I apologize for letting a whole week go by without an update. I've officially fallen into my bad habits here. Sometimes I make myself believe that I'm not very social and that being around so many people will freak me out - so I'll have plenty of time to do my homework. Not so. I can't stand being apart from everyone. There are so many people here and always something going on or someone to talk to, I can hardly muster the will to pull myself away. This means homework, blogging, sometimes showering, tidying up and all else I hate gets pushed to the late hours of the night, usually when my room's asleep. Anyway - that's why this is a week over due.
So last Wednesday, where I left off, we had Feeding The Hungry here at STN. We do it every Thursday in Kalihi, alternating between Team Aunties and Team Uncles (I'm on Uncles!), but once a month we do a smaller operation here in our garage. It was our Wahiawa outreach for the day, and it was totally fun. Signing people in is always a hoot. They all get in line to give you their ID and tell you how many adults and children they have in their household, then you give them a little alphabet flash card with an STN stamp on it. Once they've got their letter, they wait. When we get everything set up and ready to go, we start calling out one letter at a time to keep the line tame and orderly. As they go through the line, they're given a bit out of every category of food we've got. Bread, vegetables, fruits, pastries, crackers, cereals, random things like spices or salad dressings. Sometimes they get really nice products. We usually end of giving away a bunch of leftovers to the last folks there just to get rid of it. We can't keep ANYTHING from the food bank in our district. I don't know why or how, but apparently it's illegal. So we don't take or eat anything from them, but when Aloha Harvest comes, we usually get some goods. Today (it's Thursday), we got a TON of those Synergy kombucha drinks with the little chia seeds - they're normally so expensive - and a bunch of bags of taro chips and sweet potato chips. YUM. Love donations.
While we wait for the food trucks to come, we're told to go around and mingle with the people. Get to know people, talk to people, listen to them, hear their stories. It's so fun. It's always easy to feel up to it, but I think as time goes on here, you're so encouraged and so empowered to do it, that it becomes a lifestyle of intentionally making effort to get to know the people around you, whether they're there consistently or just once. Having those encounters or those relationships is so special. I'm learning this. Last Wednesday I chatted with a young girl named Kitty. She was real talkative. She told me about how her parents didn't want her to talk like the locals, supposedly kind of sloppy or slangy, and how kids at school didn't believe she was Hawaiian because she didn't speak like them. She said they'd make fun of her for dumb things like her name, but that she'd never let it get to her. Tough cookie. She was 17 and had a fiance. Our conversation ended pretty abruptly when her letter was called. Still, I'd had a chance to invite her to our shindigs around here. Wednesday open mic nights, Friday music nights and Saturday Surfer's Church. I'm hopin' to see her soon.
I don't remember anything else about Wednesday right now and it's midnight, so I'm stopping here for now. To be continued tomorrow. Sova gott (good night in Swedish, eeeee!)
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