November 2006

From the Editor...

Rochelle delaCruz

Like many of you, I spent the Sunday of the 6.7 earthquake in front of my television, watching for news and images following the BIG one. Earlier and blissfully unaware, I had called my mother shortly after the quake hit and when she picked up, I said, “So what’s new?” She answered, “EARTHQUAKE!” which sent me scurrying to turn on my TV. Several of the stations were reporting it, but CNN had a live feed from KITV in Honolulu, which was the only station up and running. They were asking people to call and send in photos, and as I listened to the calls and watched the photos arrive all afternoon, I started to think that maybe it was a lucky day after all in Hawai`i Nei. Of course, it was possible that the people suffering real damage were too busy dealing with it instead of calling radio and TV stations, but as the week went on, it became clear that while there was damage to some buildings and roads, there were no fatalities or even serious injuries. Whoever heard of such a thing, after a 6.7 earthquake! As I was trying to figure out how to tell this story for da pepa, I realized that this in fact, was the story: A 6.7 earthquake hits all the Hawaiian Islands, but no one is seriously hurt. And that phrase I heard a lot when I was growing up in Hilo came to mind. So ey…lucky you live Hawai`i!

On this side of the Pacific, other things were happening, like success stories about Cyndi Pa, Warren Arakaki and Doktar Fred, not to mention fun events in the Tri-Cities and Portland. And yes, I know this is the month for Thanksgiving, but with the focus on the earthquake, who could think about turkey? What you got instead - with the help of my friend Vinnie - are two pages about guava. Where else but in the Northwest Hawai`i Times hah? So for turkey day, you can make guava bars or chiffon pie and we can be thankful that all our friends and family in Hawai`i survived the big one. ~RdC

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