Hawaii reflection post

Hi everyone ! This is my first post written with a Freewrite device ! I honestly am still just trying it out but I am slowly warming up to it for sure. Hope you enjoy the post ! :

At this point in my life, I don’t consider myself as having travelled somewhere unless I have learned something from that area – particularly about their culture. Otherwise, I am simply passing through (which that is totally okay and necessary too, I just don’t consider myself as having “travelled” there). I visited Hawai’i as a child and only have few memories there, but I really felt like I learned a lot more about this beautiful island state this time around.

Firstly, when Jacob and I were trying to figure out which island to go to, we ruled out Maui because we remembered that a lot of the locals there were not happy with tourists visiting following the fires, and understandably so. As O’ahu is much more tourist-y already and had some sites that Jacob really wanted to visit, we decided to stay in Waikiki.

When we arrived in Waikiki, it definitely felt a bit colonial-y. The big skyline with luxury shopping centers against the backdrop of the beautiful oceanside was a constant reminder that all of this was only developed recently in Hawai’s history. They were only annexed to the U.S. in 1959 – a year that I’m sure when many of our parents and grandparents were alive. Additionally, to many Hawaiians, the land was stolen from them. The U.S. even signed and issued a formal apology stating that the U.S. unlawfully took the land against the natives’ wishes. Consequently, many Hawaiians do not consider themselves ‘American’ – which makes total sense ! I was imagining how some current Hawaiian elderly were very young when the annexation occurred, and if I were them, I would not be jumping to the idea of now marking my nationality as ‘American’.

This puts Hawai’i in a socially and culturally fascinating condition. It truly is a melting pot, and much of the Polynesian language, culture, and history is literally everywhere. People all know what ‘Aloha’ means and it is THE standard greeting. Same with other terms like ‘mahalo’ and ‘e komo mai’. I remember driving and a car was signaling to merge into my lane. When I let the car merge, instead of lifting his hand as a ‘thank you’ gesture as we do in California, the driver made the ‘shaka’ gesture instead.

From the two big tourist-y activities we did – Kuoloa Ranch and Keana Farms – I got to learn fascinating facts about the history of O’ahu. One thing I was really impressed by was the land stewardship system that the natives had for hundreds of years before westerners went over. There was once no land ownership on the land of O’ahu, so land was divided by the kinds of ecosystems on the island. Much of the land divisions had one side on the mountains and another on the sea. In this way, each land division could cover as many ecosystems as possible to diversify the kind of agriculture grown on it. Because of this system, the natives did not have to trade for hundreds of years with outsiders at all because of this self-sufficient land division system. They took really good care of the land and knew that taking care of the land translated to taking care of the people. It makes me think of God’s original commandment in the first chapter of the book of Genesis to take care of the earth – the l people of O’ahu did an excellent job…

… that is, until western settlers came. There were a few things that disrupted this land division system, but a really big one was the diseases that were brought over from the states and from Europe. The diseases significantly reduced the number of natives tending to the land, making it difficult to maintain this land division system. Long story short, capitalism moved in to compensate for this. It makes me really think about the inverse relationship of caring for nature and the long-term effects of capitalism.

Another unique thing about the state of Hawai’i is that it is the only state that has a population majority of AAPI folks. I was getting juice somewhere and somebody asked if I was ‘kamaʻāina‘, which he later told me meant ‘a local’ (literally: “child of the land”) and that if I were one, I could get 10% off the drink. I was flattered, but bummed also that I paid full price (which is okay, I was a tourist). This flattery feeling I felt made me realize I had come a long way in my racial healing journey. If someone thought I was a local maybe 5 years ago on this island, I would have been so offended, because I had so much intra-racial hate. I feel like my feeling of flattery and shown me how far I have come in terms of my own self-acceptance and the acceptance of others.

Another thing I wanted to share about Hawai’i was a group I learned about called the Hokulea crew. The Polynesian people were expert voyagers using only nature to navigate on the seas, and apparently there is a group of people that still do this every year ! I forget their travel destinations, but it sounds so fascinating and admirable (I’ve always secretly wanted to learn how to sail).

Okay and the last thing that I thought was really endearing was something I learned about the Hawaiian language. ‘Water’ is something important in their language and culture, and so some significant words in the language use this word. ‘Water’ in Hawaiian is ‘wai’. ‘Wai Wai’ means value or worth.”Pu’u wai” means ‘heart’, or literally “hill water”, as ancient Hawaiians believed the heart had water, an important element.

Travel
Now for some travel commentary ! O’ahu has such beautiful scenery. The Waikiki beach waters are quite warm, and it feels very safe to swim in because of how calm it is towards the shore and because of how many people are there.

It is kind of pricey eating out. I remember some of our meals got up to $70 just for the two of us, and these weren’t even in any fancy restaurants. One of the cheaper places I remember eating at was this Musubi place. And my favorite poke that I ended up eating there was a food truck poke.

I also wish we would have gone to Hanauma Bay to snorkel. We did end up snorkeling a little bit at a beach more on the west side of the island and saw fish and sea turtles, but I don’t think it was as snorkeling beginner-friendly as Hanauma Bay (which I went to when I was younger). I thought Hanauma Bay did not rent out snorkeling gear anymore which is why I did not bother looking into reservations there, but I was wrong. By the time I figured that out, we only had Monday and Tuesday left in our trip, and unfortuantely, those were the only two days of the week that Hanauma Bay is not usually open for.

I also wish that ANYtime we headed out of the city, I sprayed my bug repellant spray instead of sunscreen. There was a day where we were running late for something and I only thought to use sunscreen. As a result, I ended up with about 20 incredibly itchy bug bites – some of which are still itchy as I am typing this.

Anyways, all that to say, it was still a really lovely trip and should I go again in the near future, I definitely feel like I will be better prepared. If I were to go again, I’d want to learn even more about the history of the land and people, as well as be more adventurous and try things like sailing lessons or surfing lessons (I do need to learn to actually swim though). You can see some more details and photographs from our trip in these following blog posts:

O’ahu Day 1: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/09/oahu-day-1/
O’ahu Day 2: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/09/oahu-day-2/
O’ahu Day 3: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/12/oahu-day-3/
O’ahu Day 4: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/12/oahu-day-4/
O’ahu Day 5: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/15/oahu-day-5-10-12/
O’ahu Day 6: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/15/oahu-day-6/
O’ahu Day 7 & 8: https://theheartasitis.com/2024/10/15/oahu-day-7-10-14-and-day-8-10-15-the-last-day/

Thanks for reading !