
My first work-away experience
Aloha from Hawaii. I have spent about 2 weeks in Hawaii now. I’m on the Island of Hawaii or also nicknamed the big islands. It is the biggest of 5 major islands.
I decided to do a work-away while here. For people that don’t know what that is, it is a work placement where you exchange a couple of hours of work a day for free accomodation and often food. This is one of my strategies of making this trip last longer. Hawaii is not one of the cheapest places to go, so by me doing a work-away I get to experience local Hawaiian life and get to stay for a longer time.
At this work-away I was doing mostly garden and yard work. It’s quite a change to sitting in the office and it’s been nice to work outside. I can’t say I enjoyed the mosquitos but most other things were pretty good. My favourite were the 3 kittens, who I got to cuddle up with every day.
Accomodation came in form of a tent that was a few 100m from the main house, so each night I would put on my head lamp and go on a “hike” to my tent. After a week of it I got used to the whole setup and I was less scared of the dark..ha, ha..apparently there are some wild pigs around, but luckily I didn’t meet any. I also had had to get used to the sound of the coqui frogs. It is a tiny little frog that sounds like a bird and they love to sing during the night. Some people hate those little creatures, for me it became a little lullaby to put me to sleep.
Originally I was planning to stay until beginning of January, but unfortunately things changed a little in week 2. I don’t want to go too much into it, but all I say it wasn’t very peaceful because my hosts were having some private issues. I’m someone that likes a peaceful and harmonious environment, so I decided to leave early. Even though it’s a hit to my travel budget it was the best decision for me. I get to experience more of Hawaii.
I will definitely give work away another go, as I do really like the concept, hopefully I get a bit more lucky next time with my hosts.

