Jake Wilding

Wwoofing Eh? Jake Wilding

Wwoofing eh?' was the reaction Jake received from most Canadians while he was over there for four months. From everyone else - before and after the trip - he received confused silence or comments about how a dog communicates. However, it is simply a way in which a cash strapped person can travel in a foreign country for a length of time, and "contribute" to a farm, in which they will work 4-6 hours a day and 4-5 days a week. In return the wwoofer will be given food, a bed and possibly be shown around the local area. Jake's plan was simple; to spend four months wwoofing his way across Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver (missing out Quebec, because, well, he couldn't be bothered to learn French). As well as his aforementioned poorness, Jake had many reasons why he wanted to wwoof, such as learning how to farm and to understand a different way of life. To his dismay, his first wwoofing experience was not what he was quite hoping for: on a farm in eastern Ontario with a volatile woman and her dozen cats, Jake realised the two weeks he had planned to stay at the farm were too long to seriously contemplate. Jake travelled for over two months across Canada, before meeting up with his mum, who had been travelling around the world for five months. Jake found himself working through sixteen feet of snow and in the scorching temperatures of the Canadian desert. He slept on a school bus, ate plants and experienced life as he never had before. So...wwoofing...nothing to do with dogs.