on Hawaii.  They may charge high list prices but they give back a lot to the community.  After the contest many of the teenagers climbed to the first level of the bridge girders to jump into the river while the little ones got to leave their hand prints, and sometimes foot prints, on the sea wall.

While the Hakalau Paka party featured food and bands brought in from outside our community, the Wailea Kumiai is a party of residents and former residents of the Wailea and Hakalau area that meets annually in the Kolekole Beach County Park on the Kolekole Stream.  Here the warm up music was the Hakalau Jam Band which is whoever shows up to play at the local farmers market every Tuesday (the four regulars actually rehearse twice a month).  For this occasion the band had, in addition to the usual four stalwarts, an additional guitar, a mandolin, a percussionist and a guest vocalist plus some more who joined to sing a couple of the songs.  We were amplified for the first time and a bit unsure about that but we were told we sounded great.  I didn't even bring a camera so I can't pass any of that on.  Perhaps someone will send some photos I can add here?
While there is a ten minute business meeting and a book exchange tent, mostly this is a socializing and eating opportunity and the potluck tables bore much more than could be eaten.  When I got back to my place I realized that my plate contained food of many nationalities and I was eating chili with chopsticks.  I mixed in a little rice and then it held together fine!  After the meal there was the traditional bingo game with "hurricane supplies" (canned food and toilet paper) for prizes during which I strolled down to the beach to watch the surf a bit.

So far this year we have been closer to normal rain fall and I have been writing down the readings from my rain gauge faithfully so I can report we had 93.9 inches through July 31.  This compares to 58.76" in Hilo at 11' elevation where the normal to this point would be 70.47".  At our elevation Hilo rainfall is closer to ours.  Still, the amount of rain does not seem oppressive to me.  Yesterday I was gardening in just shorts and crocs on a cloudy 78 degree day when it started raining lightly.  I kept working and soon the rain stopped and I was still comfortable although I had gotten a bit muddy.  My method of not bringing mud into the house with me is to keep a bucket under one of the downspouts where I can dip my feet and scrub them (and my crocs) with a brush if necessary.  This picture of the little garden on the south side of our house shows how the Yakon has grown to six feet and is covering the broccoli, Hawaiian pepper and okra.  That is our dog 'Taco' running around the garden!  Our east side of the house garden has more purple sweet potatoes than I can keep up with harvesting and the early variety avocados have been ripening for about 10 days.  We extracted the juice from about 15 gallons of Lilikoi (passion fruit) last weekend then made about 3 pies worth of Lilikoi cheese cake.  Mostly we dilute the juice 1:10 for drinking or put some in the pancakes.

Aloha from the wet side!