The Europe Trip: WWOOF Wales- 10th to 17th

note: WWOOF= willing workers on organic farms... the idea is that you exchange a certain, hopefully FINITE amount of farm/garden work for your room and board.

Wales is a bit of a sleepy town, but the whole WWOOFing situation has provided more than enough "experience" for this leg of the trip. I'll start off by mentioning that overall it's been a pretty good deal for us. We've gotten muscle tone, humour, and wisdom out of the WWOOF deal, (in addition to a cheap place to stay) for only a few six hour days of fairly light gardening. I have important words for anyone considering WWOOFing, however. Clear the details- what your accomodations are, how many hours you'll be expected to work, what kind of work you'll be doing- well before you get there. We just happened to have confirmed with the host (in an assertive fashion) that we were doing 5 six hour days in exchange for 7 days of lodging, as her ad had suggested. If we hadn't, it would have been a NIGHTMARE, whereas for us it turned out more like one of those disoriented, carnival-like surreal dreams that are alternatively disturbing and hilarious.
The other WWOOFers did not check their details. They had indefinite amounts of work and usually ended up working well over 12 hours, and no set reward days in exchange. One extra-meek girl got an especially raw deal... she arrived, essentially worked for eight days straight without stopping, and then only had 2.5 days off at the end. I remember one day she worked her huge shift at the garden site (which started at about 7 am), came back to help us make dinner, was interrupted to do more work in the yard (after dark), and when we finally saw her inside at around 9:00 pm and asked if she could sit down to the now cold dinner, she said, "One minute, I just have to get her a glass of wine...". There was a bit of exploitation going on for sure. We felt bad going off at 2 pm and leaving them to their at least 6 hours or more of work, but not as bad as if we'd stayed. So, word to the wise.

The Site

Sad sacks wishing they done better planning so they could be on our side of the fence.

It's neat/scary to be tossed into a real slice of life in your host country. You have to navigate the dynamic of your host family, their friends, and your fellow WWOOFers in a fairly intimate setting. Truthfully there were some family issues making themselves apparent, and things could get fairly awkward and tense around the hosts. I won't get into specifics, but let's just say even with our pacificist values we were understanding towards the youngest son's obsession with hunting and guns. Although initially Lins wasn't overly impressed that her intro to the house was a 12 year old boy pointing a large air rifle in her face.

As if the hunting-ethics blend wasn't odd enough, everyone in this supposedly sustainable lifestyle-oriented house- including the hosts- kept trying to force meat on us.

Not much to see in Cardiff, but it had some cute stuff, generally warm people, and character. There is a bit of a fondness for public drinking. Oo, here's an anecdote: On the last day I was in the city we tried to find a breakfast spot and ended up wandering for over an hour. We discovered that nothing opens for food before 12, but the beer is already a-flowin. When we finally find a spot to eat, this was me trying to order-
"I'll have a vegetarian breakfast and a large mocha, please."
"Ok, breakfast and a large vodka."
- to be fair, he was busy pouring a lot of beers at the time.
You'll see the distillery for the local brew below... Brains. We tried it- turns out it's about as appetizing as it sounds.