Richard Ha writes:

June and I went to a lu‘au at Leslie and Macario’s place recently. It was to celebrate Shannon’s graduation from UH Hilo. Shannon is Leslie’s brother Steve’s girlfriend. We arrived just as Macario, Rodrigo and Freddy were taking the pig out of the imu.

I just fit myself in and did what needed to be done. I was the runner. Macario pulled the meat from the bones and filled up a pan, which I ran back and forth to the table where Rodrigo, Freddy and Ray shredded the meat. Later I helped with that as well.

The best part of the job was evaluating the crispy skin. All of us “evaluators” would take the crispiest pieces and evaluate it. It was part of the job to nod approvingly and go “Ummmm!!!”

Nothing like going to a lu‘au and seeing the pig come out of the imu and then getting to be an evaluator. Here is some video of opening the imu, courtesy of our friends at Kama‘aina Backroads. And Rodrigo wrote a really thorough and interesting post about how to do every step of the imu, too.

Our Adopt-A-Class project, where we’re trying to send all Keaukaha Elementary School students on field trips this year, is going really well. The latest news:

Lance Duyao, Director of Retail Operations at Big Island Candies, is adopting the 3rd grade/second semester in memory of his mom Audrey.

And Alan Ikawa, President of Big Island Candies, has just donated 60 ‘Imiloa entrance tickets to Keaukaha Elementary School.

We only have two and a half more classes to fund. Have a look.