I have officially completed a two week stint at my first WWOOF host; a small, beautiful farm in Devon with meadows, orchards, cows, sheep, veg garden, cider press and hay barn.
The farm is run by a man in his forties (at an educated guess), who is doing everything organically and traditionally, including animal husbandry, growing fruit and vegetables, hay-making, re-laying hedges etc. He is teaching himself skills from scratch and restoring his 18th century farm-house painstakingly by hand. Divorced, he juggles maintaining the farm, looking after his two children for half the week, a new relationship and managing an endless stream of WWOOFers - he is a man deserving of respect.
This man and I did not exactly hit it off.
I always knew that the first few weeks would be a tricky adjustment period while I got used to the new 'normal' of WWOOFing and boy was I right!! Some of the things I was worried about were hard, but not really so bad - for instance doing physical work all day - but others I very much struggled with. The lack of Alone Time, for instance. Even though I had my own room I was still spending at least 12 hours a day in the company of other folks, not really at liberty to take myself off without seeming rude. I think, however, I am starting to get used to this and it will gradually become less of a problem. Hopefully I will soon get to the point where I no longer want to punch people if they speak to me before I've drunk my morning coffee!
The absolute hardest thing, though, was being in the host's house 24/7, with very little independence or escape. Imagine you start a new job and the boss doesn't seem too congenial. At the end of the day, you're pretty glad to go home right? But when you're WWOOFing, you go home WITH your boss, to stay at his house, and help him cook dinner and wash up after it, whilst making small talk. I'm telling you, it's intense.
Without wanting to sound churlish or ungrateful, I found my host's attitude towards me erratic, sometimes friendly, but frequently condescending and critical His instructions were vague and often contradictory. Although he did most of the things a WWOOF host is generally expected to do (feeding, giving a place to sleep, lending books/bikes etc.) he seemed to have little empathy for the WWOOFers he was hosting.
I understand that it must be very difficult having strangers in your house all year round, and that maybe some WWOOFers need keeping in line when it comes to helping etc., but I am not one of those and nor were the other girls I was there with! He seemed to be completely unaware of all the efforts we were making to be polite, friendly and helpful 100% of the time (something which personally nearly killed me). Instead of explaining house-rules or the way he liked things to be done, he waited until I was attempting to do something helpful e.g. washing-up and then would tell me angrily that I was doing it all wrong. The result of this, although I'm sure it was not intended, was to make me feel constantly anxious that I was annoying/offending/being a nuisance.
I don't for a minute think that my host was purposely trying to make anyone feel uncomfortable, and actually he did seem to warm to me a little about half way through my time there - occasionally making clear attempts to be pleasant, humorous and conversational, plus cooking up the odd truly delicious meal. But this didn't particularly alter the sense that he didn't really want me or the other WWOOFers there and was tolerating us at best - something which could have been easily mitigated by the occasional word of praise or thanks.
I thought perhaps on one of the days we had spent busting our asses logging for him he might just say 'thanks for that' or 'you've worked hard today, well done'. Or maybe, just maybe, at the end of the day we spent 6 hours shoveling cow shit in the pouring rain? But no, he merely smirked at the sight of us looking like drowned rats and then told us off for digging up some carrots. (He'd previously instructed us to dig the carrots up, then changed his mind but not informed us - a not uncommon occurrence).
There's nothing like a total lack of appreciation to make all your scratches, stings, bruises and exhausted aching muscles seem worth it!
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| I felt a lot harder and more manly using this saw than I look in this photo! Maybe a dress was the wrong outfit choice? |
Plus, whilst doing all of this, you can build and maintain a giant internal boil filled with rage at the injustice of it all, which you then lance all over the internet!! I would have loved this first post to be full of tales of the joys and warmth of sharing and human togetherness, rather than the enormous bitch and whine-fest that it's turned out to be, but I also promised myself I would be honest about my experiences... so here it is, the unvarnished truth in all it's glory.
It's not like there aren't any positives to be drawn, there definitely are: I am currently feeling fitter and stronger than I've ever felt in my life, I got on really well with the other girls volunteering even though there were quite big gaps in age and differences between us, I got to spend time in a truly lovely place and discover a new bit of the country, I genuinely liked a dog for the first time ever (!!) and I learned that I can deal with awkward social situations in another way than just avoiding them like the plague. Plus, I tested myself at several points with the question 'Is this better than working in an office?' and the answer was always 'YES'.
Two more things sustain me. Firstly, one of the other WWOOFers I met has been WWOOFing in the UK for two years, she said that this host was not typical and gave me a few recommendations for onwards travel. Secondly, I had a little surprising moment, somewhere among all the uncomfortableness and tumultuous lifestyle changes, of feeling like this: 'I'm doing the right thing. This is going to work out just fine'.
I hugged that moment to me and it felt good.
