E Komo Mai

Last night I attended a late night, three hour class. The course title was vague, E Komo Mai (Welcome). My HR representative informed me that every new employee was "strongly encouraged" to attend. What I later found out was not ALL new employees were invited, just those relocating from the mainland. I thought it was a little weird to be attending a welcome class two months after moving to Hawaii, but with the draws of parking validation, free food and perhaps some new knowledge I signed up. 

After the class was over, I can easy divide the info learned into three categories: useless, interesting & and perhaps I'll use this someday. Let me share some of my newfound knowledge. 

Useless:

- Want to know the names of all the hawaiian monarchs? I'll give you a hint, the first five were called King Kamehameha. 

- Curious about the state fish? It's the humuhumunukunukuapua'a (Try saying that three times fast. Heck, try saying that ONE time fast!). 

- There are rules of Hawaiian pronunciation; however even native Hawaiians don't understand the rules of when to pronounce the letter w like /w/ or /v/. 

Interesting:

- If I sometimes feel like a minority it's because I am in the minority. Hawaii has the lowest percentage of "white population" in the U.S., 43%. 

- The word "haole" is used to describe white people and means foreigner. However; Hawaiians prefer for you to say The Mainland versus the US since they don't like to feel foreign or excluded. I've agreed to continue to use the phrase "the mainland" as long as I don't hear anyone call me a haole. 

- Want to find the wettest spot on earth? How about the highest sea cliffs? Wanna look through the biggest telescope? Maybe visit the most active and largest volcano? Well... They're all in Hawaii!

Perhaps I'll use this someday:

- Turns out I'm mispronouncing the city I'm living in. It's not Hana-lulu, but rather Hoe-no-lulu. Who knew!

-My name in Hawaiian is Peni (but you still pronounce it like the coin). 

- At dinner we were all given poi to try. Poi is boiled and maxed taro root. It's purple mush with no flavor except for a a slightly bitter aftertaste. I discovered that while I love a poi malasada (think donut), I do not like poi. 

When all is said and done, I probably could have skipped the class. The 300 pg book "So you want to move to Hawaii" that the hospital provided when I accepted the job probably covered most of the info. So while I can't get those three hours of my life back, I appreciate the free food and the sentiment. I recognize that my new employer is doing everything to help me acclimate to Hawaii. I choose to believe they value me that much as a speech-langauge pathogist and want to keep me as an enployee forever. Thanks HPH and Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children!

And now for the picture of the week:

Two cute little java sparrows joining me for my morning coffee on my lanai. 

Mahalo! Penny