I don’t want to toot our own horn too much, but I think that WWOOF is a rare thing these days.
The internet and technology in general has made it easier and easier to live inside a bubble. Don’t want to have to go to the store? Order on Amazon. Don’t want to deal with the crowds at the grocers? Buy it through skip the dishes. Don’t want to go to the bank? Manage it all online. Don’t want to interact with a person, interact with a computer.
Not WWOOF. While the website has increasingly become important for making the initial connection between hosts and WWOOFers, after that, there is no comforting blanket of a computer/phone screen to protect you. All you have is a brutal, painful, difficult… human connection. I’m being tongue and cheek of course, but it’s true that WWOOF puts us in situations that we are less and less used to. Live, work, and commune alongside complete strangers.
Now, we are big advocates for finding the right fit (i.e. find a WWOOFers/host who will appreciate what you have to offer), but if you’re going to enjoy WWOOF (as a WWOOFer or host), you still have to be open to the unexpected. I would say that most of the time the unexpected is good, but sometimes it’s challenging too.
At WWOOF, we try and be as up front about that as possible. Many who have gone WWOOFing have had at least one bad experience. Most also a have had fantastic experience to balance it out. But sometimes the difference between those two experiences is merely being willing to step outside of your comfort zone and rise to a new challenge. Sometimes the thing that stands between you and a new joy is your own fear of the unknown. Can you use this opportunity to learn something new about yourself? Something new about the world?
For some people, the answer to that question is: NO. Not because they don’t want to grow, but maybe they just do so in smaller, more incremental ways. It may be that by ordering food in and doing their banking online, they save their energy to push themselves in other ways. No judgement here. But that also could mean that WWOOF isn’t the right fit for them.
For everyone else, WWOOF is a breath of fresh fall air. A response to the protective bubbles of the world. A response that says, I value human connection, I value hard work, and I value learning – even if I have to become a little uncomfortable in the process.
Happy fall and happy WWOOFing!
Robin
WWOOF Canada, Executive Director