Today we went to Ho’okua’aina, a kalo (taro) farm in Kailua. We helped with weeding the lo’i, kalo fields.
We started with learning abouth the aina (land) and kalo plant in the hale. We sat in a circle and gave our names and which aina we claim as our home. We also talked about why we were there, and my answer was because I wanted to learn more about the land and give back to Hawaiians as a small thank you and out of respect for being able to live here.
Then the work began! The mud kalo mounds are surrounded by moats or trenches. These can get up to waist deep; the ones we were working in made it up to my knee, and thigh for some of the shorter people joining us.
We pulled up weeds and put them in buckets or off to the side as best we could.
There were all sorts of animals… frogs, tadpoles, and ducks were the most common that we saw. I attempted to keep the mud off of things but that became a lost cause in short order. My camera survived, however, and we were fortunate to be able to shower most of the mud off there before getting in our cars.
What a day this was! I gave my camera a good sponge bath after this. I think I’ll go back but more prepared this time for just how fast things get muddy. We have a lot of people who want to go again, so I think there will be more.
