Posted by Robert Ebanez on February 18, 2009 at 10:30pm
We were shooting things with our home made sling shots made of a good Y- guava mata ,surgical rubber,leather and rubber bands cut from an old tire tube.My father used to get pissed at me because I would cut out the tongue of his working leather boots for my sling shot. I told you I was kolohe.My classmate Jose Ballo went with us exploring in the gulch behind his home. The other person with us, I think, was my cousin Paul Lumanlan. We found a massive bee hive on the wall of a bluff and next to this hive was a banyan tree growing at the side.This bee hive was about 8 feet tall and about 5 feet across. I never seen any bee hive that big before. Jose said he knows how to get the honey. So, he ran home and came back with a couple torches he made with a rag soaked in kerosene.He told us that he was going to smoke out the bees and then take the honey.Now, I'm not an expert in gathering honey from wild bees ,but I had some concerns about the consequences of making the freakin bees pissed off at people in the nearest vicinity of their home.But, before I could voice my concerns,he lit the torches. Then the fun began.Jose and I were in the 6th grade at Pahala Elementary School during these events. Paul was an eight grader and our Kumu...Paul Lumanlan was smart...We gotta respect our elders ...right?...We were shooting birds with our home made sling shots with (I'm not naming them for security purposes...just kidding...) Robert and Dan...just their first names....They were situated on a Christmas berry tree and Paul and I were on another Christmas berry tree about 70 yards apart from each other.We met at Dan's house early in the morning and proceeded to the pasture in the back of his home where, we as kids shoot stuff....Someone said let's climb up on the trees,wait for the birds, and we can hunt them.After an hour or so, we were getting bored so we decided to play chicken...Well, sort of....the game is played like this....we shoot at them with our sling shots and try to get close but not hit them....Then it is their turn to shoot at us...and we go back and forth until someone calls uncle....I told you we were freakin , crazy. Must be the Filipino blood....Actually, the game is like dodge ball, where you are watching where their shots are coming in, and you move out of the way without falling off the tree. It's actually exciting especially when their shots misses your head...Eh, you kids better not do this stuff...I'm not going to be liable....if you do this, you are stupid.......like we were back then.....stupid...sounds like Forest Gump...Well, when it was our turn to shoot them, we aimed and fired. I saw Paul's rock and my rock were heading about the same area ,but I think the wind shifted one of those shots , it could have been mine, and it hit Dan right in his forehead and he dropped straight down. It scared me, because I thought he was really hurt,but Dan jumped up crying and ran home. I turned to Paul and said great shot!...The good and bad part of this was that Dan got dirty lickings from his mom for being stupid and the good thing was he later brought us pickle mango to eat...So, I assume Paul and I won this game. They gave us pickled mango or is it mango pickle. Just like some people say shave ice and some say ice shave...same thing right? What the heck am i talking about....Well, I don't think Robert and Dan wanted to play chicken again with us, so we cruised on down to Jose's house and see what he was doing.As Paul and I crossed the pasture behind the School grounds, which is currently the new football field today, there was a bull tied up and pegged into the ground. It must have been at least 800 lbs or more and aggressive buggah.He tried attacking us,but we were ready with our sling shots...it probably would only tickle the darn bull.... he could only go until the end of his leash.There was also an avocado tree about 30 yards away that will play an important roll for us. We figured , sucking bull, make like that... we shot him in the butt ,but soft kind. He came charging after us but was stopped by his leash . We thought that was funny.He came charging at us again, and this time the bull broke through and came straight for us. Next thing I knew, Paul and I were up that avocado tree. You see you can run and jump like Superman when a 800lb bull charges at you. Especially an angry bull.Now, this bull refused to move,and waited for us to come down from the tree . Every time we tried to escape he would move to block us from doing so. We were stuck on this avocado tree for about 30 minutes until the owner came by to feed his bull. What a relief.Actually, if I was that bull, I would have done the same thing and teach that lolo kids a lesson.So, Jose lit the torch and the bees got a little excited. While Jose went home earlier to get the torches Paul and I assessed our escape plan in case the bees go wild. There were several ponds ,which is a good cover, and there was a small cave adjacent to one of the ponds. Our Risk management skills had improved. We knew what to do in case of an emergency.As the smoke started to rise up towards the bee hive, I was thinking, okay how is Jose going to get the honey?We took a couple steps closer and we gave them more smoke. The sounds of a thousand buzzing bees and the sight of seeing them go wild is simply fascinating.Then it kinda like went into a large ball in the air and turned to look at us,which was weird. Then it attacked us. This part of the story was very painful. Getting stung by hundreds of wild bees was lesson I will never forget.So, we bolted for that pond because of the pain these bees inflicked on us.We dove into this pond but, the water was shallow so half of our bodies were under water while the other half was exposed to the lovely bees.We then ran into that small cave. This is what saved our okoles. We made sure the torches were smoking ,so they would not come into the cave with us. We too were choking from this stupid smoke... We were stuck here for awhile until the bees left.We finally got home with no honey.So, if you see Jose Ballo in Kona tell him he owes us honey.See, what goes around comes around. If you kolohe you can get stung at the end.Aloha noBobby E
It was funny and painful at the same time thinking of it..see you in the morning...Ijust got home from Maui....Was very special for me today...I'll write about today one day.....
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It was funny and painful at the same time thinking of it..see you in the morning...Ijust got home from Maui....Was very special for me today...I'll write about today one day.....
Bobby E