Testimonials
1. Edmund&Max(England)
I got a call from a WWOOF volunteer wanting to come experience farming at our farm. He was very interested in Taiwan’s tea. It was the third time already that a volunteer wants to come to our tea plantation to help. We had actually rejected 2 previous volunteers because my husband wasn’t comfortable with allowing strangers to come live with us. Even this time he wanted to refuse them, mainly because we didn’t feel like we had adquate living quarters for them. So finally we decided to make that as our excuse and tell this volunteer from England that he would have to live in a tent. But to our amazement he said it was ok with him!
I have always wanted to welcome foreigners to come to our farm. I tried to explain to my husband the positives of broadening our horizons to outside countries. We can really use the extra help because before harvesting tea there is a greuling time of picking out weeds. We will be able to save a lot of work and money when tea harvesting time comes. I finally managed to convince my husband!
They came on April 17, which was also my birthday. The volunteers came they were cousing, Edmund and Max
Edmund is the older one, he has studied tea before and also went to many places in China to study tea.
Max is taking classes in Taiwan. He must have a good family background becase he’s been to all parts of the world. His family even has a villa in Phuket Island I couldn’t believe it! I’m thinking he doesn’t have to work and he will be very well off! But when I asked them to help pick out weeds they didn’t complain and were very diligent in working.
Aside from picking weeds they also helped me to make tea.
They were really hard workers and so into what they were doing. Edmund knew a lot about tea and even took notes while he was working.
Usually making tea would last until 1 to 2 o’clock in the morning, but they were really cooperative and I was proud of them for acting so professional. Because WWOOF has rules that volunteers can only work as long as 6 hours per day they had to rest. They wanted to help us finish harvesting the tea the next day, but the other paid tea harvesting workers didn’t want to continue after the rain. The paid workers decided to go somewhere else to pick because there was more money somewhere else, and left us with a lot of tea to harvest. We couldn’t do it by ourselves even with the help of Edmund and Max. I was ashamed for the Taiwan workers to show such unprofessionalism in front of Edmund and Max. They asked me if there was any type of union for tea that can help us but sadly there isn’t any. Every spring when tea harvest comes it is something we have to deal with.
After waiting for 2 days and the paid workers didn’t return, Edmund and Max had to return to Taipei. They were very nice to call us and ask if we finished harvesting the tea and if they could call some of their friends to come help us. I was very touched by their actions!
Their stay at our farm really gave us a lot of joy. Everybody like them a lot.
They wanted to make tea cups out of the bamboo.
Provided by WWOOF Taiwan farm host