Signs, cake and coconuts from the sky

July 13, 2012

Friday! What a day. On my walk into work I noticed a group of elder people (not old, but retirement age so elders :) ) gathered in the Kapiolani Community College parking lot, some with their dogs. These people walk the neighborhood each morning. This is the first time I'd seen them group before they head out. It was nice to see such a nice healthy community activity. There were men and women and many ethnicities present. It was a nice thing to see and made me smile.

A little farther up - the cthulu aloe plants are creeping closer to the sidewalk. I keep waiting for a tentacle to whip out and wrap around my leg.

 I got to work and as I walked in I noticed more signs to share. This is a diabetes sign. Here people call urinating "shi-shi". So this is saying a possible indicator or diabetes is "Going pee or shi-shi more than usual."

 I was aghast at the grammar on this sign till Lisa explained it is common to write the signs in Pidgin English. Most of the native people speak a lot of Pidgin. Native Hawaiians are an ethnic group, like Native Americans. Just like Native Americans being born Hawaii doesn't make you native Hawaiian any more than being born in the US makes you Native American. So when I say the native people speak a lot of Pidgin, I don't mean Hawaiians. What I am referring to is ANYONE who grew up here.

 I love how the signs show a surfer :) This is trying to address teen pregnancy.

 I may have posted this one before. This sign shows just how many languages are found commonly here in Hawaii. This sign says "Please point here if you need an interpreter in this language (at not cost to you)" and is repeated in 24 languages. These are posted at medical facilities and some public offices so they can try to figure out what language interpreter they even need to get to start communicating. There are so many languages spoken here it is really amazing. It also complicated any public services immensely.

I got to my office and spent the entire day working on case summaries for the DVFR. I am going through each case file and teasing out information for some data that is in the information but not listed on the DVFR forms the review team fills out. At the end of the day I had managed to get to 10 out of 44. I add the info to the database as I go along. It is time-consuming but important. Just for the record, people are crazy. I've basically spent the entire day reading about people killing wives, husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids and unborn (killing pregnant mothers or stabbing or beating on pregnant bellies till they kill the fetus). I don't find it depressing as some people do. I just feel a sense of the importance to understand and try to find ways to improve intervention. It does make me realize just how crazy and even evil some people can be. Not to mention creative - which is scary in its own right.

For lunch we went to a Mexican place called Torito's on Kapiolani Boulevard. I got the lunch combination plate, with a shredded beef burrito and a shredded beef chimichanga and double rice instead of rice and beans for $12.00. The beef was tender and flavorful and was very good in both the burrito and chimichanga. I liked it better than the ground beef often found used. Not the best I've ever had but it was good. The rice was pretty dry and seemed more like minute rice with a little tomato juice and chili powder added in. It was alright but nothing special. Burrito is on the left (I had taken a bite before remembering to take a picture) and chimichanga on the right. I scraped off most of the guacamole and gave it to Ann since I don't care for guacamole.

The chips were thicker than we normally find at home, which I liked, but were pretty greasy, which I did not like. The salsa was obviously fresh made and was tasty but had no spiciness to it. If you ask for the spicy salsa they bring a bowl with a spoonful of ground jalapenos (green salsa) and a spoonful of ground habaneros(orange/yellow salsa). You are supposed to put whatever amount you want of those into the regular salsa to spice it to your preference. That was kindof neat.

It was tasty but it is not like home. At home we have so many Mexican and Hispanic immigrants (legal and not) that we have pretty darn good Mexican food. there are good and bad restaurants of course, but you can find some good Mexican food. This food was good but it was a lot like eating a frozen burrito or canned salsa from the store. I had been craving Mexican food and this hit the spot though.

In the same shopping center there was a Chinese place.  Lisa wanted to stop and pick up a duck to take home for dinner. So we went to Duck Lee's. They have the roasted ducks hanging in the window. They will cut it up for you. I took a video of this process. Jeff - don't watch. I don't knwo WHY the video is sideways. I got to try the duck as well. I was very full from lunch so I only ate one small piece. Lisa insisted I had to try it with the skin and fat in one bite. It was good in flavor. The fat was kindof melty and the skin crisp. It gives it a very rich deep flavor. HOWEVER, I am not a fan of skin or fat. So I tried it that way, but then ate the rest of my small piece as just the meat. I much preferred it as just the meat. It was delicious!!!! not at all how I imagines duck would be (stringy and gamey tasting). I definately want more duck. I also learned that peking duck is basically a manapua with the skin, fat and meat of the pre-roasted duck duck all chopped up and stuffed inside, then the bun steamed to cook the bun part. No thanks. I'll stick with just the mean, no skin or fat, just by itself.

So back to the office and work till near the end of the day. At 3pm we had cake! It was Lisa's birthday Wednesday and Lynn's birthday Friday so we celebrated both. Ann had baked Lisa a cake before we even knew about Lynn's birthday too! So we had cake. A wonderful end to the work week.

I worked a bit late, till almost 5, then came home. The trip home was an adventure. I wanted to walk though Papa George offered to drive me home (Lisa was still in a meeting inside the building). I had a nice leisurely walk. At one point several lizards were running around on a wall, so I stopped and got a picture of one.  It is just to the left of center, kindof hard to see. They love these rock walls. Rob - a leezard for you!

I also saw this tree that looked like it had cucumbers hanging from it. No idea what these are. I will try to get a better picture with my camera which has zoom capability.

Also, a coconut fell off a tree. It didn't come near hitting me thankfully (people have been killed by coconuts falling on their heads). Here in public places coconuts have to be removed (due to a child being killed when a cococonut fell off a tree at school and hit her on the head). On private property if a coconut falls on someone they can be sued for damages. So, the coconut fell in front of me. I picked it up and continued on home. So here it is after landing and here it is on my bed. I'm going to take it to work Monday and maybe someone can give me a clue what to do with it!

 

So I got home after not being mashed by a coconut. Now that my neighborhood attack mango tree is out of mangoes I think the universe is conspiring to find other things to throw at me.

At home I just talked some online to folks at home, played some DDO with Rob, read a little. Basically just relaxed. It was nice :) Around 10 the ladies downstairs, the guys from the guy's house and some of their work friends decided it was time to drink beer, listen to music and have a mini-party on the driveway. Right under my window. All the NOAA folks leave in a couple of weeks so they are trying to live up what time they have left. It didn't last long before Nikki told them to move it inside or elsewhere. I went to sleep pretty quickly after that, knowing that today was Saturday and not knowing what i might end up doing.

Malama pono, (take care)
~Melissa