Pipe Lines of Kaimu: The Hawaiian Church in Kalapana
I stood at the top of our dirt driveway looking back at our two-story house. It's kind of a long house where, from our second-floor windows, you can see cars driving on the lane road in our village. Now with that said, Kalapana village is what I would call its, 'Heyday Period'. Just to the right of me is the Hawaiian church that Mom and others refer to as the 'Kalawina' church. That's the Hawaiian word for, 'Calvinist', but their practice is Congregationalism. That's the church my grannies attend. I like being there a lot when it's open, that will be Sunday, or even when they are closed. There is also an adjacent hall. It sits like ten feet away at the back of the church by its right side when you're looking from the front of the church. Well, when the church is closed, and they do have doors and windows, and all, but they're not locked, --ever. They just closed them, and that's it. I would run and holler up and down the aisle. I'll move the hymnals around where they're kept in the back of the pews, making sure it's not noticeable in its move. They also have several large crockery that are filled with rock cookies. They're called 'Moutain View Cookies,' and they are hard on the teeth, and being a kid, I don't eat much of it, but two, maybe. Most of the time, I just horse around and don't eat any.
When it's 'Ho'ike' time, oh boy, it'll be crowded with islanders from other Hawaiian churches, and anybody else who wants to come, and that is always to be the case. A Ho'ike is the gathering of Hawaiian churches for fellowship and luau's, which means partying, in the least part of it, being that it's a church-like version, meaning--no liquor! It's an annual event where each Hawaiian church partakes, so this event goes around our island of Hawaii at the host church's place. When it's our Hawaiian church's time to host the Ho'ike here in Kalapana, a day or so, before the Ho'ike, hunters take to the forest, bringing back a minimum of four wild pigs or boars, wild goats, and sometimes pheasants. At the same time, fishermen either line along our coastlines and fill their coolers, or they cast off to sea and fill their nets.
Sunday School, the adults are in the church, and some of the high schoolers. The younger kids are in the hall, for like a few minutes. We then head outdoors, and even with all that merrymaking with our Sunday School teacher slash/--cousin, getting us to quiet some, it goes unnoticed. That explains our slash/--cousin, who doesn't do much other than talk to each other along with the other high schoolers who opted to go outdoors with us, rather than indoors with the adults. There are several large boulders out front and the very largest ones are straddling stuck atop small boulders. That would be our outdoor Sunday School tables set up, and around them are smaller boulders, and that would be our chairs. They are carved-out holes on top of each of the three boulder tables. We have black lava rocks shaped into very tiny balls. There are a lot of them, and you can fit several of them in your hand. There are also white coral stones that are shaped in the same manner. They all are used to playing Hawaiian checkers, but not like the true checker's sort of game. It's more like the S.O.S. game you play on paper, and if you know how to play that game, that is the Hawaiian checkers game we play. We just place those ball one at a time and the object of the game is getting across to your opponents side opposite of yours. You need to first pick the color stone you're going to play with, and look out for blocking and hops, that's when there's an empty hole behind your ball, then they can hop over your ball and they'll take that ball out, that gives you less balls to get across during the clocks countdown, seing who got most across, and how many balls survived the onslaught of hop-overs.
There is also the 'Ulu Maika' game, or a Hawaiian version of, a bowling ball. It is a smooth rounded-like stone that is rolled down the lawn where two wooden pegs are stuck in the ground. The objective is to roll that rock all the way down and get it in between those two pegs. The older kids play 'O'o Ihe' which is spear throwing into a banana stump. 'Pa Uma' arm wrestling, it's played the same way. 'Honuhonu' hand pulling, seeing who'll dislodge their opponent's stand. 'Ke'a Pua' is throwing darts at a basic target, coconut tree bark, coconuts, guavas, basically anything that won't get you in trouble.
This is a typical Sunday day at the 'Kalawina' church, which is actually named, 'The Mauna Kea Kalapana Congregational Church'. The only thing I didn't know was why it had 'Mauna Kea' which is our tallest mountain, being a part of the church's name. Mauna Loa, the second tallest mountain, is where Kalapana is situated on its side. Mauna Kea is the mountain opposite from us.These two mounatains that is on our island of Hawaii, to which our state is named, and I'm gathering that since King Kamehameha lived on this island, hence our state name, but don't quote me on that matter. Anyhow, that is the official name of our church. Also, and a very important also. Our Hawaiian church is only spoken in the Hawaiian language. Our bibles and hymnals are all printed in Hawaiian. Everything is in Hawaiian, but not so much applicable to the smaller kids, but we understand them anyways, and like hymnals, we sing the songs so many times, we sort of understand them. So don't forget, we kids then, got to know our Hawaiian language in bits and pieces. Until you get home and those bits and pieces gets longer, if you know what I mean. Our usual answer whenever that happens at home is, "What did I do now?!
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Hilo Poet
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