Natural History

Owi, Oi, Vervain
(Stachytarpheta spp.)

Often, along the roadsides and lower forest byways, you will see a sprawling, coarse-looking weed with long. unbranched flower stalks which often extend a foot above the top of the plant and bear a few small but lovely blue flowers about a half-inch in diameter partway up its length. The effect can be lovely in a forest where the color blue is uncommon.

Jamaican vervain (Stachytarpheta jamaicense) is native to tropical America but is now widespread throughout the tropics. Jamaican vervain was first recorded in Hawaii in 1913 and is now common in dry, disturbed places, scrub forest and roadsides at up to the 1250 foot elevation, as are all the other varieties of Stachytarpheta. It especially favors the windward side. It is part of the Verbena family, which includes lantana, fiddlewood, verbena and vitex.

There are three other Stachytarpheta varieties in Hawaii. They differ in flower color ranging from pinkish and bluish to violet, and leaves vary greatly in smoothness. S. dichotoma, for example, differs in being more erect and having thinner spikes and hairy leaves. The earliest arrivals were probably cultivated here before 1871. All of the varieties are called owi or oi in Hawaiian and at least one variety was used in medicine for cuts and bruises, applying it externally and later sprinkling the affected area with the powdered root of the arrowroot plant. It has also been applied as a poultice for broken bones, sprains and rashes. Related species are used to cure eye diseases in Central America, and, in Uruguay, for fertility control. (One source says the flowers taste a bit like mushrooms.)

A subshrub that is about a foot or two tall, the plant is distinguished by its low growth habit. It has opposite, simple blade-like leaves with serrated leaf margins and long, thick spikes with embedded solitary lavender or blue flowers that are long and tubular with 5 lobes. The tiny fruits are oblong nutlets (small, discreet, one-seeded capsules) enclosed within the flower calyx that split into two black segments.
 

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Arts & Culture

Holy Ghost Church

The Portuguese were among the first Europeans to come to Hawaii. The first Portuguese plantation laborers arrived in 1878. Most of the Portuguese laborers recruited in the 1880s came from the Azores and Madeira. At first they worked on the coastal Maui sugar plantations, but as their contracts expired, they moved Upcountry to ranch and farm. One of their first needs was a church.

Kula's famous landmark, the octagonal Holy Ghost Church that is visible from the Kula Highway, was designed by Father James Biessel, the parish priest of the time, and was built by his parishioners. Some say its shape grew out of Father Biessel's boyhood memories. (The priest grew up near the octagonal chapel built by Charlemagne in Aachen, Germany. )

Others say the church was built as an octagon to resist strong winds. They claim this is why many of the Catholic churches in Portugal are octagonal buildings as well.

One storyteller recounts how an 18th-century queen of Portugal prayed to the Holy Ghost to save her drought-stricken country from famine. When the rains came, she gave her crown to the church. Ever afterwards churches honoring the Holy Ghost in Portugal were built as octagonals, echoing the eight-sided crown. Another story says the church pays homage to Lisbon's Church of the Holy Ghost, an octagonal church built by Portugal's Queen Isabella as thanksgiving for divine intervention and salvation from a plague that was spreading across Europe.

Construction of the church at Waiakoa started in 1894. It was completed two years later, but the first mass was celebrated in 1895 although the church was not completely finished.

It is said that a silver crown was commissioned by the parishioners from craftsmen in the Azores using funds raised through house-to-house solicitations. It arrived in 1895. On Easter Sunday, fifty days before the feast honoring the Holy Ghost (Pentecost), a drawing was held. Those who drew tickets numbered one through seven were allowed to keep the crown in their houses. The family holding ticket number seven kept the crown from Holy Ghost day until Easter of the following year.

The church's gilded altar, an elaborate replica of a Gothic cathedral embellished with fine detail work, and the ornate, rich paints and statuary of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross are considered museum-quality examples of 19th century ecclesiastical art. They were gifts from the king and queen of Portugal after the church was built and were made by a master Austrian woodcarver, Ferdinand Stuflesser. The artwork was shipped in sections from Austria. It traveled around Cape Horn and arrived on Maui in 1897. The pieces were then hauled up Haleakala by oxcart and installed in the church.

As Holy Ghost Church neared its centennial year, the parishioners were told that the structure was infested with termites. There were two choices: tear it down and move the wood carvings to a museum, or restore the building (at an estimated cost of $1 million.)

The restoration was financed through the sale of pao doce (Portuguese sweet bread), which was baked every week for a decade by the ladies of the church. The debt for the restoration was paid off in 2000, but for years afterwards the bread was still available at the church and in some local stores.

Holy Ghost Church is listed on the State and Natural Registers of Historic Places. Services are still held at the church, and the parishioners still celebrate the Feast of the Holy Ghost with a community luau and mini-carnival and bazaar.

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Hawaiiana

'Ohana: family

Makuahine: mother

Makuakane: father

Kaikamahine: daughter

Keiki kane: son

Kaikua'ana: older sibling of same sex

Kaikaina: younger sibling of same sex

Kaikuahine: sister

Kaikunane: brother

Poki'i: youngest sibling

Kupuna wahine: grandmother

Kupuna Kane: grandfather

Mo'opuna Kane: grandson

Mo'opuna Wahine: granddaughter

'Anake: aunt

'Anakala: uncle

Hoahanau: cousins

Pepe: baby

Hoaloha: friend

Keiki: child

Kamali'i: children

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: Who told you that you could do that?
BRADDAH-NICS: Who said?!?

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: Why are you eating my cake?
BRADDAH-NICS: Who said?!?

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: That's a juicy bit of gossip!
BRADDAH-NICS: Who said! 

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Local Grinds

Pork Stir Fry with Tofu and Vegetables

Ingredients: 

• 1 small tray of boneless pork
• 1 large yellow onion
• 3 medium bunches of broccoli
• 1 large round eggplant
• 1 carrot
• 1 tray of white button mushrooms
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 zucchini
• 1 tray of firm tofu
• ½ cup of oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons of Kikkoman shoyu
• ½ cup of Aloha shoyu
• ½ cup of water
• 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
• Salt and Pepper to preference

Procedure:

• Cut pork into strips and season with salt and pepper in a deep frying pan with your cooking oil, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes on high heat.
• Add 1 tablespoon of Kikkoman shoyu and continue frying pork for another 3 minutes on medium heat.
• While waiting chop the onion into thin strips, then add to pan and cover.
  Next chop the red bell pepper and break apart the broccoli into bite-sized chunks and add into the pan and cover.
• Chop the carrot into thin strips and the eggplant into bite-sized chunks. Add vegetables in along with the remaining Kikkoman shoyu, the Aloha shoyu and the oyster sauce. Stir until everything is evenly coated and mixed well, then cover.
• Chop zucchini into bite-sized chunks and the mushrooms in half. Add to stir fry and mix carefully.
• Cut the tofu into thin square slices and add to the stir fry, mix it into everything else carefully so that it doesn't break apart. Cover and turn off heat, let it sit for at least 5 minutes before enjoying.

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