Over the weekend, we attended a really great ancient Hawaiian Cultural Festival. The festival offered lei making, canoe paddling, hula, Hawaiian music, and ipu making.
Gracie decided she wanted to make an ipu so we got in line to pick out a gourd. For more information on the Hawaiian ipu, please click the link below. It is very interesting.
Once she picked out her gourd, we received instruction on how to clean it which involved going to the shoreline, filling it one-fourth full with sand and three-fourths full of salt water, then swishing the salt water/sand mixture around in the gourd, emptying it, then repeating the process. And then repeating the process, and then repeating the process…and…then…repeating….the…process.
This process took well over an hour and it wasn't an easy process. I was wearing new white shorts on a black sand beach so I had to make sure sand and water didn't come into contact with my shorts. We were bent over for a long period of time (we didn't bring a beach chair). We dealt with wave after wave pushing us around. We were in a cove like area with ocean on one side and a huge hill on the other so it was quite hot. Plus, we were on summer break, working this hard was not on my radar! I was thinking more along the lines of sand and sun while laying in a hammock!
Several times, Gracie grew tired of the process, took the gourd back to her teacher for inspection and was told, "Just a little more." We had to insure all the inside contents of the gourd was washed out; otherwise, it would rot and be useless.
Over two hours later, the time had finally come and the gourd was completely cleaned out on the inside. Gracie had finally earned her scraping tool which was a coconut husk. She was sent back to the shoreline to use the saltwater/sand mixture and the husk to remove all loose particles from the outside of the gourd.
Once the inside had been cleaned, the outside cleaning was extremely easy.
Cleaning the inside took well over two hours while cleaning the outside took approximately ten minutes. Once the outside was cleaned, Gracie's teacher congratulated her on a job very well done, wiped down her gourd with coconut oil, then taught her how to tie string on the outside so that we could hang it up and display her beautiful ipu.
About two hours into the cleaning process I thought, "Man…I am so thankful God didn't make it this difficult for us to become one of His kids! He just gave us a new heart and put a new spirit in us! Thank God for sending Jesus!"
Dear most gracious and loving Heavenly Father, thank You for saving us by Your grace, thank You for Your miraculous gift! (Ephesians 2:8) Thank You for giving us a new heart and putting a new spirit in us! (Ezekiel 36:26) Thank You, when we became ingrafted in Jesus, You made us a new creation, a new creation altogether! The old passed away and behold, fresh and new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17) You are such a giving God, and we thank You for You, Your Son, Your Holy Spirit and thank You for leading and guiding us into all truth!
Gives: Freely transfer the possession of something to someone. Thanks Google!
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