Today for my history class we went on a field trip to Kahana Bay where we worked in taro fields. I didn't realize before but Kahana Bay is my proclaimed favorite part of the island. As we pass the bay and construction on the highway and turn the slight corner with the little water reserve on our left I like to look up at the mountians and marval at their beauty. I feel the trees are extra green at that exact spot... but maybe it's just me. =)
Anyways so after hiking down this road we got to a spot much like the one pictured above (couldnt carry my camera, knowing it would get extremely muddy, so I got this pic off of google) where there were four individual taro patches. Two already had taro plants growing in them and the other two were overgrown with weeds. My group went straight to one of the overgrown ones and preceded to chop out all the weeds (that were more like sticks) and stomp them in the mud withour bare feet. I've always had this dream to stomp grapes with my feet (though I really really REALLY hate feet) so I imagine stomping weeds into mud is much like the same thing.
I had such a blast! There were huge ugly bugs, worms, and lots of random stuff in the mud... including a bathtub! Yes, a real metal bathtub. Cool huh, our group dug it out and underneith it was a ugly lil catfish swimming around in the tiny mud puddle. No clue on earth how it got there. But I found it fasinating.
After I got thigh deep in mud and blisters from the shovels on my hand we got to jump in the little cannal to the side of the fields. Felt so good, it was a beautiful day outside. Another group was using little michettes to cut tall grass that had overgrown it. We in the water pretty much became human dams filterin the cut grass to the other side.
All in all... BEST FIELD TRIP EVER!
How many students in college go on field trips to work in a muddy taro field? I love my school!!!
