It must be morning. The late rising sun is playing havoc with my morning walk. I'm not out walking til almost 6:30 am now.
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The school's 'Street Band' performed at our past devotional. They often use garbage cans as part of their band.
This fellow climbed this palm tree near our lunch picnic table where we watched him. He only had a rope around his waist and then hacked off the coconuts at the top with a machete. Every palm tree around campus and the PCC has dozens of coconuts that have to be trimmed. A falling coconut can be deadly.
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I love seeing the students ride their skateboards, longboards and bikes to school. Pretty much only the rich mainland kids have cars. Even the married international students with children walk everywhere. The closest grocery store, Foodland, has a corner on the market The students have no choice but to shop there. I refuse to shop there because I think they take advantage of the students with their sky high prices. We shop at Tamuras. It's close to where we live in Hau'ula (Apache Junction) side of the school. It has everything packed into a space about the size of a Walgreens. They have nothing special, just the basics but that's OK with us. The do have a few optional items in the meat market; pigs feet, tongue, whole fish with eye balls staring at you, lots of weird frozen stuff.
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Friday night (Nov. 9, 2018) we had a wonderful experience when we attended a Shabbat at the Jewish Temple Emanuel in Honolulu. One of the Senior missionaries who teaches World Religions on campus invited us to tag along with his students. This is a reformed Jewish Temple, which is much more casual compared to the Orthodox Jewish synagogues. Above is the Rabbi Ken Aronowitz who sang the Jewish prayers in Hebrew from the song book below. The book read from the back to the front and right to left. The Rabbi had a wonderful voice, almost a Broadway quality voice. He said that the last victim from the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting had just been buried so he started out by singing 'To Life' from Fiddler on the Roof. He sounded just like Tevye. The congregation clapped along and I wanted to get up and dance also.
The Rabbi reminded us that Nov. 9th was the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht. That night in 1939 in Germany, thousands of Jews were subject to terror and violence by the Nazis. Over 1,000 Jewish synagogues and over 7,500 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and approximately 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps, many were killed that night. What a terrible and sad time in world history. Kristallnacht means broken glass, when so many windows were broken from Jewish businesses.
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This beautiful student has an amazing story. She is from Jordan and was a Muslim. She and her mother and brother have lived on the east coast for the last 10 years. She came to Hawaii to visit her uncle and decided she wanted to stay and go to school on the island. She didn't know what schools were here so she googled it and BYU-H came up first. She applied and was accepted. She was attending the required religion class and told the Senior missionary/professor that she wanted him to teach her the missionary lessons. Long story short, she was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last weekend. She has a light and spirit about her that is palpable.
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Saturday was the annual International Food Fest. It's interesting how we are now enjoying some of the same activities that we had last year when we were so new on the mission. The international clubs sell their native foods in an evening of fun and entertainment. They do this to earn money for their clubs. We shared the Mongolian beef stick combo; the Singapore Malaysia Chicken satay and the New Zealand sausage and meat patty. For dessert the Hong Kong bubble waffle was to die for!
Lots of great singers and dancers from the different clubs. Here are the Samoan men in a native dance.
The locals come also to enjoy the food, entertainment and bouncy houses.
The locals come also to enjoy the food, entertainment and bouncy houses.
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Two wild pigs moseying along a neighborhood road like they own the place. Leading into this road was a sign saying it was legal to hunt the pigs with rifles, shotguns, knives, and bow and arrows. The state pays to eradicate these pigs. They are so destructive to the land and farms. Our neighbor with his crew of hunting dogs goes out daily pig hunting with a knife.
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We enjoyed a delightful evening of a 'Broadway Review' put on by many of the talented singers on campus. They are truly talented and I loved their selections from 'Mama Mia, Grease, Greatest Showman, etc. They sang and danced throughout the show.
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We still enjoy taking tickets at the different dinner venues at the PCC once a week. We are thanked by enjoying a prime rib buffet dinner. The menu consists of a carving station of prime rib, fried chicken, Kalua pork, shrimp, calamari, several potato dishes, local Hawaiian vegetables, a seafood soup, rolls, and a wonderful salad buffet. There's a variety of desserts but my favorite is the macadamia nut ice cream.
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The missionaries, young and senior, got together for Thanksgiving lunch. A local fellow, Junior Ah You, and his family cooked 250 turkeys in the emu, (underground) to feed the missionaries and homeless folks on this island. He is a member of the Polynesian Hall of Fame (played for Canada and with Danny White at ASU). They gave Haka (war chant) lessons to the men and a hula lesson to the women. Steve is the only one who stuck out his tongue as the Aotearoa natives do... New Zealanders.
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On the Friday after Thanksgiving the University was closed so we had a free day. Along with missionaries, Dave and Sherrie Anthony we went to Chinatown. Elder Anthony has traveled to China quite a bit and wanted to sample the 'Dim Sum' in Chinatown. Dim Sum is served only at lunch time and is a small sampling of a variety of foods. The foods are usually steamed. We tried about 8 different items which we all shared. Dave picked out our menu since he was familiar with them. The restaurant was full of the local folks and very authentic, nothing fancy.
It's so fun to window shop in Chinatown. You just never know what you'll find. Here we have your delectable chicken feet, and a roasted turkey with the red pop-out telling you the turkey is done. The open market veggie had many things that only the Chinese would know how to cook. We also noticed many fruits and vegetables that were in the same boxes as those from Costco. I imagine they buy and sell them marked up to folks that have no cars and no way to get to Costco.
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Our island is so small you can catch the sunrise and the sunset within 20 miles of each other.
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I thought I'd share a few of the students' stories: One Ohana Sharing Aloha
One family sharing love-everyone at BYU-H is part of the University Ohana
"Sione Funaki Tupo is from the Kingdom of Tonga. One of the well-known Tongan proverbs, which his mum taught him is 'Kataki e mama moe hopohopokia'. This means enduring, bailing out water from leaks and rough seas. It denotes endurance, persistence and perseverance to the end. Likewise, an educational journey is always clouded with uncertainty, tension and chaos; but to reach the destination one must press forward and remain true and steadfast." I love how proud the foreign students are of their cultures. They work hard to preserve it and teach it at the different island villages at the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Emeline Manakofua is from Tonga and works as a demo guide/dancer at the Tongan Village. "As a young girl. I grew up in a home with nine boys. Two of them were my biological brothers and seven were family that lived with us. These seven boys came from different walks of life. Some of them were drug addicts and some were school dropouts and troublemakers in the community. My parents were kind enough to open our home to them, but everyone in our village knew that if someone wanted to live with us, they would be required to do two things: go to church and go to school, no matter what. My father was a very strict man, especially when it means helping the youth feel safe and loved. Our home also had other expectations such as scripture study and prayer every morning and evening, family home evening every Monday, being at church 30 minutes early and a weekly talk with one or both of our parents, and many more.
When these seven boys moved into our home, they found it weird. Most the time they felt pressured--like they were in prison. But that was not my dad's intention. Although my parents have these expectations for us, they didn't force us to do all of these things. They simply laid out their desires and let us choose whether or not we would participate. We were not perfect, but my father never stopped encouraging us. He would constantly invite and remind us over and over again. Eventually these boys started to come around. They began to join us for scripture study every morning, sit with us at church, and they returned to school. Soon these boys had the desire to serve a mission and their lives began to change.
Long story short, all of these boys served full-time missions, married in the Temple, and have wonderful families. My youngest brother is currently on a mission in Africa. When I look back at these experiences, I am grateful that I was raised and disciplined in this way. My father was trying to teach us how to use our agency carefully and wisely. While being here at BYU-H with my parents thousands of miles away, I often reflect back on these great lessons. They remind me that I should be strong to make wise decisions. This is the only way to be safe."
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Let me introduce you to Celeste Kaka. The theme at Stake Conference recently was all about ministering (caring for others). She was asked to talk about being ministered to. She is from Australia and got to swim for the Cook Islands in the London Olympics a few years back. (I thought that was pretty cool, probably not too many Olympians from the Cook Islands). Last December she was married in the Temple and shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with cancer. Being a newlywed this trial was extremely difficult. She had to endure radiation and chemo and lost all her long beautiful black hair. She is such an optimistic, beautiful young woman. If you google Celeste Kaka, you'll find a wonderful video she made to share her story.
Celeste and her husband will both graduate this December.
We have quite a few Mongolian couples in our married student Ward. Jagi and Luka just had twin baby girls four weeks early. The babies are still in the NICU at a hospital in Honolulu, an hour away. They don't have a car like most foreign students. Jagi needs a ride into Honolulu every day to nurse her babies and take in her pumped milk for the nurses to feed the girls. She and her husband are both students and work part time and they have an 18 month old little boy also. The senior missionaries along with students in our ward are helping them make that daily trek. Several students have generously loaned their cars when Luka can get away from work and school and drive them. When he can't, others take Jagi in and still others watch their toddler. After Church today we were able to take them to Honolulu. They are an amazingly strong couple and so faithful and dedicated. He actually finished dental school in Mongolia after his mission. They decided to come here so Jagi could get her degree and he would get a degree in accounting and finance to supplement his dental skills. They both served missions in Mongolia and met there in the young singles ward.
Mission Tidbits:
*Our two old oldest grandchildren, 15 year old Caleb Ford (Matt's son) and 14 year old Annika Crawford (Steve's oldest gr'daughter) took their first ACT's recently. When did they grow up and when did we become senior citizens?
*I took our Korean student worker, John, to a doctor's appointment in Honolulu. He had knee surgery the week previous. He navigated, I drove. John is a really fun, optimistic student. He was born in Korea and left home at the age of 8 to attend the Church's Liahona school in Fiji. The Church has schools scattered throughout some of the islands in the South Pacific. The schools are elementary thru high school. Many of our Elementary Ed graduates go back to teach in these schools in their native islands. John will leave after this Fall semester. He has been called to one of the Japanese missions. He's already learning some of the language through his Japanese friends.
*One Saturday we had a mission-wide conference in Honolulu. We were privileged to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder Klebingat from Germany and Elder Kearon from the UK. What a wonderful meeting and a fun day in Honolulu with missionaries going out to lunch!
Celeste and her husband will both graduate this December.
We have quite a few Mongolian couples in our married student Ward. Jagi and Luka just had twin baby girls four weeks early. The babies are still in the NICU at a hospital in Honolulu, an hour away. They don't have a car like most foreign students. Jagi needs a ride into Honolulu every day to nurse her babies and take in her pumped milk for the nurses to feed the girls. She and her husband are both students and work part time and they have an 18 month old little boy also. The senior missionaries along with students in our ward are helping them make that daily trek. Several students have generously loaned their cars when Luka can get away from work and school and drive them. When he can't, others take Jagi in and still others watch their toddler. After Church today we were able to take them to Honolulu. They are an amazingly strong couple and so faithful and dedicated. He actually finished dental school in Mongolia after his mission. They decided to come here so Jagi could get her degree and he would get a degree in accounting and finance to supplement his dental skills. They both served missions in Mongolia and met there in the young singles ward.
Mission Tidbits:
*Our two old oldest grandchildren, 15 year old Caleb Ford (Matt's son) and 14 year old Annika Crawford (Steve's oldest gr'daughter) took their first ACT's recently. When did they grow up and when did we become senior citizens?
*I took our Korean student worker, John, to a doctor's appointment in Honolulu. He had knee surgery the week previous. He navigated, I drove. John is a really fun, optimistic student. He was born in Korea and left home at the age of 8 to attend the Church's Liahona school in Fiji. The Church has schools scattered throughout some of the islands in the South Pacific. The schools are elementary thru high school. Many of our Elementary Ed graduates go back to teach in these schools in their native islands. John will leave after this Fall semester. He has been called to one of the Japanese missions. He's already learning some of the language through his Japanese friends.
*One Saturday we had a mission-wide conference in Honolulu. We were privileged to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder Klebingat from Germany and Elder Kearon from the UK. What a wonderful meeting and a fun day in Honolulu with missionaries going out to lunch!
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