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The
Hamakua Youth Center is approximately seven miles distance from
beautiful Waipio Valley, where taro, the staple of the early Hawaiian
diet, is still grown. There, participants in Na Opio O Hamakua (youth
of Hamakua) work in the extant lo'i or taro fields of the valley
and learn more about traditional Hawaiian ways. Wetland taro is
grown in flooded patches and processed to become Hawaiian poi. Today
poi is relatively expensive to buy.
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The
Hamakua Youth Center also has a well-equipped black-and-white phot
darkroom for youth. This student-developed photos shows two youth
center regulars who, at the time, were accessing Pokemon graphics
on the Internet (not shown). Before too long, staff center hop that
the MIRA-funded computers can be integrated withing a digital photography
program, to achieve artistic results.
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The
2,000-square foot YWCA hamakua Youth Center has many amenities for
the kids, including a pool table. Students in the area reflect many
ethnic backgrounds, deriving from the workforce for the former sugar
plantations. The sugar plantation economy developed very strongly
in Hawai'i in the late nineteenth century during the closing years
of the Hawaiian monarchy. Many immigrants were brought to the islands,
initially as contract laborers
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