Anahulu Poepoe 6/17 – 6/26

Aloha nui e nā hoa heluhelu, 

As I have been walking through campus recently, I have been in awe of the deep greenery and cool shade of the plants that are growing so large under the summer sun and falling cloudbanks. One of my favorite rains of Mānoa is the ua Waʻahila, which is also the name of a rain in Nuʻuanu, another valley within the ahupuaʻa of Waikīkī. The following ʻōlelo noʻeau further indicates the importance of this rain not only for Mānoa and Nuʻuanu but for the ocean and shoreline ecosystem of Ke Awa o Kou: 

Ola ke awa o Kou i ka ua Waʻahila. 

Life comes to the harbor of Kou because of the Waʻahila rain. 

It is the rain of Nuʻuanu that gives water to Kou. —ʻŌN #2486 

Another interpretation of this ʻōlelo noʻeau is that Ke Awa o Kou lives and thrives because of the ua Waʻahila. Some days, even when driving along the H1 freeway in traffic, we might notice the rains descending from the cloudbanks gathered along the Koʻolau mountains before falling from their great heights in misty wind-blown sheets of rain to feed Kou. When this rain descends from the mountains, through the two aforementioned wide valleys, and out to the sea, we know the name to be the ua Waʻahila. 

In the above photo of the manuokū on the branch of kukui together, I imagine that they greet the same rain during their daily morning breakfast routine. Baby manuokū, because they are unable to fly yet, perch upon the same branch, and their ability to reside in one area for so long means that they have a deep relationship with the winds and rains of that space.