Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ethnic makeup of the area is of complete unimportance to me, to be honest. I am the only white guy in my current neighborhood, and I like it just fine. Diversity attracts me.
It's just that when I did my searches, I found some things that made me uneasy, specifically about blond-haired, blue-eyed, light-skinned kids from the mainland.
We had heard things along these same lines. So we looked into things pretty heavy to. Called and talked with local school officials, spent as much time as possible just talking with local folks, on the beach, in busineses etc. We had also heard that bringing up that we wanted to relocate from the mainland would get doors slammed in our face. Things turned out to be quite the opposite. Every single resident we approached encouraged us to come on over. The company offering me employment can't get me there soon enough. The same with my wife, and my son had no trouble at all interacting with the resident kids. The schools officials we talked with actually seemed a bit insulted regarding the questions of our son being able to fit in. After seeing him interact with the kids his own age that live there I could see why. Perhaps there are areas on other islands or such that such problems my arise but I can't really comment on that with any certainty. Kuau'i showed us absolutly no reason to be overly concerned and in fact the folks there seem to want to encourage people with skills to consider their island as a place to move and call home. Skilled labor is in short supply it seems. Hope our experiences help you. I would certainly encourage you to do some checking about yourself in terms of talking with the schools ( both private and public) and looking into the youth programs such as Little leauge ball, Pop Warner etc if your son likes such things. Our best to you and yours. Hope your experience is as positive as ours has been.
Our kids weren't with us, but we had the same experience. I made some good friends while we were there, all of whom strongly encouraged us to give it a shot. Some said I carried myself like a local. A few guys from Honolulu who work on Kaua'i thought I was a local. Honestly, I have never felt more comfortable or at home, both with the place and the people.
Hey Kani-Lehua, just out of curiosity are you a haole?
i've posted in other threads that i am japanese, portuguese, english, german and hawaiian and maybe irish, dutch or french. my maternal grandmother's family is/was samurai. my paternal great-great-great grandfather (portuguese) started the first coffee mill in kona. my paternal grandmother's lineage pre-dates kamemehmeha I. my ancestor palila was one of kamehameha I's wives. he had many. does this satisfy your curiosity?
i've posted in other threads that i am japanese, portuguese, english, german and hawaiian and maybe irish, dutch or french. my maternal grandmother's family is/was samurai. my paternal great-great-great grandfather (portuguese) started the first coffee mill in kona. my paternal grandmother's lineage pre-dates kamemehmeha I. my ancestor palila was one of kamehameha I's wives. he had many. does this satisfy your curiosity?
There have been so many discussions here about this recently that, when I went to the "Cool Kailua Nights" party in downtown Kailua last night, I scanned the crowd to get an idea of the mix. I would have guessed about 70% Haole, and about 30% Local.
If I had seen you there, Kani-Lehua, where would I have put you in that mix? (You have to factor in the fact that I've been in Hawaii so long that Don Ho looked almost Haole to me.) I knew his mom and dad. Papa was Portuguese-Chinese-Hawaiian, and I think his mom was mostly Hawaiian, so that thought was ridiculous.
There have been so many discussions here about this recently that, when I went to the "Cool Kailua Nights" party in downtown Kailua last night, I scanned the crowd to get an idea of the mix. I would have guessed about 70% Haole, and about 30% Local.
If I had seen you there, Kani-Lehua, where would I have put you in that mix? (You have to factor in the fact that I've been in Hawaii so long that Don Ho looked almost Haole to me.) I knew his mom and dad. Papa was Portuguese-Chinese-Hawaiian, and I think his mom was mostly Hawaiian, so that thought was ridiculous.
Hank
well, hank, you wouldn't/couldn't have seen me at the "cool kailua nights" block party. wasn't able to make it there due to caring for mom with alzheimer's. but, had i been there, i'm sure you would have grouped me with the "human" crowd. lol.
oh, and since we are doing a background check, i've never been arrested, am drug free, don't smoke and on a very rare occasion, don't mind a scotch and soda or a glass of wine. a loco moco sounds good about right now, but i don't do those either. lol.
Last edited by kani-lehua; 02-03-2008 at 09:36 PM..
but, had i been there, i'm sure you would have grouped me with the "human" crowd. lol.
Well said. Unfortunately, howzitgoing's original question of "just out of curiosity are you a haole?" only goes to prove that even though it shouldn't matter, it obviously does. Otherwise, the question would never have been asked. Sadly, I don't think any of us will ever see the day when we're all just considered "human".
P.S. - howzitgoing, don't take the above as anything personal against you. I'm sure your inquiry was purely innocent in nature. However, it still does illustrate the reality that people DO pay attention to whether someone is haole or not.
However, it still does illustrate the reality that people DO pay attention to whether someone is haole or not.
Maybe.
It was interesting to me that I had to conciously LOOK at the crowd at Cool Kailua Nights to get an idea of the percentage mix. I couldn't give you any idea, for example, of the Haole/Local percentage mix of the people standing in line at Don Quijote (large discount store) the last time I was there, a day or so ago.
They were just Kailua people.
I think when you've been in Hawaii a long time (fifty years, on and off, for me) you just don't notice.
Hank
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
lol.
