kahana valley workday

today i went to the Kahana Valley for a service learning project in my Hawaiian Studies class - it was definitely a cultural immersion that i am so happy to have gotten the chance to experience! to get there we walked up a slight hill along a path shaded by several trees until we got to a beautiful valley with a view of the mountains in the distance:


as we walked further down we were able to see the taro plants growing out of several lo'i, or ditches that create pools of water used to irrigate the plant. this is where we worked to pick the taro from their roots and prepare them for use. we also tilled patches of dirt and grass with shovels to get them ready for growing more taro. we even picked weeds from ti leaf patches! it was a lot of hard work but still a lot of fun because we all worked together to get the job done :) here is a picture of a cute little boy in the ti leaf patch!


after we finished working around the valley we were given a feast of pork, chicken, sweet potato, breadfruit, poi, oranges, and bananas. the pig had been cooking all night in a traditional type of oven dug in the ground and covered with leaves. i've really never tasted anything like it... so delicious! here is a picture of the pork before it was served:


i tried poi for the first time at this meal... it was interesting. it's made out of the taro plant and is eaten with a lot of hawaiian food. here are some girls preparing it:


the line for food was ridiciulously long! here are me and some friends waiting to eat :) p.s. i got a lip piercing!


and finally we ate. some people forgot to bring plates to eat off of so they had to make their own out of hau leaves which i thought was really cool! here is a picture of what it looked like: