Kailua-Kona

Chapter Two - Hawaii

8-11, Hawaii

So in 1975, when I was eight-years-old, we made the big leap from the South Pacific Ocean to the North Pacific when we left New Zealand to settle in the town of Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. 

Hawaii was settled by Polynesians from the Marquesas islands between 300 and 500 A.D. The first recorded contact with Europeans was in 1778 with (I sense a pattern)…Captain Cook. He named the islands the Sandwich Islands after his sponsor, the Earl of Sandwich. He reported the native name as Owyhee. On Cook’s second visit in 1779 he was killed in a conflict with the natives. In 1893, white settlers overthrew the monarchy and in 1898, Hawaii was annexed by the United States of America.

Kona is the site of the yearly world-famous Ironman Triathlon. But once again, what many people think of as paradise was somewhat less so for us. The town is built at the ocean at the bottom of a volcanic mountain named Hualalai. The Kona coast is lava rock in various stages of decay. Where it is mostly decayed it is dirt; where it is less so, it is smooth black rock. There was a lot of smooth, black rock.

When we first landed there, my mom thought it looked like the moon. Nevertheless, it was a pretty little town, with little being the key word. It had a few old hotels along the coast, some touristy stores, a very old stone church, beautifully clear water and a pier for boats. For me, at eight-years-old, it was a great adventure.

We moved into the Kona Kai apartments where most of the other people from YWAM lived. My mother had worried about what we kids were going to do for our education but right after we got there, YWAM started a school in the apartments. Unfortunately for us kids, we had just ended our school year in New Zealand and were looking forward to some holidays. But in the United States the school year was different. Oh well.

I had had some some minor bullying incidents in New Zealand but, of course, it transcends national borders. When I first got to Hawaii, some kids told me to eat some little red things they picked off some plants. As a naïve kid from New Zealand, I didn’t know about nioi. I took a bite and my mouth was on FIRE! I had just bitten into a red hot chili pepper!

I tore home to get some relief only find the door locked. My brother, Samuel didn’t know about my predicament. All he knew was that he had an opportunity get a rise out of me. My screaming brought him to a quick realization that this was no ordinary day for practical jokes.

They say you should drink milk in these situations to take the burn away but at the time that also wasn’t part of my knowledge yet. Once I convinced Samuel to open the door, I did what any normal person without that knowledge would do. This is what I found on a website on this subject. 

“Drinking plain water may not alleviate much of the pain and can even tend to just spread the heat throughout your mouth by carrying the pepper everywhere” 1 

That was my experience.

Meals were a communal affair and YWAM didn’t have much money. We ate whatever they could get…or not. Kailua-Kona hosts one of the world’s biggest fishing tournaments and the catch was donated to YWAM for food. I hate fish so I didn’t eat much for several weeks during that period. 

I also had another unkind experience during that time. One day we were having soup but they were serving it in styrofoam cups so you couldn’t tell how hot it was. Once again my naivete won the day when some kids told me to take a big gulp. It was so hot that the whole inside of my mouth was burned white for weeks. To this day I still do not drink hot drinks.

1 (Wikihow, http://www.wikihow.com/Cool-Burns-from-Chili-Peppers, How to Cool Burns from Chili Peppers, Last edited:October 17, 2011 by Sanssheriff edited by Horses4ever, October 17, 2011, December 31, 2011).