A HAWAIIANA EXPERIENCE
“E Hawaii e kulu home hanau e,
Kulu home kulaiwi ne.
Oli now ina pono lani e,
E Hawaii aloha e…”
As the Hawaiian Anthem rightly points out, Hawaii is rich in everything – culture, nature, beauty. And I got a chance to have a first hand experience of the virgin beauty of Hawaii this summer when I was selected by M.S.V.V. to be part of a cultural exchange program with Punahou School, Honolulu.
As soon as I stepped on the soil of Hawaii on the 14 July 1999(a date etched deeply onto my mind), I could feel the spirit of Aloha all around me. At the airport, I was greeted with a beautiful lei (a garland of flowers, which has deep roots in the Hawaiian culture – as I later found out).
The beauty of Hawaii has to be seen to be believed. It has been blessed by all the wonders that nature has in store. From the furious volcanoes, to the breathtaking rainbows; from the Pali Mountains, to the Pacific Ocean all around – which one thinks would make paradise.
And this generosity of Mother Nature on Hawaii has been made best use of by the fun loving people there. On weekends, one could hardly find a single soul indoors. People there indulge in all sorts of adventure sports – surfing, boogie boarding, kayaking, canoeing, hiking, parajumping … the list goes on and on!
The Hawaiian culture is wonderful ensemble of the various cultures of the world, as almost half of the residents of Hawaii are not original natives, but people of foreign origin belonging to different races – Japanese, Chinese, Europeans, Australians being some of the prominent ones).
The world can take a lesson or two on global harmony from Hawaii where all the people who have different cultural backgrounds, live in perfect harmony with each other.
But inspite of the cultural diversity, the original Hawaiian culture is very dear to all the people – Mele (Hawaiian music), Hula (Hawaiian dance), etc. are still one of the favourite passtimes of the Hawaiians.
Apart from me, there were 37 other exchange students from Japan, Germany, Tahiti, Denmark and Nepal. Everyday from school, we were taken for excursions to beaches, volcanoes, museums, etc. We also got a chance to visit the historically important Pearl Harbour, from where The Second World War truly turned in to a world war. On the Big Island(a 40 minute flight from the Island of Oahu where we were staying - see the map below),we stayed in the dormitory(Hartwell Dormitory) of the prestigious Hawaii Preparatory Academy.This was where my friendship with the other foriegn students really blossomed.Each one of the 5 days that we spent on that island, we had a Volleyball tournament, which was pure fun. Some of us even played table tennis and snooker in the dormitory. On our last night on that island, we had a dance, after which we played a game "Wink Killer" all night through !We also got a chance to walk inside the craters of active volcanoes – Mt. Kiluae to name one!
And to top it all, the people there have hearts as large as The Pacific, which surrounds them. The hospitality of my host family, the teachers at Punahou, and everyone else I came in contact with, touched me. No wonder, none of us exchange students could control his or her emotions on the last day!
To keep in touch with each other, some
of the students prepared a
website which has chatting facilities , with the help of which we keep
in touch even now !
HAWAII PHOTO GALLERY
