Connecting and Re-Connecting

The biggest surprise of the day was connecting with another volunteer. Lori and I had been recruited to work in the food booth (yeah, the one that got shut down). We worked for 2 hours together, and I could barely remember her name. After the "incident" I went over to the volunteer's rest area where Lori and I got to talking.

Lori: Your students from Japan are nice.
Me: Yeah, I have a lot of fun with them.
Lori: It was fun talking in Japanese with them.
Me: Where did you learn Japanese?
Lori: Well, in Hawai'i they teach Japanese in the high schools.
Me: I'm from Hawai'i. What school did you go to?
Lori: Castle.
Me: Shut up! My brothers went to Castle.
Lori: Not!
Me: Yeah.
Lori: What's your last name?
Me: K**********
Lori: You related to Randall?
Me: He's my cousin.
Lori: Not!
Me: Yeah. Where did you live in Hawai'i?
Lori: Ahuimanu.
Me: Not!!!
Lori: Why, where you from?
Me: Kahalu'u.
Lori: Not!!

You can see how this progresses. We discovered we had many mutual friends, some going back to elementary school. Now really, what are the chances of that happening? One in a million? Well, as Lloyd Christmas (Dumb and Dumber) would say, "So you're telling me that there's a chance..."



Another highlight was reconnecting with my former student, Kanoe. Kanoe and his family were there to help out and volunteer at the same booth that I volunteered with. Unbelievable. Pictured from left to right are Kanoe, Yu, Yumi, and Ken.