Aloha !
The day had come. I somewhat dreaded having to this. I dreaded making the lauhala hula skirt that I will be wearing on Sept 15th's performance. I was thankful that Kuani offered to help . Three of us went over to his home in Seaview, The initial plan was for him to show us a spot where we could gather the lauhala leaves and then quickly give us a demo on how to prepare it to attach to a waistband made of hemp cording to make a hula skirt. Well, it ended up being six hours of continuous work , of which I am so very grateful both to Kuani and to Ulu .
When we arrived at Kuani's home, he walked us down the street to jungle land . I wasn't prepared to walk into the ' jungle ' as all I was wearing was my flipflops. And well, instead of wearing jeans so that I don''t get bitten by mosquitoes and fire ants, I was wearing a strapless short dress. This was what I wore every day if I wasn't working in the kitchen. Never expected to have to actually get the brown lauhala leaves , only expected to be shown the location , as that was all that was implied. Well, we had to walk into the jungle just a tiny bit to get to the hala trees . There were long lauhala leaves everywhere . It was the best place to get the fallen brown lauhala which is what was needed to make the hula skirt. Some of the leaves were more than 7 feet long. Some were probably 10 feet long. The reason I dreaded this was because the lauhala leaves have very sharp spiky ends on both sides of the leaves, and also tiny sharp ones on the back spine of the leaves . Oh fun. I had brought 10 brown lauhala leaves that I had picked from Kalani. We use the brown fallen ones for the hula skirt. All in all, by the end of the day, I had gathered an additional 35 more brown lauhala leaves with the help of Kuani . I dragged them to the truck , literally. They were very long , and menacingly sharp. The lauhala leaves picked had to be simular in shade of colour, no holes or rips in the leaves. They had to be perfect. That took time to find the good ones.
Kuani showed us how to strip the spikies. We used gardening shears to cut the spikes off each side of the leaves , and then a small towel to rub against the spine spikes in the opposite direction to remove them. But first, we had to soak the leaves in water to soften them to make them more pliable to work with . We used the hose and Kuani had a huge garbage can that he filled with water so that we could soak the lauhala leaves in. When I say leaves, imagery of maple, oak , apple and peach comes to mind. Lauhala leaves cannot be compared to them visually. Its like comparing lychees to watermelons. Speaking of which , Kalani has huge avocadoes growing near the Loft. Huge. Huge , organic and delicious. I mean huge. but it looks like avocadoes on steroids. But back to lauhala .
Kuani tied a clothesline between two palm trees. He then tied a prepared waistband made out of braided hemp ( length measurement of one's waistline plus 5 inches on each side , ten inches in total , using 9 lengths of hemp cord and braiding them using three strands per section for braiding , to make one very long braided thick braid to be used as a waistband. ) He marked off where the actual waist measurement would be , going in 5 inches on each side. Another braided hemp was done, this time , 6 yards long , but thinner than the waistband braid. With this 6 yard braided hemp cord, he went 5 inches in and started tying the lauhala leaves, first tying a knot several times to secure it . and then tying on each lauhala leaf on one by one , folding each over the waistband , with the smooth spineless part of the lauhala leaf being front facing. When you reach the other marking for the 5 inches remaining on the waistband, you stop, and tie a few knots to keep the entire lauhala ties from shifting. Once it is all tied on , it is trimmed to the right length, approximately 10 inches from the ground or just below a pa'u skirt that is worn underneath.
I was so grateful that Kuani helped me Soraya and Ulu with the lauhala skirt. Towards the end, he stripped a bunch for me and both him and Ulu helped me by removing all the tiny spikes from the lauhala leaves spines.
It was 6 hours of straight work. I now ahve all my lauhala leaves prepared. I have made my waistband. Now , all I have left is to make the 6 yards of hemp braid , tie on the prepared lauhala leaves and then trim then . What a great relief !!!!!!!! After the trimming , I have to iron the lauhala leaves on the skirt flat with a very hot iron. The lauhala skirt looks very primal. It is beautiful when you dance with it on as it makes a soft woody sound and moves with every subtle movement of one's body . I danced with a borrowed lauhala hula skirt at Puuhonua o Honaunau .
Oh happy day ! Didn't have lunch but all the lauhala leaves are prepared !!!!!! So very happy happy happy ! And better still , no injuries ! I was wearing some tough gardening gloves !
And earlier in the morning, as I was waiting for Soriya to pick me up , I was walking just outside Guest Sevices and I missed getting hit by a falling palm frond by a mere 2 feet. That's pretty damn close for my liking. Scared the daylights out of me. Its not like you get a warning or anything. The palm fronds are huge . I know they weigh a lot . This one fell from a very tall palm tree. I asked Barcus at dinner how much a palm frond weighed and he told me between 50 to 100 pounds, depending on the size. Well, the one that fell a few feet away from me probably weighed about 75 pounds . Its length was the width of the road , that's how big it was. Holy crapola ! It could have killed me. Seriously .
I know I have angels all around me. Thank you God for keeping me safe !
With much Aloha,
x0x0x0x0x0x0
Molly
.
No comments:
Post a Comment