Find Your Oasis

Chapter 14

June 28

"Aloha.  I know that."   I say confidently.   "And, umm....Mahalo and Ohana.   Oh and Poi.   I know what that is."

Kailani chuckles.   "And what do they mean?"

"Hello, goodbye and love...thank you...family...and it's a purplish kind of food.   Made from a taro root?"   I say, trying my hardest to remember.

Kailani and I are sitting in a park in Seattle, enjoying Caribbean sandwiches that we picked up from Paseo's just around the corner.   Kaliani made a remark about how I didn't know any Hawaiian words, and I said that I did know a couple, which brings us to the current situation of me trying to remember any and everything Hawaiian that I know.

Kailani laughs again.   "Yes, it's made from the taro.   And yes, mahalo and ohana mean thank you and family.   But you're not quite right with aloha."

"What?!"   I ask, surprised.   "I was sure about that one."

"Like, yeah, most of the time we do say it when we're saying hello or goodbye, but it's more than that.   It's more filled with love, warmth, compassion.   Over there it's more than just a word, there's a whole 'Aloha Spirit', kind of outlining the life we try to live.   It basically means we try to treat those around us with love and compassion.   It kind of goes hand in hand with us calling those quite a bit older than us 'auntie' and 'uncle', and those roughly our age either brother, sister, or cousin.   Just that whole 'extended family' kind of feeling."

My eyebrows raise in surprise.   "I had no idea there was that much to it."

"Yeah.   For instance, sometimes honestly we aren't that happy to see someone, right?"   She says with a small laugh.   "That would be a time when it wouldn't be right to say aloha.   Does that make sense?"

I nod slowly.   "Yeah, I think so.   So it's more heartfelt than just saying hello, right?"

Kailani smiles.   "Yes.  Kind of like 'hey, it's really good to see you'."

"Got it.   That's really neat, and it's a good thing you told me otherwise I'd have just thrown it around all the time over there."

"That's what a lot of tourists do, not knowing what they're doing, and it kind of dilutes the whole meaning of the word.   We've just got to overlook them when they do it, because they simply don't know."   She laughs.

"Well I'll be sure to only use it when I mean it."   I say with a grin.   "What are some other Hawaiian words or things I don't know?"

Kailani scrunches her nose thoughtfully.   "Hmm... well, here's something you don't know. What you'll hear mostly on the islands isn't true Hawaiian. It's Hawaiian Pidgin. It came about in the 1800s so the immigrants could communicate with the Hawaiians and the Americans. So really, it's a mixture of English, Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, and more."

My eyes are wide. I didn't know this either.

"So when you're over there, a popular greeting is howzit. It's Pidgin, and it means how are you, or how's it going. Shoots means sure thing, or something like okay, sounds good. Oh, and in Hawaii, you're a Haole."

"A guy?"  I guess. 

"No, white person that's obviously not a local."  She says with a smirk. 

I roll my eyes.  "Wow, thanks."

She throws her hands up defensively and an innocent look covers her face.  "Hey, I'm just telling the truth. It's not derogatory all of the time, either. It can be, but it's also just how we describe white people."