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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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Aloha- It's actually April 22 that I'm writing this entry for a trip to Waipio that took place on Feb 17th. It's been over 2 months since I updated this last- at some point school became SCHOOL and I began juggling hw with all sorts of random volunteering stuff around the island. It's been a great 2 months overall... when I'm not traveling or studying, I've also been applying for scholarships, watching movies and tv shows with friends when the rain gets crazy, and keeping in touch with friends and family via the phone or email.
On Feb 17th, the housing folks took a bunch of students, myself included out to Waipio Valley. Pictures always make even the grandest geographic marvels look small- when looking at these pics of Waipio Valley, keep in mind that I was VERY VERY high off the ground and looking down at the valley from a bird's eye view.
The road down into the valley is so steep that you had to lean back with your butt almost touching the asphalt as you walked. The road was narrow and curvy, so there were "stop points" for walkers to stand behind so that the trucks venturing in and out wouldn't hurt us. Most of the trucks were tourists, or surfers, or locals who wanted to watch a body-surfing competition on the valley's beach. But a few trucks belonged to people who actually live in the valley! I would assume all of these people are farmers or ranchers, because the valley is lush and there were horses everywhere roaming freely.
At the bottom of the valley, we ran into a silly horse who was quite the skilled beggar. He/She had no fear of us at all- but approached us, let us pat her, and we took advantage of the photo opp! That was back when I had a nose piercing so you might see a little silver dot (it fell out in a mean Hapuna wave the very next day).
Unfortunately, our trip to Waipio was not as smooth as we had hoped. Venturing through the valley towards the ocean, two of my friends decided to climb up onto a shelf of lush greenery and rock (I think to take pictures)- my friends Megan and I stayed back to watch and take pics. Jess made it up totally fine, and was reaching her hand down to help Mel climb up to her level when Mel put her other hand on a loose boulder and it rolled out directly on top of her. She screamed and ran/rolled down the shelf as the rest of us yelped and rushed forward- when Mel and the boulder had come to a stop Jess was already leaping down the shelf, Megan and I were rushing forward, and Mel was clutching her hand and shaking and it's a miracle that almost nothing was injured severely- but her left hand was smashed pretty bad and was bleeding profusely- it was like a movie cut, with blood actually coming out onto me as I looked and then ran to get help. And by "get help" I mean running toward the rest of our group screaming "I NEED THE FIRST AID KIT RIGHT NOW". I ran by a truck, whose driver was calling out, "what's going on?" but didn't pay any attention to him because I was so focused on getting to the first aid kit. It only took a minute or two for us to return to Mel, but in that time the truck driver had gotten Mel's hand wrapped, put her in his truck with Jess, and was ready to drive them out of the valley to the hospital.
It turns out this truck driver was one of the two resident orthopedic surgeons on the Big Island! He'd been in the valley that day to watch the body-surfing contest. He had Mel in surgery within 2 hours, and he also has a practice in Hilo so since the accident he's been able to take care of her on a regular basis. Now I'm not a religious person, but when I think about what could have been different if Mel had had to hike the steep valley wall for an hour with that kind of injury, or if the truck driver hadn't known the island well enough to get her to a close hospital, or if he hadn't been an orthopedic doctor... I just don't think that that's just luck.
Mel was one of our student leaders and van drivers, so after we'd hiked to the top of the valley we had to wait for the school to send out a backup driver. It wasn't a bad wait since we were sitting overlooking one of the most gorgeous places in the US. On the ride home, we called the hospital and learned that Mel's hand had been severely broken. Jess stayed with her all day and was a rock solid support for her. That afternoon and night, she used the housing videocamera to make Mel a video of her friends arriving at the hospital to be with her, and of her friends back on campus waiting for news on her condition. She stayed in the hospital for almost a week, and for more than a month she's had to take it easy on her hand. But she'll be ok!
previous travel blog entry
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