The search for a new life

Last time we left off at the point where Tim and I took a cab into one of the center towns of north Maui and checked into a hotel. From there on, life didn't get any less exciting! We knew we had only three nights to find an apartment and jobs for both of us or the hotel life would start to get really expensive. That first night we applied to as many jobs as we could find on craigslist ranging from nannying to waitressing to handyman work, etc. We thought we'd get a good head start that night so hopefully by the next morning we would already be getting responses. We were so excited at the prospect of actually getting some dinner that wasn't Ramen Noodles that we quickly left the hotel and found a little chinese restaurant near by which tasted probably better than any food I ever had just because I was so worried about not eating at the farm.
The next morning we headed over to the mall near our hotel to get some breakfast and look around the shops to see if anyone was hiring. We actually got some calls back about possible housing but the first few were either too expensive or wanted more than two people to move in. Finally we got a call from a nice woman who said she and her husband really needed helping getting their little community back on its feet after a crew that had been living/working there basically ran it into the ground. She sent us some applications and told us to get in touch with her manager, Mike to see about room rates etc. Honestly, that's about it for the first day. We still applied to a lot more places and looked for more housing but that was the most promising lead. It was interesting to realize that we were basically homeless in hawaii living out of a very small hotel room.
The second morning at the hotel was more interesting. We had set up an appointment to go look at the house we had found the previous day but before we left we checked craigslist again and couldn't beleive what we found. A man in Haiku who owned a bed+breakfast sort of deal needed someone to live on the property and take care of the grounds only four hours a day and he would pay $12/hour. That was insane! We calculated that if we could live there for free and make that sort of money, we could work for a few months, save a ton, and then just sort of vacation for the last couple months. That sounded pretty good to us! We would go meet with that man as soon as we could.
Before that, though, Mike came to pick us up and show us his place in Wailuku. It was technically a short distance from the hotel but up such a winding dirt road that the trip took a while. We headed far into the jungle where you could see only local people lived. Mike was very friendly and told us about the dynamics in that neighborhood, just that you really had to respect the local culture and stay off other people' s land. Understandable. We pulled up to a pretty big lot with a number of little huts/houses on it. The area was very lush and I was glad to be back in a very natural environment (that was actually one thing I missed about the farm). Star fruit, guava, avocados, passion fruit, and bananas grow everywhere and Mike gave us a bag full of star fruit right off the tree to take home.
The room we would have on this property is right next to a waterfall and the window looks out onto a very jungle-like scene. There are so many flowers and unique plants, and jungle dogs and cats around the property. It really has a wild yet peaceful feel to it.
We learned that we could live in the room for only $270 a month which is honestly unheardof for Maui as long as we both put in 6 hours of work trade a week. Well, since that's only like an hour a day that sounded pretty good to us. We thanked Mike for showing us the place and headed back to our hotel.
We really wanted to meet up with Ken, the guy who offered the free room plus $12/hour for work so we bit the bullet and rented a car for the day so we could drive out to Haiku. We liked the place that Mike had shown us but the prospect of making so much money and living for free had our minds set on only that one track. After another impossibly confusing dirt road, we finally pulled up to Ken's and were met by a very tan, laid-back (this is basically the only kind of person you'll meet in Maui) dude who showed us the room we could stay in. It was a tiny room but had good, light windows and while he showed it to us he explained that "both of you or just one of you could work and maybe the other person could get a job in town and, you know, if you're making money you could kick me a few dollars for the room..." Um...sorry, what? He was going to pay us $12 cash but expect money in return for the room too? Something wasn't right. We asked if we had misunderstood. Oh, ken told us, no, of course he wasn't going to pay us. He had already found someone that had real experience on a construction crew that he was going to pay to work. Well, we were a little confused. We had made it out to the guy's house not four hours after the post went up on craigslist so we wondered when he had time to find someone else. What do ya do? We said thank you and headed out.
On the way back we met with one other person who seemed to be offering a decent deal. He actually needed someone to record his cd for him in his in-home studio in exchange for free rent. Tim couldn't believe his luck when he found that! After hectic driving around, we found the guy's home and met him. He was a super space cadet but an interesting guy, you could say. He was the embodyment of "one man's junk is another man's treasure" and his whole yard was full of scrap metal and wood, old trailers and busses, cans of paint, old tires, marble slabs, you name it. He told us excitedly about where and how he picked up these odd things and how he sold them for profit. Pretty interesting but, honestly, made for one heck of a back yard. He showed us the studio and the room where we would live which was kind of just a box they made out of scrap wood in the back yard. I know Tim stands up for the guy more than I do but I just couldn't live in a junk yard. Sorry! We headed back to the hotel to consider our options.
Sitting in our room, I felt like I hit rock bottom. We hadn't heard back from any jobs and the best place we had to live was asking rent and needed A LOT of fixing up. We also realized that day that it was pretty impossible to live on the island without a car and, even if we did move into Mike's place, it would be an adventure just getting down the dirt road every day. We did what all adventurers do when they hit a wall...we called our parents.
By the end of the phone calls, Tim and I came back with the same conclusion. We would rent a car for a month and rent the room for one month as well. We would take our time finding jobs and, in the mean time, really just relax and try to enjoy where we were. In the past few days we had been a whirlwind of stress, feeling like we were racing the clock. If we gave ourselves a month, we would know infinitely more by the end of that time than we did after two days. We went out to Kihei to get the monthly car lease and, before returning our first rental car, for one glorious hour we actually were the owners of two cars! What a good life!
Now, it is the last morning at our hotel and we are ready to pack up our car and head out to our jungle home in Wailuku. Tim and I are excited to attack this room and make it our own. Hopefully we will find some jobs too! Now that our situation has changed we'll be able to keep this blog up and stay in touch with you a lot more. Now we enjoy our time and hope for the best.

Soon I will write a little more about our new home and we'll put up some photos of the jungle palace!

Love you all
Anna and Tim