Pacific Islander Worship Festival!

Saturday we had the Pacific Island Worship Festival where our chuch and many other churchers from around the islands and some from the mainland.
It was an amazing time worshiping with everyone.
Here is the Hula song we did at the Festival last night.
Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S6dJbCCvSk

OK try this.

Only in Maui!

1. You see someone walking in their swimsuit, with just a towel or not, in Safeway.
2. Some local stores will tell you that slippers and shirt are not required to walk into their store.
3. People walking down the street in just their swimsuits.
4. Able to buy fireworks in the grocery store.
5. You see car seats on top of the car not inside the car.
6. Slippers as dress shoes.
7. You can by liquor in a grocery store until 11 pm.
8. No road rules or parking rules are followed.
9. Cars are abandoned on the side of the road.
10. People in stores take breaks whenever they want and just put a sign on the door that they will be back in 5 minutes and come back whenever they want.
11. People sit in the back of a truck on beach chairs while there is a law to wear seatbelts.

Thursday!

I'm sorry I am not good at updating very often, but when something exciting happens I am sure to let you know.
Yesterday was our staff retreat and we spent the day at the beach playing, swimming, getting massages, learning hula, belly dancing, eating real good food, getting things (new bag, PTO, small gifts), and spending some quality time with people from work.
It was an amazing day. Didn't have to think about work except for the time the OT leaving wanted to talk about her cases.
Today it was hard to work after a relaxing day yesterday. I was so tired by 3 pm and had to go home.
Sorry, life in Maui is not more exciting, but the beach, the weather, the short days, and long nights, are pretty much it and not much has changed.
About my trip to Romania. I have currently 4 people including me. We are still planning to go in August. Please pray that we will get the right people to join our group. We found out that the church has too many groups going this year and we are too late to join in the fund raising so we will have to do that ourselves. Many negative things right now about the plans for the trip but I know God cares for those children and we will have the best team to care for them.
Next Saturday our Halau will be participating in the Worship Hula Festival and we will be performing the same song we did on Palm Sunday and some people will be doing the same song from Easter.
Hope everyone is doing well and I will try my best to keep you guys updated.

Week update!

I wanted to share the Hula song we did at church today with everyone, but I couldn't figure out how to put the video on here. I'm not sure it can be done.
Anyways, here are a few pictures from our performance today. This is some of my friends and I in our Hula attire.
This is my roommate and I after church.

Well, not much to update. This past week was a long week. I had something every night. Monday I went and worked out. Tuesday I had Hula practice. Wednesday we went to see a movie about the "Lost boys of Sudan". Thursday my friend and I (my friend who was my movie friend who is moving to Cali) went to see Amazing Grace. Friday I worked on Lanai, went to see a movie called "the Tiger and the snow" with the same actors as in Life is Beautiful, and then went to church. Saturday I worked on my Hula skirt that took forever (4 hours), went to a dinner, and then watched a movie with my friends and had wine. Sunday I was at church from 7:30 am to 12:00 doing Hula for both services, then we went to lunch, took a nap and watched a movie "Lady in the water".
Have a good week everyone.

Check out my pictures!

Thanks everyone for reading the stories, now it's time to see some pictures.
Click here to see my pictures.

Enjoy

Going South!

Well, so where did I leave off with my stories. Oh, yeah, we drove by a waterfall.
Ok, so we were on our way down south. We drove south by the Jordan River, through the West Bank and down toward the Dead Sea. Here is a list of some of the things we did on the rest of our tour.
1. Got to float in the Dead Sea pool at our hotel (it was warmer than the real Dead Sea). I did however step in the Dead Sea. Feels a little oily.
2. Visited Masada on top of the mountain. Nice view from there.
3. Drove down to Beer Sheva (28 miles from Gaza). Our next hotel was here and we got to go to a mall where a security guard had to check our purses before heading inside.
4. Next we were in Jerusalem. We stayed at a beautiful hotel. Grand Court.
5. Walking distance from downtown and the old City.
6. We went to Bethlehem. We had to drive through the wall that was built by the Israeli around the city. Real sad.
7. After visiting the church where they remember the birth of Jesus, we went to Herod's castle.
8. Went up on Shepherd's Field and talked about the meaning of Psalm 23.
9. We had to leave Bethlehem early due to the riots starting.
10. Dude at the check point came on our bus and checked our passport.
11. In the evenings we walked downtown and saw all the crazy people dressed up for Purim (a Jewish holiday where they remember the good done by Esther for the Jewish people). They dress up in costumes and they have one day where they are allowed to get drunk. Wow, they sure know how to party.
12. The next day we walked down the Mount of Olives as a group stopping continuously to discuss different events in the Bible.
13. Had the Lord's Supper at the Garden Tomb ( a place remembered as the place of Calvary and Jesus' resurrection - not real just man made).
14. Visited a place known as the upper room.
15. Visited the Old City. Walked the Via Dolorosa. Much better with a tour guide who knows what he is doing and where he is going.
16. Shopping, shopping and more shopping in the Old City.
17. Walked on the rampwalk (on top of the wall of the Old City). Good view from there.
18. Met people who work at the hotel. One was Romanian.
19. Holocaust museum.
20. I met wonderful people in my group. There were 40 of us. Great group dynamics. Prepare to come home.

I had an amazing time there and I will never forget all I have seen and learned.
Sorry about the list, but I think it's easier to read than paragraph form. If you have any other questions regarding my trip feel free to ask me.

The next few days!

Our next stop was Tiberias, where we stayed at the Golden Tulip for the next couple of nights. During the time that we were there we got to go on a boat over the Sea of Galilee. We also saw many parks that were closed by and drove up close enough to see Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. We saw many military bases on the hills looking out toward Lebanon and Syria. The very northern part of Israel is very cold. While we were visiting one park (where no other tourists were) we were met by a rain/lightening/thunder storm. Good thing that day we went to the hotel early and we got a chance to hang out at the pool and in the sauna. Good times.
While we were driving by the borders I saw many fenced areas that had signs on them saying "Danger Land Mines". We drove by such a fence no more than a foot away. Sorry no pictures we were going way too fast. While up north we were close to Mt. Hermon which is a mountain near the Lebanon Syria border, about 2000 feet above sea level. It snows on this mountain and there are a few ski resorts only open a couple of days a year. When it does snow, a few days later people get excited about the water that they will get from the result of the snow melting. We went to a point near the bottom of the mountain were we got to see a waterfall that everyone was so excited about, but to us who have seen waterfalls many times it was a small dirty waterfall. It is here that we got to try the famous Israeli apples. They look like the red delicious apples of Washington but quite smaller.
Well enough for today, I'm getting sleepy.