Sailing in the ocean!!!

Becca and me sailing!!!

Today we had our usual morning routine and then had marimba practice for an hour. We had to leave at 10 am sharp for sailing. We went to Hilo Bay to a sailing club. We had some quick instruction and then got out into the ocean for about 3 hours. It was a blast!!! Sailing in the ocean is so much more fun than sailing at the lake.Im so amazed that I was sailing in the ocean in Hawaii!!!

I can smell pizza cooking in the kitchen so dinner should be fantastic!!! Actually the food is always good.

I heard that the lava is flowing at some volcano so we are supposed to head there maybe sometime tonight or tomorrow to see it. It is supposed to be better to view it at night so maybe at midnight we will go.If not, tomorrow sometime. Everyone is so excited and said it is incredible. I will send pictures of course.

Aloha, Jill

Today I surfed...kind of

Me and the board

These are my surf buddies

This is the beach that I surfed at

The surf

Same surfing beach

Japanese gardens

Volleyball at Coconut Island

Soooooo....Out the door at 8am because surf was up ya know. I was extremely nervous to try surfing but I did and it was really hard. It was so hard just to balance myself laying flat on my stomach on the board. Once I got that down then I rode one wave in , flat on my stomach. It was the biggest blast ever! Then....I was done for the day, whew!

Me and my surfing buddies then met with the rest of the group at Coconut Island for lunch and volleyball. The Japanese gardens were across the street from Coconut Island, very pretty.

We got back home and had a Hawaiin lady talk to us about Hawaiin culture. She was so sweet and it was so interesting.

Aloha is a greeting but it is actually 2 words..Alo and Ha. Ha is the divine presence in everyone so when 2 people meet and say Aloha it is acknowledging the divine presence in the other. And once the Ha is exchanged you will only practice kindness to each other.

Right now some of the group is out playing volleyball on the property while dinner is being cooked. Time to eat soon. Not sure what is in store for tonight but I am pretty exhausted from riding the wave(singular).

Aloha, Jill

This is my new friend Alina. Her grandmother is the cook here and she came along. They sleep in the room next to mine. See her dog in the background. She needed a little help giving him a bath today so we did it together. She is really nice!

Tonight was sushi bar night. This is my dinner. We each made our own from the choices on the table. It was actually really good.FYI- Seaweed wrap for sushi is supposed to be really good for thyroid.

Here is the dinner table set up for the entire group for suchi bar night. Alex(orange shirt) is playing the piano on the left. And that is Alina's grandma in the brown shirt.

This was my project for today. I recovered the chair seats.

Today was a pretty slow day. Most people worked in the garden or went to a community serive carpentry project. I stayed in and worked on the chairs and the dog.

Tonight I am on kitchen clean up duty with Alina.

Alina is watching me write this so that is why I am mentionig her so often, lol!!!

Aloha, Jill

affirmation

I am brave, I am strong. Perfume of sucess thoughts
Blows in me, blows in me
I am cool , I am calm, I am sweet, I am kind
I am love and sympathy, I am charming and magnetic,
I am pleased with all;
I wipe away all tears and fears. I have no enemy.
I am a friend of all.
I have no habits, in eating, thinking or behaving;
I am free, I am free

This is my favorite affirmation that we learned so far.

I hope you like it!

I rode to the top of Green Mountain in the back of this truck. I held on for dear life on the way up. We had to duck when a tree branch was too low and it was very bumpy. It reminded me of a Disneyland ride. On the way back we sang rock songs at the top of our lungs. Sooooooooooo much fun!!!

Sunset at the top of Green Mountain.

View from the top of Green Mountain

View from Green Mountain

View in another direction. You can see most of the Island from up here.

This is the group of people in the program.

We just arrived at the top and were exploring around.

We cleaned this pond(swamp) as one of the service projects for the day. It looked much better than this when we were through. We pulled the seaweed out and loaded it into a truck.

This is the view of the swamp pond before we hiked down.

Another view

This is a Marumba. We had a 2 hour lesson and learned a complete song which we are going to perform on Wednesday night. It was a blast.

We did the usual morning routine....meditation, yoga and work. Our service/work project was cleaning up the garden at the boys and girls club in Hilo. We worked hard pulling weeds and building a chicken coop. I also spread a bunch of mulch.

In the afternoon we had the 2 hour Marumba class. Everyone particiapted and we gradually built a song with differnt parts and alternating between playing together and everyone coming in at differnt times. There is a community event here on Wednesday so we will play at that. One more day of practice on Sunday. I love the Marumba!!! This is a picture of the one that I played.

We usually only have one service project a day but we squeezed 2 projects in yesterday. In the after noon we went to the pond in the picture and cleaned it for 2 hours.

Then we rode to the top of the Green Mountain. So beautiful.

I have to go to the morning meeting now.They blow the conch shell when it is time and I hear it blowing.

Aloha Jill

Im almost too tired to post tonight but I can tell about my day briefly. I havent been anywhere or taken any pictures in the past few days.

Today was the first day of the teen program. I was up at 5 am to get ready for the 5:45 energizers in the backyard. After that was yoga and meditation. I am not liking yoga so much but I think if I keep doing it I will maybe like it better.

After breakfast we had a service/workday. I pulled and replanted many, many, many plants by the pond in the backyard. It took about 3 hours.A lot of work.

After lunch we had a workshop on yoga which didnt make me like yoga any better. I know more about it now that it has been explained but I could do without it.

Then....after breakfast...I took a class that was offered on how to play the ukulele. He taught us a few cords and a song that we ended up playing later for the group.I like the ukulele. For those of you on the post that know this song..I learned to play..Listen, Listen , Listen to my heart song.

Tonight was a community pot luck and Kirtan. Many people from the community come and bring food and we did a lot of singing and chanting. It is still going on but I have been busy all day so have retreated to my room.

Tomorrow starts again with the same routine. Each after noon is elective classes so it is something to look forward to because they have a lot of good things offered.

More later. Aloha, Jill

Sunrise out my back door at 5:45 AM

This is where we have yoga and meditation

Solar panels. We are off the grid except they use a gasoline powered generator for 2 hours a night.

This is Ulu. I cooked it for dinner tonight. It is a fruit that tastes like potatoe. You cut it open and it is white inside. We have lots of leftover so I heard them talking about fried Ulu for breakfast.

This is one of the fruit counters. Bananas all over the place. Also papaya and mango.

This is an avacado. Huge. They are soooo good.

When we eat a pineapple they cut off the top and plant it. You can see a tiny pneapple growing from this plant in the backyard.

Pineapple tops planted in the back.

Front yard. Huge banana grove.

Bananas in the front yard.

Chickens. Fresh eggs every day. About 15 a day.

Avacado

more avacado

More avacado

Huge avacado tree in the front yard

Papaya tree right out the front door.

So today was my first yoga day. Didnt love it, didnt hate it. But I have yoga every morning at 6 am so we will see if it grows on me.

Today was also my first work day. I have to work for 5 hours a day. Today I cleaned and made beds and swept and mopped and hauled bedding all over the place. I also cleaned the entire kitchen. Also prepped an dcooked most of dinner. Long day!

We had about 9 new people arrive today. I was looking forward to more people but it got hectic here really quick. Lots going on. The teen program starts on Wednesday so more people will be arriving all the time.Im not sure what we do for the teen program yet.