Emma’s Blog
Today is our last day on Oahu, - we are ready to leave. The highlights for us were getting out of Waikiki to swim in the Ocean off the North Shore, wandering the harbor at Waimea (sp?) watching the turtles. We took in the Dole Pineapple farm (named after Queen Emalani’s custom of “doling” out pineapples every Maundy Thursday). Seriously, it did show what a young man with serious cash could accomplish in colonial times.
The “Polynesian Culture Center” was numbing. Anyone expecting to learn about Polynesian Culture should probably go to the Bishop Museum, - maybe next time. As to the PCC, we toured a series of Epcot like Polynesian Islands, where we learnt that Samoans liked to climb trees for coconuts, Tongans to beat drums, and Hawaiians were vaguely “royal”. What we didn’t hear much about was the cultures that existed before Cook showed up, closely followed by missionaries and how between commerce and religion we managed to pretty much extinguish all of the cultures and most of the population. The work provided to the community by the center does help to pay for tuition at the local BYU.
Doesn’t our penchant for sanitized kid friendly history (much of it watched by adults) go some way to explaining the bewilderment many Americans feel when confronted by a hostile world.? Wake up time.
PLUS watching Zoë and her team play their hearts out in Tropical weather, plagued by injury and exhaustion, against more experienced teams, and winning the Sportsmanship award they truly deserved. Meeting teams from all over the islands and the mainland, most of them showing levels of sportsmanship to match their plauy. A lot of folk worked hard to make the trip happen, and we ae grateful.