Settling In Gently by R.A.Davis

Every summer, I get to help out with the summer camps at the Hula halau here in Eugene. This time we're going to attempt a PLAY-- a dramatic enactment of Hi'iaka's epic journey across the islands to bring Lohi'au back for Pele. It's one of the most astonishing, beautiful, complex epics EVER. Here's the much reduced script I put together for 7 year olds. Enjoy! Hana Keʻaka: Pele and Hiʻiaka A Play By Rebecca Stevenson Based on the epic adventure of Ka Huakaʻi o Hiʻiakaikapoliopele Pele and Hiiaka: A Myth from Hawaii The Epic Tale of Hiiakaikapoliopele – UH Press For Halau Hula o Nā Pua o Hawaiʻi Nei, Summer Camp 2024 Dramatis Personae: NARRATOR: knows all; sees all. PELE, fiery goddess of the lua o Kilauea LOHIAU, the man of Pele’s dreams, from Kauai, dies a lot. MOB: Friends of Pele HIʻIAKA, her sister WAHINEʻŌMAʻO , the Green Woman: Pele and Hiʻiaka’s friend PAPULEHU, a rich princess, also a slob HOPOE, Hiʻiakaʻs sweetie PANAʻEWA, an evil moʻo shapeshifter MOB:...

Jeff Peterson, the slack key musician from Maui, a tall white dude, led a ukulele workshop here in Eugene last year. We were on a back porch, rows of folding chairs nested us elbow to elbow, smiling at each other, ukuleles nudging each other. He has an easy teaching style, encouraging and flexible. He passed out simple sheet music with the tabulation for a well known Hawaiian song. He played the simple version of the song a few times, and then taught it to us piece by piece, with the tab. I hadn't read tab before, but I caught on pretty quickly, and Jeff explained things clearly. He was encouraging to the audience of middle aged, mostly white Oregonians, gradually added new and challenging chords, while telling us about his slack key teachers-- famous Hawaiian names and beloved Hawaiian musicians, like George Kahumoku Jr., and Keola Beamer.  I took home a new tune, pretty well mastered, three new jazzy chords, a stack of sheet music, and puzzled over how different this workshop was...

Aloha! My feet are tired-- they're propped up in the baby papasan chair; my back is sore (my physical therapist is going to scold me) and I should go to bed but I want to record my impressions of my first hula class while they are fresh-- while they are from today. If I wait till tomorrow they will flatten, truncate, abbreviate. So today was my first day of hula! I've been wanting to start for ages--over a year. But signups are only once a year and I missed it in 2015 so this time I jumped on it. Or rather, I had my husband jump on it. I was in Colorado with my kids-- 8, 5 and 1 month old-- and even from afar I cajoled him into signing the girls and me up. The girls were not impressed. They moaned and whined. I do not care. I told them, "This is a non-negotiable." They have very advanced vocabularies. Today I overheard this conversation between my 8 year old  and a naughty 7 year old. Naughty 7 year old: I saw a rooster and a hen HAVING SEX. Circle of chi...