Mud, Scabies, and Weekend Adventures

Last week was our final full week in Oahu. As I mentioned in my previous post, Monday and Tuesday of the week were away from camp in Kailua, where the camp director, David, lives. Our work days were spent in the Kawai Nui Marsh, the largest wetland remaining in Hawaii. When we first arrived at the Marsh we were greeted by David and his friend, Chuck, a retired teacher and current conservationist. David bid us farewell and headed towards camp. Chuck walked us through the park that has been set up at the Marsh, giving us a full tour and history both of the environment and the Hawaiian people in this area. After our tour we hopped back in the van and followed Chuck around to the other side of the Marsh where we would actually be working.

Our work for the two days consisted of wading into the muddy water, pulling mud out with shovels and then filling it in on walkways throughout the Marsh land. It was a little bit smelly and incredibly messy work, but fun non-the-less.

I mean really, who doesn't like to get dirty every one in a while. We had a great time.

At the end of Day One, Katie and I helped Chuck to pick a few Taro plants that were growing on terraced gardens opposite the Marsh. The Taro plant is a regenerating plant so we were able to cut off the edible roots and leaves and then replant the stalk the next day. Chuck also used the plants we had harvested to make a traditional Taro stew for our lunch on day two. It was fantastic!

Overnight in between our two Marshland work days, we stayed at David's house in Kailua. What a perfectly lovely evening. David made wonderful homemade pizza's, we watched Finding Nemo, and ate ice cream over some great conversation. David's wife, Kirsten, and daughter Nai'a, are both wonderful and it felt so pleasant to spend the evening in such a comfortable and welcoming home.
After Day two in the Marsh, we drove back up to Camp, taking the scenic route on the Kamehameha Highway along the North Shore. After passing breathtaking views, we stopped off at Pipeline to check out some waves and then continued on.

It had been a great Monday and Tuesday, but some downsides to our time in the Marsh were about to be discovered. On Wednesday Night, Danny, who had not been feeling well all day and had a rash on his face, headed off to the doctor. It turns out Danny had a bacteria from using the weed-waker in the marsh. Most likely unrelated to his time in the Marsh, he also had Scabies. Thursday morning, questioning what he had previously thought were mosquito bites, six more of us headed off to the doctor to see if we too had scabies. Diagnosis: we all had it! The two girls on our team who had not come to the doctor had to go back later that day to get the cream we were prescribed. That night we all had to cover ourselves everywhere from neck down with this cream. After washing it off the next morning, we were scabies free and faced with load after load of laundry.
Luckily it was not too dramatic of a dilemma. In fact, it was almost funny. As each person had come out of the doctor's office, I could not do anything but laugh at the situation.

Scabies behind us, we headed into a lovely weekend. Friday night was "First Friday" in Honolulu, an event held the first friday of every month. The State Art Museum was open and live music was set up on the lawn out from the museum and then on a patio inside the museum. It was a great atmosphere and fun event. After the museum, a few of us headed into Chinatown for the Nightlife aspect of First Friday. We passed Capoeira Dancers battling in the streets and a parade with chinese dragons walking down Hotel Street.

Sunday, was a day I certainly will not forget. Seven of us headed across the street to go skydiving! We had been talking about going for weeks and watched each day as others parachuted through the sky just above our camp. Now was our turn! I was terrified, but also very excited. When we got there we were given a rather intimidating waiver to sign which explained the dangers of skydiving and informed us on each of its six pages that death was one of the risks of the dive. Oh dear! This did not help my nerves, but I was ready to go anyway. And man am I glad I did. It was absolutely amazing. What a rush!
And I could not have possibly chosen a better location to skydive. Check out the view!