Hawaii - A trip of a lifetime
by Kate Ballard
During 2007 we received a request from one of our members for funding towards a once in a lifetime trip to Hawaii to represent the British Deaf Community on behalf of The Lions International Group.
Aloha! (Its means Hello in Hawaii!) My name is Kate Ballard and from the 7th July-31st July 2007 I was in Hawaii for three weeks. While I was staying there I was with another girl called Catherina! And she is Italian and also she is 17 years old. After 11th July I met the rest of the group, which is 28 people altogether. They came from all over Europe including Denmark, Holland, Germany, Turkey and Israel and also one girl from Mongolia and one from mainland America.
I stayed in a hostel on the big island for four days. My favourite trip was a visit to the Akaka Falls it’s a really lovely walk and the Falls are amazing, we also visited a dormant volcano where we walked around the edge and went into the crater.
I visited lots of interesting places including Pearl Harbour. It was strange to see it for real after watching so many films about it. It was quite emotional and very sad to remember all the people who were killed. I visited lots of places but it wasn’t all tours. I did lots of fun things including visiting a
water park where we stayed all day and then watched Hawaiian dances, I’ve been to amazing beautiful beaches that I will never forget and of course lots of shopping too (clothes and jewellery- my idea of heaven!) Also I went snorkelling which I did it for first time and I love it so much as the sea was so pure and clean and I saw so many pretty colourful fish and just swam around.
On the last night a concert was held by us where we dressed up in traditional Hawaiian clothes and sang and danced the hula (Very hard to learn believe me!!) But the best part of the trip was all the great people I have met and the all the friends I made, meeting people from lots of countries and with different lives was amazing.
Since coming back I have visited Holland and Denmark to visit some of the friends I met in Hawaii!!
But Thank you so much DDCS for the contribution you made towards my airfare it gave me the chance to have an amazing experience!