HALE BUILDING 2ND WEEK

Today Anabelle and I attended week 2 of our hale building workshop at Ke Kahua. Last week I wasn’t too enthused of attending. After having such a good experience building and learning, I was really looking forward to what today had in store.

Anabelle and I joined the students from Maui Botanical (?) as the crew got today’s lessons ready. Being that this was a new crop of students, we again started off with tying the cord using the “Shaka” method. Anabelle and I picked it up quickly since we learned it last week. A few of the other students were having a hard time as we were last week so we jumped in and helped them out. On top of learning the “Shaka”, we also learned an acronym for the types of wood you can build a hale with; IKESOME (I)ronwood, (K)eawe, (E)ucalyptus, (S)trawberry Guava, (O)hia Lehua, (M)angrove, and (E) (I forgot what the E stood for, but I’ll update this sentence when I find out). After learning the “Shaka”, we moved on to relearning the U knot. This time though, I was put on the spot which I didn’t mind. What made things hard for me was that though I knew the U knot, I was now tying the wood together from a different angle. *picture tying your shoe laces from under the knot* The new angle that I was now given threw me for a loop, literally. It took me a heck of a lot longer than I thought it was going to but luckily I prevailed. Last week we made a scaffold that standing up was about 15-20’. Today we made a pyramid with rungs that stood no more than 4’ at its highest. Even if it was smaller, it was tougher to build, but we all enjoyed it. At the end of the session, Anabelle and 2 other students tested the strength of the pyramid which easily held them.

After saying bon voyage to the students and the instructors, Anabelle and I again left with a sense of pride and joy knowing what we had just done. Personally, I really embraced the thought of delving deeper into my roots. We don’t know when the next workshop will be but we can’t wait.

**Side note- I already made use of my new found “Shaka” skills; I tied together the rope we use at the hotel for hauling furniture.