5 Hard-Earned Tips for Hawaii Work-Trade (WWOOFing) that ensure Success


During my adventures on these Hawaiian Islands, I have witnessed some remarkably unconventional and intriguing ways of living—ways that aren’t nearly as common on Mainland USA.

The single most profound difference I’ve encountered on these islands is the social agreement known as Work-Trade. Before I came here, I’d never work-traded anywhere. Heck, I don’t think I’d even heard of it before, but it turned out to be the best way for me to live cheaply on the Big Island while I wrote my 2nd book. No joke.

If you’re not familiar, work-trade is a type of living situation where a person (i.e., a work-trader) does a certain type of work in exchange for lodging. This is especially common on Hawaii, where jobs can be scarce. But even beyond that, many people choose work trade for the community benefits it offers. Nowhere else in the world have I seen so many intentional communities thriving than on Hawaii, and many of my friends here believe that community living is the future (not to mention the past, too).

Before I came to Hawaii in April 2013, I thought work-trade would be a fantastic way to save money. After all, helping people with their technology in exchange for free rent, laundry, and internet service sounded like a stellar idea.

What I didn’t know at the time was how much of a growth catalyst this would be for me. I’d never lived in community before, and I was in for a bit of an adjustment. I’ve managed condense what I’ve learned into the five tips below, that, when applied, can highly improve your experience.

Five Wise Tips

  1. Be Totally Crystal Clear what your agreement is before you begin. If the agreement is 24 hours per week, please be sure of which days that entails, and exactly what that work will be. Some managers are more free-spirited than others and just want someone there to hold space, while others will micro-manage you. It’s up to you to clarify what is expected of you before you begin.
  2. Realize that agreements are up for negotiation as long as you keep an open ear and behave honorably. Some places will charge you a security deposit (or give it some other name), and I was able to cut the deposit of my first place in half by doing some extra work in exchange. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but in a place where jobs and clients can be tricky to find, saving a little extra cash is helpful.
  3. Run the Work Environment through your gut. Do you feel good about living on the same property with the person who will also be your boss? Having your manager also be your landlord is perhaps the largest mental shift associated with work-trade. Working with someone who you get along with is great in a job situation, but it’s just about mandatory when it comes to work trade. You will see that person most every day, so test for resonance before you agree to anything. If you get into an agreement with someone who simply doesn’t get you, anguish will result. However, if your manager understands what you have to offer, and you both do your part, a beautiful, highly-supportive relationship can result.
  4. Be sure you want to be part of that Community before you arrive. If the community is relatively transient, obviously you’d better be equanimous with unexpected personalities coming and going every few weeks. Do you resonate with the culture of the place? Do you enjoy the people there now? Have you noticed new people arriving that you also feel good about—or don’t? In a place with a high turnover rate, like a hostel, this is can be a double-edged sword. Know yourself.
  5. Be prepared to share Utilities like kitchen, laundry machine, and bathroom. If you haven’t had to do this before, it can be a bit of an adjustment, but usually the least of concerns, which is why I’ve placed it here at the end. If you are the kind of person who is interested in community in the first place, you will most likely adapt to this quickly.

 

Overwhelmingly Positive

Double Rainbow over Hana Bay, Maui

Overall, living in a various work-trade situations has been overwhelmingly positive for me. Once I adjusted, I found the work-trade situations on the Big Island to be intriguing and of a relatively low time commitment (usually less time than a part-time job).

If you’re able to land a place that really resonates with you, it can be the best decision you’ll ever make if you want to really delve deep into a place while travelling, especially in Hawaii. You’ll expose yourself to new growth experiences, many of which you can’t anticipate. Living in a community, no matter how small, has the effect of exposing elements of yourself that you can improve on, as well as revealing your greatest strengths.

A Final Word of Warning: Once you start doing this, it may be difficult to stop! When I started house-sitting in mid-2014 after living in community for over a year, I found the adjustment to living alone rather pleasant at first, but then I came to miss living in community. The social support to be found in community is powerful, even if it’s just one or two other people.

Even now as I write this, I am on the eastern side of Maui, typing inside one of the most terrific living rooms ever: a fully-enclosed geodesic dome, complete with couches and a guitars along the edge. My friend’s farm here in Hana is a wonderfully eclectic mix of sacred architecture, abundant fruit trees, and creative souls — not to mention a wonderful home base for my brief time here on Maui.

Seems I just can’t get away from community, can I? 😉



What is the point of a Friendship if it fades?


I’ve been asking far too few questions lately.

Usually when I share something with you here, I want to give you something to be excited about, someplace you can dream to see someday.

But today, as I was triaging through old files, I came across a folder on my Mac called “Friend Docs,” resulting in a cascading series of events that led me straight down Memory Lane.

You see, ever since I got a new iPod, I’ve been shooting ABSURD amounts of HD video, and it’s filling up my drive faster that I anticipated. Turns out, a surprisingly large chunk of my space was also going to files that people have sent me over the past decade or so. Within the “Friend Docs” folder were photos of people I haven’t talked to in years. A Japanese musician, a German photographer, a graphic designer from New England. I suddenly wondered why I hadn’t spoken to them in so long and what their lives had become.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I know I’m not expected to stay in touch with all of them. Sometimes connections just fade naturally. Travel has taught me this. Life has taught me this. And I get it. I accept it. Usually, I even welcome it, because when we let go of a connection that doesn’t resonate with us, we make space for something even better to come through.

I am living proof of this.

But as I shuffled through old videos and photos (even pictures of post cards), I couldn’t help but get a bit melancholic. Once upon a time, these files had meant so much to me. And now I didn’t care at all about most of them. Only a few, the few that sparked a memory, held any remaining value for me.

And I couldn’t help but ask myself: What was the point of these friendships? We don’t stay in touch any more, so were they a waste of time? Was I pursuing a weak friendship connection in the first place with some of these people? Perhaps. Perhaps.

Heck, I used to have a pretty good Japanese vocabulary! (Reminded of this by a screenshot of me Skyping with an old Japanese friend.) When I try and read hiragana now, I almost feel embarrassed at how much I’ve forgotten. What was the point? What was the point of any of this if my memory for language is like a sieve?

Stepping into a flooded fieldI let this thought stew for a while, and this afternoon I decided to go for a walk.

Outside, I discovered that a nearby stream had flooded, no doubt from all of the recent snowmelt. I’d been here dozens of times, maybe hundreds, and I’d never seen it like this — like a perfect mirror had been placed slightly above the landscape, and I stepped into the water with my waterproof shoes (just because I could).

Then I realized something.

In this changed environment, the stronger elements, often the older elements, reached out of the water easily. They would be fine.

I reflected: perhaps the passage of time is like a slowly rising flood. The memories are still there, submerged, but they aren’t always available for me to consciously access. And each of those memories has roots that go deep, even if I can’t see them. They reinforce other memories. (It’s all one big neurological network, right?)

A tree rising over a flooded field

It’s funny, because I’ve had this attitude toward relationships for a while now, that if something ends, that doesn’t mean it’s a failure. As long as I learned something, as long as I grew, it’s not a loss. But I guess I wasn’t applying this same belief to friendships. Or at least, not all of them.

But it remains true.

As I stood out and reflected upon my own reflection in the water, I realized: even if I learned another language fluently from a friend and then forgot it because the friendship faded, there would be growth in that, even if I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what I’d learned about life. Even if I completely forgot the language afterward, it would still be worth it.

And then I expanded upon it. I realized that everyone I’ve ever met, no matter how briefly I’ve known them, has added to my learning in some way. Either they’ve provided more data for me to realize something new about humanity has a whole, or just provided a minor perspective shift, the learning is there, no matter how small.

In the end, not everything has to be remembered. And not everything has to be practical. It just has to be experienced honestly.

That’s something I expect I’ll have to keep telling myself.

What about you? From traveller to traveller:
How do you react when you reflect on friendships long faded?