We're in the Lo'i!

We returned to the ahupua'a of He'eia, on the windward side of the island of O'ahu.  We met Uncle Koa Shultz of The Nature Conservancy who also works for Kako'o 'Oiwi, a culture-based non-profit organization trying to restore taro wetlands to feed the community and take care of the land and sea.

We saw some of the lo'i kalo (taro patches) that they've brought back.  Their vision is to restore more than 180 acres of lo'i kalo to produce kalo and at the same time protect the coral reefs by controlling erosion. Scientists have installed water quality monitoring stations to measure how much silt is going into the ocean after heavy rains.

We wanted to work hard so we soon got into an area that is being prepared to be a lo'i. Notice our bright shirts in the beginning.

With shovels and our bare hands, we started removing dense mats of grass.

We found that teamwork really helps.

And it probably is best not to wear a white shirt, or any shirt for that matter!

After awhile, it didn't really matter what we were wearing because it all turned the same color!

There were some interesting creatures in the mud, including foot-long worms!

After about two hours of work, we finished digging and then walked across the lo'i to stamp down the earth.

 

 Some people took it to the extreme.

All smiles!

'Au 'au time in the stream!

 

All in a day's work. What a great day!