Tuesday 9th September 2008

Aloha to all our family, friends and teachers!

Today we left the hotel at 6am so that we could get to Kahuku High School on time. Schools here in Hawaii start at 8am and finish at 2.20pm (well, this one does anyway). Kahuku High School is a state school and their roll is 2000 plus. They are very multicultural but mainly Polynesian.

We were welcomed to the school by the Hawaiian Indigenous immersion classes and students. They have a very strong immersion programme here and this year will see the first lot of students to graduate from high school. There are a lot of similarities between Hawaiian language and the Samoan and Maori languages. We spent a whole day there and were taught traditional Hawaiian games which they used to prepare themselves for battle. We all participated in lessons in which everyone learned the names of objects in Hawaiian. Rachel, Lynda-Jane and Renee did very well in the Hawaiian language.

Our students had lunch in the school cafeteria which did not go down very well with most of them (they still rate Mana College canteen food as the best!) We were given a tour of the campus which included an agriculture department. The students are taught hydroponics (not a good idea in our hometown perhaps) amongst other agriculture related things. We were invited to help ourselves to ripe pawpaw, oranges and anything we could find in their plantation. They didn't have to ask twice! We were in and were shaking those trees around like there was no tomorrow. Quite a few people even bought uniform items from the Kahuku uniform store - hoodies, caps, t-shirts etc... It was great to see our kids so keen to get into uniform, even though the uniforms were not Mana College ones.

We performed a few cultural items in front of an assembly during Period 6. The girls looked great in their Samoan uniforms (thanks to Hana, Lana and Ami). After the assembly we bid farewell to our new Hawaiian friends and headed to Turtle Beach where people had a swim and played volleyball on the beautiful white sand. It was back to Waikiki after the beach and that was a very long journey (hour and a bit) because the traffic was crazy.

We had a brief meeting and then went downtown to have dinner at a local restaurant. The one annoying thing about Waikiki is the lack of parking spaces - everywhere we went we would see signs saying 'No Parking at all times'. Not very helpful when you have two vans you need to find parks for!

Tomorrow we are going to Pearl Harbour, so it is another early morning start. We leave here at 6am because it will take an hour and a half to get to Pearl Harbour. After Pearl Harbour we will be hitting the markets! (Renee is still thinking about what she is going to get her little nephew and everyone else.) The students are still coming to terms with the currency here and 'What is a dime?' is still a question that I hear everyday as they sort our their coins and dollar notes etc.. I will let you all know how Pearl Harbour and the shopping went tomorrow night.