What’s Up Maunaloa

Community Contributed

By Kehau Pule

Well, school is here and the kids are all back hitting the books again – how fast the summer comes to an end. I’d like to welcome Mr. Davidson, the new principal at Molokai Middle School who came all the way from Hana Maui. Do you know that he personally made a call to me to welcome my special needs grandson at his school? How awesome is that personal touch!

OK, I’d like to thank all those who stopped me in Kaunakakai and gave me a call to thank me for doing my article again. So happy that you enjoy what I write because it comes from the heart.

You know I have driven Maunaloa Highway numerous times but each time I realize how beautiful a scenery that I get to look when I’m on the road! So wonderful that I can still see the ocean, the open plains of the green pastures and beautiful rolling hill tops…wow! It’s all in my backyard. Keeping Molokai, Molokai – that is what it’s all about. I remember my dad use to tell me as a little girl, “when you’re in a boat on the ocean and cannot see the mountains, development came in!” I never did understand that phrase until now that I am older. And thank you Lord, I can still see the mountains from the ocean.

You know jobs are very limited on Molokai but we can survive here because I have seen people helping one another on this island during these hard times. Families like Kathrine and Dalphine Pawn who during the holidays personally give out of the goodness of their hearts to families who are having a hard time, or the Maunaloa Braddahs who fish and hunt and share their catch with the families in this community, or an aunty in Friendly Market who see’s someone who cannot pay all their groceries takes the time to say “hey, I’ll pay for that!” Only on Molokai can you see or do this – that is why I am so blessed to live here.

And you know what I notice more and more is the younger ones finding ways to stay. That is a big deal because for a long time we been watching our kids graduate and then pack up for Honolulu or the mainland because there’s nothing here for them work-wise. But some of them figured out they can work on the computer from right here on the island, doing jobs for companies all over the place. As long as you get internet you can do it from your kitchen table or sitting on the porch looking at the ocean – and that is not a bad office if you ask me!

I was talking to one young man the other week, grew up right here in the homestead, and he does website work for all kinds of clients he never even met in person. He told me he done projects for a shipping company on the mainland, a couple of bitcoin casinos run out of somewhere in Europe, a surf shop over on Oahu – all from his laptop. His tutu still lives down the road and he goes fishing on weekends with his cousins. That’s the thing – he could be doing that same work in Honolulu paying crazy rent, but he chose to stay because this is home. And he’s not the only one. I hear about more and more of our young people doing the same, finding their own way to make it work so they don’t have to leave.

That gives me so much hope because keeping our families together on this island is everything. When the keiki grow up and they can look at their grandparents and their aunties and uncles right there down the road, that is how the culture stays alive. You cannot put a price on that. All the money in Honolulu cannot buy what we have right here.

I think about my dad again and what he said about the mountains and the ocean. Keeping Molokai, Molokai – that don’t just mean the land. It means the people too. It means finding ways to stay, finding ways to make a living without turning this place into something it was never meant to be. Every young person who figures out how to build a life here without leaving is keeping those mountains visible from the water.

When you’re driving around the island, take a moment to appreciate such a beautiful island that we have and understand when we say malama the aina..take care of the land. Be kind to one another. Those professionals who work in agencies that serve needy people, don’t give attitude when your clients call you to ask a question about their situation. Remember it’s because of your customers, your clients that you have a business and a job.

This is your Roving Reporter closing with a thought for the day and I use to hear it all the time from Uncle Francis Keoho of the Molokai Ebb Tides. “If you cannot say anything good about somebody, then no say it at all!” Have a blessed week and remember tell someone “I love you!” A hui hou.