Food Pantry

Every Wednesday morning we clean up after "breakfast conversations" and music practice and we set up tables to get ready for the food pantry. This week we went gleening for oranges, tangelos and lemons, plus we gad all the grapefruit that I picked from the day before. A truck from the Kauai Food Bank comes at 11:30, and anyone from the church or from wherever can jump in and help unload the truck and set out the food on the tables. People who show up early to help set up can take a box of food with them after setting up, so they don't have to wait until the program actually starts and they can get the good stuff. Anybody can get food here. You don't have to prove that you are starving or are unable to get a job. It's just a time where those who need food can come and get some. This week we needed a little food, so we got some too.

Our first Wednesday at food pantry we just observed and helped out wherever we could; restocking tables and handing out more boxes and bags to people. A couple of days later Hope had this idea, which she thought of as a vision, to bring people together more; opening up a way for people to be creative if they don't have resources or encouragement to do that elsewhere. She wanted to open up conversation more and have a way for people to get to know and enjoy each other better. The message at church the first Sunday we were here was about us all being parts of one body; discovering and sharing our gifts with each other. That first week at food pantry we, at least I, felt disconnected from the people who came for food, and Hope's idea was a good way of tearing down that wall. I layed down and she traced around my body on a big peice of canvas that used to be wall paper in a condo. She set the fabric out on a table before food pantry and set up art supplies for people to contribute to a collage called "one humanity". Everybody had a chance to add something to this outline of a body; to make it feel like we are all in this together. It was pretty cool. A lot of kids helped out and a few adults really liked it too. The end result, unless we add to it next week, really did look to me like a combination of all of the people there. A mixture of artsy style, ruggedness, nature, scrapes and bruises, spiky hair, tattoos, homemade jewelry, and animals. A lot of people just painted their own pictures on pieces of paper too, and I thought that was really cool. I found one lying on the ground after word that just said a person's name. I wondered if that person didn't know what else to paint or write other then their own name. Maybe that was a really creative and meaningful thing to paint. I wish that I could feel proud and creative if I just painted my name on a piece of paper. I heard some people say "when did they get all of this stuff here? (referring to the painting and ping pong games)" to which two girls replied "since it got cool", and the guy said "I was here two weeks ago and they didn't have anything cool like this. Another guy told Hope that usually they just sit around and stare at each other. Since then a lot of people have said how cool it was that we incorporated more of a creative, social and fun aspect to the food pantry. I think Hope had a great and successful idea.

We gave out food for about 200 people this week. It was a lot of fun meeting new people and hanging out together in this setting. There was a lady with two kids weaving baskets and she sold a couple of them to me. I can show you a picture of them later. There were a lot of kids this week, and then were running around like crazy. We almost had all of our ping pong balls and paddles destroyed and one boy lost his sandal; that's what happens when you have too much fun I guess.

The prayer circle at the beginning is my favorite part. John, the food pantry director, gives some ground rules with his usual tone of constant sarcastic humor; letting everyone know that there basically are no rules as long as everyone gets some food. Pastor Glenn gives thanks for everyone who is there, prayer for everyone and tells them to let him know if there is anyone else who needs food who cannot make it to the food pantry. We hold hands and prayer and listen to Glenn and John for a few minutes, and then everyone gets a number and lines up to get some of their food for the week. This week we also had a drawing for 4 frozen turkeys and 6 Micheal Jackson calendars; those things are going like hot cakes.

W're almost finished with week 2 of this amazing journey. We're sort of getting into a groove here and the time is starting to fly by like it didn't the first week. We wake up and are busy most of they day and before we know it it is bedtime again. Last night we made a calendar because we want to make sure we take time to do some important personal things that we set as goals when we came here; reading, writing, running etc. It's hard to do all that you want in a day, and when we have a chance it's nice to just rest too; because that is a big reason why we came here in the first place. But isn't rest just taking a break from your typical daily work? Most of this feels like rest to me. I'm content.

z

Saying goodbye.

Right after my first post today, I got a phone call from my family, informing me that my Grandpa Lawrence passed away this morning. Before we left for Hawaii, Zach and I got a couple of opportunities to visit my grandparents and I could tell that my grandpa was much weaker now than in the past year and that I may not have many more chances to see him. I was sort of prepared to get that news on this trip, but at the same time I don't think that you can ever truly be totally ready to hear something like that.

We had a great time just chatting and talking, the last couple of times that we got to visit them before leaving for our trip. Zach had asked him about the days he was in the navy, and what he remembered about it. He talked about old friends, and being in Alaska, and was certain to include that everyone smoked, but he never did-- not once. I enjoyed listening to those stories; I had not ever heard them before. I guess we tend to take stuff like that for granted, until we know that we might not have the chance to hear about it anymore.

My grandpa, for the last month of his life, was mostly confined to a hospital bed stationed in his former living room, with my grandma right at his side-- every moment of everyday. They have taught me so much about what it means to have a strong commitment to marriage. I left their house with Zach that last day being with him, thinking about how awesome it is that they have stuck through it all together, and saddened thinking that my grandma's greatest joy of serving and loving her husband would one day come to an end.

As we left, I took my grandpa's hand and told him, "I love you. I'll see you soon." I knew that physically, that was a lie-- it wasn't likely I could make it to see him again before we left. But spiritually, it was the truth. This life will come and go-- and before I or my grandpa knows it, I will be joining him in heaven. And I cannot wait for that day to come. Until then, I have much more to learn in this life.

When I am drifting off to sleep tonight, I will be praying that my grandma will be ministered to with the peace and comfort that only God can bring and that she will remember the hope that she has.

-H

Gleening....

Here are some shots from our first day going to "gleen" and get citrus for the food pantry. We got TONS! We enjoyed tasting oranges, tangelos, mineolas, etc. They even had lemons there! It was a fun experience. When I picked my first one..... I had a gecko start to creep up on my hand! At first, I thought it was a brown leaf blowing on me, and then I realized it was a living creature. I screamed so loud.

Today we are going hiking with our friend Susan. We don't really know yet where we are going to, but we are excited to find out!

the garden

This is part of our communnity garden here. Anyone can come throughout the week to work on it and in it. Thursday afternoons is a specific time where a group of people come to work together. Many people who need community service hours also come to work in the garden. Anyone who works in there can take and use stuff from there, and on Wednesdays anything fresh and ready from the garden is given away at the food pantry. Today Hope is going to try to get people involved in a collaborative art project during the food pantry, and I'm going to set up some games of ping pong.

Below is a camilean, or gecko; I haven't quite figured out the difference.

z

"..in our difference is blessing, from diversity we praise.."

We have a lot of pictures to show you today, so we won't talk much.

Monthly game night at our house

Scenic lookout over the Hanalei valley, walking home after the the outdoor concert

Our day off at the beach in Hanalei Bay

Garage Band lesson with Miles

Golf cart ride to Princeville resort

Walking along the beach at Princeville Hotel

Princeville Hotel

Birthday cookout for Glen and Mary's son at the Weston Condo's

Our first church service. We both read scripture and prayer from the pulpit; I (Zach) played with the worship band and we both sang with the Choir

We received a warm welcome

Go Vikings!

Experience is the Best Teacher

I want to paint a picture for you (and for me to remember later) what it is like here. Glen and Mary's house (where we are staying) is open and you can always feel warm breezes blowing through. The sounds of clocks ticking and chiming precedes their appearance hanging on nearly every white wall. Glen is a clock repairman and naturally has lots of clocks hanging around their home. Some, probably because they were unable to be repaired or just are too old to work anymore. All of them tell a different time which is so appropriate for this place-- everything is laid back, and people are not concerned about getting somewhere by a certain time. No plans are too set in stone. We learned last night that the Hawaiian people here will say that you are "haole" (pro-nounced haw-lee) which means "white" if you are too concerned with things are your to-do list (hmmmm.... I guess I have some lessons to learn while I am here).

The windows are always open somewhat in every room, all day long, even if it is raining or cool out. There are wooden floors throughout their house and makes it feel like you are living in nature even when you are indoors. You can always hear birds outside. The garden is just a few feet away from our bedroom, and it is very lush and green, just like everything else here. The soil here is rust orange and stains your skin and shoes and clothes red. There is a huge golf course that doubles as our "front lawn" and just past that you can see the ocean in the distance. The air is humid here, much like it is in Minnesota in the summertime. You can almost always hear the sounds of chickens cackling, and roosters crowing-- they are reminders of a hurricane past. On sunny days the sky is blue and you can see the mountains standing tall and completely covered in green vegetation behind our house and surrounding the Hanalei Valley. When it is cloudy or misting, the mountains look smokey. I told Zach yesterday that when they look like sihlouettes like that with the fog, they remind me of a Folgers commercial or something.

We drink lots of coffee here (fine by me) and we have been tasting local fruits almost everyday. Guava fruit is soft and peels back like citrus fruit on the outside and has millions of juicy tiny seeds on the inside that you suck on to taste and then can spit out the seed part. We also got to try papaya, which sort of reminds me of a sweeter, juicier melon. And yesterday, someone at a local thrift store gave me an avocado, not like the ones we get at the store in MN, but bright green and as big as a grapefruit. I need to use it soon, because it is getting very ripe.

I hope that gives you a better idea of what it is like here, if you have never been here. It is a beautiful place.

who put papaya there?

Today is the start of our third full day here on the island of Kauai. Here is a quick summary and some highlights of our day yesterday:

Woke up terrified to the confusing noise of a rooster crowing outside our window at about 6am.

Packed a couple of things and went for an early morning run along the golf course, through a tunnel of trees and down a steep sloping muddy hill and out onto the beach. We got some good exercise running back up the hill and back to our house.

We made a great breakfast of eggs, toast, yogurt, fresh papaya, and %100 unsweetened grapefruit juice...and coffee of course (we drink that like water around here).

I took my first outdoor shower, and nearly ran out into the yard naked after I saw the biggest spider of my life showering with me.

We met many more great people who were so friendly and very interesting.

I got to pull out guava trees and bring them to the dump. We tasted fresh guava fruit for the first time. Quite an odd type of fruit but delicious.

Hope and I walked to the local library and splurged on a little cup of ice cream to share.

We worked with about 10 people in the community garden for a couple of hours. I used my bare hands and feet and the soil is bright red here so I was looking pretty filthy afterward. I got to eat a fresh carrot right out of the ground; what a great way to connect with nature.

To our surprise, we had to quickly clean up and eat so that we could go to choir practice. They assured us it wasn't a formal choir, but we felt quite out of place and inadequate trying to sing our Soprano and Tenor parts along with only about half a dozen others, all at least twice our age. It was an interesting experience though.

We started a movie and then got tired and went to bed.

Today we had a vehicle to use so we're going to drive to Hanalei Bay and borrow some boogie boards and hit the waves. Hopefully we can make it to a thrift store too because when I chose just one pair of sandals over bring both before we left, I guess I grabbed two left feet; so I've been going barefoot a lot. And it is colder here then we thought, so we need a couple more warm shirts.

Later this afternoon the guy who runs the food pantry is putting on a concert at a local food court in the shopping center, so we're going to go eat some Thai food and listen to him. Then it's game night at Glenn and Mary's (and ours I guess) home. These people didn't realize that they invited the Scrabble Champions of Minnesota so they're in for quite a shock.

Enjoy the pictures. We miss everyone and despite all of this beauty and warmth we do miss our true home; wherever our friends and family are. We're thinking about you all. May God bless you today and always.

z