Maui

I am long overdue for a post, so sorry! I have been in Maui for the past five weeks and I did not bring a laptop so using the internet has been very difficult! Finally, I get to post something...

I have been doing a work exchange here in Maui at a place called Kahua Institute. Kahua institute is a retreat center that is off the grid, solar powered, and environmentally conscious. I work here 24 hours per week in exchange for a place to stay in Maui. My duties range from cleaning, landscaping, weeding, etc. I have found Maui to be a healing place to live. Raw foods are abundant not only in the health food stores but on the sides of the street there are avocado trees and a big fruit in season right now is passion fruit which is amazing! There is a dirt road I take quite often and each time I walk it I am able to find some passion fruit to snack on which is wonderful! It is a sweet and sour tasting fruit and has lots of seeds inside of it. The people here are all on the same page of me, interested in natural living, taking care of the environment and following your heart, listening to your intuition so it is easy to make friends out here. A typical work week is Monday through Friday from 9 - 2 pm. After that there is time for meditating, yoga or finding an adventure. I have had some great adventures here, hiking to a 130 foot waterfall in Hana and sticking my head under neath, talk about a rush, camping trips, the black sand beach, or just going to the beach. I find that my body is physically healthier out here because of the cleaner environment.

I have been able to eat a lot of raw foods here and have a smoothie every morning. You can get free food if you are good at foraging or if you have a neighbor farmer but produce is pretty expensive out here if you have to but it. I have made a friends with a raw food chef who works at a health food store called Mana. This little store has a deli case with lots of delicious raw pies, chocolate truffles, veggie wraps, pizzas, etc which are all raw and wonderful. I was given an opportunity to prepare raw food for an event at a local retreat center called Hale Akua. I made a basil pesto pizza, sun dried flax bread and passion fruit cheeze cake. It was exciting to get paid to create raw food for the first time and it was fun to get my hands in the kitchen again with access to a vitamixer and excalibur dehydrator. Overall the food was a success and I had my first client :-).

Well, that is the news here in Maui I hope to post again soon.