The First Week of School
Aloha Friday! I am going to come to love this concept. The other one I already love is pau hana which means end work. The sprinkling of Hawai'ian words that is thrown into every day language is truly charming. Teachers will ask students "are you pau?" meaning "are you finished?" Or when punching holes in a stack of papers, they talked about putting in the puka which means hole. I'm grateful for how much I remember and don't need explaining. That's been one of the most interesting things about the first few weeks here, how very familiar it is, and yet how foreign at the same time. Because I was raised by my dad (born in Hawai'i, raised on the mainland) who was raised by my grandparents (born and raised in the Islands), it's part of the tapestry of my life. It's familiar and familial. It was part of the unique family language I grew up with. So, before leaving the house, my grandmother would tell me to "go make shishi&quo