Pus, Pimples, Bacteria and Mosquitoes:

The consequences of a wet not-cold tropical winter….

I was and on some level, still am, thrilled for my first winter without snow and cold. Almost as excited as I am that seasonal affective disorder hasn’t hit like it has in the past. I realized that this past year, that the cold winter really stunted me and it took almost until the summer to really kick start my serotonin levels back to adequate. And it should go without saying that being able to swim and be outside comfortably in these months is really good. 

BUT, there are some definite down sides to all of this rain and moisture that is indicative of a tropical winter and honestly, I’m not sure which is worse: a bagillion aggressive mosquitoes and festering wounds or unbearable cold and frozen snot. I mean, actually, I’d still rather be here, but I’ve been thinking about the effects of the weather a lot recently…

And I’m totally bummed, I, nor anyone in Hawaii, got to see the lunar eclipse because there were clouds for miles. :( 

I got a pretty big blister on the bottom of my foot (umm, from walking barefoot) last week and I really overextended myself (lots of physical activity for days), which I think lowered my immune system and allowed a nasty infection to start brewing. Which, in turn spread to all the other cuts and scrapes etc, that I regularly have on my person. It was no good, and it was really hurting to walk and looking disgusting earlier this week. I could tell that there was something wrong and the ways that I was trying to treat it myself weren’t working, so I went to a clinic on Tuesday morning and got some antibiotics. By now, I’m feeling much much better, and I’ve been actually resting and trying to take it easy a bit.

Except that resting anywhere involves a constant fight with the mosquitoes. Now, there are a lot of bugs here and I really don’t mind any of them, except for these little fuckers. Seriously, it might be the most annoying thing ever to have to always swat and itch and cover my head at night. I found a mosquito net today that I’m going to try tonight but jeez, gimme a break. I should eat more garlic…

OH! While I was at the clinic, I got weighed for the first time since I’ve been here and I’ve lost 30 pounds! This island is doing me wonders, although I guess the lifestyle change of eating really well and a lot of exercise has been helping too, but damn. This morning I was thinking about how my bed must have gotten harder, because it feels like it, but I realized I’m jut getting bonier. Ha! I mean I’m not complaining at all and I feel way good and healthy, which is really what matters anyway…

The tomatoes have also gotten the wet funk :(

There is some sort of mold/fungus/bacteria that has infected the whole first bay of tomatoes. This is likely the result of way too much water, because the plastic on that section of roof ripped off, and basically the whole crop is destroyed. Plus, it’s pretty gross having to deal with the tomatoes and the leaves rotting off of the plants :( We’re having to remove all the plants prematurely, but we’re trying to save some of the green tomatoes by totally pruning the gross leaves, but it’s not really working…

I’m pretty disappointed about this, as I’ve worked pretty hard in this bay and I feel a connection to these plants, but it really makes me think about how difficult it can be to grow food and how when you just pick up tomatoes at the grocery store, little to no thought is placed upon the farmers and what they’re having to deal with. It’s something that I rarely thought about on the mainland and although I made an effort for local and organic, I never thought about the whole commitment someone has made to the growing process. I encourage you to ponder the question Where does my food come from? and think about making choices, which ensure that you know, and that you’re okay with, the answer. I’ve also been thinking a lot about this, and I know that I can attest some of the weight loss to almost entirely cutting out processed and industrially produced foods. No doubt this is difficult to totally change the ingrained behaviors of food choices in this country, but one of the reasons I wanted to come here was because of the abundance of fresh raw food. My relationship with food is really progressing and I’m becoming attuned to eating what, quite literally, feels good. I sort of have a fantasy of having a completely raw diet, as I’ve met some people here who have made it practical, but I can’t commit to something like that, especially when it’s totally impractical in places that aren’t food-plant abundant. But, the majority of the food I eat is all raw. For instance, I made an avocado/banana mash with raw cacao beans (a real SUPERfood) and macadamia nuts and I juiced a bunch of carrots and an apple for breakfast today :) So delicious, and like I said, I can really feel the positive effects all through my body. It’s like the opposite if that feeling you get after McDonalds…

Okay, enough. I realized that I’m  not doing exactly with this blog what I could do and also I’m vacillating with de-connecting with the interwebs, so we are presented with this juncture in which I may become more diligent with blogging or not. You may have noticed my use of italics and bold in this entry, which was totally an attempt to incorporate more tone. Yes? No? Here’s a pretty rainbow from the other day…

It was the most vivid rainbow I’ve ever seen and it went all the way across the sky :) This is the view from the top of the treehouse and that’s part of the greenhouse under that mango tree…

Oh, and I guess Merry Christmas to anyone out there who actually is celebrating it. I hope you remember to rejoice in the beauty of your family and friends, near and far, and fuck the consumermas part. Things are only things and connections are stronger. And for everyone else, I hope that you can sufficiently avoid the Christmas insanity and remember it’ll be over soon; enjoy the break from mundancy. It’s actually pretty funny, another side effect of a not-cold winter is that I’ve managed to almost completely avoid the “holiday” season because it just doesn’t feel like it should be Christmas, and I haven’t allowed myself to be inundated by the Christmas spirit. Plus, Christmas lights in palm trees just look ridiculous. But, I am going to help Becky at her store, Jungle Love, tomorrow to sell super last minute gifts, and she gives out champagne :) Should be interesting…

She’s so beautiful in the morning

On saturday I went on a pre dawn/sunrise hike to the lava with Debbie and Ron. Debbie is Becky's sister, who was visiting for a week and helping out at the store and Ron is this return WWOOFer guy that has been here the past 4 winters and in the summer he lives and climbs rocks in Yosemite. Perhaps I'll reflect upon them further, but for now I'm going to try and sum up the last few days...

The lava stopped flowing into the ocean just after thanksgiving and then it pooled for a couple of weeks up the hill, and in the last week it has been moving downhill again towards the ocean and it's been taking forest as it goes. It's been pretty cool at night, you can see the red glow  reflected on the clouds over in the distance...Here are some really cool lava pictures, and yes Ma these were just taken with my cell phone.

It was really cool hiking out when it was still dark and then coming back with the early morning light. This was one of the first breakouts I saw…

You can kind of see the horizon in this one; the lava was moving so fast, it was incredible.

 

This is of a chunk of molten rock falling off into more lava. So cool.

This was the largest and longest breakout that we saw, and it was magnificent. It got lighter and lighter around us and then the scenery emerged and the coasline was way closer then I thought.

Probably since I’ve been seeing so much art about this, but this breakout really looked like the bust of a woman with long braided hair. I think it was Pele that I saw and she did look so beautiful in the morning.

Lava is so indescribable, like I really could never have imagined what it actually is like to be so close to the searing hot rock. Just the thought of how hot it is and then it comes from deep in the earth is incredible, but when your body gets warm and you have to blink a lot to keep your eyeballs cool, you can feel the force of energy that this earth is capable of. Incredible.

Soft as Chalk

The other day as I was admiring the way the early morning feels when I was collecting horse fodder down the driveway  and I remembered about this blog. I mean, I didn't really forget about it, but I realized that I need to make a concerted effort to thoughtfully reflect upon the extraordinary experiences that I am having here. Not only in order to more eloquently write about the cool things I seem to being getting myself into but also for myself; to consciously think about how happy and content I am to be here right now. Being truly in the moment is actually pretty hard, I think, but I've been practicing a lot lately. That's one reason I've sort of neglected some of this techmology. Anyway, in addition to recounting my experiences, I am going to work on also elucidating the things I'm learning about people, the earth, and energy.

Alas, I'm fairly exhausted, so all of that is going to come in time. I've been helping my friend Zoe to paint the exterior of an extension she put on her garage. She's going to move into it and rent out her house, but the place is jungalow styled and after some fuckery with contractors, she was left with the frame of the house and no money. So, I will also be adding exterior house painting  to my C.V. Except, maybe I shouldn't because somehow I've managed to get an absurd amount of paint on myself all 4 days I've painted. Like, even by my standards it's been rediculous. And although I don't have any pictures of that, on Saturday, Zoe took me on a partial island tour towards the south. Since I've been here, I've really only stayed in my district of Puna, and she was gracious enough to show me some more of this fucking incredible island.

My goal is to get less tired soon so that I can reflect more about this experience, but I'm going to put up a few pictures in the meantime to whet your appetite...

A macadamia nut tree orchard :) Raw ones right from the shell taste like acorns except way better

The Wood Valley Buddhist Temple

I call this one “Cinderconeinacloud”

This is looking north towards Puna where I live

 

Actually, this restaurant had the dankest coconut cream pie ever. Seriously. Ever.

Techmology is everywhere!!! Driving to South Point are these satellites and a bunch of  very photogenic old windmills

And this is one of the most beautiful places on earth. South Point: America’s most southerly point. We were there at sunset and it was breath taking.

This is an old boat launch. Also a site where lots of people jump off the 35 ft cliffs into the water. I will be doing this shortly, and the fact that I couldn’t do it then (it was cold, close to dark, and no towel…) has been bothering me. I need to jump off of high rocks into water. You can kind of see the ladder along the side that you climb up…

This is close to the green sand beach, which we unfortunately didn’t get to go to, but this one was pretty cool. It had white sand :) and a lot of plastics and trash from the Pacific Gyre :(

 

And as if I couldn’t have been more overstimulated, we went to the park, Volcanoes National Park that is, to see the Halema’uma’u crater in the Kilauea caldera. Holy shit, it was so incredible. The amount of lava that must be pooling in there is incredible. Eee- living near active lava is so interesting. People talk about it like the weather.

One final note and then I’ve really been working on this for too long: I applied for a job! as a security guard in the parking lot where the tourists come to see the lava. HA! I hope I get it. I’ll get a badge…

Oh! and I got a haircut:

Hannukah oh Hannukah

Happy Hanukkah Friends!
Actually, I haven't really been celebrating, except for last night when I happened across the other jew on the island and she had a menorah made out of a plank of wood :) So, I got to break out a little hebrew for the benefit of the non-jews present. And! I made a dreidel out of clay! And! I made dessert latkes, which also had carrots and raisins and ginger and cinnamon in addition to the potatoes. They were pretty damn good and it felt nice to do something for the holiday.

Perhaps the second night of Hannukkah has been best so far though. I went to an incredible poetry/storytelling performance by this incredible queer poet named Kimberly Dark, who was workshopping a new show idea. It was incredible, she made this "deck" of cards that had art from 6 artists she knows, which all correlated to stories/poems. Her idea is to make completely unique performances for this show, so she had a member of the audience pick 5 of the pictures and she performed the stories on the back. There were 5 categories including, sex, politics, love, power, and "the all". The all was a whole idea that really interested me about the ultimate energy force or something that connects everyone. Kimberly was an incredible performer and she emoted so strongly that I know everyone in the room felt like she was talking to them. Plus, her subject matter totally resonated with me in terms of feminism, gender nonconformity, and her love for this island. It was a great show and it was funny because the main audience was the old dykes who live in this area and I've noticed/been noticed by most of the women who were there before, but it was interesting seeing them in a social setting...

Lava, How’d you get so cool? Thanks though…

I guess that’s probably wrong, since lava is like 2000 degrees.

I walked out to the lava on Friday to give thanks to Pele since I was in a pretty thankful mood from Thursday's thank-fest. Which, by the way was really a good time. I was able to cook some deliciousness at my friend Zoe’s house before we went to her cool friends house. I made my standard all from scratch apple pie, but I added fresh ginger and lemon as well as a fresh mango and cranberry relish that had honey, garlic and a Hawaiian chile (these tiny super spicy peppers that are almost as hot as habaneras on the scoville scale). The relish was soo good, and the rest of the food was pretty delicious too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the company was good which made a warm family vibe. However, I did get a bit sad about not being in familiar surroundings with family and old friends on this holiday. It’s kind of weird being away at times like this… But, I am very thankful for the new friends I’m making and the the my new and improved lifestyle :)

Anyway, no pictures from thanksgiving, but I have a bunch from the lava, duh. I still cannot express in words or pictures how incredible of a sight and experience it is to see live active geology. This lava is seriously not staying in one spot, and in fact I heard it took another house/farm near the road yesterday when I was at the ocean entry. That’s just the second one this year, but the ones that are out there are all built atop the 1990 flow that also destroyed lots of homes. Estupido.

Things are changing pretty quickly here and even since the last time I was out there, it looks totally different. For instance, that beach where I took the last set of lava pictures has almost totally eroded and there are only big boulders rolling in the surf. Incredible. Okay, without further delay (if you haven’t already scrolled down): here are some pictures…