Aloha

We're back home now. Two of us and all of our bags.

When we left on this trip, I knew "Aloha" to be Hawaiian for both Hello and goodbye. But after this trip I really think there is something more.

Aloha is more than a greeting and salutation. It's used all over in naming and marketing. Before getting on the plane, we ate fish "served with Aloha." There was "Aloha" airlines and "Aloha" shaved ice, but there were couple of times when I really got a sense of what Aloha really was.

After our hike / crawl through the Bamboo forest we stopped at a roadside stand offering fruit and smoothies. As one guy was grinding Jen's smoothie in the blender, I started talking to another guy who was just outside the stand carving the pulp out of a coconut. We talked about our hike. (He could tell where we had been by the mud on our shins.) Eventually he asked if we were on our Honeymoon. I said no, we've been married 5 years. "Oh yeah, Aloha Man!" He said. These was a warmth and acceptance in what he said, something deep and genuine.

In Kalaupapa, the former leper colony, our mule guide, bus driver, and tour guide was named Keanai. He had driven the bus for Mark Richards (a former patient and current resident of Kalaupapa) until Mark could no longer continue. Since then he's taken over and runs tours. Every single person we passed in the village, he knew and gave a big wave to. Everyone recognized him and the rusty blue school bus. His wave was somewhere between a full hand and a hang-loose thumb-and-pinky wave. But in each wave, I could sense Aloha.

Its something about community, something about acceptance, and a little about love. Maybe like 'philio' - brotherly love.

Aloha.