Always Running A-fowl

Our neighbors across the street have a pterodactyl.

At least that's the conclusion I came to shortly after I moved in. And I've been listening to the thing screeching a few times a day for most of the 280 or so days since.

I figure it's not outside the realm of possibility, given the Jurassic-like forests here and on the rest of the islands. Still, Larry thought I was crazy because the thing never squawked when he was around. 

But he's also the one who at one point remarked, "There are no birds here." So I think we can agree his powers of observation are flawed. 

Because there are birds everywhere. 

I'm not even counting the omnipresent roosters, hens, and chicks. If you've been to Maui you know what I'm talking about. 

They're constantly strutting through neighborhoods, darting across streets, and strolling through shopping center parking lots. 

(And contrary to what you've been told, roosters as alarm clocks is a fallacy. They crow whenever and however often they like.)

The Polynesians who settled Hawaii brought junglefowl with them. Europeans brought domestic chickens. Several cultures brought fighting chickens. The birds bred and were released or escaped and now there is a strong population of feral fowl all over Maui.

This was a recent posting on Craigslist

But there are also the egrets I see every morning on my walks, the doves that are constantly stalking across our yard, and the only birds remotely approaching the number of feral chickens--the myna birds.

I set up a bird feeder many months ago to keep the cats entertained, so we get a steady stream now of sparrows and finches. 

I'm no ornithologist, but I know Maui is an important migration stop for birds. Recently, I've seen a growing number of cardinals.  A few months ago, I visited the Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge; a protected wetland area with an ever-changing population. I saw an early-season black-crowned night heron and was super excited.

This must be what real bird-watchers feel, I thought.

It was almost as exciting as taking my penguin-loving friend visiting from California a couple of weeks ago to see the resident penguins at the Marriott resort. 

That's right, seven penguins living in an open enclosure in the hotel lobby!

So whether they were brought here or made their way here on their own, it's obvious Maui is as much home to feathered friends as it is to the rest of us. (Despite Larry's blinders.)

Oh, and the pterodactyl? 

Larry says he caught a glimpse of a supersized parrot-like creature in a large cage on that neighbor's front porch. Given that their front porch is hidden behind a forbidding wall of foliage, I remain unconvinced.

Then again, it's Maui. Anything's possible.

Pōpolo

Last May, a few weeks after I moved to Maui, I was at Safeway in line to check out. There was a German couple in front of me and I was a bit lost in thought about how my worlds kept intersecting. Then the cashier, an older African-American man, asked me how I was enjoying my visit.

"Oh, I live here," I said.

With a look of shock, he asked, "How long have you been here??"

I told him it'd only been a few weeks. With a look of relief he said, "Oh, ok, because I haven't seen you around."

A couple of weeks ago, I volunteered to be part of the break-down crew for the annual Whale Days festival. While I was hurrying from one finished task to find another, I was intercepted by two young African-American women I'd seen in passing earlier in the afternoon.

We introduced ourselves and talked briefly about our Maui experiences and, as they were leaving, they noted that "we just had to find you and say hi. You know, when we see one of 'us'."

"The blacker the berry..."

Pōpolo is endemic to Hawaii and 

the Hawaiian word for black people

There have been smaller but similar incidents in between these two. And though I'd wondered and then shrugged it off before, the question finally got to me:

Just how many black people live on Maui that folks are keeping track?

According to the last census: 0.8% of the population in Maui County (that's across four islands, three of which are inhabited), is black.

With an estimated 165,000 people in the county, that's a population only about 1.5 times the size of my high school graduating class.

African Americans came to the islands in the 1800s like so many others to work the plantations. Although the labor conditions may have been better, social conditions for blacks here were said to be little better than they were in the mainland south.

And, of course, it's a LOOOONG way from the support network that most African Americans cultivate.

Hawaii is known for its multicultural makeup. Centuries of international immigrants have resulted in a unique melange that defies easy classification.

A scholar on African Americans in Hawaii wrote, "never underestimate the racial complexity of modern Hawaii." Reportedly, in the 1940s, the local NAACP chapter's members were mostly identified as Japanese, not African American!

I've spent most of my life living as an "other." I don't get as much of a sense of that here because there are so many brown people around. But I realized that when I see other African Americans walking through downtown Lahaina or at one of the resorts or on the beach, I assume they're tourists.

At best, it's my own acknowledgment that not many non-Asian/Polynesian people of color live here. At worst, it's an ugly accumulated bias.

Every day this month my sister has been emailing our family blurbs about notable African Americans. It's been a great opportunity to learn and be inspired, especially in these uncertain and seemingly intolerant times.

I'm trying to learn more. The list of famous Hawaiians is not long, and the list of famous black Hawaiians seems to start and end with Barack Obama.

But I discovered that there's a monument here on Maui to honor African Americans in Hawaii. So, a visit to that memorial park is now on my Maui bucket list.

Because it's good to know the history of the place where you live. But it's even better when you can find some sense of self to help you proudly find your place.


Happy Black History Month!