Today was going to be a slow and easy day for us. After that very strenuous hike yesterday our legs were a bit sore. We had a leisurely morning and then got in the car to go check out a sugar plantation and mill. We made a couple of stops before our final destination. One stop was the Macadamia Nut Farm that we stopped at a couple of days ago. While walking around we walked into a different section that we did not see before. There we found several of the performers from last night's Chief's Luau--including the chief. I turns out that this Macadamia Nut Farm is their head quarters and they all life just up the road. This was Tuesday and the place had very few tourists so we were able to spend some time with the Chief Hansom. It turns out that he is a real Samoan chief and he comes from a long line of Samoan chief's. His father, grand father, and great grand father, and great great grand fathers were all chiefs. He must return to Samoa (American Samoa) because his tribal lands are being taken over and being taxed by the government. As one of the Chiefs he has a lot of weight when it comes to governmental affairs. He spoke to us about what it means to be a chief and one of the things he said was that a chief is a leader and a leader is a servant to his people. Sound familiar? That's a biblical principle (Mark 10:43-45).
We asked him about their religious beliefs and were we surprised! He said that his people have always believed in many god's but had always knew that there was one supreme god. In the 1800's Christian missionaries came to his islands and his people embraced Christianity. In the luau when he speaks of of the "gods" he is referring to his ancient culture. Then he showed us three small crosses that were tattooed in the small of his back. He pointed to them and said that they represent the true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
This is pretty much where the conversation ended because a tour bus showed up and everyone wanted to take their picture with the chief. There is so much more we wanted to ask him about, but that will have to wait until next time.
We drove to the Sugar plantation and mill and found nothing but a couple of old run down building and shops. There once was a sugar mill here but not any more. Disappointed we returned home and I did some body surfing in the clear and warm tropical waters.
So not much sight seeing today except for one weird palm tree that looks like a giant hand held fan. I looked it up and it is called the Traveler's Tree or Travelers Palm. But it's not really a palm tree at all. It is native to Madagascar and it is related to the Bird-of-Paradise family. But it still looks pretty cool.
That's it for today. Tomorrow snorkeling. But first we have to make lodging arrangements for the weekend as it looks like we might not be able to get a flight out. There are no flights on Friday yet, so we have to be prepared. Oh darn...we have to stay in Hawaii a bit longer.
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