Flat Mary Day 6

 Day 6 - Wednesday, March 19:

Bishop Museum; Sisters In Crime/Hawaii Meeting

 

Bernice Pauahi Paki was a princess and the last heir of the Kamehameha dynasty. Everyone called her Princess Pauahi. She married Charles Reed Bishop, an American banker in Hawaii. They lived in the family estate called Haleakala which means ‘pink house.’ In 1889, her husband had the Bernice P. Bishop Museum built in her memory.

 

Bernice P. Bishop Museum   

     

                                                                              Princess Pauahi

 

The museum building has lots of rooms. I didn’t want to get lost so I held onto Auntie’s hand.

 

  

   

 

In the first room, I saw a Ni’ihau Shell Lei Collection. Ni’ihau is a small private island where only Hawaiian people live. No one else is allowed on the island unless they are invited. I really liked the Kaneikokala stone. It looked scary but it was safe for me to stand next to it.

The ceiling in the first room was three floors high. A mean-looking shark hung from above.

 

Heiau site

 

The sign by what looked like a village said that heiau are sacred sites where gifts are offered to the gods. Some heiau were for agriculture, healing, or warfare. There are many heiau on the Hawaiian Islands. Some are hidden and some are open for people to see. Auntie has visited heiau on Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and the Big Island of Hawaii.

 

  

Hale Pili, Grass House - a traditional Hale Moe or sleeping house

 

The wood floor on the second level of the museum has a map of the Pacific Ocean. The map shows where the Polynesian people sailed around the ocean. Capes made of yellow and red bird feathers are on display behind glass cabinets. The capes were only worn by royalty.

 

 

  

  

We walked upstairs to the third level. A large video screen shows pictures of the ocean. A canoe hung down from the ceiling. A humongous bottlenose whale is up there, too. There was so much to see, I forgot some of it before I could write it in my journal. Everything on display is very old. On this floor, most of the items are from places like Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and Fiji.

             

        

Guess who the special guest at Bishop Museum was this month: Doraemon, the Japanese robotic time-traveling cat and world ambassador! We watched Doraemon video cartoons and read Doraemon comic books and played Doraemon computer games.

 

  

 

   

 

   

Bishop Museum J. Watumull Planetarium

 

We went inside the Planetarium last. The ceiling was a big round dome. The chairs leaned back so I didn’t have to bend my neck to look up. The show we saw was called The Sky Tonight. After everyone sat down, the lights went out. I couldn’t see anything. Then someone turned on a light and the ceiling was filled with bright stars. Some of them were bigger than others. Some even twinkled. I liked those best. The speaker said the stars we were looking at were just like the ones in the night sky in Hawaii now.

 

The room went dark again. I almost fell asleep because the chair was so comfortable. Then music started to play. I opened my eyes and saw something else was on the ceiling. It was a movie about how the voyaging canoe Hokuleˋa sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti, using only the stars for direction. Sometimes the ocean waves splashed over the canoe or tossed it around. I would have been scared. The people in the canoe were good at keeping it from tipping. They all arrived home safe.

  

   

ONE OCEAN, ONE PEOPLE

In 1976, a fledgling group calling themselves the Polynesian Voyaging Society set out to prove the scholars wrong. They took to the seas for the first time in over 600 years, sailing on a 62 foot replica of a double hulled voyaging canoe named Hokuleˋa.

In the evening, we went to a Sisters In Crime meeting. It is a nation-wide group of people who like to read and write mystery stories. Auntie is president of the Hawaii Chapter. They meet the third Wednesday of each month at the Makiki Community Library. Other times they meet for special events like answering telephones for the Hawaii Public Radio fund raiser and Makiki Library book sales.

 

I helped set up for the meeting. We hung a Sisters In Crime banner. I put the sign-up sheet on one of the tables. We also had donuts for people to eat. Before everyone arrived, I checked out the children’s section. A big green frog sat on a chair in one corner. He was real friendly. I looked at the Easter books on the shelf. That was fun. When people came to the meeting, I showed them where to sign their names.

  

   

After everyone found a place to sit, we introduced ourselves. I said my name was Flat Mary and I was from Minnesota. Everyone was happy that I came to visit them in Hawaii. I told them I was in second grade at Kaleidoscope Charter School - Hills.

 

Rosemary and Larry introduced themselves next. Rosemary is the Secretary of Sisters in Crime/Hawaii. Larry is a retired engineer. They write mystery stories together. They give their novels fun names like Boston Scream Pie and Hot Grudge Sunday.

 

Another member, Kent, is a retired doctor and scientist. He writes science fiction novels. He wrote one about pigs and heart transplants, but it is for adults to read. Rose was an Air Force officer during the Vietnam Era. She writes about nurses in World War I. Auntie Gail was a police officer in Elk River, Minnesota before she moved to Hawaii. She uses information from her training to write mystery stories.

 

I asked if I would ever be able to write a story. Rosemary said I could write a story any time I wanted to. She said the more I read. the better I will write, because reading and writing go hand in hand. Maybe I could write a story about my trip to Hawaii. I thought about the lucky nickel I found in Waikiki. If something lucky happens to me while I am in Hawaii, maybe I will write about that.

*****