Today’s field trip started out just fine. We chanted for our permission to enter, but we had to do it again because we didn’t do it right the first time. And we were on time this trip, but still late enough so that the kids from the other school was there to watch us squirm.
It turns out that not only were we not loud enough, but that some of us did not show proper respect. We slouched, we had our hands in our pockets, we swayed and fidgeted on our feet, etc. I think I did one of these things– hands in my pocket most likely– but I was nervous. Small kind, but I still froze up and stuttered in a really small voice. We got it done though, after warming up to our inner songstress’s. Or whatever name you use for the guys. Whatever, it all worked out.
Just like before, the girls and boys split up to do our own mappings. My group and I got plenty of stuff done, and managed to finish up today, with a few… problems. We set up our table wrong at first, and plotted crookedly, but we managed to fix it up again and redo our plots. There were some other complications, like some of the flags got kicked up, some kids got a little dizzy standing under the sun too long, and some of the other flags were switched around and were put in places where you had to climb up on the wall and the rocks weren’t that stable. It was fun though, even when I almost fell over on the rocks. Then the kids from the other school had to go, and chanted their mahalo’s to the uncles and aunties there. They even said goodbye to us too. They were sweet kids and very polite. Should I still live on this island when I have kids, I’m definitely sending them to that school if can.
We on the other hand learned a new chant to practice and took some more notes. I like the note taking though, because we’re learning stuff about our roots and it’s a good reminder for me. We left soon after that, and that was pretty much the end of our third trip, and my second time going. Overall, there’s no doubt I’d go again.
–Tiani Ka’ahea-Simeona
