Testimonials
6. Dawn
Dawn from Canada contacted me in June and we talked about her coming to volunteer in August. We kept in close contact during this time. I was to attend a tea conference in August and was going to pick her up at the TaoYuen airport since I will be near that area. But all because of Typhoon Morakot all of the roads and telephone lines were broken. I was unable to attend the conference nor contact her. I waited until the phone line was fixed and tried to call her at her hotel but found out she had already left. I felt terrible! I thought she wasn't going to come anymore and had gone home. But to my surprise after two weeks I get a call from her and she asked if she could come volunteer. I said yes she is welcome to come. Dawn is a writer and a garden designer. While she is here she wants to write a book about bamboo trees. I am very impressed by her since she's 51 years old and still have the energy of a young person, carrying around a big backpack and travelling. This time she's been travelling for 2 months. On this trip she went to Sichuan, Hong Kong, and finally to Taiwan. Her next stop is Vietnam. I am really impressed because she doesn't speak any mandarin and doesn't carry around a cell phone or watch. She refuses to wear a watch because she doesn't want any concerns about time. So when I asked her how long she'd been out she was unsure of even what today's date was. On the day I picked her up and was driving towards my farm all I could hear was her saying "oh my god!" because she was somewhat terrified. She was a little car sick too. She couldn't believe I could drive on such dangerous roads.
The day after she arrived there was a village meeting/conference. It was about the future expansion of "tourist farm resort" here. Some of the locals had to make a presentation to some government officials. It was an important matter for us. She accompanied me to go listen. I asked her if she was bored but she replied that it is an important thing and she was observing everyone...she even asked a few people a couple of questions.
((Because she was writing a book on bamboo I took her to go see some firsthand))
This is my soil of my tea plantation. She helped me pick out the weeds. She told me that I had good soil because it's soft and there's plenty of helpful insects.
Underneath the soil there are lots of these types of insects. They are larvae of beetles. Originally Dawn was going to stay here for 1 week, but the next day she told me she was feeling homesick and wanted to go home. She is also thinking about cancelling the Vietnam trip. She told me that my family reminded too much of her own family. When she got here everyone was so kind to her....
Even though our ages are 10 years apart it didn't feel like we couldn't see eye to eye. She told me a lot about the organic farm at her home town, taught me some methods, and suggested some redecorating ideas for my garden. She invited me to to visit her if I ever go to Vancouver. It's a beautiful city I wanted to stay there forever while I was there.
Wwoof is really terrific it allowed me to have so many opportunities to interact with foreign farmers. It also helps to make awareness for a little place like mine to people all over the world. Next month there will be 2 volunteers from the U.S. and also a past volunteer from England who will come to help me make autum tea. It's going to be exciting!
Provided by WWOOF Taiwan farm host