Tag Archives: Oahu

When my husband went all Tongan on me at the Polynesian Cultural Center

21 Tuesday May 2013

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Tongan man blows into conch shell

You couldn’t get me on stage. No, not even if you promised me a new pair of shoes. I thought husband, Steve, would be the same way. But put big Tongan drums in front of a man and he turns into a boy.

That’s what happened at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) on the island of Oahu. There are villages throughout the PCC, each representing Polynesian islands in the Pacific, specifically, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Hawai’i, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga, and it is the Tongan show that is a big hit with audiences.

The show begins with a man blowing into a conch shell and drummers begin hammering away on the big drums. It’s the hollow beat, beat, beat that swoops through your chest and were it not for my fear of being looked at, I would have stood up, closed my eyes and started dancing.

Tongan Drummer 1

Tongan Drummer 2

The drumming or Tongan ta nafa has five performances a day, Mondays through Saturday.  It’s an opportunity to not just see and hear the drumming, but three lucky individuals from the audience get to try their hand at it as well.

Little did I know Steve had a Tongan drummer spirit within him. Yes, my quiet, engineer-type, bookish husband was called up on the stage and he let loose on the drums.

Oh dear. Take a look at the video below. I think you’ll have a good laugh over this one. Afterward, my mother turned to me and exclaimed, “I had no idea Steve was like that at all!” Nor did I.

For more on the Polynesian Cultural Center, see also my other post, Islands of smiles and brothers connected by an ocean.

Also, visit their website at http://www.polynesia.com.

Islands of smiles and brothers connected by an ocean

12 Sunday May 2013

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This is the first part in a series of blogs about the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Hawaii (on the north shore of the island of Oahu).

Swirling hips. Tossing sticks. Chest beating. Tongues hanging outside mouths. But most of all smiles. So many smiles. The sun is beating down on all these performers and they’re smiling from ear to ear.

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The rapid fire swirling hips of Tahiti

This happens at 2:30 every Monday through Saturday where native Polynesians float down the lagoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) in their traditional costumes. It’s a parade and visitors are here to get a sampler plate of the culture represented at the Center as the performers float by.

Stick tossing (Aotearoa - New Zealand - Maori)

Stick tossing (Aotearoa – New Zealand – Maori)

The Polynesian Cultural Center, located on Oahu’s north shore in Laie, Hawai’i is a place for cultural immersion not just of Hawaiian life, but of the Polynesian islands in the Pacific, specifically, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Hawai’i, Samoa, Tahiti and Tonga. And it’s not just about putting on a show for visitors. This place is unique and there’s a big reason why you see the smiles.

Tongan smiles

Tongan smiles

Tahitian smiles

Tahitian smiles

The Polynesian Cultural Center is actually a nonprofit center dedicated to helping preserve the cultural heritage of Polynesia while providing jobs and scholarships for students at the adjoining Brigham Young University-Hawai‘i campus. Yes, 100 percent of PCC’s revenue is used for daily operations and to support education.

  • Smiles from Fiji

    Smiles from Fiji

    More smiles of Fiji

    More smiles of Fiji

Many of these students would have not had the opportunity for an education otherwise. Most students attend the University year-round and try to complete their degree in three years–what would take most of us four years to do. They do that because oftentimes they just can’t afford to go home for holidays. No weekend trips to go have mom do your laundry. Not even to go home for Christmas. For most, the next time they go home, they’re going home with a Bachelor Degree and the ability to help their community.

And of course, the smiling faces of Hawai'i

And of course, the smiling faces of Hawai’i

Samoa

Samoa

Where else in the world do you find a University that’s sole purpose is to bring together students from the far reaches of the the Pacific to help educate them and to give them an opportunity to share their culture with others as a means to pay for that education? It’s a true benevolent way of education and the benefits reach far beyond just the classroom.

They look fierce, but they still smile. (Aotearoa - New Zealand - Maori)

They look fierce, but they still smile. (Aotearoa – New Zealand – Maori)

I sat down with Delsa Moe, Cultural Presentations Director at the PCC where she described her own experience with self-identity and learning of different cultures. Delsa, who was born and raised in Samoa calls herself half taro and half potato (her father is Samoan and her mother is from Blackfoot, Idaho). She not only attended BYU-Hawai’i as a student, but also worked at the PCC where she fell in love with dancing and performing, and has now been at the PCC for 34 years.

Video is only two minutes, so worth a look at.

This year, the Polynesian Cultural Center is celebrating 50 years of perpetuating and preserving the cultures of Polynesia. All year, the PCC will have special pricing and promotions, so check out their website at www.Polynesia.com.

Tales from Oahu: Follow that van!

22 Thursday Nov 2012

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While driving around the North Shore of Oahu we were making our way back to Laie when all of a sudden this guy merges in front of us:

Did you read that? Yes, on the back of that van it says, Coconut Peanut Butter! To my mom who was driving, I hollered, “Follow that van!”

There are two things I love in this world: Peanut butter and coconut and at this moment I thought either the Rapture occurred and I was swept up into heaven or the tropical trade winds were messing with my head and I was hallucinating. The really good kind of hallucinating. Either way, I didn’t care. Follow that van!

Well, we lost track of the van. He turned right and we went straight because we were in search of a bathroom. Seems I have to pee a lot in Hawaii. Not sure why. So the bladder took precedence. (If we had followed the van, wetting my pants would have certainly taken the joy out of the whole thing. Maybe it was a dream, so bathroom won out.)

Mom took us to a little shopping strip mall kind of thing in Haleiewa. Bladder relief, check! And then my mom in all her brilliance asked a kind lady in a Hawaiian tchotchke shop (Hawaiin and Yiddish–I just cracked myself up writing that) if she knew where we could find this mysterious Coconut Peanut Butter.

Please, oh, please let it not be part of my imagination.

It wasn’t! The lady said, “They have it next door, but it’s a little expensive.” I didn’t care if I had to take out a small loan for it. She started to explain how it’s even good just eating it out of the jar with a spoon.

“You think I haven’t already plotted that out?” I thought.

I don’t even think I let her finish talking about it. I was already out her door and into the shop next door. Here’s what the most heavenly thing on earth looks like:

Oh, and by the way, only TWO ingredients: Peanuts and coconuts. No sugar added! I also discovered that if you slather it on a banana it’s really crazy awesome.

Think I’m gonna share? Nope. Go find your own.

No worries on top of the world at Mauna Kea

23 Thursday Feb 2012

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Nothing turns my mood sour faster than when I don’t have control over a situation. I totally get that I need to change that about myself.

Working on it. Promise.

But I pride myself in being such an exceptional planner that if I can’t plan everything I get quite grumpy. Including when I can’t control sunsets. A couple of years ago Steve and I took a trip to Hawaii where we spent a couple of days on Oahu and then spent the rest of the trip on the Big Island scuba diving (natch) and exploring what island has to offer, including trying to chase what few endemic birds are left in Hawaii.

Every guide book raved about Mauna Kea, the volcano on the Big Island, and even recommended taking a guided tour to the summit because it was a steep drive and tour operators provided all the winter gear. Because who really packs a ski parka and gloves when they travel to Hawaii? Not me.

Mauna Kea is huge at 33,500 feet, making it significantly taller than Mount Everest. (That’s measuring the volcano at its base deep into the ocean. So, kind of cheating.) At the summit there are the Mauna Kea Observatories, which are used for scientific research. You’d probably recognize them, as they’re often shown on TV and in film.

So up to Mauna Kea we went, sitting with about eight other strangers in an oversized tour van, strapped in with our seat belts. The trip was a couple of hours up and the seat I was in seemed to only have a thin layer of cushion separating my back end from the springs.

And then there was the weather. Clouds were hovering all over Kona that day and I spent the day a little sour, wondering if we just spent a lot of money on this tour and weren’t going to see a thing. No sunset. No stars. No valley. It will be a bust. I was sure of it.

Thank goodness my husband is a saint and didn’t push me out onto the road what with my unpleasant mood. He kept assuring me, “Oh I’m sure we’ll get a sunset. All this fog will burn off. Don’t worry about something you can’t control.”

Hey, my whole life is designed to be about worrying about things I can’t control. I’m just sort of wired that way.

I worry about if we’ll get in a wreck on the way to the airport. I worry every time I cross a border into another country and think “What if they won’t let me in?” (There’s no reason to think that, but I’ve seen TV shows about that sort of thing. And somehow some girl ends up in a Thai women’s prison where for food they fend for rice that is shoveled off from the back of a dirty pick up.) I worry about not making curtain at the theatre. I worry every time the cat is out late that a predator got her. I worry that… I’ll stop here. This could go on all night.

This little journey  to the top of Mauna Kea taught me a lot.  For starters, it taught me that I should listen to my husband more. He’s right. I can’t worry about things I can’t control. But even more, I learned that I should hope for the best and enjoy every moment that is part of the journey rather than stew about what horrible thing might happen. Imagine what I missed by worrying–I missed meeting new people in our van, I missed seeing a lot that was right before me. I missed a big part of this trip.

Because in the end, there were no worries at the top.

PS: Steve, I’m sorry I was grumpy that day!

Sunset at Mauna Kea

Here are more photos from our Mauna Kea trip.  Click on one and it will take you to a slideshow to view each.