A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT PRESIDENTIAL INDUCTION SERVICE

 

Friday, July 6, 2018

 

Imagine you are six floors above Wailuku at One Main Plaza on the rooftop at Main Street. To your right are the West Maui Mountains and the ingress to this historical Iao Valley in all its glory. These “Misty Mountains”, as I call them, are in full majesty as a soft, grey cloud hovered atop the valley entrance. No rays of the setting sun from Lahaina will pierce this cloud cover today. Ridges of dark, forest-green dip into gorges and sprinkled across them are the pale, green, silvery-leaves of kukui tree groves here and there. 

 

Kumu, Pastor and Hawaiian Practitioner, Laki Ka'ahumanu’s three loud blasts of ceremonial conch shell called our attention to why we’ve gathered in this place. He called up the youngest member there—a 15 year old, as his acolyte to hold the Monkeypod bowl. Kumu shared with us how Hawaiians used the kukui nut—the squeezed sap and oil dropped onto the tongue for all manner of ailments, kukui oil representing protection, peace, enlightenment as well as being the Tree of Light—its oil used for small, stone bowl oil lamps. If the white insides of the nuts are roasted and crushed it becomes a spice called ‘inamona. ’Inamona still remains a key ingredient in poke, a popular dish made with raw fish and limu (seaweed). He held a bowl of water in which there was a mixture of kukui oil (symbol of wisdom and light) and alaea—the red salt for “Purpose”—as in, what Purpose do we bring to our Rotarian duties. This is the essence of Kuleana, our responsibility or why we walk this earth. Alaea is also used in religious cleansing.

 

Into this bowl, he dipped a small ti leaf to bless the space and offered the Hawaiian blessing for our dinner of heavy pupus and wine. He then invited us all to come forward to wash our hands in this blessed water. We nibbled and Talked Story, they were introduced to the new president of the Kamakura club in Japan; he is the CEO of a major brewery who courageously read his comments in halting English, stopping often to consult a colleague. This contingent of Rotarians was here visiting Maui and staying in Lahaina. 

District Governor Win Schoneman then called up each 2018-19 President in alphabetical order to take their oaths and congratulate them individually. A certificate and a hug and the next President were called up. In the middle of this ceremony, the clouds that hovered above the rooftop sent down a gentle mist—a further blessing. Minutes later, it became a soft rain and the party-goers scattered down to the elevator and our cars before the official 7:30 ending. No official photographer was there, only a few members and visitors taking candid shots; congratulatory handshakes and aloha hugs all around. A special thanks to our club’s members who attended to support me—Mahalo nui!

Submitted by Joanne Doell, President of Rotary Club of Kihei-Wailea, 2018-2019