Laulima A 'Ike Pono Internship: Finding Nemo & Mr. Krabs

Tuesday, March 20

This past, past Tuesday we had a Megsie day and we made her second 3D quadrant. First off, we measured the pvc pipes and cut them down to size. Then we primed and glued all the pieces together to create a 3D box. Later, after it dried, which was fairly quickly, we began to wrap the netting around the edge of the box by using hot glue as well as zip ties to make sure that the edges are as tight as they can be. This step took a while because we wanted to make sure that the box was covered very well and tight. After the 3D quadrant was finished, we went out into the field. But this part was very tricky. We had to float to the point, one quadrant went to bare sediment and the other to gracilaria/algae canopies, there we had to swiftly put the quadrant down trapping all the little critters inside, Maryane and I completed this step as everyone else had to wait on the sidelines, and then bam everyone came in for the digging. Each net placed into the quadrant and scooped up could have been a complete surprise. It was exciting every single time watching people pull up all sorts of animals from the quadrant, which we then placed into buckets to ID and measure later. This was so interesting and it was so surprising and fun every time. Leila ended up pulling up a large lizard fish and Megan pulled up quite a large crab, although it was towards the end of the quadrant! Couldn't believe that we missed it in the first place!

Zip tying and glueing down the netting for the quadrant

Floating on down in section 27 looking for the perfect spot.

3D Quadrant finished

Waiting on the sidelines

Little critters we found in the 3D Quadrants. A Mystery Brown Crab (Right) & A Mystery Shrimp (Left)

Saturday, March 24

Saturday was our second community service day, well technically it was our third. Today, we ended up having to move pohaku (rock), which is much heavier than ko'a (coral). As always we first gathered around the lawn and introduced ourselves. This time, my two younger brothers, Ka'io and Pu'ali came with me to join on the help and fun. Then we got ready and went on out little tour of the fishpond. This time, our tour guide was Paleke, the guardian of the fishpond lol. He was very interesting and told us many ancient stories and legends regarding the fishpond and its surroundings. I was completely intrigued. We then walked out, far past the break and around the cylinder smaller wall to start passing our first pile. Oh how heavy the rocks were! It was so tiring, but yet again we had to pass the same pile adding on another each time about 4 times. At the last pile, we counted how many rocks came through and there were 389! My gosh! We must be body builders after this. We pass rocks in the same way our Ancestors did which puts mana (power) into each rock and into the kuapa or the fishpond wall. I love community service days and giving back to the fishpond, which gives so much to me. Later, Aunty Donnie joined us and told many more stories about the fishpond, Haumea and Meheanu. These stories are so intriguing, and we also talked about Haumea moments that we may have had while working at the fishpond. Megsie had the most interesting one about her Haumea dream. Aunty Donnie is always a delight to have and she always talks to us about the most interesting dreams.