Away from It All: Molokai

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A WAY

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R. Hitchcock. This large stone-walled church was built to accommodate twelve-hundred worshippers. The building originally had a roof thatched with leaves. It now has a tin roof, and it has lost its steeple, so it looks like a big cow barn as much as anything else. The supporting buttresses were added to the building about 1917. This historic structure is being restored. The church is a short distance back from the road, on the left, and is unmarked. Our Lady of Sorrows Church. This church, about one mile past Ah Ping’s, is the first of the two churches founded by Father Damien on the main portion of Molokai. It was built in 1874. The small wooden building was restored a few years back and is in beautiful condition. An excellent life-sized statue of Father Damien is on display in a shelter near the church. Keanaohina (Cave of Hina) (HVB). This is the birthplace of Hina, legendary mother of Molokai. The cave supposedly is located in the nearby hills, but nobody seems to know exactly where. The Visitors Bureau marker is located in Queenie’s front yard. Queenie is an old Filipino man who fishes, raises cows, fights chickens, lives in the collapsing old structure you’ll see there, and speaks the damndest pidgin I’ve ever heard. I can’t understand him, but I enjoy visiting with him. I’m sure Queenie is far more interesting than the cave. Wailau trail. There is, or used to be, a trail that proceeded from the southern coast, over the mountains, and down into Wailau Valley on the island’s north coast. There is a Visitors Bureau marker near the beginning of the trail, but the portion of the marker that used to say “Wailau Trail” is missing. This is just as well, since the trail doesn’t really exist anymore either. I spoke to a fellow who managed to hike into the valley with a friend of his. The trail was gone, they said; destroyed by landslides and by years of unchallenged jungle growth. This young man and his


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