Ho'olauna Program- Kamehameha Schools

Ok, so, I'd like to talk about this little summer camp thing I just did.  ho'olauna means "discovery" and the week long field trip thing is for kids to learn a little culture- as in hawaiian (language, history, values).  They learn chants and songs in hawaiian, go on excursions to historic sites, and get worked (ie; planting and harvesting taro all day, weaving lau hala, etc). 

As the nurse, i'm pretty set.  i'm there for registration to talk to the moms about their ADD and asthma kids and meds and so on.  Then, from the next day on, i show up for two hours in the morning and night (breakfast and dinner) to give meds, sun protection stuff (but they are all native hawaiian so they don't really know what that is), and fix the occasional bumps and bruises.  I am "on call" from dinner until breakfast and they rarely called me (by "calling" I mean knocking on the adjoining hotel room door).  Between breakfast and dinner, I'm on my own and they give me my own hotel room for the week.  NOT BAD.  I would actually hang around sometimes and listen to what the kids were doing that particular day.  Its so interesting and hearing kids sing prayers and things in hawaiian is really pretty.

The only problems:  (1) Its about an hour and a half from home, so I was sort of stuck and (2) for some reason, as soon as i got there, those pregnancy migraines woke up in full force.  It actually worked out though cause with that hotel room, i just treated every hour as if it was night. Curtains closed, lights out, TV on, sometimes on mute.  AND Brooks was awesome, coming to visit me a bunch, bringing munchies, crossword puzzle books, and all that fun stuff.

Here's the funny part, and the reason for this picture.  This is the name tag the staff wore all week.  In hawaii, kids call basically any "elders" aunty (not aunt) or uncle.  Our friend's kids call us aunty whitney and uncle brooks.  It's cute.  I really like it and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.  So, anytime a kid, whether i know him or not, calls me aunty, i smile. Its also a bit of a respect thing.  These hawaiians respect their elders--I'll be!!  So walking around the hotel, a little boy in the program would say, "aunty, good morning.  can i please have another bandaid for my foot?"  Adorable.

So the first or second day of this camp thing, we're in the cafeteria and I hear a little female voice say, "come on aunty whitney, lets go eat". I turn around, and what do you know, its a staff member.  I have never had anything close to this happen, not even in hawaii where aunty/uncle are as common as ma'am, miss, hey you...  

I'm just getting over waiters looking at me, obviously trying to decide if they should give me a kids menu or not.  I'm little, right? WRONG.  And I always look young, right?  Apparently not anymore. 

I thought it might've been a slip so i just smiled and went with her to eat (i wouldn't want to offend). But then, every time she talked to me as with some of the other staff, i was "Aunty Whitney".  I come to find out most of the staff either just graduated from high school (as in last month) or are in college.  That made me feel a little better. I just thought this aging process would be a lot more gradual.  I go from people assuming I'm a little sister, to being on the verge of them offering to help me cross the street.  A little alarming.