Mahalo, Malama the Aina

“Put it against your ear, you’ll hear it,” Amber told me. She handed me a conch shell and I didn’t believe it. I compared the waves slowly pushing against the sandy shore. I put my ear against the hard, white, oblong-shaped shell, and heard the soft wind easily blowing off inside of it; the ocean. It was her 9th birthday and her family invited me to Punalu’u Beach Park. I didn’t get her much of anything this year besides some cookies my mom had baked the night before because I needed to save lunch money for the rest of the week. The cost for school lunch just got raised to a dollar this year, and I wouldn’t want to add another bill for Mommy dearest. As I dragged myself in the water, I chased after her with the grainy sand against my bare feet then SPLASH! I fell forward with my face landing in the majestic and shallow waters near the shore. “Bra! You so Dakine” She laughed at me pulling me up. “Can we go eat now? I stay hungry!” I yelled.

We quickly washed the sand out of our okoles (okole means Butt) and ran over to the green picnic table her family was at. Uncle Sam was sitting on a yellow foldable chair playing the ukulele and was singing a reggae melody, “I don’t wanna wait in vain for your love...” Aunty Kimmy was talking to Aunty Sierra about the new house they bought in Waianae, “Ho foreal? How much was?”, she replied, “Was only $500,000, but had to get loan from da bank...good ting we qualified cuz Ricky doing good in construction. He make like $80,000 a year!” Amber’s mom suddenly gazed at Amber and I, and asked us why we took so long, “The food not gon eat itself!”

My stomach was grumbling. As I looked over the table, I seen an assortment of trays laid out in sections with foil over them. All I could smell was that mouth-watering, charcoal smell of MEAT! Amber slowly took off the foil and presented steak, bbq short ribs, Redondo’s hot dogs, bbq chicken, lomi lomi salmon, kalua pork, fried pork hash, mayonnaise macaroni salad, and kim chee fried rice. She handed me a paper plate and plastic fork as my drool dripped from the corner of my lips. I quickly gathered everything and sat on the corner next to Ambers little brother, Ikaika. “Ho sis, you went grab choke stuff ya!” he yelled. My mouth was already stuffed with the juicy, flavorful, bite of bbq short ribs.

From a distance, I could see Ambers older brother Mark walking towards us. “Fresh catch cuz!” he yelled as he waved four of the biggest yellowfin tunas I had ever seen. I couldn’t help but gaze at the palm tree next to him, how it stood 20 feet above towards the light blue sky. I watched the sunset across the ocean. Its purple and light orange rays beaming against the cotton white clouds. From a distance, I seen two surfers with their longboards ripping it against the blue water curled up, clashing and forming on top of one another. I wanted today to never end. Today was a great day.

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of freshly made cinammon malasadas. I love it when my mom bakes this stuff. Malasadas is basically fried yeast dough, powdered with sugar. The taste in your mouth especially when it's hot and freshly made makes anyone speechless. I normally would catch a ride with Hester to school but since her Dad had to work earlier than normal, I walked it. Across the street, I can see the line reaching outside the store as I passed by Mitsu-Ken restaurant. They are known to have the best garlic chicken breakfast. I mean for a big plate that only cost $7.99, it's no wonder that the place is always packed. I picked a flower off of the Plumeria tree that was next to the crosswalk and put it in my ear.

I see my classmate Terry riding his skateboard a block away with his shirt off. I have no idea why boys around here like going around in public with their shirts off. I guess they won’t need a reason to, since most of them had tan and fit bodies. Oh crap...I could hear the school bell ring from a distance. I ran to Happy’s store and bought two spam musubis. As I rushed past the gray fence entering the school, I could see Randy the security guard walking. “Randy! Can you help me out this the 3rd time I late for school...” He looked at me and smiled as I waved one of the musubi at him. “Fine...just make sure you get me a cup of Kona coffee next time!”

He walked me over to Mrs. Cho’s room and she looked at me with disappointment. “Elsie, why you always late?” Randy told her that I was helping him carry some boxes to one of the empty classrooms next door and her mood suddenly changed. “Okay, you can help me clean the chalkboard after class then”. I looked at her with a frown. I quickly went to my seat and sat down. Although Mrs. Cho was kind of strict, I loved the way she taught us. She made things exciting by involving games and challenges that each of us would participate in.

My friend Katie who was sitting next to me made a fart noise once I sat on my chair and everyone laughed. Today Katie was wearing a red floral dress and black flip-flops. “Nice flower!” she told me. “Katie, maybe you can read today’s agenda!” Mrs. Cho barked. Payback sucks I thought to myself and giggled. Katie read, “1. Watch video on National Geographics, Hawaiian Coral Reefs, 2. Write a short summary of 6 sentences about video 3. School Project” The video itself was about an hour long and it described the different coral reefs stretching across the Pacific Ocean. The video itself was a visionary experience but the narrator in the background sounded like a robot. “Ok class, please start on your summary,” Mrs. Cho said.

I wrote, “The video, Hawaiian Coral Reefs was a very nice video. It talked about the different types of fish in the coral reefs. The coral reef is a big area of colorful rocks in the ocean. It also talks about taking care of the ocean and not overfish. There was a diver in the ocean who took photos of the reef sometimes to check on the discoloration. We need to take better care of the ocean.” After submitting the paper, we each had to partner up with somebody for the school project. Katie and I were partners as usual. The project was to create a collage of the things that could potentially cause the coral reefs to die. We had magazines that we could use to make the project. Together, we found pictures of plastic, trash, plate lunch food and put them on our board. Each and every one of us had to present it in class. I looked at the other boards and laughed because one of them had a person that looked like Elvis Presley on their board. When they presented it, they said “Tourists because they wear too much sunblock!” Everyone dropped dead laughing.

After everyone had presented their ideas for the project, Mrs. Cho had given us papers for our parent's signature for a field trip next week. When I looked at it, I was so excited. We were going to the North Shore! I folded up the paper and put it in my purple Jansport bag. After class, I went to the park to play tetherball with Charmaine. Her hair was braided and she was wearing blue flower printed shorts. “I can’t wait to go next week!” I told her about the field trip as she looked at me with a jealous smile. “Aww man, our field trip isn't until the following week. I heard a car honk from behind me and spotted Hester and Hester’s Dad in their flat black lifted Toyota Tacoma truck. I jumped in the back of the truck as it sped off away from the school. “Hi, Hester!!! How was your boring private school?” She looked at me and she stuck her tongue out with disgust. This was the first year she started private school ever since the incident with her Mom and Dad’s divorce. Her stepfather insists she go to a private school to get a better education. I was just glad she didn’t have to move, who else was I going to watch movies with every weekend?

Field trip day!

I rushed to Mrs. Cho with the signed paper my Mom signed. Whoops, I forgot to clean the ketchup I dropped after eating a portuguese, egg, and rice breakfast from Mcdonald's. Everyone basically got their paper signed. On the drive over to the North Shore, we passed through small houses that read, “No Development” and “Kapu. I asked Mrs. Cho what that meant and she said it meant “Sacred land and keep out”. She mentioned that people normally put those signs out to warn trespassers not to enter or develop anywhere in that area. I think that this island is already beautiful the way it is, too much development would destroy the natural wildlife preserved in this environment.

To my right, I saw eight or nine food trucks lined up behind each other and we stopped to eat some lunch. Mrs. Cho ordered all of us a plate of farm-grown garlic shrimp and it was delicious. On top of that, the shrimp was huge! After lunch, we reached our destination on the North Shore. In order to get to the North Shore coast, we had to walk through a pathway of lilikoi bushes. A half-mile of walking on big, dark grey boulders we finally reached the coast. There was a lime green tent that said our school name on it and there were other tents surrounding ours with different school names on them. A group of five teachers on a podium announced, “Hello everyone! As your settling in, please find a tent with your school name and stand in line. Get a mesh bag from your instructor and they’ll explain what you are meant to do.”

Mrs. Cho told everyone that today is a scavenger hunt for plastic in the ocean. She showed photos of turtles and seals with plastic around their necks and explained why pollution is bad for everyone, not just the ocean. “The first person to fill their mesh bag wins a whole box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts!” I could hear the siren blow up and I ran towards the salty breeze of the ocean shore and filled as much filth that I could find—this was the first time I ever felt happy about “work” because it was for a very good “cause”.