Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, 1 March 1988 — Third Place Winner [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Third Place Winner

By Guy Keli'ikaupuni Ka-ne

"... After driving for three or so hours I stopped in Mojave, California, to restock my provisions for seven or more hours of driving . . . Two hours into the desert I noticed a van on the side of the road. Coming up on the van I saw a man sitting outside with his head in his hands. Being brought up in Hawaii and taught to help others in need, I pulled over, introduced myself and asked if I could lend a hand. The man, his name was Bob, told me he had a flat tire and his son had caught a ride two hours ago with the spare, whieh was also flat, and he was waiting for him to return . . . At the time it was 105 degrees . . . so I asked them if they wanted something cold to drink. Bob said, "That's all right," but I wouldn't take no for an answer, so I climbed up in my truck and got three sodas for him, his wife, and their three-year-old daughter. After talking a while he told me no one had stopped for a eouple of hours after his flat tire. As we talked he noticed my license plate whieh read "Flyin' Hawaiian" and he told me that the driver who picked up his son was from Hawaii. Now that made me proud to be Hawaiian. "Before leaving 1 left them with my cooler and a gallon of elean water whieh I carried for such an occasion ... I said goodbye to Bob and his family and was surprised to hear him say, "Aloha and God Bless." Driving away I felt good inside. Knowing what my parents taught me made me feel proud of my Hawaiian heritage . . . When I got to Bishop, California, I noticed a teenaged boy with a tire trying to hitch a ride going south. I figured he was Bob's son so 1 pulled in the truck stop and asked some other truck drivers if they were going south in the next eouple of minutes. One guy said he was after he finished fueling, so I asked him if he could give the boy and tire a ride about 70 miles south so he could get back to his parents . . . Just before leaving Bishop I heard my C.B. crackle. It was the driver that had picked up Bob's son. "How 'bout that one Flyin' Hawaiian? You got a copy eome

on?" "Go ahead," I said. It was Bob Jr. He asked me, "How do you say 'Thank you' in Hawaiian?" I told him, "Mahalo." He eame back and said, "Gracias, thank you and a big Mahalo, and God be with you on your trip." " Well it made me feel good that 1 had just shared some aloha spirit with someone I didn't even know but then it's natural for people from Hawaii to help others . . . When I got back from Reno, my dispatcher called me in his office and told me Bob stopped by and told him what I had done. He wanted to give me an envelope and in it was $50 and a short note, "The world needs more Flyin' Hawaiians like you." 1 hope if Bob was to tell anybody about that hot sunny day he got stranded in the Mojave Desert, he would say "That was the year the Hawaiians helped me." I've spent 12 years in California and like so many other Hawaiians, we take the spirit of Aloha wherever we go in the world."