Paikuli-Stride ʻOhana

 

We are a family of ten living in Luluku, where we grow kalo, ʻuala, yams, ʻolena and other foods and medicines. 

 

We are grateful to have eight beautiful children. We thank our Heavenly Father each day that he allows us to live the way that we do with our family. We truly feel rich in many other ways than the “almighty dollar”, such as love, ‘ohana, and experiences that enrich our lives and those we love.

 

Because of certain difficulties during Noe’s first pregnancy, we were led to a more natural way of living, beginning with the home birth of our eldest son, Lokahi, who is almost 16 now. This was a decision Noe was sure about and Mark’s love for her was in full support of what she was inspired to do. We were very nervous for many different reasons, but we were under the guidance of our friend and midwife Medra Kanoeonapua, and most of all, Heavenly Father.

As we look back and reflect on these experiences, it is clear how life is such a miracle, so precious, and for us it has helped us to have more faith in our Heavenly Father and in each other. Since then, we have delivered our other seven children at home. The decision to deliver our own children has been one of the healthiest decisions we have made for our ‘ohana. It has helped to bring us to a better grounding both physically and spiritually in our relationship and has helped us to become more pili with each other which has helped to create a healthier home atmosphere and has lead to healthier decisions for our family.

After the birth of our second son, Ho’oikaika, Mark’s mom had a stroke and shortly after that she had an aneurism that took her life. While mom was preparing to leave her earthly life she asked Mark to quit drinking alcohol. This was one of mom’s final pleas and “it took this experience to penetrate my thick hard head to do what I knew was right. I realized years later that her plea was not only for me but for my beautiful wife, children and future pulapula”.

 

At that time we were not making healthy decisions physically or spiritually. Through mom’s sacrifice, Heavenly Father found his way back into our lives which has led us to make healthier decisions for our family, beginning with ourselves. We made commitments to Heavenly Father and to each other that we would strive to do the best that we can for each other, our kids, and all those we love.

Through these experiences and choices our lives have been led back to traditional (organic) farming and being on the land as a family. We live in such a crucial time. Our children and our families are constantly bombarded by physical and spiritual danger, so creating a safe place to raise and teach our children became a high priority.  We have made commitments and decisions together that have helped us to live a healthier life.  Presently Noe works a regular office job and Mark works on the farm with the children, to create opportunities for the family to be on the land.

Fortunately, after years of trials of our faith and hard work, Ke Akua blessed us with the opportunity to raise our family on the land and grow our own food.  Our family lives on a taro farm and we raise a lot of traditional food staples such as kalo, sweet potato, yams, ho’i’o, banana, avocado, etc. Our kids have all been raised on taro, both poi and luau, usually starting around the age of six months old. Some of the reasons we started gardening, which led to farming, was because of the high prices and limited availability of these foods grown without made-made chemicals.

Our family now lives in Luluku, Kane’ohe where we have the kuleana of a taro farm and surrounding farm lands. It is here that we raise and teach our children as we restore this kuleana. We have been fortunate to work with many wonderful people in the fields of health, nutrition, science and we have been exposed to many different programs pertaining to health and well-being.

 

To have a healthy community, we need to be connected. One of the keys is building our relationships with one another to work together toward the goal of a healthy community.  Building bridges and connections within our community that will lead to positive change.  Getting everyone involved in a healthy, connected way to help the land to produce so that the people can thrive.  We need healthy families; multi-generation is important.  It creates a positive learning environment involving elders, makua, and children working together.   We need land, access to our resources.  This is necessary in order to bring our families together. 

 

As we grow through life, our way to stay healthy is to keep our family connected to the land and live right with God.  Staying connected to the land helps to strengthen our relationship physically and spiritually.  It gives us access to the resources we need to be healthy. 

 

As we all know, there is a lot of information about health but it all begins with a desire and commitment to make healthier decisions. We hope to never forget the things that we were taught by our kupuna. One phrase that always stands out is, “there is no work greater than the work we do within the walls of our home.”