Posted
on: Wednesday, November 7, 2001
Paddling
trip in Tahiti offers new goals for teens
By
Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer
 |
Donna
Kahakui strokes hard even after five hours of paddling in
sometimes choppy surf and sea in Tahiti.
She
was giving a demonstration to 10 Hawai'i teenagers she took along
on her Tahiti trip.
The
one-week journey was to involve a series of environmental and
athletic events, but it also ended up teaching the teens a much
more valuable lesson: that each individual can make a difference.
The
students will now launch their own community projects at home.
Mary
Ann Changg
|
When
outrigger canoe paddler Donna Kahakui took a trip to Tahiti last month
with 10 teenagers representing all the main Hawaiian Islands, it was
supposed to be the culmination of a series of environmental and athletic
events.
Some
things went as planned. Others didn't. The result: Instead of a finale,
the one-week journey symbolized a new beginning for everyone associated
with the nonprofit ocean environmental group Kai Makana. Especially the
young people.
"I
don't consider this a failure because (I) didn't reach our goal of
paddling 200 miles," Kahakui said she told the students. "I
consider the goal reached when I look into your faces."
Though
she had originally planned to paddle more than 200 miles in a one-person
outrigger canoe throughout the Society Islands during the week of Oct.
13-20, Kahakui ended up completing a little more than 60 because of
dangerous conditions.
But
the real purpose of this series of events — which have included paddles
from Maui to O'ahu, and from the Big Island to O'ahu, a circumnavigation
of O'ahu and a treacherous trip down the Hudson River to the Statue of
Liberty — was to teach kids that they as individuals can make a
difference.
And
it appears to be working.
Each
student who accompanied Kahakui and a group of educators on the trip is
now responsible for launching his or her own community project. Thus,
every subsequent effort becomes less about Kahakui than the ripple effect
her efforts have on everyone around her.
Students
in Wai'anae plan to continue cleaning and planting in an effort to restore
a nearby heiau.
Elijah
Kalani Isaac, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Waimanalo Intermediate
School, also wants to make a difference in his neighborhood. "I feel
that I want to clean up the beaches," he said. "We have
something called the back roads. There's rubbish back there. I want to
make it a goal to (clean it up). I also want to learn to do more
water-quality testing."
One
of the activities in which students participated was teaching their
Tahitian counterparts to test water quality. They also cleaned up rubbish
all around Tahiti — especially in Pape'ete, where a race of six-person
outrigger canoes would take place. They traveled between islands on a
motorized catamaran. Learned navigation in a different sky. Studied
archeology. Acquired a few words in two new languages. Interacted with
sting rays and sea turtles. And shared their culture by giving the
Tahitians impromptu performances.
"Girls
were dancing hula in the aisles," Kahakui said of the post-race
performances in Pape'ete for 84 teams of six to 12 paddlers. "That
was a cherished moment, when the kids stood up on their own to do oli
mahalo (a chant giving thanks). They had no problem picking up the
'ukulele and just going for it."
Watching
the students share their Hawaiian culture not because they were told, but
because they wanted to, gave the trip a feeling of "purpose and
meaning," Kahakui said.
"In
one week," she added, "I think they grew years in their
thoughts. They surpassed any kind of hope I had."
The
students weren't the only ones to evolve. "For me, it was a trip of
lessons," Kahakui said. "And I learned so many."
Safety
on the ocean was one. The reason Kahakui did not paddle the entire 200
miles was not for lack of will. Only one escort boat was available on the
dangerous, 100-mile leg from Moorea to Huahine. Kahakui and her crew felt
that they needed at least three in case of an emergency.
So
after much deliberation, they opted not to go. The choice was wise: That
boat was found the next day, floating without a Global Positioning
Satellite, out of gas.
The
trek from Huahine to Raiatea was another problem. It was supposed to be
only 24 miles. The crew set out at 3 a.m. so Kahakui could finish in time
to sit in as a member of a six-woman team from Hawai'i in a 30-mile
outrigger canoe race later in the morning.
But
a 25-knot headwind blew against her, and a current battled her Tahitian
one-person canoe.
"It
was kind of sketchy," she said. "There was no lighting system,
so the escort boat wasn't lit. You couldn't see a wave until it hit
you."
At
one point, she and the escort boat lost contact.
"It
was like paddling Moloka'i in pitch black," she said, emphasizing
that nothing was visible — not even the distant lights of an island.
When boat and paddler found each other after a frantic search, a crew
member made the decision to pull her out and return to Huahine because of
the danger.
"As
much as I hate to say it," she said, "it was the right
call."
Though
Kahakui typically insists on finishing everything she sets out to do, she
learned to avoid dwelling on what wasn't working, and instead make the
best of each situation. And to look ahead.
The
students have learned from her example. They brought home a bit of
Tahitian culture and environmental knowledge, and will now pass along
their passion for taking care of the ocean and its surroundings to young
people in communities throughout Hawai'i.
|