Polish WWOOFing

Despite not having updated in many travel years (they're sort of like light years) I thought I would write something to let many of you know that I am still alive.

I've been a to too many places in the last few months (Greece, Rome, Prague, Amsterdam, and Krakow) and I am finally staying in one place for a couple of weeks before resuming my nomadic life and heading east (Ukraine) and east (Russia). Perhaps, in my brief period of staying still I will update a bit about the other places I've been but for now - where am I?

I am at a farm in Poland, about an hour and a half outside of Warsaw - more specifically near here. What am I doing here?

I am WWOOFing. Some call it indentured servitude, others serfdom, and, well, some of us call it vacation. Technically it stands for Worldwide Working On Organic Farms and you can find out more about it here. This is the second farm I have visited in Poland.

The first, Michnowiec Eco-Frontiers was in a beautiful place and I could even see Ukraine out of my window. However, despite having solar and wind energy, biological waste management, forests, wetlands, prairies, beaver dams and some very beautiful horses it was not a nice place. Andzrej and Aga were absolute misanthropes and it is beyond me why they would ever agree to let anyone come to their farm. They wouldn't talk to us, they gave us very hard work in hot weather and the only food available was bread, cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers. Look, I know I signed up to work for nothing, and all I really ask for in return is basic human decency. This was not provided at Eco-Frontiers Ranch.

The only other WWOOFer there, Vicky, was from Beijing and this was her first time out of China. She was so unhappy it was painful to watch. I encouraged her to leave - go to Krakow, Prague, a city. After I had only been there 3 days, she left. Although she asked me to come with her I refused. I was unsure if I would stay the entire two weeks I had committed to, but I thought I would stay a bit longer as I had no other plans. However, after Vicky's departure, Andzrej suggested I "find another farm" as "the work they had was for two people." I did not object.

So, I quickly found myself back in Krakow unsure of where I would go next. I ended up enjoying myself immensely in Krakow and stayed for about 6 days (you'll have to forgive me, I cannot remember anything precisely at this point). I was very apprehensive about going to another farm, but I didn't want to write WWOOF off based on one bad experience. When Ewa, from Grzybow Farm (association - Ziarno ) emailed me, asking if I was still coming, I took it as a sign got back on the train/bus.

I'm so glad I did. It is a much better experience here. People are always coming and going, helping flood victims, teaching children English, running workshops on organic farming, baking bread, making cheese, and other kinds of do-goodery that I approve of.

The work is hard and there is a lot of hay involved - turning hay, collecting hay into piles, moving hay bales, feeding hay to goats, putting hay in the cow and horse stables, etc. but I am enjoying myself - doing work that I can see with my hands. There's another WWOOFer here, Hannah, a Californian that is on summer from Columbia and we chat easily while we work. The food is very good, especially the homemade bread and cheese. We eat meals with the family (Ewa and Peter and whichever of the 5 daughters are home) and are always treated kindly. Today, Hannah and I accompanied Peter to Płock, where he delivered bread. We walked around town, got coffee and cake and went to the cathedral.

The family has 2 horses, over 20 goats, including an adorable baby and a scary billy goat, 4 milking cows and 3 calves, and some dogs and cats. Ewa is Polish and does most of the work for the organization. Peter is Swiss and does most of the work on the farm, including making the amazing cheese.

So there you have it. I'm feeling healthy and happy. I'm getting stronger and my hands are getting callused. I am also very very tired, and I'll be back at it at 8 am, so I'm going to bed now. I'll post some photos soon.