report of my Hawaii trip

August 5, 2001

Hello everybody,

I am bringing my photos of Forest's orchard and his Ocean View property to the potluck. The photos don't show very much so I am supplementing with the report I wrote for our M2M Natural Health newsletter for those who are interested.

Helen

Although I was a little disappointed that not many M2Mers showed up for the millennium bash, I had a wonderful time on the Big Island. I knew it would be worth the trip just to visit Forest’s orchard and I was right. Bob, Susan with her family and I also had fun foraging for food, like our ancestors did, splashing at the beaches, visiting local rawfoodists, shopping at the Hilo farmers’ market and a neat fruit stand not too far from Naalehu, chasing rainbows …

I arrived at Hilo Wednesday afternoon Oct 4. Not knowing that fresh fruit and vegetable were not allowed, I brought a bagful of Washington apples and some avocados with me. I filled in what I brought on the custom slip but nobody checked my luggage in the airport.

As soon as I walked down the stairs at the Hilo airport, a dark-skinned young man with curly hair walked straight to me with a warm smile and asked me if I were Helen. His name was Ali, an Arabian. He said that I looked that I fitted right in the place like a local inhabitant. Ali was nuts about astrology, both western and Chinese. First thing he asked me was my birth signs in both western and Chinese zodiac. We had a pleasant talk while waiting for Raja to pick us up.

I was lucky that Forest’s neighbor Raja happened to have a dentist appointment in Hilo on the same day I arrived so I got a ride from him and didn’t need to worry about how to get to Forest’s from Hilo. Raja took me to the farmers’ market where I bought everything Ali recommended. I got more stuff than I could carry. *Since Bob has given a detailed report on the tropical fruit here, I won’t repeat it. I bought the last batch of chicos from the Chinese lady, Pam. She had the most variety of fruit and they were organic. The chicos looked like little potatoes but tasted like caramel and were very sweet.

After shopping in the farmers’ market, we went with Raja to pick coconuts. It was at a park by the ocean. I watched Raja deftly climbing up the coconut tree. It took him less than half a minute to get to the top of the tree. He grabbed the coconuts one by one; with a twist and pull, the coconuts came right off, and then he just tossed them down. There was a warm water pond where some people were bathing. We went to Mango Road to forage for some more coconuts for the M2M bash. There were rows of mango trees along the Mango Road. Ali picked up a Chinese mango from the ground. It was delicious. On Mango Road I got the first attack of mosquitoes.

Then we headed south, stopped by Keaau Natural Food store where I bought some silk fig bananas and cucumbers. On the way to Naalehu I saw miles of black dirt along the highway. It looked like the land had been tilled with a giant plow. Later I found out those were lava rocks. It was pitch dark when we got to Naalehu. We went down a bumpy narrow one-lane path among the bushes. It was so bumpy I thought we were going down a steep hill but the next day I found the path to be quite flat. The bumpy narrow one lane path was called "Palaoa" (the whale). Bob was amazed at the fact that he had never seen cars running into each other on the "Whale" road during both of his visits of Forest’s orchard. I figure it was because Forest’s orchard was so far away from any town that no cars would come in in the morning, no cars would go out in the late afternoon, and Forest and his neighbors don’t go out at the same time. They simply don’t go out so much. Whenever someone goes to town, he would do some shopping or run some errands for the others. They do a lot of sharing. Am I right, Forest?

It was late when I arrived at Forest’s orchard. I was exhausted so I went straight to bed. Thursday morning (Oct 5) I got up and took a good look at this lovely little cabin I was staying in. it was an arch-shaped structure with heavy plastic over a bamboo frame. There was a screen door and screen windows in front and back of the arch so wind could blow through the room. As you walked in the room there was a bed on the left and a desk on the right with a swivel high stool. A large counter ran across the back "wall" of the arch structure with a shelf above. On the shelf there were some seashells, rocks, a leaf-woven ring, some plumarias and a little tarnished copper candle holder covered with wax teardrops. A little feather stood in the candle holder. All the furniture and the floor were made of unpolished heavy planks. The rusty metal swivel stand of the high stool looked antique. Forest probably picked it up at some beach where it was washed ashore from a wrecked ship. In the "ceiling" of the cabin there was a round skylight like a big moon right over your head. There was a porch in front of the cabin with faucet and sink on the left and a screened cupboard on the right.

The first morning I got up at Forest’s orchard I was so excited, immediately I took out my camera, explored the whole area, took pictures here and there. The fruit trees were planted among all kinds of vegetation like a jungle. There were coconut, papaya, mango, pomegranate, orange, passion fruit, banana, sapote and some other fruit trees that I didn’t know and some flower trees.

There was a cave with a stone entrance like relics of some old civilization. There was a beautiful straw hut. It could be a meeting place or a quiet spot for meditation. The floor was covered with soft and cushy dry palm leaves. Around the hexagonal frame there were bamboo-woven support you could lean your back on when you sit on the floor. At the center of the hut was a round table with some clay or rock, folk art type figurines. Some folk art pieces were also hanging around the ceiling. At the center of the roof there was a round stained glass window for sky light.

Forest built everything in his orchard with his own hands and with minimum use of machinery. He even made the stained glass himself with scraps of glass. Each shelter was built in a different design. Everything was beautifully hand-made and each was a piece of art.

I got hungry after walking around so I went back to the cabin looking for food. In the fruit basket I found an oblong yellow fruit that already cracked open, obviously fully ripe. I had never seen it before. Both its color and its texture closely resemble hard-boiled egg yolk. Later Forest told me it was an egg fruit from the tree right next to my cabin. It tasted like egg yolk mixed with honey. I used to love eggs before I became a vegetarian, so the egg fruit was a real treat for me.

Forest came and showed me the community room/clubhouse. There I met with another one of Forest’s neighbors, Bruce who had been a rawfoodist for 20 years. Bruce was half nude, wearing only a pair of shorts. We talked about Brix. I brought my refractometer to the clubhouse. Bruce went and gathered a bunch of fruit samples. It turned out his lilicoi/passion fruit measured pretty high brix but we didn’t have a reference of brix level for passion fruit.

Friday, Oct 6 morning I went for a walk. I got thirsty because it was hot. I chopped open a coconut and drank the juice. I also had passion fruit, banana, sapote and papaya for breakfast. I bought some greens but they didn’t last. They were not very good anyway. Cucumbers were OK. I went to the clubhouse after breakfast. Ali did a palm reading and an astrology analysis for me. Most of what he said seemed to make sense. Since I was over fifty, most of the important events of life had already happened. I was impressed with the accuracy of his reading.

Saturday, Oct 7 I met a retired couple during my morning walk and talked for a while. They worked in the mainland and moved to the Big Island after they retired. They gave me a plumaria from their garden.

When I got back from the long walk Susan invited me to go to Green Sand Beach with the Mozocco family. It was hot and windy, and besides I was a little tired from the long walk and didn’t feel like going to Green Sand Beach which required a long walk to reach. We went to the Black Sand Beach instead.

The black sand was coarser than ordinary beach sand. It was like crushed lava rock. The waves in the ocean were high. Since I am not a good swimmer I didn’t dare to swim. Nobody else was swimming either. Susan’s boys and I played with the tides for a while. Susan showed me some yoga postures and she demonstrated the head stand, of which I am very envious. Then we sat on the beach and talked. We buried our legs in the sand and that was very relaxing. On the way back Forest took us to the Rodeo park to forage for mangoes and mac nuts. I’m sure you were drooling reading Susan’s report on that event.

The first two days I didn’t take a bath. I didn’t see any bathroom around. I asked Ali where would I take a bath. Ali took me all the way to the edge of the orchard. Behind a kitchen there was an outdoor shower place with a shower head made of a plastic bottle with holes at the bottom of the bottle. Ali also showed me a terrace where he said I could sit and relax. After I took a shower, I went to the terrace. I spread my towel on the grass and sunbathed in the warm breeze. It was like floating on a cloud.

I must make a note about the toilet room. Forest told us beforehand that there was no flush-toilet on his ground. I was not unfamiliar with outhouses. I walked in the toilet room expecting the usual smell of an outhouse and …

I was surprised and very impressed with Forest’s composting toilets. There were five low toilet seats on a raised wooden floor. Under each toilet seat was a long tube with its bottom buried in the ground. All but one of four toilets were covered and not in use. When the one being used gets filled up, one of the other four would be ready to be emptied and the content of it to be used as fertilizer.

Forest had instructions on the door for using the toilet. You sprinkle ½ cup of ash and 1 1/3 cup of sawdust or dirt after each use. There was no smell of outhouses. There was a wash-basin and a piece of mirror glass, a piece of wood over the mirror from a chopped tree branch, on which you could hang your towel. You have everything you need in a washroom.

I could talk about the adventure to the Green Sand Beach if anyone would be interested. That’s all for now.

Love,

Helen

*See me for Bob’s account of the Hawaii trip on M2M Natural Health newsletter.