Thursdays With Bro. C.-Birds and Tattoos!

Today we talked about birds and tattoos with Bro. C. After I asked him about Egrets we went on to talk about Sheerwater (night flyer's), Mina Birds(so noisy and everywhere), Cardinals (very red and beautiful), Owls (I saw one flying up at Kokee) and lots and lots of Doves. All the streets in Kekaha have bird names. Ho'omau Street means long and ever lasting Phoenix. Ele ele is Black Bird. Elapiao is Yellow Black Bird. We live on Iwipolena and I have forgotten what that means. Oh well, I will ask him next week. There are lots and lots of birds here and they are always singing. Brother C. says the "tree hugger's" here have made such a fuss about Sheerwater's flying at night and hitting the lights in the football stadiums they can no longer hold games at night just in the afternoon or early evening. Poor birds you'd think they would learn their lesson. Now for tattoos. Tattoos were used to identify a person and link them to a tribe or family. Anciently a piece of bone tied to a stick or a sharpened stick was used as a tattoo "needle." The design was pounded into the skin using a mallet. The ink or dye was made using the ground kukui nut or sugar cane juice. Tattoo's were used as a protection by ancient warriors. The designs were made so they would look savage, fierce and frighten their opponents during battle. Tattoos were also used as a sign of social class. For example, slaves were tattooed across the bridge of their nose. Wow! We can't believe all the interesting things we are learning about these beautiful islands and their beautiful people.