Oahu Island News
Jumping Flea of Kaneohe
by Brett Wagner
The story begins with a log. Perhaps it is a 30-inch length of Acacia Koa discovered, fallen, in the higher
elevations of central Oahu, where the thin air and impoverished soil yield a tree of hardy stock and tight, strong grain. Given a few decades of peace and quiet, it might have rotted into mulch. But instead it found its way here, to a modest house overlooking Kaneohe Bay, where a craftsman named Joe Souza has other plans for it. In his hands, the log will be transformed into Kanile'a 'ukuleles; 20 of them, maybe more - a drab caterpillar reborn as two dozen musical butterflies. But it's going to take awhile.
Arriving at the world headquarters of Kanile'a 'Ukulele, I am greeted by a friendly-ish rottweiler, two half-naked toddlers, and Kristen, Joe's wife and business partner. There is no question that Kanile'a, despite its growing reputation on three continents, is an ohana operation. Joe Souza wipes sawdust on his shirt as he guides me into the workshop. It's a space not much bigger than a living room - which, in fact, it once was - now occupied by saws, sanders, stacks of wood, and the many dangling hulls of soon-to-be 'ukuleles.
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