I had this Hollywood dream of becoming Hawaiian once I moved to Hawaii. Kinda like in Avatar or Dances With Wolves, or countless other movies. There is a romance about going to an exotic place and being welcomed and accepted as one of their own.  This is especially true when the people and place are as beautiful and peaceful as Hawaii.  Here’s what I planned: I would move to Hawaii, learn the language, learn the hula, learn the chant (oli), then the king (which no longer exists) would look at my deeds and my intentions and I would be accepted into the tribe and walk proud among the people as a Hawaiian. Only one problem… I’m a “haole.”  Haole is like gaijin in Japanese.  It means outsider.  I used to think haole specifically meant “white-boy.”  Then I learned it doesn’t just mean white-boy. It also means pretty much anyone non-Hawaiian. It is hardly ever used in a derogatory manner anymore. It is simply a statement of fact.  In arriving here and starting to share my dream of becoming Hawaiian I was told it would never happen, because I was haole. At first I took offense to this, then I soon learned that it was not meant as an insult as much as a separator to differentiate from Hawaiian or those of pure Hawaiian lineage. I also learned the term hapa-haole. This is a joining of 2 Hawaiian words: hapa meaning half; haole meaning non-Hawaiian. When I heard this term it was in reference to a person whose lineage was part Hawaiian and part Micronesian. Suffice to say they were not pure Hawaiian.

I soon learned that haole was a term used, as I said, to differentiate, not separate, the Hawaiians from anyone non-Hawaiian. Now to be called Hawaiian you have to have some Hawaiian blood in your lineage somewhere. This is why I could never become Hawaiian. I have spoke to people who are born and raised here, but have no Hawaiian blood.  They are still referred to as haole. There is another term which sometimes comes up in a conversation of this type. That term is “aina.”  Aina means “of the land.” As a local, many will use the term kama aina.  This basically translates to people or person of the land. Meaning you were born here or you live here. Since I moved here the best title I can hope for is “resident” of Hawaii or kama aina.

It is interesting that there is almost a caste system here. The caste system doesn’t separate people by money, but by social class.  The pure Hawaiians are proud and revered. They definitely have a connection to the land which I have not seen anywhere before. Layers upon layers. Every person I meet is a new experience. I feel the shift within.

I am learning how to grow coffee from my new friend Dave.  I met Dave here in Hawaii, he owns a small organic coffee plantation. He is teaching me all about the trade. I am learning so much from him.  For years I dreamt of buying a coffee plantation in my retirement.  Now, I didn’t say work a coffee plantation, I said own a coffee plantation.  I am not crazy, farmers work hard!  I don’t want to work that hard in my retirement. As I was saying, when I visit with Dave at the farmers markets, I love to see all the people come up to his booth. They ask about the coffee, I see the way they walk, the look on their face, the tone in their voice, even the questions they ask. The type of people we have been meeting from Hawaii has humbled me, almost daily sometimes. People from all over the islands.  The depth of their knowledge and even their wisdom impresses me. I am happy and grateful to be a resident of Hawaii. I have come home.

Aloha,

James Christopher

ThurJimsEyes.com

We are spending the winter in Waikoloa Beach. We have been here 3 full weeks and we are in heaven. We are so completely grateful.  Understand, we totally loved spending time in Waimea, it is a great little cowboy (Paniolo) town of roughly 10,000 people. Everyone says aloha to you. There is such a strong feeling of community in Waimea. It is unlike anywhere I have ever lived. We made so many friends, so very quickly. But, Waimea is cold and rainy during the winter. Allow me to correct myself. Waimea is cold, rainy, wet, and windy during the winter. This is not what we signed up for when we moved to Hawaii. We are so glad to be out of there.

In contrast, Waikoloa Beach is too hot during the summer, but now has cooled down to a beautiful temperature. Days are 76 degrees, nights are 58 degrees.  Instead of 20 minutes drive to the beach (from Waimea), we have a 5 minute walk to the beach. Instead of maybe seeing a sunset on occasion, we see the most spectacular sunsets almost every night. Last night we, my wife Leise and I, went on a nice little walk across the street to the beach. We turned north and walked along the shore line.  Luckily I took my camera with me. The camera picked up colors in the sunset that neither of our eyes could perceive. The result is the photo you see above.

Last Saturday I went up to help my friend Dave Steiner, owner/farmer of Javaloha coffee, tend his booth at Waimea’s Parker School Farmers Market. The morning was cold, wet, and windy.  When I say windy I am talking about microbursts which lifted his tent up while being weighted down by a 200 lb. man, stakes and sand bags. I had to leap across the tent to grab the guy around the waist and stop him from flying away. It was miserable. The weather turned nice around 11:30 am, then a light rain started at 1:00 pm. It slowly got worse and then just became really wet as we were packing up everything. It was so very nice to drive down the hill back to Waikoloa Beach, only 30 minutes away.  Half way down the mountain the rain stopped, the temperature rose and I was able to put the top down on the convertible.

We are very excited to go to the beach almost every day, instead of every couple weeks (like we did when we lived in Waimea). I am most excited to be at the beach for the winter because the whales have started showing up and will stay through March. We feel truly blessed to live in a place like this which has such great diversity so close to each other. We are grateful for moving to the beach for the winter. We might need two houses, one for the summer up the mountain and one for the winter at the beach.

Aloha,

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com