A week ago, I left my last of four WWOOF/HelpX hosts, wrapping up two and a half months working on farms and in gardens around Ireland. I have been lucky enough to be able to travel abroad several times in my life, but this experience has been the most educational and satisfying of all of my journeys overseas. Would I recommend an Irish WWOOF/HelpX holiday to you? Yes, without hesitation. They're an especially cheap way to see the country -- a bed and most meals are provided in exchange for your work. But this shouldn't be your sole reason to WWOOF/HelpX (and treating the experience like a "cheap holiday" won't win you any favors with your hosts). Do it to learn about organic gardening, farming, construction, food preserving and sustainable living. Do it to experience different lifestyles. Do it to see how people actually live in Ireland -- more than you can glean from movies, books, tours, or from the brief encounters a typical holiday permits. Do it to get outside, to get physically stronger, muddy, tired out, and toughened up. Do it for any and all of these reasons that benefit you, and know that you're helping someone else in return.
Depending
on their needs and resources, hosts will welcome many different types of
travelers. Twenty-somethings are common in the WWOOF and HelpX crowd, but
various hosts will take (and sometimes prefer) older volunteers, couples, solo
travelers, families, groups, the unexperienced and the skilled -- those with carpentry and horse
knowledge seemed to be in particularly high demand. Many hosts accept
non-native speakers looking to improve their English, lots of them cater to
vegetarians while some are strictly vegetarian, and placements can range from
days to weeks to months.
If
I haven't convinced you yet, here are some of the top reasons I enjoyed the
experience:
Community
exposure. It's possible to travel abroad and remain very insulated. It's possible
to live three months in a country and still feel at arm's length from the culture. Much of my university study abroad experience felt this way: the
French language learning school I attended provided a sort of cocoon between me
and the native French population of the university; my closest friends were
fellow international students; I was not confident enough (and perhaps just
didn't drink enough) to strike up conversations with strangers. WWOOF and HelpX
cuts through all of this. As a volunteer, you are for the most part living,
eating, and working alongside your host. Furthermore, all of my hosts made an
effort to involve me in their social circle, either introducing me to
relatives, taking me to local music sessions, requesting my help on community
projects, bringing me along to dinner parties, or acquainting me with other
visitors to their homes.
This
involvement made me feel closer to my hosts, and so did the fact that we were
participating in an exchange. I have had other experiences as a non-contributing
guest in peoples' homes -- times when a host refused my help and tried to wait
on me. It tends to make me uncomfortable. I spend a lot of time wondering
whether I am being sufficiently polite and grateful for the occasion (a
"thank you" often doesn't feel adequate for these situations). With
WWOOFing and HelpXing, I was still respectful and grateful, but I felt like I
was earning my keep -- my thank you was in the attention and enthusiasm that I
put towards my work. Kitchens, living spaces, gardens, green spaces all felt
more like home because I helped clean/manage/restore/create them.
A
third facet of the experience that I appreciated was the chance to have a base
off the beaten track from which I could explore the area. At my first hosts',
this meant several hours of bike rides on a borrowed bike and exploration of
the town on foot, while at my later hosts' I hiked around and enjoyed bits and
pieces of the countryside (back roads, old roads, sheep paths, hills, lakes,
fields) that only the locals would know about.
Lastly,
I'm particularly glad that I took this trip now -- in the weird post-graduation
haze -- to sample different lifestyles and decide my own priorities about the
kind of home/job/community I want to make for myself. Would I want to cope with
the maintenance of a compost toilet? Probably not. A year-round garden? I'd
like to try. Grey water system? Definitely. I've admired the way houses are
designed, picked up a few recipes, taken note of how a community orchard was
put together, improved my skills with the handsaw, and gathered a bucketful of
little tips to carry home with me (e.g. put coffee grounds in the corners of
your raised beds to discourage slugs). I'm tempted to have traditional teatime
back in Oregon, but I'm not sure if I trust myself with cookies always in the
house.
All
this being said, WWOOF and HelpX can have their downsides. There's always a
risk of landing with a host whose lifestyle or attitude is incompatible with
your own. To this, I would say (as I learned myself), look for well-reviewed
hosts, invest in a cell phone, bring some extra funds in case you need to stay
in a hostel and find a replacement host, and ask questions (for example, ask
your host in an email how far it is to the nearest town, how many hours they expect
you to work, and on arrival ask any volunteers who are already there if they
are comfortable and having a good time). Both the WWOOF and HelpX organizations
give you the option of reporting a truly bad host, so hopefully these problems
should be few and far between. Also, I would suggest turning to HelpX if you're
in a tight spot and can't find WWOOF hosts -- I think the demand for HelpX
hosts is slightly smaller, and the hosts I contacted were quicker to reply to
my emails.
I
left for this trip expecting rain, muddy fields, livestock tending, an outdoor
lifestyle, cozy music sessions, and some quiet time to get my priorities in
order and learn a bit more about farming. In reality, I had almost no contact
with livestock (though dogs and cats abounded), and many of the farms were
large gardens. I did hear some great music. I did pick up a lot of gardening
tips and get some things mentally sorted. I spent hours outside most days. But
I also received much more than I had imagined. I met people in Ireland who I'd
be happy to visit again, and who I hope would be happy to see me. I helped get
a community orchard up and running. I went kayaking at night. I tried set
dancing. I went on night walks, got lost on a bike, climbed a smallish mountain
three times, saw sheepdogs herding, found a warm Irish sweater, tried five or
six varieties of cider and hitchhiked for the first time. And I'm returning
satisfied. In the end, this was a holiday much less about escapism and much
more about discovering how I want to direct and refashion my life when I return
home.
