May 2 -Maui Bound

May third was a very important day for us all. That was the day that Mrs. Kushin's students and my students would meet and seek to build bridges that would span the 2000 miles of Pacific Ocean that separated us. I had two major goals for this day. The first goal was to introduce and become friends with another group of students that lived on an isolated island in the middle of an ocean. The second goal was to share and teach protocols that we both could use as a way to share scientific information that we would gather from our island shores ideally 4 times each year.
There were hurdles that we had to overcome. However, for me the biggest hurdle was to get Tonia's students and my students on the same island. Tonia and her students had overcome the hugest hurdle of all, fundraising and physically planning the trip that would take them from there to here. I had the easy stuff. Creating an educational and cultural exchange. Shouldn't be too hard!
First choose a day that they would be on Maui. Since they were flying over from Oahu Sunday night, May 2, around 8pm. May third was my choice. I didn't want to waste one minute of time once they got to my island.
I needed to greet them at the airport on Sunday night, with leis! Lucky for me, my kumu, Hokulani Padilla Holt, teaches her students not just the hula, but the culture that supports the hula. I had bare bones knowledge of how to make Ti leis and my property provided the many leaves needed the braid and twist the garlands. 15 Ti leaf leis coming up! I also believed they needed to have flowers available for their hotel rooms, and cut down armfuls of flowers from my gardens, so that they would see the bounty of our island.
I waited for them with my cooler of Leis, not wanting the puakenikeni or gardenias to wilt, and soon they were HERE! THEY WERE ACTUALLY ON MAUI!
I cannot begin to tell you how when I first saw them, my eyes teared. These wonderful people had worked so hard to come and visit me and my students!
Some of them I met three years ago, when they were in second grade. I recognized their sweet faces that had gotten slightly older. It was wonderful to see them all and I hugged their teacher with such happiness that I have never known before. In this picture I see two of the students who would be visiting us. Can you see them too?
A dream I once had, for my students and Alaskan students to share their culture and their natural history of their islands was about to become reality.
So after a quick introduction to Mr. Kushin, Miss Edna, their Aleut Kumu, the 8 children, and Henry and Ashley, the Kushin's children, the step by step detailing of a successful visit soon got underway. Picking up rental vans, loading suitcases and bodies, and hugs goodbye. I realized I wanted our guests to drive across the island by 9 that next morning, so tried to cushion the mandate, by offering them a cooler of breakfast drinks, and foods so they could eat en route. All these details are so important to acknowledge and plan for, if a Field trip is to run successfully. Of course there are always those details one overlooks, but then it's all a part of learning, ya?