Rick Schonely | Spreading aloha through music and community on Molokai
I met tour-guide Rick at Kalaupapa on a Monday night while I enjoyed music in Kana'ana Hou Church where he leads the weekly Kalaupapa Backyard Band open practice. Rick is the picture of joy, and his music is wonderful to listen to. He was kind enough to invite me and a friend up Topside Molokai for his daughter’s wedding in late-February. Little did we know it would be the last big party, as Kalaupapa and Hawaii would close down a mere week and a half later and Rick wouldn’t be able to come down to lead tours. It was so nice to get to chat with this fun guy and hear all about his pandemic mission of spreading aloha.
“Live aloha. Stay positive. Our mantra is: to live to give, care to share, be humble, no grumble, Molokai style. ”
“Well, it was the middle of March when I drove the last tour at Kalaupapa. And we heard about the shut down coming, and like you know, two weeks before that we had the big wedding. My daughter and my son-in-law. It was leap-day. Saturday February 29th, and that was the like the last big happening on Molokai pre-covid. Because of course, since Covid has come, life has changed”
“I drove that last tour, and we told the tourists, ‘hey this is it! We aren’t sure what the future is going to hold.’ But, I had a magical day of course, on my tour, and I flew out of Kalaupapa, and have not been there for seven months. I used to go every Monday and Tuesdays and drive the magical tour, play music with the Kalaupapa Backyard Band, it was just part of our life. And now it’s just something that we don’t get to do anymore. Until we turn the corner one day.
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“The hardest thing that hit me: I’m very lucky because I’m retired. I’m a retired fireman with the county of Maui, and I get a pension every month. So when this hit, many of my friends and my family and my kids, are struggling to get by. My personal thing was, I’m okay.
I’m good at staying home [...] it’s when they tell you you have to stay home, that it’s a different story! Luckily my daughter lives right next door. So during that first 45 days of stay-at-home, we got by.
On our rural island we were very lucky. We only had two travel cases for many months.
”
“What I did to keep busy, is what my passion is: I played music. ”
“Seven months later, the live venues are still not open for business [...] for many of the musicians who are professionals, that’s their livelihood
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“We are basically open [...] but you have to wear your mask [...] It’s kind of weird. But life is basically normal [...] life goes on. Lots going on. I did sub a couple days at the high school [...] They’re doing remote learning now [...] a lot of things are missing, but life goes on as best possible. I still got my grandchildren, I got my daughters, and friends, family. ”
“You know Molokai, everyone is `ohana. And we do, we take care of everybody. We raise everybody as a village. So it’s special over here. Everybody takes care of everybody.
I was a provider, that’s what we do. We gather. And whatever we catch, we give away. We live to give, we care to share. The first people we give our catch to, our lobster and our fish, octopus, wild pig, or deer—is to the kupunas, the elderly. So a lot of groups and the local politicians, and the local trust people have been giving away food. You can go pick up a box of food, free.
When a Hawaiian tells you ‘come eat,’ you can’t say no. You have to go eat [...] So when people will tell you ‘Hey come get a box of food!’ Go get a box, and share it with all your family.
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“You got a choice every day to have a good day or a bad day. Might as well have a good day. That’s my mantra.
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Mahalo to Rick for sharing your story! And for the private concert you played for me afterwards, If you enjoyed the videos, here is a link to the CD he put out of some recordings from 2011, during the pandemic! It is also available on apple music and spotify :)
Music + Videos: Courtesy of Rick Schonely.
Cover photo: By Emily Creek (taken at the big leap day wedding Topside Molokai February 2020)
