May day celebration is a big event at Honaunau school. All of the kids worked hard to practice dancing and singing, teachers and parents worked together to prepare for this day, since it’s fund raiser event for the school too.

One week ago, I went to school to help making mango pickles. It’s a very big job, need many hands to do it. Picking mango, peeling, cutting into 2 pieces, digging the seed out, slicing into small pieces, salting, adding warm sugar water with food dye, one week later we can buy yummy mango pickle on May day. It brings good money to our school.

On mango pickling day, there were teachers, parents and community O’hana volunteers. Peeling and digging seed are easy but take time, cutting and slicing are harder, need good tool and strength.

I volunteered for this project last year too, I got two blisters in 2 minutes after I sliced mango with small knife. I learned my lesson, good tool can do better and faster. So I had my big cleaver with me this time, I sliced lots of mango; got one blister at the end. I wasn’t feeling well that time, could feel the cold was approaching to me. After I did it for 8 hours, my hand and fingers were so sore; my cleaver didn’t listen to my mind, cut my finger instead of the mango I was holding. I knew that’s the time for me to quit.

Last Friday evening, I volunteered making sushi. There were 4 ladies making musubi, they made 200. We had 5 ladies rolling sushi, and we made 150.

They always had someone making lunch and supper for all of volunteers.

Most volunteers were local, same faces showed up last year too. Worked with them, I experienced truly aloha, working together and get thing done. While we were working, their conversation seems always involved family, friend or community member; once a while, someone threw in a joke or comment, made everyone laugh. Even at quite moments, the atmosphere was light and loose; I don’t know most of them and had very little to say, but I felt comfortable with them. How should I describe my feeling? Through those community working party, my participation helped me entering the door of community O’hana; they saw me and acknowledged me as a new member of O’hana. They are easy, big heart, not complicated people, I love them; to understand them, I have to see things from their view.

On May day celebration, I took lots of pictures, share some with everyone. All of the kids are so sweet, they look so lovely after dressed up. Be a young child is a wonderful thing, and I’m glad to be able to see their pure beauty, cherish those moments, my eyes filled up with their sweet faces.

When I was a little girl, we celebrated May day too. But I don’t have any pictures to remind me how my friends and I look like, except my memory can tell some stories. Think about it, it’s kind of sad.

Well, let’s see those happy faces, and appreciate their presence, be the beautiful ones around us.