Wwoofers,Who Are They?

by Suzie Stranik

Last summer, our youngest daughter, Dakota, signed me up as a host with WWOOF USA, World wide opportunities on organic farms, wwoofusa.org.  When Dakota graduated from Cornell she decided to ride her bike across America, so she drug her bike across the sand, dipped her foot into the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island and began her journey to the Pacific Ocean.  She found her lodgings at the WWOOF site, emailing ahead to see if they could use some help, trading a days labor for room and board.  She fell in love with growing and had many amazing experiences along the way.

Last fall I hosted my first wwoofer, Eva from Norway who stayed with us for two weeks.  It is sort of like hosting an exchange student, they are here to experience Alaska, some have a background in growing and others are just willing to learn.

This summer we have hosted eleven wwoofers from France, Homer, Isle of Man, Connecticut,Tucson, Australia, North Carolina, China, and Sebastopol California.  They are eager to experience Seldovia, meet the locals, and take home some memorable experiences.  They all fall in love with the beauty of our little paradise here.

I am always grateful for community members that invite them along on a hike or a kayak outing as it gives me time in the kitchen which is a big part of our exchange together, the social joy of sharing meals.

We are expecting three more woofers this month, Chang & Pan from Beijing, and Shlomy from Israel.  Chang is a photographer and her husband is an artist.  They built a small art studio in Beijing, have traveled through Europe, spent 6 months in Tibet, and will now explore America, beginning in Seldovia.  They are very much interested in the subsistence lifestyle.

Chuanji, my last wwoofer from China is a student at Purdue Univ.  She came to Seldovia for ten days during her three week semester break.  In her last email she said that her short time in Seldovia was her best days since coming to the USA.  Celine and Camile, my first wwoofers from France and also Will from Isle of Man were hooked up with Francois who took them along on many of his adventures.

Justin and Madi, the young couple from Connecticut say they are returning, she cried when they left.  And Josie from Tucson made a career change when she returned home, she took a little bit of my heart with her when she left.  It has been a wonderful mutual experience working with these individuals.  Our work day is usually 10am to 5pm, if you can share an experience in nature with any of my “Wwoofers” I know they would be grateful, and you would be enriched.

 

Tags: exchange, Gardening, Seldovia, Seldovia Alaska, Suzie Stranik, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, Wwoofers

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