Monday Was A Typical Work Day, With A Super-Duper Walk Home.

Monday was kind of typical work day; I was assigned to work with Luki and Ron in the cooking part of the kitchen, a first for me. We made a huge vat of potatoes and then somehow I soon found myself fixing stuff, this lasted all day, which included a drive off campus to a kitchen supply business to try and fix a dish washing nozzle, they didn’t have a clue what was wrong, so after an hour and a half, I headed back to the base, but on the way I figured out how to fix a hose problem that was part of the nozzle.

Between Luki and me we fixed the nozzle and I fixed the hose. This is the most important part of the kitchen, everything else has multiples, but the dish washing area has one nozzle, if this is not working, everything comes to a hazards stop. Not good, as this would affect service, this is the hub of the kitchen, all pots, cooking utensils, chopping blocks, scooper's, etc. are used multiple times a day.

You can’t fix this during working hours, this can only be attempted after all work is done, then you only have a small window to fix it before the next crew comes in.

This is the third time I’ve been asked to fix something on this dish washing area. A lot of pressure on a semi-fix it guy that has to have time to look, try, fail, look, try, fail and try again. People cannot be hovering over me because I can’t think straight. I need to be alone, with a lot of time to fix anything, I’m not talented, but I can usually fix things with duct tape, wire, etc. none of which are good with water.

At the end of the day I walked away feeling successful, like I’d contributed something to the kitchen on a permanent bases, but not working at the usual, sweating, break neck paced, leaves me felling like I didn’t work very hard.

I never saw the cooking side of the food prep again.

Buck and I had the greatest walk home. We went down to “Huggo’s On The Rocks,” the only  place you can put your feet in the sand restaurant in Kona. We got our favorite table on the sea wall, took off our tennis shoes, and sank down into the sand, wonderful.

A cruise liner was out in Kailua Bay, tiny sailing boats all around, a Hawaiian singer in the back ground, and the best Diet Cherry Pepsi I’ve ever had, along with the tiniest sliders, two little three dollar hamburgers with the tiniest bits of fried onion rings, and some sauce on them.

We had two each, separated and spread out over our two hours as we talked about YWAM stuff, our spiritual lives when we get back home, the results we’ve taken from our time here, and what we are still looking to gain.

Most of you know that I’m blind in my right eye, so when I sit someplace the positioning for me is critical, I need to have my right side turned to a wall, I can’t have sights or people to my right, it makes them not present. So, today at Huggo’s I found the ocean to my right, I was aware of this all along as I sat down, but I wasn’t there for the sights, I was there for time with Buckwheat.

The view was breath taking.

The talk was precious, deep, meaningful and extensive.

A beautiful spiritual presence was with us.

We started to walk home along Ali’i Beach Drive, but we soon stopped and sat on the sea wall, talking some more as we watched the sun set, this was going to take about twenty minutes so we called Keri Posthill and told her how much we missed she and Mark, and then we made her feel bad as we described out setting, we made it sound as wonderful as it was, and of course was kind of rubbing it in. “This is where we are, and that is where you are,” type of thing.

We walked very slowly all the way to the pier, and then up the steep street to our little shopping area, we then went to “Sack and Save,” which means you put your groceries in the sack and save money.

We bought some lunchables (they are fewer calories than eating the free base food, only 340 calories, I love them. I can take them to the gym with me and workout and eat at the same time, and don’t feel sluggish. I haven’t eaten base food in four weeks, I feel better and have much more energy, and I’m still losing weight, which has made my knees feel much, much, much better). We also bought cereal for eating in our room before going to the base. The shopping was fun and we walked home on a pitch black road leading back to our little home at Hale Ola.

The whole afternoon was one of the best we’ve had, and we’ve been having a lot of them lately, we’ve figured out what works for us, and that is walking home every day and decompressing as we talk about our day, our friends, our family and our future.

We are hoping to keep this same Kona behavior back home.

I can’t wait to write as my new ministry tool.

I can’t wait to be home and start my retirement.

I can't wait to start my new ministry interaction with my grandchildren.

Our time here has been well worth all the hard work and loneliness for home.