Waipa's Homework Club Back for Winter Session

Posted by Lea

Well, its that time again- the keiki are back at Waipa twice a week for our after-school Homework Club's winter session. We pick the keiki up from school and bring them to Waipa, where they do various outdoor activities and games, eat snacks, do their homework, have a session of instructional reading, and then go swimming (if weather permits).

We try to find healthy snacks which the keiki will eat and enjoy. We are also trying to be more sustainable with our snacks by trying to grow more and use what we have.

This photo shows a recent day when we served only food grown at Waipa for the Homework Club snack (except for the ketchup). We had kale salad, 'uala fries, fried banana, boiled peanuts, and corn-on-the-cob. We eat a LOT of kale salad at Waipa. Other food we grow and serve often include lilikoi-banana smoothies, string beans, kalo pa'a, poi, soybeans, mamaki tea, and carrots.

Mahalo to Aunty Kari, our garden manager, and to Joseph, our agricultural consultant, for keeping the food in the ground so that we are able to feed our keiki such healthy snacks!

Farm to Table!

Entry posted on 01/18/2012

Clearing invasive weeds at Makaihuwa'a

Posted by Lea

While preparing for full moon camping up at Makaihuwa'a (one of the ridges outlining the Waipa ahupua'a), two members of the Waipa 'ohana were recently caught on camera while clearing invasive weeds.

But who is the mystery weed whacker with Lea?

HINT:  The shorter one is Lea ;)  and don't let the size of the mystery weed whacker's weed whacker fool you.

Visit https://www.facebook.com/Waipa.Ohana and leave us a comment with your guess. Hurry! The first person to correctly identify this mystery weed whacker will win a Waipa t-shirt!

Only guesses submitted via facebook count.  We will acknowledge the winner here and on Facebook.  Good luck!

UPDATE:  It took only a few hours for one of our akamai 'ohana on Facebook to identify our garden manager, Kari.  Lea flexed her photo editing skills by blending 2 different photo's taken that day.

Entry posted on 10/30/2011

Laulima Kakou

Posted by Johanna

Since the re-launch of our website in late August, Waipa staff have been busy learning how to manage the new features and working closely with our great web team to make our site more useful to you, the Waipa ‘ohana.  To help us accomplish that, we are so grateful in particular to Matt Goodale (w3dd.com) and Lindsey Fritz for their technical expertise, creativity and guidance.

Waipa’s ‘ohana is an amazing community of unique and supportive kupuna, volunteers, families, youth and others who are not only from Kaua‘ii, but really from all over the world.  All so different and yet all choosing to show aloha ‘aina, love for the land, to our abundant ahupua‘a.  And...because the Waipa ‘ohana actively shares in the effort, we are also a community of laulima… of many hands working together.

While most of our work is on the land, Waipa staff do appreciate the potential of the internet to stay in touch.  Since we have so many diverse projects all over the ahupua‘a, it excites us to share Waipa’s many faces of abundance. 

Over the new few months, Waipa’s staff will take turns using this blog to share stories and photos of various projects and activities.

And...because we certainly know that the full abundance of the ahupua‘a is not just in the ‘aina but also in our many hands, we invite you TOO to share in making our website useful by suggesting topics or providing feedback to us at waipaonline@waipafoundation.org.

Mahalo nui loa!

Entry posted on 10/11/2011

Limahana Work Training Recruiting for Fall

Posted by Johanna

Waipa invites north shore parents and youth (ages 15-18 in grades 9-12) to attend the Limahana Program orientation on October 7 at 5:30 p.m. to find out more about our after-school work training program.  This program offers youth a chance to get work experience (they are paid $7.50 / hr) while gaining valuable life skills and learning about the Hawaiian culture and environmental stewardship. 

Limahana offers youth a chance to connect with caring adult mentors, learn valuable lessons about  on the job ethics and team work, experience  the joys of working outdoors while they learn about natural resources, work with younger youth and help to grow food!

Our Fall Session will run this year from October 24th until December 16th, 2011. 

During this time, participants will have the option of working 2-3 days after-school on a project of their choice.

Participants MUST APPLY and be accepted into the program.  To get more information and an application, please come to the Limahana orientation on October 7, 5:30 - 7:00 pm.

Questions?   826-9969

Entry posted on 09/24/2011

Reforesting Waipa is a Community Effort

Posted by Stacy

Just over a year ago, Waipa began expanding our reforestation plantings into a new site.  This 1.3 acre area, on the south facing slope of Kuahua (the ridge which forms a boundary between the ahupua`a of Waipa and Waikoko), was cleared of non-native vegetation in early August, 2010.

Every year, for years now, on Admissions Day weekend in August, the Nakamura, Shiramizu, Loo-Marshall `ohana have come camping at Waipa, and their trip always includes a project to give back to the `aina.  Last year, they became the first of many groups to begin planting this site, primarily with Koai`a, a native lowland Koa.  A couple of weeks ago, this same group of families returned to camp once again, and we hiked up to check out the trees.  In a year they had grown so that some of them were nearly five feet tall, the beginning of another native forest at Waipa!  We had finished planting the site, so after giving our trees some good mana, we hiked back down and weeded the lo`i kalo.

Since that first planting in August 2010, through May of this year, numerous groups and individuals have contributed to the reforestation at this site.  They include:  Aunty Puna Kalama’s Halau, Ms. Shelby Dabin’s first grade class from Kanuikapono School, Peter Vitousek and Stanford University’s Hawaii Field School, Earthday Rising, Doug Sears and the Grand Hyatt Po`ipu Management Team, Raleigh Fisher and his dad Jon, among many others. 

In November of last year, a couple of us planted about 25 Koai`a trees right at the top of the planting site in honor of Uncle Gary Blaich, and indeed this has become a place for us to remember him, and his love of Waipa and the outdoors.

Mahalo to all of you, and the Waipa staff and `ohana who help to facilitate this work, we hope that in a few years, these trees will be thriving like those in some of our previous plantings, and we look forward to acres of beautiful native forests at Waipa in the decades to come. 

A USDA-NRCS Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program contract helped to provide some funds for clearing and planting.

Entry posted on 09/12/2011

Refurbishing Wa`a, Just In Time for Summer!

Posted by Stacy

During the winter and spring of 2011, Waipa staff and interns, led by Trevor Cabell, built and refurbished four wa`a for use in our programs. A four man wa`a pe`a (sailing canoe), two four-man paddling canoes, and one six-man Albesia canoe were readied for use this summer.

The wa`a were blessed by Aunty Puna Kalama Dawson, in a beautiful ceremony and celebration held in April. Her halau, Waipa `ohana, and members of Kaiola Canoe Club and the local paddling/sailing community were all present.

Keiki participating in Waipa’s Summer programs this year indeed benefitted from these wa`a, as they explored the waters of Hanalei Bay, deepening their connection with the kai, gaining new skills and experiences, and having fun! Now that the early summer rush is over, Waipa plans to continue to utilize the wa`a in it’s programs, and also to begin it’s own monitoring program of Waipa’s nearshore resources.

Mahalo to Trevor, Kapule and Kaipo, the Waipa Interns, Aunty Puna, the Hau`oli Mau Loa Foundation, the Kamehameha Schools `Aina Ulu program, and all those who contributed to providing Waipa with these valuable learning resources.

Entry posted on 07/27/2011