The Race Marked Out

First, community outreach has been going really well.  It's nice to have our entire staff involved in outreach projects all over the island.  I've been doing a variety of things in the past few weeks, from helping a woman move into a house to picking up trash on the back roads of Haiku.  

Last weekend, I got the chance to see Paul and Rachelle Vriend, two of my friends who just got married.  Since they were both on staff with YWAM Maui, we had a little cookout for them this past Saturday.  It was really great to see them, especially since most of us wanted to go their wedding but couldn't afford to fly to Pennsylvania for just two or three days.

Speaking of weddings, it seems like all of my friends here are getting married.  One of my roommates, Kyle, is leaving tomorrow to get married, and another friend, Josh, is leaving in about two weeks to get married in August.  Its exciting for them, but at the same time, sad to see so many friends leave so quickly.  We've been trying to go camping and spear-fishing a lot lately (our favorite pastimes here because both are fun and cheap!) and have been trying to catch sharks, although we haven't had any luck yet...

For my Hawaiian item of the week, I picked stand up paddle-boarding, which is a sister sport of surfing.  I tried this for the first time this weekend at our cookout, and it was fun, but challenging.  Stand up Paddle-boards (SUPs) were made popular by local big wave surfing legend Laird Hamilton, and are like really long, thick surfboards that you paddle with a tall carbon fiber or wood paddle.  A lot of surfers use them in the off season to stay in shape, or just as an alternative to regular surfing (it's an expensive sport; most SUPs cost about $1000- $1500, yikes!) .  They look easy, but they're actually really hard to stay up on, especially when the water is choppy.  It's a really good workout, helps with your balance, and is just plain fun!