Hokulea visits Coconut again!

On Monday, we were lucky enough to have the Hokulea visit us on Coconut once again. The Hokulea is the Polynesian canoe that was built to prove that the original Hawaiians were able to get here through navigation of the stars on a canoe just like this one. It's a very impressive vessel with tremendous cultural importance.  They have been traveling the world and are about to start a 5 year journey around the world starting next year.  They have been going around the Hawaiian Islands having traditional blessing ceremonies before the journey begins.  Another canoe was built that has solar panels and computers and even a motor to follow along with them in order to do scientific research along the way.   

One of the things that is so impressive about the Hokulea is that everything was built according to what would have been available back when the original Hawaiians came to the islands.  That means that every board is hand-lashed with rope that is hand woven.  What a spectacular effort and impressive number of man hours that is! Below left are the berths that the 12 crew members sleep in, and on the right is an example of some of the lashing that is all across the boat.

Here is a map of their planned journey across the world. Right now they are in the orange segment around the Hawaiian Islands and soon they will begin the trip to Tahiti and down to Aotearoa (New Zealand).

Yesterday was Ukulele practice and we decided to play Hawaiian songs aboard the Hokulea! What a treat! We played for a bit until we were "blessed" by the rain and had to seek shelter to save our instruments.  Here is a silly pic to show that I was actually ON the Hokulea (in case there were any doubts).

Uncle Maka is one of the crew members of the Hokulea and he had some wonderful stories to tell.  Here is a traditional 'ava receptacle that he had gotten in one of the Polynesian Islands. The drink is called Kava in Hawaii and some form of it is popular throughout Polynesia. It has a bit of a narcotic quality apparently, but all it ever seems to do when I drink it is put my gums to sleep.  He made us some with coconut milks so it wasn't quite as bitter as the first time I tried it. I tried to make some myself when I lived in Palolo and it just tasted like I was drinking dirt-water.  I could still taste the dirt undertones, but not quite as powerfully. 

 I've been taking a ceramics class for about a month and a half and the pieces we made on the first day are finally out of the kiln.  We did hand-building the first day, which I have decided I only really enjoy when it is embellishing something I made on the wheel.  I am not a talented hand-builder... Or maybe I am out of practice. Also, when it was fired, apparently they fired it too hot and the pieces were vitrified--that means that the glaze won't really stick.  I glazed them anyway, just as an experiment and here are the results.  Pretty underwhelming.... Feels like a first grade effort.  Don't think I'll keep them, but thought I'd take a picture for posterity.

Having some difficulty motivating lately. Need to get back on top of work.  There were a few weeks where I would jolt out of bed with a wave of anxiety. It was a pretty exhausting and nauseating few weeks, but certainly productive. I need that fear back to get me going again.  Oh wait, it's already mid October, there we go... the fear has returned....