Sunday, April 28, 2013

Advanced WWOOFing - Community Ties

 I have no concept of time and I blame Hawaii's awesomeness for this fact. Let's just overlook the pertinent detail that I never wear a watch or look at a calendar.  Why should I have a concept of time, really?  The sun wakes me up gently, allowing me ample time to prepare for work.  The birds that rise a full three hours before dawn to sing the sun into wakefulness used to be annoying, now I just see it as a chirpy little snooze alarm that lets me know I have another few hours of blissful languishing.

From there I complete my four hours of work/trade, then go about my business.  These days my "business" takes the form of doing whatever the heck I want.  My most difficult decision is choosing which fun thing I want to do first. Rough life, yeah?

Who You Know, What You know  

While I would like to say that much of my success as a WWOOFer is due to my work ethic, tenacity and genuine desire to help, I can say with honesty that I wouldn't be where I am today without the help of my friend Diane from Joe's Nuts

I'm slow on reporting this (no concept of time, remember?) but about a month ago we moved over to Living Aquaponics.  Yup, a new farm, this one makes our third.  Still no pictures, I know!  A new laptop is in my immediate future, and collected pictures are soon to follow.    

Living Aquaponics is a fantastic farm.  It was hard to leave the Sanctuary of Mana Ke'a, that place is so beautiful, serene and magical I practically had to be pried away by force.  I still visit when the opportunity arises, cause I sure do love Randyl's place, pets and everything the Sanctuary has to offer.  

Diane played an integral role in helping us secure two of our three WWOOFing opportunities, both the Sanctuary and now with Living Aquaponics. Generosity seems to be her middle name, because she continues to help as often as possible.  Trips to the thrift store, rides to potlucks, and armloads of free clothes - Diane gleefully doles out all of these and more, to friends and volunteers alike.  

Speaking of volunteers, the WWOOFers at Joe's Nuts enjoy some truly comfortable lodgings and tasty food.  I know because I've been grocery shopping with her and I've envied the cozy digs of her workers.  I haven't worked for Diane yet, aside from an hour or two here and there, but I would certainly arrange a long-term stay if the opportunity presented itself.  If there's one woman who understands the power of community, networking, and bringing people together to share talents, it's Diane.  Sounds like I'm gushing, sure, but this woman truly embodies the spirit of Aloha and the sense of community that I was looking for when I took the leap of faith which brought me to Hawaii. 

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