Chapter 3 #2
“No,” said the woman who also taught first grade and was now sitting beside Mia. She reached up to pat Mia’s arm. “That’s the kind of thing your work ohana—family—should know.”
Others around the room nodded, and Mia felt better about what she’d said.
“I guess I shared that because that’s a big reason why I decided to move to Maui.” She was not about to divulge that she was also escaping her ex, since that was definitely too much for the faculty lounge to handle. “I’m here for a fresh start.”
Mia sat back down and then hoped Mrs. Takitaki would speak next.
Thankfully, the principal did, and Mia was lost in her thoughts for most of the rest of the meeting.
“That’s it for this morning. You can spend the rest of your day finishing prepping your classrooms. Mia, I did my best to see that you had all you’d need. Kristin helped me a bunch,” Mrs. Takitaki said as she nodded to the teacher sitting beside Mia.
Oh, thank goodness she was getting a name for the face, since she’d been so kind.
“But you’ll probably still have your work cut out for you,” she finished, and Mia nodded.
She didn’t expect anything less. It had taken her weeks to prep her last classroom, and if she could have gotten to Maui any sooner, she would have.
She’d do her best to do as much as she could that day and then come in early and stay late until the job was done.
“See you all tomorrow for the first day back with the students,” Mrs. Takitaki said, and they all began to stand.
Most of them created little groups to converse in, but Mia needed to get to work.
“Do you want me to show you your classroom?” Kristin offered.
“That would be amazing,” Mia said as Kristin led the way out of the faculty lounge and then through the front office.
“Hey, Johnny!” Kristin greeted the man who’d almost run Mia over with the trashcan earlier that morning.
“Oh, hi, Kristin,” Johnny said as he rounded his trash can to speak to them. “You became friends with the haole already?”
“Johnny,” Kristin admonished before shooting Mia a look full of apology.
Mia had heard the term haole but still wasn’t quite sure what it meant.
From Kristin’s reaction, it wasn’t anything good.
But Mia couldn’t be too offended. From the way Johnny spoke, she could see that he was a little developmentally delayed and surely meant no harm with his words.
And she could also already see—thanks to the wide smile he bestowed on her— that despite his words, he was an absolute sweetheart.
“Haole is as haole does. That’s what Grandma says. So I shouldn’t call the new teacher haole until I know if she act like one haole,” Johnny said with a firm nod.
“Does haole mean white? Because if it does I’m not sure how to not act like a haole,” Mia said to Johnny but hoped Kristin would answer if he couldn’t.
“It means foreigner,” Kristin supplied.
So not white. Then again, Mia was a foreigner as well. Was there a way to change that?
“Mostly it’s for white people though,” Johnny answered frankly.
“But not all white people,” Kristin tried to interject.
“Yeah, just white people that act like white people.”
Mia wasn’t any less confused but she did want to understand. She didn’t want to commit an egregious sin. Especially if she committed it just because she didn’t know any better.
“Social media can tell you all about it,” Johnny leaned forward to whisper before he went back to his trash can.
“Don’t worry, Ms. Pretty Haole. I’ll help you and keep the school clean,” Johnny concluded as he walked away, trash can in front of him.
Mia turned to look at Kristin.
“Our classrooms are just up there. We’re next door neighbors,” Kristin announced overly cheerfully, telling Mia she wanted to move on from the discussion they’d just had.
Mia guessed she would be looking things up on social media as Johnny had directed.
“Perfect,” Mia said as she followed Kristin.
Mia thought back to the meeting of teachers. There had been other white women in the room. Sure, they were more tanned than Mia because they’d lived on Maui longer, but she had to think this haole thing wasn’t just about being white, or Johnny would have called those others haole as well, right?
Maybe it was because she was new?
Mia was getting nowhere and decided to save her thoughts for when she could actually research things from a very factual and valid source—social media.
Mia sighed as she fell back into the not-so-soft couch of her rented ohana unit.
She’d stayed at work until after eight pm, and her classroom was still not ready for the next day.
But she’d taken care of the necessities—desks, chairs, and cubbies were ready for the students to come in the next day.
Most of what she had left to do was add a hominess and cuteness to the old classroom.
But she was so grateful to Kristin and Mrs. Takitaki.
Evidently they, along with Johnny, had cleared the room of vermin, which included roaches.
Kristin warned her that roaches would probably try to come back, but her husband came in once a month to spray Kristin’s room with bug spray, and she’d ask him to do the same for Mia’s room.
Thank heavens for Kristin and her husband’s bug spray.
After she’d left the school, Mia thought about going out to grab something to eat.
But there weren’t many options in her small upcountry Maui town.
She’d gone to the golden arches the night before, and her stomach was still paying for it.
Maybe a poke bowl from the local grocery store?
Kristin had told her those were better than any specialty shop on the mainland.
But Mia had been so danged exhausted that she’d come straight home instead.
She headed for the fridge, knowing she’d regret it if she skipped dinner all together. She hadn’t bought much, but she did have some cheese and bread. Grilled cheese would suffice. Especially considering the cost of this cheese and bread. It was basically a luxury meal.
Mia put together a sandwich and began frying it up in her one pan. She flipped it and then put it on a plate. Since she didn’t have milk, she’d settle for water. One more good thing about Maui was its tap water was delicious.
Dinner settled, Mia sat at the bar that doubled as a dining table and pulled out her phone.
It was time to get to work. She typed what is a haole in Hawaii, in her social media search bar.
Videos populated quickly and Mia tapped on the first one.
The guy who was speaking looked white so she was a little skeptical.
But hopefully he could educate her on being a haole.
Mia scrolled and scrolled, her sandwich long gone. She typed in other searches and then scrolled some more. Her alarm warning her it was bedtime went off on her phone.
She blinked, realizing she’d spent two hours on this venture. But the time was well spent, because she did feel educated, and hopefully she could tell Johnny the next day she wasn’t ‘one haole.’
“I’m not one haole,” Mia said aloud, trying the pidgin accent she’d heard again and again. Laughter bubbled out of her. Okay, maybe she was a little bit haole.
But there were parts of being a haole she would never be…
she hadn’t come to Maui to change anything about the beautiful island, and she wasn’t there because she wanted Hawaii to be like every other place she’d been.
She was there to embrace the culture just as it was and to learn.
Every day, she wanted to learn from this people and this place.
And most of all she would be respectful.
Because getting to live in Hawaii was a privilege. One she wouldn’t take for granted.
With that, she stood up from her seat, clearing her dishes. Kristin had warned her that dishes left out overnight would surely attract ants or roaches. And as she washed her dishes, Mia felt a little less like a haole.