The July story winner of our #MyWWOOFCanadaStory contest, this story from Monique Belley tells about her experience receiving two french WWOOFers at her homestead in Matane, Quebec. Monique and her guests navigated countless obstacles brought on by the COVID-19 in order to make their WWOOFing stay happen – their perseverance is admirable.
Early this spring, I recruited a couple of young French WWOOFers to work in my gardens and to tend to my chickens. We initially agreed that they would stay from May 7th until June 15th. That is more or less when you can start working outside here in Gaspesie (by then, the snow is almost completely gone). Since December they had been living in their friend’s small apartment in Montreal while their friend was in Asia. When the COVID-19 crisis hit, the friend was forced to return earlier than expected. Because he needed to quarantine, they had to leave the apartment at short notice.
This was a problem because they had no family or other contacts here in Canada and no way to get back to France. So, they contacted me to see if I could receive them earlier than we had agreed.
Umm… yes, maybe, I answered. Although, I don’t have any tasks to assign you to this early in the season. But we can probably come to an agreement regarding the terms of your stay. Okay, it’s agreed!
Unfortunately, they were still not out of the woods. All public transportation between Montréal and Gaspésie had halted because of the epidemic and any and all traffic had to pass through a roadblock!
Mmmmm… well… OK, I see… Well, I can come and get you in Québec City (a four-hour drive) if you can find a way to get there from Montréal (a two and a half-hour drive).
I called the Matane police to explain the situation. They referred me to la Sûreté du Québec. I explained to them why I had to go and get Elisa and Tanguy in Québec City – they are the farm labourers that I hired this year – and voilà… the magic words had been said… farmworkers… Because they were farmworkers they could get through the regional roadblock!
Elisa and Tanguy took a train to Québec City, where I picked them up on a rainy day. When we got to the roadblock, I explained that they were my farmworkers and that they are coming to live at my house for a few months. I showed them proof of residency and zoom, we were on our way to Gaspésie!
However, we still had fourteen days of quarantine to get through. My WWOOFers self-isolated in one of the bedrooms that had a bathroom. I brought them food on a tray three times a day (they were paying for their room and food during that time). I also was in quarantine at home during this time, so we spent fourteen very long days being idle.
Then, finally, on April 18, our quarantine ended. It was a cold day. After all, it was practically still winter. But oh well! Elisa and Tanguy broke out of their isolation and began lending a hand however they could while also enjoying their freedom. We got right down to work. They proved to be productive, hard-working and independent. We threw ourselves into seed preparation, building a greenhouse, and setting up a chicken coop!
So, was it worth it? Was it worth driving for four hours to pick them up, passing through roadblocks, and serving them food three times a day during our 14-day quarantine? Absolutely! In the end, the situation turned out very well, since we really didn’t have much to do except work away at all my small projects. This is the fourth year I’ve hosted WWOOFers, but this year is the year that I’m most pleased about hosting! It goes to show, there’s always a silver lining to every situation.
– Monique Belley