Wilderness Wandering

Sunday Feb 2, 2025

We arrived on Kauai to beautiful sunny skies. Our team leader Bob and another team member, Wade pulled up in the white Ford Transit being used to transport us for the week.

 We took off for our lodgings in Eleele, a small neighborhood on the south end of the island. We entered a Habitat built house being used as a dormitory. There was a large kitchen/dining room and living room with five bedrooms and 3 baths. Each bedroom had bunk beds in it. Two baths were designated as women’s and the bedrooms were also gender specific. 

We met the teammates that were new to us and hugged the ones that were old friends or family. I was lucky to have two of my sisters in law with us on the build!

One of the first things we did was volunteer for various jobs around the house so things would run smoothly. I joined Joan and Cassandra on the cook dinner team. Tim volunteered to wash dishes after dinner. 

Bob asked who would like to go check out a nearby beach before dinner. 

Many of us piled in the van and we drove to Salt Pond Beach Park. We enjoyed the beautiful sand beach and wading along the shore. The was a Harp Seal resting on the beach. It was exciting to get to see it relatively close. They are protected though, so everyone was good about giving it space. We hung out and watched the sunset. There was a group of people decorating what looked like a small surf board. We asked them what they were doing. They responded that their uncle had been a local guy and recently passed away. They were decorating the board and were putting his ashes on it and sending it out to sea at sunset. 

After sunset, we hurried back to the house so we cooks could get dinner on the table. The first night we had ravioli with red sauce, roasted green beans, and salad. More team members continued to arrive through the evening. We had an introductory meeting about 9 PM to get the rough layout of the week. 

The Habitat employees work Tuesday through Saturday so they can be on site on Saturdays when more home owners are available to work on site. So, this being a Sunday, we were starting our build with Monday being a day off! 

Let’s back up a minute. I have been doing Habitat Builds since 2016. I love doing International ones! It is such an amazing way to experience a new place and culture! Tim participated in his first build with me in April 2024 in Madagascar. Back then, Bob and Leslie Bell, our fabulous team leaders had mentioned possibly setting up a build for Kauai for winter 2025. Bob and Leslie have a long history with Habitat in Kauai. 

You might wonder why Kauai needs Habitat for Humanity Housing. The cost of living in Hawai’i is extremely high. Many of the local people work very hard, often as many as three jobs, with little hope of ever being able to afford to own a home. Habitat offers a hand up (not a hand out) so families have an opportunity to own a home. Much of the available land on the Hawaiian Islands is owned by wealthy people as second homes, and vacation rentals. The average price of a home on Kauai is just under $1 million dollars. The median price is $1.3 million. Maui is even more expensive. Families are faced with their children having to leave the islands because they can’t earn enough to pay rent. Multi generational living is very common on the island. 

Habitat has a strenuous application process for potential homeowners. A large part of the agreement is the sweat equity a family must agree to. The family must work 30 hours per week on the homes or at the Kauai Restore. 

 The Kauai Restore adds $500,000 per year on average to Kauai Habitat for Humanity’s coffers. 

We learned that we would be working in a HFH subdivision in Waimea, Kauai. There were 5 homes that were almost finished, needing final cleaning, appliances, and final inspections. There were 5 more homes that were under roof. We were told we would be painting the interiors and possibly laying floors. 

Everyone had done lots of traveling, so we were tired and ready for bed. 

Monday, February 3, 2025

We woke up and had breakfast. Our plan for our day off was to do a little sightseeing and attend a luau that night. We piled in the van and Bob gave us a bit of a tour of the East coast of the island. 

We ended up on the North end at Hanalei (as in Puff the Magic Dragon). Everyone had around 3 hours to explore the cute town. Tim and I started with some fabulous fish tacos.  Tim also located a cute local bakery and procured a few loaves of fabulous banana bread. He has become addicted!

 I hadn’t experienced Hawaiian Shaved Ice yet. I did a little research and the most highly rated Shaved Ice was on our way to the beach. We shared a regular size Hawaiian Ice and were glad we shared. It was huge and delicious! Very refreshing. There was fabulous coconut flavored ice cream at the center under the shaved ice. I always thought it was similar to a snow cone, but it is much better.  I highly recommend it! 

We walked to Hanalei Beach and did a little swimming and soaked up a few rays. It was fun watching surfers.  

We met everyone back at the van and went back to the house to shower and change for the luau. 

We arrived at Smith’s Garden Luau. It is a fourth generation enterprise. We started with a tram ride around the beautifully landscaped grounds. There were so many beautiful birds all around. Next we watched as the roast pork was unburied from the lava rock it had been baked in. We had a great meal and unlimited yummy drinks! After dinner, we walked over to the open air amphitheater for the performance. They put on a great show! After the show, we went back to the house. We have to work tomorrow. 

Tuesday, February 4,2025

We put on painting clothes, had breakfast and packed our lunches. We stopped at the Restore to be introduced to the people who work behind the scenes for HFH in Kauai. 

Then we arrived at the work site. The site foreman went over safety procedures and said he likes to start each day with some stretching, so that’s what we did! Then we divided into teams and got started painting the interiors of the houses. The walls and ceilings had been primed. Everything got a coat of the same white paint. There were several Americorp volunteers. We became close with Allegra.  She grew up in Florida, majored in computer engineering and worked for a number of larger firms including GM. She got involved with volunteering and it became her life. She is doing a stint with HFH after which she is going to do a sustainable living architecture course in Barcelona with the goal of going back to TX to design affordable housing. She was very inspiring. 

Everyone worked well together, and we shared lots of stories as we all got to know each other better. The day passed quickly and we accomplished a lot!

One thing I loved about this build was the amount of family connections. We had four members of a fabulous family, a mom ,Linda, who has been a fantastic Habitat participant for many years and her three adult children Stephanie,  Amy and Brett, who did the build with her to celebrate her birthday, as well as two sisters and their husbands, Barb, Scott, Pat, and Wade We also had our leaders, Bob and Leslie, and Leslie’s sister Janie.  We had one couple  on their first build, Therrol and Jodi. They joined after Jodi met Bob in a doctor’s office.

After work, Bob offered to take anyone who wanted to go to Poipu Beach. I was very excited about this as it is where the Green Sea Turtles congregate every afternoon. Volunteers were there making sure people gave the turtles enough room and educating us about them. We had to leave before sunset because we had to make dinner, so we did not get to see the turtles depart.  Some people also went star gazing that night. 

Wednesday, February 4,2025

We worked finishing up painting and getting ready to lay vinyl flooring. We tore up paper from the floors, scraped up globs of paint from floors, swept, etc. 

The flooring came in boxes with four different patterns of wood grain. I worked tearing the boxes open and sorting the flooring into the four patterns and putting piles in each of the rooms. Tim worked installing the floors. 

We knocked off work early and went on Captain Andy’s Napali Coast Sunset Dinner Cruise. There were 49 guests on a large catamaran. It wasn’t your typical dinner cruise! We were treated to seeing several whales blowing, a couple dolphins and then- a momma and baby humpback whale breaching right in front of us! The coast was spectacular! There was a lot of wave action. Those of us on the front of the boat for pretty soaked. It was incredible that the chef was able to prepare a fabulous meal for us! We couldn’t stop watching the video of the whales! 

Thursday, February 5,2025

I kept busy yesterday, but only so many people can be laying flooring at one time, and I didn’t think there would be enough to do. We had been told that the Restore can always use more people to sort donations, price and stock shelves. Several of us asked if we should work at the Restore for the day and they were happy to have us. On the way to the Restore Bob pulled the van over to the side of the road so we could take a closer look and get photos of the beautiful sunflower field along the road. 

 We had a good day and worked through 4 pallets of product and priced it, and put the items out in the store. Tim and Therrol

were a terrific flooring team.  

That evening the Habitat home owners fed us and we got to meet them and their families and hear their incredible stories. One of the families has waited 20 years for a Habitat home. She was on and off the list several times because Habitat has a max level of debt the family can have. The homeowners pay about $260,000 for the homes we built and the homes are worth about $800,000. For obvious reasons, the homeowners agree not to sell the home for a period of time. 

Friday, February 7,2025

I worked at Restore again and Tim and the others pretty much finished the floors in the five homes. After work, we went to the near by village of Hanapepe for their Lunar New Year Festival. Such a cute village! It served as the inspiration for the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch. The first thing we all did was cross the historic swinging bridge. Later, we followed the parade of the traditional lion dance, which is said to bring well wishes and good fortune to the town. We had a dole whip, pineapple flavored soft serve ice cream, and some cheesy hot tots – tater tots pressed in a waffle iron with cheese sauce on them. I think we were homesick for WI cheese! We also checked out the furthest West book shop in the United States! The sun set and we were still cruising Main Street enjoying live music and hula dancing.  

It was getting close to time to go. Tim and I got separated and I decided to check out a little spice shop I could see nearby. I set off across the grass and the next thing I knew was I was falling and I heard something like a stick go “crack”. I realized that in the dark, I had not seen a very short fence and that I tripped over it. My arm felt funny. I saw our fearless leader Bob near by and walked over to him and said “I think I just broke my arm.”  We were fortunate to have several medical professionals on the team. Barb, a nurse confirmed it was broken and Brent, also a nurse, drove Tim and me to the ER. We were at the ER until 3 AM. 

Long story short, I broke both the radial and the ulna below the elbow. The ER doctor predicted that it would require surgery.  They soft casted it and sent us home. Bob was so kind to wait for us. 

So, that was how our wonderful winter get away ended. We decided to return back to WI for further treatment. I am one week post surgery and am catching up on my reading list while Tim waits on me hand and foot. I’m thankful for the loving care, and kind cards, phone calls, soup deliveries, visits, and other kindnesses from our family and friends. We hope to be back traveling in early April! 

Take care!