mahalos
I have a blog post sitting in my drafts folder from a month ago that I wrote about my family’s experience with the wildfire that burned our hearts on August 8th. I found, re-reading it, that it’s still too much to talk about so I’d like to focus on something else as I get back to social media from my hiatus. On-island, my ʻohana and extended ʻohana are slowly rebuilding their lives and in this space of rebuilding, I want to focus on giving mahalos.
Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much) to the people who’ve sent money, rallied their communities for donations and wept for our losses. Something I heard from friends and saw in news reports is the quick action of our Moloka’i community. They bore witness from across the channel as a firestorm decimated Lāhainā and took to their boats. They pulled people from the water, delivered coolers full of food, and were a kind of first responders taking care of their sister community in crisis. Another big mahalo to the locals that spread the word that stranded kamaʻāina (locals) and visitors needed supplies and made phone calls so that people had places to stay, directions on where to head, clothes on backs, and food in opu’s (tummies). My neighbors up here in Portland, in a twist of fate, were one of the last people to sightsee an intact Lāhainā. Thank you for emptying your family’s suitcases before you left so that some of those who evacuated with nothing had at least clothing and shoes. And when you got home and discovered that people in your business meetings didn’t know about the severity of the fires you vociferously informed them, sent them links, and spread the word of our needs like defenders of our land - aloha for your pūʻali-like (warrior-like) defense of our community.
Helping one another cultivates aloha, and it’s with this aloha that we are able to reestablish what it means to be Maui, from Maui, and of Maui. We are a people bonded together through this shared aloha.
Mahalo.
In Loving Memory
This is Clyde and Penny. Our extended ʻohana, the Wakida’s, lived in Lāhainā and on August 8th we lost Clyde to the wildfires. The family has started a GoFundMe site. The funds will be used to create a scholarship for Lahainaluna students where Clyde attended and Penny taught for 30+ years.
