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The music is beautiful.

The first curbside recycling experiment just began in two O’ahu towns a few months ago. Expansion is months if not years away. There’s a huge uproar going on right now because of a proposal to ban retailers from using plastic bags – yet everywhere I go, people comment on and seem to love the cloth bags I use for shopping.

On the other hand, more and more people and organizations are working every day to change people’s (and the government’s) way of thinking, and they ARE making progress. Organizations like Jack and Kim Johnson’s Kokua Hawai’i Foundation are working with our keiki in the schools, and Jack has been holding a huge annual benefit concert here since 2004 that has helped to shine a very bright light on so many of the issues we face – not just here in Hawai’i nei, but world wide.

It helps enormously to have someone of Jack’s stature not only speaking out, but doing AND living by example. But there are dozens of others throughout our state who are also working hard to kokua, raise awareness, and encourage our kama’aina, businesses, and government to care for the ‘aina and each other. Slowly but surely…

By the way, next time you come visit your folks here on O’ahu, get AWAY from the “over-populated, exploited” (etc.) part of the island known simply to us as “town” (Honolulu, Waikiki, etc.)and head over to the Windward side and up the coast here to da country (North Shore), etc. Town’s the place to be when you want to hear some of our incredible musicians play (all kine good music stuffs happening fo free, and I do go in a few times a week to hear and support), but otherwise we avoid town… aaack!

Malama pono!

My wife’s story is similar to your. Her parents lived in Hawaii for a while before eventually settling in San Mateo. Eventually though, the siren’s call was too strong and mom came back here for good. We followed along at about the same time and have never looked back.

I agree with you about the omnipresence of styrofoam on Oahu. There are a few vendors making good choices in this regard, but generally there is little awareness or urgency about plastics, recycling or sustainability. Hello?! We live on an island with very limited resources. We should be at the forefront for this kind of thing, but instead lag far, far behind.

I hope you enjoyed your time here in Hawaii.