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Help Me Get Safe and Well

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I moved to Maui eight weeks ago to pursue a healthy, happy lifestyle.  All had been going incredibly well, even better than expected.  I was gifted a Maui cruiser (a ghetto car that will forever stay on the island), a surfboard, and an I got an awesome job bartending at Mick Fleetwood's bar - Fleetwood's on Front Street.  I had moved to the island on work trade, but when I got the job at Fleets I decided to leave the work trade and car camp because so many people on Maui do it successfully and it honestly seemed fun.  It was for two weeks until the night of July 3rd.  I had finished my first official day on my own behind the bar and headed to where I had been hammocking up in Wahiee for the past two weeks.  I pulled in about 1am, which is normal time for a bartender.  As I said before my car is Maui cruiser so it has many quirks.  One is that the lights flash for a few minutes every time I shut it off or turn it on.  Well, when I shut the car off and headed out of the car a group of people across the street from me hollered for me to shut the lights off.  "Shut the lights off, it'll attract the police."  I responded that they'd shut off in a few minutes.  They requested for me to pull the plugs, but I didn't see any reason to as it was a public area and I wasn't doing anything wrong even if the cops did come.  The group (all Hawaiians) thought I was back talking so two of the girls ran up on me and started swinging.  Hawaiians call anyone not Hawaiian a "haole" and as a haole you must show respect or you'll have a very bad experience your entire time on the islands.  All was fine in my head, I could tell these people were either high or drunk so I just went with the flow and took the hits, not swinging back.  If I were to swing back it would have made things incredibly worse.  As the girls took turns hitting me I hid my face and blocked my ribs, but one of them slid through and hit me good in the nose.  I could feel the blood rush into my head and down my throat.  I immediately started yelling "stop, stop, something is wrong!"  They kept swinging and I started to lose my vision.  All I could do was grab their hair and hold them down.  I only had one hand because I was hiding my face with the other and there were two girls attacking me.  I started to scream for help.  Eventually the police came and the girls were arrested.  I couldn't find my keys or my phone and I was searching frantically for them.  Come to find out the EMT took my keys because I was so out of it and they didn't want me to drive.  I went to hospital in an ambulance as I very much needed medical attention.  I still didn't have my phone and the EMT still had my keys.  In the morning when I woke up at the hospital they put me on the street because I have no family in Maui and no friends close enough to call during an emergency,  I stumbled many miles back to my car.  Along the way I was incredibly incoherent, took naps on the side of the road, and an EMT was even called for me by someone because I was so disoriented.  I finally made it though, back to my car.  Mind you, I never got my keys back and the police told me the EMT left the keys in my car.  She must have left my car unlocked because when I showed up everything was gone.  EVERYTHING!  My keys, my title, my registration, my computer, my ipad, my phone, my chargers, my cash, ALL of my clothes, my shoes, my shower supplies, my birth certificate, my, social security card, my purse, EVERYTHING.  That day was the 4th of July so almost all resources were closed.  I was exhausted so I took another nap on the side of the road.  I woke up and walked to the police station to file a report.  They were not compassionate for my situation. I was so tired, with no money, no phone, no numbers, nothing so I was referred to a homeless shelter that was ironically closed because of the holiday.  I passed out outside of a grocery store for almost 8 hours.  I woke up in the middle of the night to the sprinklers on me.  I pulled myself up, a little more coherent, and walked to the homeless shelter they tried to refer me to earlier.  I slept outside until morning where they were incredibly kind enough to allow me to use their phone.  I honestly had no one to call though as my family has no resources to help me.  I chose to go on the homeless list to get help and a bed to sleep in.  I have never felt homeless or even close to being homeless in my life.  Like I said earlier, I have this awesome job, so how could I be homeless all of a sudden?  But I was and I am.  They took everything I had.  The homeless shelter gave me a pair of sweats, a shirt and some flip flops.  They also let me take a shower, call into work, and gave me a bed.  I have spent the past few days seeing specialists for my medical condition.  My nose is broken in two places, but it'll heal.  Luckily, my work let me take a week off to recover, but I have to go back to make money.  I have no clothes to go back to work or shoes or hair ties or anything that seems simple to have.  I am asking for help to return to my life and gain my sanity back.  I have never been in this situation and I don't want to be in this situation, but without money to purchase new clothes, shoes, and necessities to be able to work I will continue to be homeless.  I will appreciate any and all help.  This is incredibly embarrassing, but life happens and with honesty comes light.  This picture was taken today - three days after the incident.  I am trying to get pictures of the incident from the police so I can share with you how bad I looked.  Luckily it's just my eyes and nose and not my teeth that are banged up.  It may take a few days because I don't look the best, therefore I am not being treated the best.  What a whirlwind of change from riding high these past few weeks!  All the same, I've still got many mahalos and lots of aloha with or without the help.  Peace and love.

Organizer

Jacquelyn Shoen
Organizer
Kahului, HI

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