You would think (or at least I would) that on an small island in the Pacific Ocean people would be , more or less the same. If you are like me, and you actually thought that, let me tell you now you ( I/we) are wrong. I guess I shouldn’t be shocked as there are as many different types of people as there are colors in a skittles bag, hmm maybe even more. It just is amazing to me how much the aura or essence of a place can change in a mere area of single digit miles.

When we lived Upcountry , which as I have stated before on this blog is living further up the volcano ( dormant of course), or further away from sea level. Please note that this post is is sweeping generalities ( which I normally hate to use, but if I didn’t this post would be very confusing). The people of upcountry have a certain pride about being from Upcountry, maybe because they think they are closer to the gods , or because they have the gonads to live on the side of a dormant (but still), a volcano). There you may be lucky if you speak to the people located in the homes next to you but, if you were at the beach in a upcountry logo-ed hat , let’s say, they would feel the need to come and speak to you letting you know they too were upcountry folk.

Next we go to the North Shore where we lived in the lil hippy berg of Paia. In Paia ( it being a hippy berg) you knew all of your neighbors , and they knew you, and they would introduce you to their neighbors and then you would all buy food as a group, BBQ at one of your homes, then go to the beach for a bit to watch sunset. If someone in Paia had something that another Paia dweller needed, it would broadcast over the hippynet and within a few days whatever was needed would be there for you.

Now stay with me as we traverse the island and touch briefly on the south shore. Where we live now. Also where alot, if not all of the hotels and resorts are located. We also have alot of hotels and resorts on the west side but since I have never lived there we will not study the west side dwellers. If we did I can only assume they would be much like the south shore dwellers due to the amount of tourists per capita. For every “local “(for the purpose of this post “local” means those who live on Maui not those who were actually born here), you will find at least 15-20 tourists depending on the area and the month. I think it is kind of interesting , it makes our neighbor hood very festive but the festive folk can be stupid as well, and drunk. No one in our town of Kihei actually knows their neighbors, or if they do they don’t speak of it. No one , that is except the dog owners, or those that live in commune situations like we do . Even those that fall into the dog owner category are odd, because of all the dogs Lola has met at the dog park, I can name most of the dogs but none of the owners. I mean it’s weird because we all talk to each other as the doggies cavort and play and frolic. I can tell you the breeds and ages of some of the dogs as well, but the owner’s names ? Not so much. Only in reference to their dogs as in ” Oh there goes Hana Girl’s Mom and Dad” ( Hana Girl of course being a really cute 3 year old lab/something mix).

The commune thing is self explanatory. We see each other every day therefore we have to kind of get along. NO , I kid , with the exception of a couple of people we like our commune. Anyway, these are just some things that have been bouncing around in my head of late. I guess it is a good thing that we have all these different types of groups trying as best we can to all get along. And I think to myself What a wonderful world .     🙂