Juxtapositions

Hawai’i is as frustrating as it is fulfilling at times. The longer I live here and contemplate tourism, the more it has become clear that great poverty often exists in the most beautiful places on Earth. This is true in part just because it’s so warm and lush that one can get away with being a lazy slob and still live a rather full life, but it’s also a currency issue. Sure, Hawai’i is still on US dollars, but often times people work trade for food or housing. Places where there’s a significance in the exchange rate though, families are stuck making less for the same amount of work a US Citizen would do, which is fine where they are, but if they try to leave it’s impossible when their finances are reduced sometimes by half or more upon crossing monetary borders. When a lower class is formed, anyone visiting with stable finances feels like royalty. 

Now for the ugly part- that hierarchy can go to a person’s head. Tourists treat locals like garbage because they feel entitled to do so. Visitors to places like Africa, India, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and so on treat the individuals living there like zoo animals and consider themselves to be more intelligent simply by measure of assets. Leveraging this industry has helped many economies thrive, but has only increased the divide between the rich and the poor. Think about it- who says let’s vacation in Connecticut, Nebraska, etc? There’s no beautiful beach, exotic food, strange people to examine and judge… You would feel like just another person in the crowd. White pants are reserved for the lucky few who can wear them normally and keep them clean, and those paying people beneath them to ensure they come clean at the end of the day- which requires some cheap labor to be available if you aren’t already part of the upper class. 

It’s a fear of mine, as a white outsider who has moved here a bit on a whim, that I will act as though I am a tourist instead of a local. What is the mannerism of a local though?? Some treat you like an alien sent to destroy their way of life, while others smile in a more genuine fashion than you’ve ever encountered. It’s a weekly experience to see perfect strangers give things to your kids out of love, and praise them (and you) for being beautiful, while some dude yells “Pollo” in disgust out of his truck window. Racism, while alive and well, is not the only factor here- Isolation is also at play. Living on a tropical island means there are more varieties of fruit than there are opportunities for success in business and education. Many of the public schools don’t even offer band! When you come here, privileged in the eyes of many, it’s expected that there would be some jealously. 

As stated above though, not all locals are unkind… 

I spent several months as a waitress at a local Denny’s (horrible job by the way) and found that the local families would tip $20 after dinner, while tourists often left $2-5 on an equal ticket. “God Bless you, Auntie” was commonly said, and the children were always instructed to order for themselves, use manners, and treat adults with respect if they were in the company of Islanders. I was blessed to have such a relatable position to meet people and become part of the culture here. Now I work at a wonderful Arts Cafe and I’m teaching significantly more dance, but I have already made a network for myself to rely on when in need of friendship or assistance. 

Is it better to have dirty catchment water (which has made our baby sick before) or be totally out of water and hauling it from up the road? 

Is it better to live in a cold place where there’s a very low water bill, or watch your kids pick bananas from in front of the house and eat them for breakfast while you are off on a water run? 

Every day I am faced with the juxtapositions of locals and tourists, dirty water and clean food, a smoking car and a majestic beach…. I suppose it boils down to life being multi-colored, and it being up to you to decide which hues to focus on. I could regale you with alarming tales of the sewage backing up into my bathtub, hitchhiking (AKA hiking 5 miles with my thumb out uselessly) after my car broke down at 1AM, catching my son smashing a giant (dangerous) centipede with a rock after only being outside for a minute or so, seeing a birthday balloon tied around the ankle of an upside down bloated dead pig on the side of the road on our way to work one morning, insanely bad air quality thanks to the barfing volcano, etc… but instead I’ll tell you a few tales of Aloha, in hopes of opening both of our eyes to a little beauty. 

Ma’s Kava is located next to a laundry mat we use in Kealakekua. We were doing wash the other night and taking a break from the intensely bad situations on our property, when the keeper of the Kava stop treated us to drinks, freshly sliced fruit, and some of the most interesting and loving conversation we have had on the island. When I went to pay him at the end of the night he said, “ No, next time… You needed a little Aloha.” Talk about walking out what you preach… 

A random lady gave my children balloons yesterday at the grocery store- just because. 

We slept on the floor of our friend’s nursery for a full month when we got here (practically killing the peace of their home with our kids constantly running around) and they Still invite us over. Now that’s some friendship endurance. 

We had no water in our catchment and a dead beat landlord that wasn’t going to get it filled even though it was his Scuba Sea Camp who used it… so my boss gave us a key to their old place so we could use the outdoor cedar shower. She left a box of toys labeled for my kids and a TV set up with some movies. They also sent us home with food for the Sea Camp kids the landlord couldn’t really feed- not because she had to, but because she wanted to. They wanted to share Aloha with us, and anyone who needed it. 

I could go on and on, but in brief, exposure to poverty is necessary in order to remind yourself of what you have, but the poverty mindset is rampant and exists at all levels of society. It does not have to breed rude people to live with little, but rather a community mindset is available to those ready to embrace it. If you can see past the frustrations, there is an immeasurable amount of love to be had here on this island (or really anywhere you live). We all have the ability to live with Aloha, even with the many positive and negative juxtapositions of this life.