Young Single Adult Activity-Hawaiian Style

  

This is the third annual 'YSA Island Wide - Slip and Slide'.

Yes, Island Wide. Our YSA Branch hosted this activity at Waimea Bay, and we had 750 people, of all ages, sign in and participate. It was some kind of fun! 

    

Waimea Bay before we showed up!

The sand is smoothed by dragging 2x4's over it, three layers of heavy plastic laid down, tucked in and secured by sand. 

Elder Cameron and President Fullmer, from the branch. He is the 
construction expert and supplier of the materials for this day. We never did figure out why he had this helmet on, but, when his wife showed up, she told him "you look like an idiot. Take it off". He did! He has the energy of ten men and the missionary spirit of a hundred men. He knows how to get things done!

Sign up table for the participants. They had to sign a liability waiver because someone got hurt, last year. We signed up people for seven hours.

This is Noah. Check out his spatula. It is made entirely from tin foil. There were 1000 hot dogs cooked. We could have used more. (And a real spatula).

Feeding the hungry sliders. Yup, 1000 hot dogs and buns and a boatload of condiments.

A few action shots!

A piece of carpet at the take-off. That white pipe has holes drilled along the length of it. It is connected to a tube that is is connected to a generator that continually pumps water which results in an island sized slide. Perfect! 

It was a memorable day.

Beautiful, Waimea Bay.

Aloha

A few beautiful flowers of the beautiful islands.

Hibiscus

Red Ginger

Pink Ginger

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Crown Flower

 Heliconia

Water Lily, Elder Cameron nurtured for the neighbor, while they were on the mainland.

 My favorite: Plumeria of any color

Beautiful!

Who thinks of strapping an orchid to a tree?

Orchid on a tree

 Another orchid

Spider Lily

Monsterra

 Fan Palm

Heliconia

Aloha

Bento Boxes and Friendship

Fred, is in our Sunset Family Branch Presidency. When he was much younger, his family (14 children) moved from the Philippines to Hawaii, so his family could work on the sugar plantations. There were also Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Polynesians and probably other nationalities, but these were what he remembered.                                                                      

Each day, the plantation workers would 

bring their lunches in a type of three

tiered Bento box. The hot soup in the bottom, so it could warm the rice above it, on the second level, and the cooler dessert, on the top. At lunchtime, the workers would gather and share whatever they had in their lunches with one another. Although they couldn't understand each other, very well, they became good friends. When World War II broke out, all of the plantations workers were sent home to their countries of origin.

Back in the Philippines, Fred and his siblings still attended school. He remembers the Japanese soldiers making the teachers dig pits and then cutting off their heads, in front of the children, to intimidate and control the kids and their parents.  

Philippine men would often be rounded up by soldiers, marched off and shot. He, well, remembers the day his dad was included in the "roundup". He was marched along in a group of men, headed somewhere. As they came upon a bridge, one of the Japanese soldiers pushed him down, under the side of the bridge. He stayed there awhile and then went home. Later, the soldier found him. He was one of his friends from the sugar plantation, in Hawaii, that he had shared lunchtime with. He also told the family what parts of the city to stay away from and how to be safe. His family survived the war.

The family tried to find the soldier after the war, but, were not successful.

There are good people, everywhere, even in wartime. 

Aloha

                                          

I was entering English and Swedish family names into the computer and may have murmured a small amount about the repetition of the same names, in seemingly, every family. Soooo, we went on a field trip to the cemetery in Laie.

I am happy I have English and Swedish ancestors.

I also discovered the Hawaiians/Polynesians are responsible for creating and maintaining their family burial plots. 

There are many that are just heaped up with dirt and sand.

   Several plots have solar lights.

I love this plot. As we have come to love and participate in the lives of the island people and their cultures, this grave, with the chairs on it, is symbolic of their lives on many levels.

Just leave the chairs. We'll be back soon, because our family is everything.

Aloha

JustServe.org

Check it out if you want to volunteer in your own community and make a difference.

If you recall, there was a line from the movie "The Man from Snowy River" that went something like this...
"I think you'd sooner hold back the tide than tame the mountains".
Keep that in mind as I try to describe our JustServe experience.

Behind Kuhuku High School is the agricultural department where the students learn to grow crops and irrigate. The crop you see is bush beans. They look great. See the trees and piles of dead branches around the perimeter? They want them gone and or pushed back. The 'Just Serve' official spotted Elder Cameron and said "you're in charge".

              So, this is Elder Cameron leading the charge!

I really did try not to laugh. This is a tropical island. Would the tide be easier to hold back than trying to tame the jungle? The jungle ensnares everything in its path!

(Getting wood was never this obnoxious).

We sharpened tools. 

We sawed trees. I heard something about needing chainsaws.

I think the pile is getting smaller. That is Seta on the right. I love how her hair is piled on her head.

The ground is appearing.

Yes, that is a machete. I think she looks a little crazed. Perhaps she's tired of breaking limbs by hand!

Noah Lee. New poster child for Just Serve/Helping Hands.

Aloha

On July 17, 1902, Willis H. Carrier designed the first modern air conditioning system.

On May 14, 2016, Cameron's had a new, updated version installed in their apartment.

Before

After

This beauty has 12000 BTU, which will make us 12000 times happier when summer arrives on the islands!

Aloha

Do you remember, in 2003, when Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home, in Utah?

Do you remember, nine months later, when she was found?

We had the opportunity to meet her and hear her speak, this past week. She is a lovely, gracious and a very strong woman. 

                    Elisabeth Smart with Sister Colleen Earnshaw

Elizabeth and Earnshaws are in the same ward in Park City, Utah.

They asked her to come to Laie and speak. We serve with the Earnshaws in one of our branches. Lucky us!

            Elizabeth with the young women in our Sunset Branch.

         Elizabeth, triumphed, and in her own voice, its powerful.

                             

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja1gH9L9VIo

        Aloha