Little house in the hills. I would say in the valley, but locals would think I meant Kalihi Valley. Kalihi Uka is a smaller valley, a bit more distant from downtown, not far from the Bishop Museum. It’s actually not such a little house. A two-storey house with a larger front garden than most in the neighborhood. On the ground floor is a large living/dining area, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two kitchens, and an integral two-car garage. Two kitchens, because it was originally two houses which were joined. The original houses must have been identical because it’s impossible to detect where the split existed.

There are nine people in the house, all Filipino except for me and the other “patient”, an old black lady who is almost deaf and blind and mostly bedridden. She is picked up three times a week and taken off to a hospital for dialysis treatment. Otherwise, she usually sleeps all day and talks all night, has many visitors (whom only she can see) and is often quite amusing. Her chats are interspersed with requests for food. I’m in the room next to her but fortunately earplugs block her out most of the time. It’s only when she throws a tantrum and starts yelling that she gets through. This usually occurs around three in the morning when she can’t understand why someone won’t bring her “a piece of chicken”.

That’s the most frquent request but now and then she asks for other things, like Kool-Aid, “wild avocados”, “a small chop”. I bought her two avocados, although I couldn’t say whether they were tame or wild. Like most avocados available here, they weren’t very good and she hasn’t asked for them again.

My landlady/”caregiver” and her husband have three children. The middle son, just turned seventeen, is strikingly handsome and I only allow myself brief glances. My landlady’s sister and her two sons, ten and twelve, also live there. The ten-year-old is absolutely angelic looking (emphasis on “looking”). They are TV and Game Boy addicts, usually have both going at the same time. I’ve bought them games (including the Pokemon Diamond edition) and passed on any I’ve grown tired of or finished.

There are three dogs in the front garden. One of them, Sparky, is a special favorite of mine and I buy him boxes of doggie treats which he goes absolutely berserk over, looks at me every time I step outside even though he knows he only gets them in the late afternoon.

I’m allowed to sit on the front porch and smoke but alcohol is strictly against Blue Water rules.

Oh well, one can’t have everything.

Originally posted Thursday, January 24, 2008