A Free Spirit

Posted on August 21, 2013 by dakine

It was Wednesday when I got back to Hawai’i from China, took a few days rest, next Monday I went with Terry to watch Sonny taking swimming lesson.

There were 9 kids, age from 6 to 13, only two kids looks younger than Sonny. He was a slow swimmer, but it seems didn’t bother him at all. Sometimes he played and talked with other kids, sometimes he just practiced his diving alone, either way, he was relax and happy in the pool. He was himself, didn’t change a bit even in different environment.

Their teacher asked them to trading water for 3 minutes, other kids were quite and trying to keep their heads above the water at the same spot. We only could hear Sonny’s voice, his silly babbling, ” Ho! I can’t hold any longer, Ho! I’ll drown, I’ll die, …..” He babeled that 3 whole minutes, I even could hear a trace of his laugh when he complained. His teacher just laughed at him, the silly boy.

That night in the bed, I thought about his time in the pool, said to him, ” Sonny, you have a free spirit.”

He asked :” Is a free spirit like a ghost, can go wherever he wants ?”

“Sort of .”

He asked again, ” He can even running around in the coffee land naked ?”

” Yes.”

Next day, he asked :” Mom, can I run around in coffee land naked ?”

I told him, ” Sure, go ahead.”

So, he took off his cloth, ran around the houses, bamboo tree, played like this alone for a long time. I was doing laundry, saw him running between buildings, so happy with his new game. It made me wonder what his feeling was, maybe a feeling of freedom.

That week, he had to play his naked game every day. I’m glad, he had a good time with his game. I wish this silly and playful little boy will always live inside of his heart, amuse himself once a while even when he is a grown man or an old man.

Taking Care Mom

Posted on August 14, 2013 by dakine

In this Summer, I went back to China for 6 weeks alone, Terry and Sonny stayed home, most days Sonny had his swimming lesson.

On May, I got a phone call from my sisters, my mom wasn’t doing well, they afraid there wouldn’t be much time left for her. Anything happen to my mom, Terry and Sonny are there to support me. Terry said to me: ” You only have one mom, if you don’t go to see her before she die, you will regret forever. ” Sonny said:” I’ll stay home, help daddy working in the farm.” I bought tickets next day, left for China in a week.

I arrived there at midnight on Saturday, Monday morning my younger sister and I took mom to hospital, checked in right away with a help from my friend who works at that hospital. There were 2 or 3 beds in a patient room, a bathroom with shower and a TV; it was much better than few years ago.

In the hospital, the nurses’ job is to give the patient medicine, give shots,or change IV bottle. There is no nurse looking after a patient 24hours, or bring food to a patient. That’s the job of the patient’s family , that’s what I did in the hospital for my mom. I had a canvas folding bed, at night I set it beside my mom’s bed and slept there, put it away during the day time. It was hot, one light blanket was all I need. The hospital has a cafeteria, food was good, you can choose from over 50 different dishes every meal, mom liked their food.

My mom has had diabetes for 11, 12 years, her kidney doesn’t function very well now. Before I went back when her legs swelled up, my sister took her to hospital and stayed a few days. Until she was doing better, then back home with some medicine. Things were getting worse, the medicine she was taken to help releasing water from her body, it started losing its affect on her. A month before I went back, mom went a different hospital and stayed 10 days. Their treatment didn’t make a big difference, she couldn’t stand there any longer. But at home, she couldn’t lie down to sleep, she couldn’t breath otherwise; she only could sit up while she slept.

Doctor Li, who was in charge of my mom, is a small and fairly young girl, about 27 years old. My friend told me, Dr. Li just graduated from school, it is her first year working in the hospital. She is a very gentle and soft spoken person, whatever medicine she gave to my mom, seems working. In first two days, mom did many tests and check up; at 3rd day, mom’s legs back to normal size, she could lie flat in bed and slept well. She was improving so fast, on 8th day, we checked her out from hospital, at that time she could walk to bathroom herself.

I didn’t cry when I saw my mom at first night. But I cried and couldn’t stop my running tears and nose, for a person and a family I’ve never met before.

An old lady moved into the same patient room 2 days before my mom checked out, she was in serious condition, couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t see. Her two daughters with her, they seems love and care her a lot. In 3 hours after she checked in, her eldest son arrived from another city. Her elder daughter said:” Mom, your favorite son is here, he come back to see you.” It’s not a big room, I could see and hear everything. Tears came down on the old lady’s face silently, her daughter wiped tears for her and told her ” don’t cry”; her son sat beside her and held her hand. All of that opened my tear gate, I turned around to face the window, tried to cry in silent, but I couldn’t control myself. The other daughter tried to tell me what happen to her mother, she saw me crying, I couldn’t manage to say a word to respond. Their love toward their mother touched my heart, I cried, cried because I saw and felt their love.

My mom was sleeping when it happened, so she didn’t know about it. Back to home, I told her, even my feeling and thoughts about that family. Can you imagine what my mom respond to me? She said:” It is nice, her son came back from another city to see her. Look, you are as good as they are, you come back from Hawaii, even farther place to see me and take care me. You saved my life, without you be here, I wouldn’t be here right now.” This is how my mom thinks, a different view I’ll never see it by myself.

When we were young, our parents gave care and love to us, raised us as good as they could. When they get old, we take care them and love them, that’s what we suppose to do. But my mom always has this gratitude toward us for giving her love and care, in her late years of life.

When I left Hawaii for China, I only had the worst thought with me, that was watching my mom die and bury her with my sisters. But this trip taught me that you don’t give up a hope easily, always keep a hope in your heart no matter how hard and bad situation you are in. Life is unpredictable, it gave me a big and good surprise, I’m lucky and feel grateful to it.

Life is Good, Death is not Bad

Posted on June 7, 2013 by dakine

Alison’s Mom past away in Los Angles, where Helen had lived last five years with Alison and Joel. They devoted their time to her, gave the best care to her. Helen was 98 years old when she past away, she had lived on big island for many many years; Hawaii was her home, her sweet home. Alison and Joel brought back her ashes to scatter into Kailua Kona bay, they invited us.

I only met Helen two times, first time was before we had Sonny; second time was five years ago, Alison came to get her. Sonny was three years old, cute little boy with long hair; Helen mistook him for a girl. From the way she looked at Sonny, there was real fondness, 93 years old sweet lady’s love for 3 years old child. I remember that day, remember Helen very well.

This ceremony happened on May 19, Thursday, at 3:30pm. I’ve never been to this kind of ceremony, and we would like Sonny to see and know, it could be a beautiful ceremony. On the way to there, we tried to explain to him, that every one come to this world, live for a while, then die. If people didn’t die, the world would’t be like this one we are living now; because populated human being would taking nature resource endlessly from earth, it would destroy the earth. So when you alive, enjoy your life and be happy; when you die, your body just disappear into the nature. Life is good, natural death is not bad.

We had a very good wealth that afternoon. When we got to the pier, saw a small group holding hands in a circle; a man was giving a speech, ended with a Hawaii song. Then we got on a clear bottom boat, every one had a bag of flowers, we had some too. Alison even prepared some pu’pu and drinks on the boat. There were a couple of albums of Helen with friends and families, we looked at the photo, and shared some story about her.

Slowly the boat left the pier behind, about 15 minutes later, it stopped. Joel read a page from the Bible, then we sang ” Somewhere over the rainbow” together, say good bye to Helen. Joel scattered her ashes , and we threw flowers into the ocean. And then, we saw some dolphins show up in distant, first there were only two and three; slowly swam to our boat, circling our boat. Later there were 20, 30 of them, hang around the place where Helen’s ashes were, some jumped out from water, spinning around, put up a show. Those dolphins’ appearing made every one happy, it seems that Helen met her new friends; they accepted and greeted her with warm love. We know she is in a good place now.

The whole thing went so well, so beautiful, what an amazing experience !

On the way back, the boat stopped over some coral reef, the lady works on the boat gave us a little lesson about it, especially to Sonny, he was curious. Now he said, he want his next birthday party on this kind of boat; so they can have fun and learn things.

A few days later, one night in the bed, I had this conversation with Sonny.
” Mom, how do you feel when you die?” It’s question every body wonders about it, and don’t know the answer.
“Don’t know.”
“When you die, everything turn to black, you can’t see any more?”
“I think, when you die, your body can’t feel, you can’t see anymore.”
Then he talked about having tank and airplane, to protect us and his future family from war or Zombie. I tried to convince him, don’t waste his time to worry about it.
“Don’t worry about these things, you are only 8 years old, there will be many many happy things in front of you. You will graduate from Honaunau school, then middle school, high school. You might even go to college, get a job, go to different places, meet lots of people, your future girl friend and get marry. I’m going to be a grand mom when you have your child.” I just babbling all of these things, tried to take his mind off from war, zombie, end of the world. It worked then.

I had two times of experience nearby a dying person, I won’t forget them ever.

Hattie is my good friend, I visited her home on November in 2000, it was my first time and only time see snow. I spent a month there, couldn’t stand the cold winter. When I left, her mom was very sick with cancer, her families knew she was dying, and her mom knew it too.

Aunt was a sincere Buddhist, lived through a lot of harsh times, a very kind woman. She was a vegetarian, it’s not convenient to get nutrition food for her in the village, far away from the market. Home made noodle and steam bun were the main food, mashed up fresh chili sauce was a dish for every meal ( chili was a cash crop for them ).

Their bed is called “Kang”, was build into the house with brick and mud, they make a fire under the bed to keep it warm in winter, outside of the house, there is place to feed the fire. People can’t do very much there in winter.

Before I left, I bought some food for her mom from Xi’an where I was to stay. I went to say “good by” to them, aunt was very weak, lied in the bed. When she saw me, she smiled with happy, good spirit to me. Tears gathered in my eyes, I couldn’t say a word. She held my hand, with the happy smile on her face, said:” Don’t be sad, this is not the end, I’m going to a place of peace and happiness. Don’t afraid death, it’s not a bad thing. When it comes, smile to it.” Those words from her, a dying person, taught me using a new way to look at death. Her body suffered, but her mind was completely in a happy peace land.

Aunt died few months later, I know that she is in a place she wished to be. She is not exist on this world any more, but a piece of memory of her lives, in my mind.

May Day Celebration

Posted on May 12, 2013 by dakine

Honaunau Elementary School had a May Day Celebration last weekend. Biggest day for students and families, it’s the only fund riser event for the school year.

The background of graduation ceremony is beautiful, on the wall was every student’s art work, every child. ( I asked Sonny to point out his drawing. )

It started with children’s performance for parents and community, then,there was a country shop store with local products, rummage sale, food booths and game booths. It’s fun day for every one.

Terry volunteered to sell scrips on that day.

Next day was Sonny’s birthday, we had a party for him at beach. Before the party, I discussed with Sonny about only inviting his friends, make a small party. But he insisted inviting Daddy’s friends, if they don’t come, it’s OK. Small or big, he had fun with his friends.

He loves airplanes so much, it’s the decoration on his birthday cake. He selected 4 toy soldiers and washed them to put on the cake later.

He wanted bombers for his birthday, and Terry helped him find these toys on line and bought for him. He showed me, which is super fortress, which is flying fortress and Mitchell bomber. Before we got the box, he reminded us every day to check our mail box. I’m glad, he likes his new toys very much and plays with them every day.

He is 8 years old now, Terry and I agree that he can start learning to do few things. We showed him how to make food when he is hungry, there are few easy one he does. He likes macaroni and cheese, and willing to learn how to cook it; now he can do it, just need us to pour the cooked macaroni out. I showed him how to cook oatmeal; another good one is, cut 1 or 2 ripe banana into bite size, pour some granola on top, then add some yogurt. Granola with juice or milk is the easiest one, he makes that quite often.

The more he can do to take care himself, the better I sure feel.

Relaxing season

Posted on April 22, 2013 by dakine

It has been some times since I posted last blog, a good friend sent a e-mail to ask, is everything OK with us.

Actually we are all doing fine, less farm work, we have more time to enjoy our relax season. I grew some vegetables in my garden, Chinese cabbage, green beans and cherry tomato are all ready to eat. We can’t eat it all, gave some to a friend and Sonny’s music teacher. Last Friday, I went to garden and saw some of Chinese mustard getting old, I harvested most of them, about 20 pounds. I made 1 gallon jar of mustard pickles yesterday, and was thinking who I can share this with who will enjoy it too?

We have 10 laying hens now, more eggs than we can eat, it’s a good gift for whoever visit us or we visit. Almost every day Sonny and I go to collect eggs together, the chickens stay in the upper coop now, we usually take the longer way so we can pick wild thimble berries. Before we go up, everyone picks a number,to guess how many eggs we will get; but Sonny picks 3, 4, or 5 numbers, so he can win most time.

We bought new pulper machine from Columbia last year and stored the equipment at a friend’s farm for quite a while. Our friend Steve was in Hawaii in February, he had experience with moving heavy goods. With Steve as the leader, our friends Mark, Matt and Burni, and Terry moved the machine to the right spot in our building.

Since then, Terry was busy with this new project. Tearing the old rusty roof down, taking the old floor apart and rebuilding it, putting the new roof on. Every day he spent some time up there, he didn’t need much of help from me, except the time when he put the new roof on. Taking his own pace, he finished the project in 3 weeks. He is an amazing man.

We went to Kollette and Jason’s music party last Saturday, their farm grow mac nuts and coffee. Like us, as a farmer, they can slow down with farm work now. They have a beautiful farm, nice place for hosting a party, kids can running around in the farm and have fun. It was a nice sunny day, with music, friends, food, everyone seems enjoyed the time a lot. We stayed there until 9pm, later we heard that some people spent the night and next day there.

When we were getting in our truck to the party, Sonny asked me what was the reason of the party. I told him, it was a music party, Jason and his band, some local musicians were going to play some music.

Then he said, ” How about having a party at our place tomorrow ?”

” What is the reason for the party?” I asked him.

He said: ” Just to have some fun.”

Kona coffee bloosom

Posted on February 26, 2013 by dakine

When we prune coffee trees, usually we keep 2 to 4 young branches each tree; in that way, these branches have space to grow and plenty food to get healthy and strong.

There was a whole cloudy week and then the rain came, the first round of coffee blossom followed right after the rain. I took these photos two weeks ago, it was in the morning, when the sun just climbed over Mauna Loa mountain, gentle warm sun rays shone on the farm. Coffee flowers look so fresh, tender and pure, I tried to capture their beauty with my camera. I was totally lost in their world, didn’t see a neighbor just walking by me.

We see the flower bloom every year, but I won’t get tired of taking their pictures. Seeing their beauty brings a good feeling to my heart, I love to share a few pictures with everyone.

Terry and I threw the first round of fertilizer when the ground was still wet, farm looks very good, coffee trees looks pretty healthy. We did our job, now we can relax, sit back, and watch coffee trees growing.

We had 2 inches rain last weekend, the trees looks even happier than before.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Posted on February 12, 2013 by dakine

Today is the day, the first day of my new year life circle, the day we can take it easy with our farm work, the day I can take my morning walk again. Hooray!

Coffee pickers came to pick the last round right before Christmas, Terry’s two nieces and their families visited the island for this holiday season, we had a busy and wonderful holiday with lots of family time.

Liam and Maddi, they are 13 and 12 years old, their family rented a beach house at Ke’ei beach, not very far from our place. every day Sonny asked same question many times, ” Are we going to Liam and Maddi’s place to have dinner?” or ” Are they come to our house to have dinner?”

If we did have a meal with them, he always had his toy pistol, toy rifle, and wooden gun with him, so they can play chasing and shooting game. He always teamed up with Maddi, to against Liam. If they came up to our place, three of them ran in the farm, played their shooting game.

If it was late and dark outside, they can play one of Sonny’s favorite games, which was playing Bombers At War on the computer, Liam showed Sonny how to get higher score; and played the game together.

They both were so patient and played so good with Sonny, he wanted to go with them when they were leaving. it was first time to him, at home base, tasted the life with cousins nearby, play with them almost every day. It was first time for us to see, the full excitement in him every second when he played and ran around with them. It’s the most special Christmas to him.

After the harvest, we couldn’t find any help to prune the trees right away; we started to do it ourselves while waiting for the help. I did the most of pruning on the upper section, Terry did the most of chopping.

It was my second year of pruning, I cut down lots of old branches, seems pruned heavier than before. I asked Terry’s opinion, he said:” I don’t know, you’ll find it out after next year’s harvest.” He want me to learn taking care the farm by my own way, making my own mistake on the way. He said:” Don’t worry, you can’t make too big damage by pruning.”

Later I got two local friends who helped to prune with me, and three Mexican workers who chopped the branches. They did a great job, now our farm looks very nice.

As soon as we cleaned a section, Terry put the CBB traps out. It’s the best time to set the trap around the farm; bugs are looking for a home, but there are hardly any cherrys on the tree except the traps, they caught lots of bugs.

Through last year’s experience of dealing with CBB, we believe we can keep CBB’s population down. We milled this crop, it looks very good, the coffee we are sending out right now are this fresh crop.

If your life is full or busy, time seems fly by with a blink. One more year of our life disappeared, we are getting older, our child is getting bigger, stronger and smarter. Watching our child grow brings a smile to our face, every aging sneaking up on us slowly. Like Terry said, building a child is more interesting than building a farm.

This morning I told Terry: ” I love our life, raiseing a child together. We are so lucky to have each other and love each other. Someday, when Sonny grows up and out from the house, and you are gone, it will be a lonely life for me. ”

Terry said:” Today won’t come back, today is the day in your life. Enjoy today when you have it, enjoy the happiness when you are live in it. Don’t waste too much time to worry about the thing in the future. ” I know he is right, I’m trying to enjoy the happy moments we have right now.

In this new year, I wish our families and friends enjoy their life as much as we do, and a very good new year to look forward.

Best wishes to everyone !

Busy time at coffee harvest season

Posted on December 9, 2012 by dakine

We were so busy at this harvest season, even I was thinking about update our blog, but no time and energy for it. Now we are slowing down, I can share some of our farm life with everyone again.

This year’s coffee started to ripen very late, it was Oct, 23 when the pickers finished our first round coffee. You started picking coffee, touched every tree, it seems get the message and change their fruit color. Two weeks later, we were ready for next round picking. Our second round picking was right at the time of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough dried parchment to enter the cupping contest, and we couldn’t participant any activities of the festival.

This is busiest year ever to me. We didn’t know, could we get coffee picking crew when we need. So we were out there picking almost every day while we were waiting for the crew; and 3,4 locals came to help picking too, they were not as fast as our picking crew, but their picking were perfect clean.

Other years we usually get between 10 to 20 bags cherry a day, we collect some bags after lunch and start pulping; 4:30pm get the rest bags and pulp again. It hasn’t been a hard job, machine works very well. 7:30pm to 8:00pm were the late time when we finished pulping.

But this year, our crew picked 20 to 35 bags a day; even we started pulping after lunch, we still worked until late of night.

First day we got over 30 bags cherry, at the same time, the coffee dryer we purchased from Columbia arrived too. After the coffee bags got weighted, pickers got paid, those strong men lent a hand to lift the dryer to our deck.

I pulped the coffee for a while, Terry helped Sonny with his homework; then we worked together, Sonny played on the deck with his scooter until we had to tell him to have a shower and practice piano. 8 o’clock, Terry asked me quit, put Sonny to bed. There were so many things going on, so excited, he didn’t feel tired at all, he would finish the job.

I picked coffee too, I was very tired and fell sleep very quickly. I woke up once when the machine stopped, it was late and very cold night.

Next morning I found out that Terry worked until 12 o’clock, the auger which is moving cherry skin out to trailer was jammed up, and stopped. He forgot press the off button before clean the auger, over sudden, the machine started running, his one finger got cut. He closed the finger in his fist immediately, didn’t even want to see how bad it was. He quit there, took a shower, examined the wound, and relieved to see the big chunk of flesh still attach to his finger. He took care his wound. He showed me the wound, I shut my eyes as soon as I glimpsed the cut. He said:” it was very sore last night, but it’s OK now.”

I finished pulping the rest in the morning, not very much. Usually Terry is the one who empty the trailer with cherry skin, it’s lot of shovel work. I asked him to drive the truck to our compose pile, I would empty the trailer. First time I learned it’s a quite labor work, it took me an hour to do the job.

At that day, the drying deck was full and might be another 30 bags come in, we ran out of drying space. Terry tried to set up the dryer, but he couldn’t do it himself, he got really frustrated.

Same like the day before, I pulped some coffee after lunch; Terry pulped for a while, I put Sonny to bed and back to work with Terry. We kept each other company and worked together, either of us had to bear the whole working pressure alone. Cold breath came down from mountain, I had my jacket and rubber boots; Terry had his jacket on but bare feet. That night, pulping went well; 9:30 finished the job and Terry had a shower and went to bed; I cleaned up the machine, went to bed at 10 o’clock. I was tired but couldn’t sleep right away, read half hour to calm down before sleep.

Luckily our crew had to go other farm to pick, they didn’t come back to finish this round a week later. In next couple of day, a man from neighborhood helped Terry to set up the dryer, we had all the coffee dried and bagged before our picker came back. Those days were cloudy, it’s impossible to sun dry the coffee at that time. We couldn’t ask better time to have a dryer, another bigger benefit from the dryer is that CBB will get killed at the same time.

This year’s coffee looks very nice, lots of big cherries. We have a few yellow cherry trees, they bear a lot of fruit, I like to pick them when they have so many ripe cherries.

Pulped the coffee, soaked them over night, next morning Terry put them on drying deck. When he is in mood, he can rake the coffee and make all kinds of image, make his work more fun. He is a quite creative person in his way, a fun friend to hang out with.

Last Wednesday our crew finished another round, pulping machine worked until 9:30pm, then it got some problem and we had to quit there. Next day, Terry fixed the problem and I was going to finish the job; Terry had to take Sonny to a dentist appointment after school.

The machine ran for a while, then a chain fell off. ( the machine has three chains, Terry replaced one chain this year, another one got worn out too.) I watched Terry put loose chain back on one time, so fixing it by myself was the only option I got there. Luckily I had many time of experience of putting loose bike chain back on, when I was 12 to 16 years old, I rode old bike to school every day. I was quite confident and I did it. The machine ran about 15 minutes, the chain fell off again. I fixed it again, and made sure the screw tighter than last time. Guess what happened next? The chain broke on me, I had to wait for Terry.

After 4pm, Terry and Sonny came back, I planed not to pour out the problem to Terry right away. But things didn’t going the way I planed. Terry drove in garage and cheerfully asked:” Is everything OK?” I paused a second and said:”No.” I told him what happened.

He knew the chain wore out and bought a new set that day, then he started fixing it right away. I finished the pulping job later.

Last Friday was the first relax day for us in last 6,7 weeks.

Latest coffee season ever

Posted on October 19, 2012 by dakine

We got plenty of rain this summer, every thing grows fast here, including weeds and extra coffee shoots. Usually we start picking coffee in September, but this year our coffee trees loaded with green coffee, green coffee grow bigger day by day, seems not eager to change their color. While we were waiting for the coffee getting ripe, Terry and I pulled suckers one more time last month.

When we were working on the farm, we noticed few ripe coffee here or there, and they already tracked borer beetles inside of them. Since we were doing nothing except waiting for the harvest season start, I convinced Terry to pick this ripe coffee with me. It took us 2 weeks to pick the whole farm, every morning we picked about 20 to 30 pounds between us. It was not a fun job, but glad we did it.

Last weekend a coffee picking crew came and picked our real first round coffee, they didn’t finish picking the whole farm and came back yesterday. It still has one corner of the farm with ripe cherries need to be picked, they couldn’t finish it yesterday and no time to come back. I told them that we would do it.

Terry raked the wet coffee, and talked story with two friends who were visiting. I was glad to be among ripe coffee trees, I picked 50 pounds before lunch. I love picking coffee, especially at time like this, when the beans are so beautiful,and I’m picking coffee without pressure. It’s a simple job, but it requires long hours of persistent and patient work. Not everyone like to do it, and not everyone can do it well. As a coffee farmer, she or he should have picked many bags of coffee themselves.

Sonny seems very excited whenever we have coffee pickers. When he was younger, he followed them. If the picker brought their kids, he played with them or brought the kids to our house to play. Quite often he had lunch with our coffee picker, he likes bean and tor torttias, and soda (which we usually don’t have in the house). Sometimes, there were coffee picker’s kids playing with Sonny, they had lunch with us too.

I remember one coffee season, Sonny was 4 years old, he was asking for soda to drink. I told him that those soda were for our coffee picker, the workers. Later, Terry drove truck to pick up coffee bags, Sonny went with him. When they came back, first thing he said, was ” Mom, do you know I’m a worker now ?” I said:” good “. Then he asked:” So, can I have one soda ?” It made me laugh right away.

After his long hours of watching TV and playing toys, he saw some pickers near the house, he got a small bag and ran to them, and picked beside them. When I took this photo, he said:” Mom, do you remember? I picked one this bag last year and you paid me 2 dollars.” “Yes, I remember.” ” So, can you pay me 2 dollars for today?” I looked his bag, said:” Your bag is not even close to full, you might get a quarter for what you picked.” ” OK, give me a quarter.” One quarter is enough to him, he was ready to quit.

This year’s coffee is big and beautiful. We can see it right away when we were pulping; hardly any CBB damaged beans came out from demusalage machine, not many floating beans in the soaking tank. Coffee on the drying deck looks very nice, we are going to have a very good crop this year. The rain helped; CBB trap helped; fertilizer helped; spraying “MyControl” helped; and all the time and labor we put into the farm, make it a good promising year.

My Summer vocation

Posted on September 19, 2012 by dakine

I visited my family 5 weeks this summer alone, spent most of my time at mom’s house.

Cooking, washing, cleaning, and chatting at the same time; I tried to devote as much time as I can to my family, most was to my mom. Without Terry and Sonny on this trip, I put all of my attention and energy to my family, wished I could do more for them.

Mom aged a lot, one day feels good, next day might feels bad. She can’t do much any more, which she never imagined it will happen to her too. Her wrists feel too weak to lift a full thermos, have a hard time to pour hot water into her tea cup. I made tea for her every day and added hot water into her cup whenever she needed. At her sick day, I even bathed her which I never did before. One day, she said:” Ah, It’s so good that you are here serving me full time, I love it. I wish your sister can do it too.” I laughed and said:” Don’t forget my sister has to work, take care her kid and do all the house works. And I’m different, I have no job here, all I’m doing here is taking care of you.” I’m glad that she enjoyed my visiting.

My mom didn’t learn to read and write, she can’t even speak fluent Chinese, but she is the wisest woman I’ve ever known. She gave me best advices when I need one, helped me make up my mind, chose the right one along my growing up.

I remember, we were visiting my family few years ago; an old lady who was also living in the same building, said:”You married so far away from home, even you miss your mom, you can’t come back to visit her often.” I don’t remember what I said exactly, might just some agreeable words.

When I told my mom what the lady said, she said:” Don’t look at the thing in that way. If you have a good marriage, doesn’t matter where you live, I know you have a good life, it will always make me, make our whole family happy. If you married to a yuck man and had a bad time, even you live at next door and see me every day, it will only make me sad and feel sorry for you.” That is how my mom always help me to look at things from a positive view.

I cooked soup noodle for breakfast every morning, wheat noodle or rice noodle. With simple ingredients but I can’t get in Hawaii, the noodle tasted very good every morning. My little nephew would only eat the noodle I cooked, not his mom’s cooking. Even my mom praised my cooking skill, said my marriage life changed me, made me a better cook.

My mom’s elder sister still lives in the village, not too far away, but they haven’t seen each other for years. A week after I arrived, I called my cousin and he came to visit with my aunt, aunt spent a week with us. They both had hard lives, saw lots of changes in their life time, their experiences became history. I want to know more about their life, got them both telling me their childhood story, and about my grandma who I don’t remember very much.

During my vocation, there was the Swing Festival of Aka people, one of the biggest festival except New Year Festival. Our relatives from different villages invited us, but we only went to my aunt’s village.

Beginning I thought that I could shot some actual swing video, but they didn’t build a swing in aunt’s village this year. So we visited several relative’s homes, had meal after meal, my brother in laws couldn’t get away without drinking, they were drunk at the end.

This was the first meal we had at one of my cousin’s house. The table is made of rattan which is the traditional item of my tribe, it’s very light and can be hung on the wall after meal. Living in jungle, my ancestors learned to use materials from forest. My mom and aunt told me, when they were young, from rice bowl, spoon, wine cup, rice container, to big round container for steaming rice, even container for making vegetable pickles were all made of bamboo. Dinning table, seat, basket were made of rattan. Less and less people use those items now.

As a guest to visit any household at any time, you can’t go with empty hands, that is one of our tradition. When you leave, the host won’t let you go with empty hands either. At this festival, sticky rice cake is the special gift from the host to the guest, which is the food I miss a lot.

My cousin’s wife made some sticky rice cakes the day before, I told her that I missed this food a lot but don’t know how to make it. She made a small batch right away, to demonstrate, so I can make it myself here. She and her husband have very close relationship with my family, they never hesitate to do a favor for us at any time.

She steamed sticky rice, pounded in a stone mortar with a heavy wood stick; fried sesame seeds and mashed it with salt, then coated it on the rice; made small round cake shape and coated with sesame one more time, it’s done. We had some fresh rice cake right away, and took some home, heated up whenever we want it.

My elder sister fried some rice cakes as soon as we got home, but heated it up on hot charcoal is the old way and better way. When it cooked, it will puff up, crispy outside, soft inside. It kept sticky rice’s natural taste and a hint of wood fire flavor, this was my snack between my meals, I love it.

My time over there seems so busy, even I didn’t do anything big, just lots of small things. When I was not doing anything, I would spend the time chatting with my sisters and my mom, watching TV with them. Life is so busy over there, I couldn’t find a quiet moment to read or think. It made me missing the life as a Kona coffee farmer very much, and made me cherish the life I’m living in morethan ever.

When my vocation time got shorter and shorter, I was glad as I would see Terry and Sonny soon; at the same time, I was sad that I had to leave my mom and my sisters. I had to tell myself, that I had a very good visiting and did what I wanted.

My mom woke me up early on the day I was leaving, so we could spent peaceful 2 hours and talk alone before every body get up. She told me, she was getting old but she still had many promising years to live, and we would see each other again. She is happy for me as I have a happy family of my own. She is a such wonderful mom and kind person, there are many beautiful stories about her. I’ll share more story about my mom some day.