Acquaintances made on Thebus

You know how they say that every stranger is merely a friend you havn't met yet? And you know how thats complete bullshit? Most strangers are either complete a-holes, or simply people you wouldnt get along with anyway. Thing in Hawaii, though, is that people talk to you on the street or on Thebus whether you want them to or not. In Denmark you get the impression that its more or less considered a capital crime to talk to the person next to you on the bus. Just look straight ahead and be quiet. That way you wont bother anyone, and you wont be bothered. In Hawaii the person next to you on the bus almost always greets you with a "howsit?" (Which im pretty sure means "how is it?" meaning "How is it going?" - people usually seem content with the answer "fine thanks" so im sticking to my interpretation for now) and you always end up talking to some stranger. As mentioned above this is not always a blessing. People are weird. End of story. But from time to time you really do get to meet really interesting people you almost certainly would not otherwise have run into.

This sunday as I was heading for my Kokohead-hike, I ran into a guy who traveled across the states from farm to farm to learn organic farming first hand. He didnt bring any money so he simply contacted a near by farm of interest, and worked as long as it took him to understand their system, and make enough money for the next flight. This time however he had worked for an ex-marine turned farmer in Waimanalo, and hadnt much liked it. So he was moving on with no plan and no money. He was however very eager to talk about what he had learned. The ex-marine ran an aquaponics farm, which basically consists of a closed system of water and plants that you perpetuately enrich and clean in order to produce zero-waste and food. The system requires power but apart from that is clean. Absurdely Hawaii imports incredible amounts of fruit and vegetables. Meat for instance is much cheaper overhere than bananas. Bananas are grown in large amounts in Hawaii, but most of them are exported, so they have to import fresh ones from the mainland to meet demand... This is the way it has always been, and therefore this absurd system is still in operation. The organic farmers of Hawaii cant sell their products because they cant compete with the GMO fruit (genetically modified organisms) coming from the mainland. Furtunately the organic Hawaiian farmer are organizing, and trying to get a political voice. Job opportunity? Quite possibly.