First, go way back and read
this post from January of 2010.
You've read it? Okay, awesome. So, now you're caught up. Approximately two years ago, I was at a crossroads in life. What to do next? I vividly remember writing that post laying in what was once my bedroom and I only saw two options, so I informed my small, but mighty blog audience about them. But there was secretly a third option that dropped in my lap at the last minute and that became exactly what I've been doing for the last 2 years.
North Korea focused. Solid, solid times of activism, growth, introspection, and change for the North Korean people. And, in completely superficial terms, I think I got to accomplish a little bit of that Zooey that I wanted. I was able to spruce up my wardrobe, wear skirts and cute thrifted threads on the reg.
Two years later, yet another crossroad. It's a trend in my life. If you know me, then you know that. And now I'm going to accomplish a little bit of Dennis. That's right, folks. I am going to WWOOF in Hawaii come the end of this month! Bucket list. Check.
The
short long-ish story: last April I purchased a
WWOOF-USA membership on a whim, because it was something I always wanted to do and I hate putting my money to waste, so I knew that if I bought it, I would HAVE to use it. In the mean time, I'm the biggest poser of a WWOOF spokesperson out there - every time someone talks about traveling, I'm like, OMG have you ever thought of WWOOFing? Gab, gab, gab, and I pretend to know all about it, even though I'd never done it and never met anyone who had.
Then it was December and I was finishing my time with LiNK. My talks of WWOOFing over the last year was mainly for me - to plant those seeds inside my own head so that I would actually follow up on something that I knew, deep down, I wanted to do. I initially wanted to go to New Zealand. Who doesn't? BUT airfare alone let me know that now is not the time. And I had my handy-dandy WWOOF-USA membership which included Hawaii and I decided that wouldn't be a terrible place to go in the winter time, right?
Mmm, don't you feel warmer just looking at it?
So, at the end of December, I started reaching out to some pals who I thought would be good travel buddies and emailing some farms. Farmers have emails? Yes. I know, ironic.
I would do it in waves. I would read a farm's profile in my directory, decide if I dug it, then email them. I emailed my favorites first and then my second favorites the next week and so on and so forth. Some farms led me on in the meanest online-dating sense of the phrase. So much hope and so much let down. That happened a few times and was unfortunate. I wanted to go so bad.
So, finally, after my friend from college, Josh, got on board to come, one of the farms I emailed initially wants us! Josh has got all the labor-skills that farmers want and I've got the ability to write a classy email that causes intrigue. It's a dynamic duo, of sorts. At least until we get to the farm and the owners realize that I burn easy and can't carry 10 pounds for more than a few feet. Kidding (sort of - the daily push ups start now).
What they don't know, won't hurt them, until it's too late! And I will be leaving in a few weeks to live near Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii for at least a couple of months, volunteering on a farm (in exchange for room and board), living with a seemingly precious family (husband, wife, 3 young kids), learning how to farm organically and living off the grid.
Aloha, my friends!
