I haven't written here in over a week, so this isn't completely current, but the memories of my first WWOOFing experience will not fade quickly. For those who don't know, WWOOF is an acronym for Willing Workers on Organic Farms, and it is a program in which travelers can participate. Basically, you receive a guidebook which lists various farms/homesteads throughout Australia that are willing to accept travelers for anywhere from 2 days to 3 months. In exchange for a few hours work each day, WWOOFers recieve lodging and meals, plus a chance to experience some real Australian culture, especially in the Outback, as that is where most farms are located! I stayed for four nights at Woodland Place Nursery, a farm/nursery in Hallidays Point, a town about 4 hours north of Sydney and so small that it can't be found on most maps (this was honestly what attracted me to it!) On the bus ride up there, I tried to keep my expectations of the farm to a minimum, as I didn't want to be disappointed, and honestly, my farm experience is a limited one, so I really didn't know what to expect.

I arrived about 6 PM on Saturday the 19th. I had been a bit worried about how the person coming to pick me up would locate me, but I needn't have worried...the bus pulled over to the side of the road, let me out, and I found myself on an absolutely deserted stretch of road. I figured the lone orange pickup truck idling nearby must be my ride to the farm, and I was right! I then had my first experience riding in the front seat of a car that had the steering wheel on the right-hand side of the vehicle. The farmer (Ray) and I had a good laugh about that one. After ten minutes of speeding down equally deserted roads, we pulled in to the farm. There was a caravan camper on the right, a tin shack on the left, and beyond those a tidy log cabin, all shadowed by tall, exotic looking trees. If it hadn't been summer and about 80 degrees, I'd have expected to see smoke curling out of the chimmney of the log cabin, it was all so picturesque. I met Rhonda, Ray's wife, and they both told me how excited they were, as they loved hosting WWOOFers, and apparently did so frequently. They showed me to the tin shack, which contained a large, soft bed, a couch, and a TV, as well as having a wood porch with a table, a sink (no running water) and several chairs. I was very excited to have my own room, after a week of hostel living! There were two other WWOOFers there that evening, both Korean, but not traveling together. One of them left the next day, but the other stayed until the day I left. He spoke hardly any English though, and seemed to be a bit shy about his abilities & wouldn't even attempt to converse.

The next day (Sunday) was the first day that I was to work, so I awoke & went up the house by 7 am for breakfast (I know, I still can't believe I got up that early!) At breakfast, Ray discussed with the guys their duties for the day, while Rhonda turned to me and told me that I would be helping her around the house. I was a bit jealous, especially while watching the guys painting the house as I was inside washing dishes. And when you've got 5 people, and eat four meals a day, there are a lot of dishes! Plus the ever-present drought in many areas of Australia means that you can't run water over the dishes like I would at home, but rather you must fill up two sinks, one for scrubbing and one for rinsing. The dishes never seemed completely clean to me, but that's besides the point! Anyway, I figured that it was the first day, and surely I would get to do more interesting work later in my stay. That however proved not to be the case, and the most interesting thing I did in four days was to water the plants in the nursery. The rest of the time, I washed dishes, set the table, hung washing, swept the floors...obviously all these things needed doing, and I was a good sport about it, I didn't complain. But it bothered me to no end that I was cleaning only because I was a woman. RHonda would barely let the guys come in to the kitchen, much less wash a dish. Us WWOOFers took our dinner apart from the farmers, down at the shack, and Rhonda would encourage me to cook and clean for the Korean guys, saying things like "make sure to offer them some milk, as they like milk." It was frustrating. And I was a guest, so I couldn't really refuse, or argue with her. Mostly I just smiled and nodded. The guys seemed to notice the inequality of it as well. A guy named Jay arrived on Monday, also Korean, but with much better English. We talked a lot, and he told me that he would rather sweep the floors then paint fence posts, and he thought it was unfair that he had to be outside painting. If only we could've switched places! I understood that this was how Australian farm life, at least on this farm, operated -with this glaring differential treatment on accord of gender. But it still bothered me. However, it proved a valid learning experience to prepare me for my next farm visit. I can ask up front about what sort of work I will be doing (it is listed in the guidebook, but really, you will end up doing whatever they need you do to) and make sure that it is a place I really want to go to. I have nothing against cleaning or washing clothes, but I can do that in America. I want to get a real sense of farm work, or maybe I need to be more direct and say that I want a man's sense of farmwork, as a women's role on the farm seems to be mainly a housekeeping one.

I don't want this entry to be negative, as my stay really wasn't. In my free time, I explored the beautiful, rocky beaches nearby, and rode along on a trip to Forster/Tuncurry, the nearest big town. The food I ate was delicious, I got to feed the chickens (they call them chooks here -at first I was really confused!) and I learned quite a lot about Korean culture and life from the WWOOFers I was with. I also got to experience a chunk of Australian life from that which I had seen in Sydney. This was the