Tinned Fish and Breadfruit Trees and so starts the beginning of my travel blog.
Today is my last day in Oahu, Hawaii, the most populated island of the Hawaiian island chain. About 75% of the population resides here, probably because of the agriculture and tourism industry. Agriculture does not have as much as a stronghold as it used to, approximately 5% of the world's pineapples are produced here today. Huge sugar plantations were once part of the Hawaiian landscape but today those are no longer in operation due to variables such as competition from cheaper labor employed by sugar processing corporations based out of South Asian countries. And so goes the colonial trajectory... I can't even say post-colonial because the Hawaiian Monarchy was overthrown and annexed and remains so today. We had a speaker who came to talk to us about the Hawaiian sovereignty movement just the other day. As someone who is very interested in land issues, it surprises me that Hawaii is rarely, if ever, mentioned in college classes about land movements, even though it is in our backyard so to speak.
I should probably mention the purpose of keeping a blog. I'm traveling to study abroad in the South Pacific with the School for International Learning. I am here with eleven other American students. A point of intrigue is that there is only one male student. A lecturer the other day mentioned that as far as study abroad programs go, the more remote or dangerous a program site is, the more skewed the gender ratio is towards women. Huh...? Most of us are from the Northeast though there are some from the Midwest, South, and Northwest parts of US.
My academic director has really urged us to distance ourselves from technology, our families and friends, and our old habits in order to really immerse ourselves in the South Pacific and especially Samoa. If I am to do that, I think my blog posts may be few and far between. I really want to share all of my experiences and insights with everyone but I think I will have to keep a few of those to myself. I hope my blog offers a glimpse into South Pacific life that cannot be obtained by internet, youtube, or television.
I'm hungry now. Fooding time...
