Blogs are like journals for the WHOLE WORLD to see

I'm stoked, I bought a ticket today for the Kokua Festival in April. It's a big Earth Day love fest with Ben Harper, Willy Nelson, and Jack Johnson headlining. A bunch of enviro. groups go and set up booths. I'm hoping to make some island connections and find a job/volunteer opportunity that floats my boat more than whale watching. I'm also hoping to get wasted and dance all night long. Are the two mutually exclusive? I think it will be a lot like Wulapalooza but with less freshmen and more tan people. Plus, there is no gym to hold it in if it rains.

I saw Brokeback Mountain last night and I can't get it out of my head. I don't even know if it lived up to my expectations, I just know it touched me. Maybe I'm just really emo right now. I want to get a harmonica and go ride a horse in Wyoming.

Tomorrow I start my work week again. I've had two blissful days off and I spent them doing precious little. I did call 3 people about bikes and futons for sale, 6 people about hula lessons, and 14 people about covering my shift on Saturday so I can complete a life guarding/first aid class. Still waiting for the callbacks, just like an audition.

Should I start my own dance class? I asked my 8 ball and it said "signs point to yes." Or maybe it said "reply hazy, try again." I hate when that happens. Anyway, I want to dance more, meet more cool folks, and make some cash so the obvious answer would be to teach a little sumpn' at the community center or the yoga studio next door. But I'm a big chicken! I guess I just need to pony up and put up some fliers around town, see who shows up. "You'll never know if you don't try." -love, mom

I have these magazines on my coffee table (although we all know I don't drink coffee): TIME, National Geographic, and Maui no ka'io. I went to Borders to try and diversify my offerings (and expand my mind) but they didn't have much in the way of world-saving, revolution-starting publications. Not even the Sun or the New Internationalist. So I sat and read the BBC Focus on Africa and cursed the world for keeping me from my Fulbright letter. It's time to know the terrible truth: am I going to Ghana for 10 months or free come fall to follow my own devices?

Goodnight from the Valley Isle,
Kai

It begins...

E komo mai!

Akwaaba!

Bienvenidos!

Welcome!

I don't really know why I decided to start a blog on this random late Saturday night deep in the depths of February '06. I guess I desired contact with the outside world while living here on the rock a.k.a. Maui, part of the Hawai'ian cluster which incidentally are the most isolated islands in the world. Marinate on that for a minute.

Work work work. It takes up 75% of my time and 95% of my energy and mental activity. My eyes sting from all the salt water we splashed through today on the boats. Winds were coming in from the north so Molokini crater (submerged caldera if you will) was totally blown out. Turtle Town on the south shore was also out because they just had a shark attack, no one's allowed in the water. So we had to take our snorkel passengers to Coconuts along the West Maui Mtns, which is cool because the reef's healthy and the turtles are abundant. I chickened out and didn't give the reef tour, even though I've been studying my fish. I know my butterflies, puffers, triggers, wrasses, and parrot fishes- still shaky on my eels and sharks. I narrated a whole whale watch the other day! I'm finallly feel less like a tool at work, I'm catching on to everything and learning the ropes. My co-workers are super cool but super science-y, not like me. Highlights of my day include free diving for the moorings to tie up the boat, kayaking/life guarding the snorkelers, and giving the keiki or kids talk at the end of the day before we head into the harbor.

When I am not working on the boats or making mochas at the coffee shop, I am sleeping, writing letters, missing friends, making new ones, hiking with Ryan, and taking dance classes. I am desperate to take hula but I'm not quite looking hard enough for halaus or kumus (schools or teachers). Give me one more week and I think it will happen. Waiting for the DAMN FULBRIGHT letter to arrive and decide my future. Wondering what I can do while I'm here to help the cause, promote social/environmental goodwill, further world saving, etc. Just because I don't have ECOS or JB doesn't mean I can't still be a positive force, right?

That's all I got for now. A hui ho. Yebeshia bio. Hasta luego. Peace out.

xoxoalohakai

KaiLea ----> Translation: ocean goddess of the sea canoe