Volunteering on a Kona Coffee Farm
5 October 2009
Anybody that has ever been outside the United States probably realizes
that Americans aren't the most popular people in the world. We're
considered fat, lazy and not always very bright (after all, we did
elect that "retarded cowboy fella", twice). Americans are sometimes
perceived as self-absorbed, naive, loud and immoral, willing to let our
government commit atrocities around the world. Mostly though, the one
word associated with Americans is lazy.
Before you get all huffy, remember that Americans aren't exactly innocent
when it comes to unfettered prejudice. Arabs, Muslims, Blacks,
Homosexuals, non-Christians, Mexicans, Female Asian Drivers... almost
any category you can think of has certain traits assigned to them.
For example, consider the French. Most Americans have never actually
met anybody from France yet they're happy to tell you how much they dislike
all French people. Of course any such prejudice is almost always
unfounded and completely inaccurate.
As part of our Volunteer Work Exchange program here on the Kona coffee
farm, we're currently hosting a volunteer named Nicolas. Nicolas is
from France. He doesn't smoke, he isn't rude nor egotistical, he
bathes regularly and he doesn't eat all his meals on a giant white plate
with a tiny drop of colorful food in the middle of it.
This is the first time Nicolas has been in the United States and it has
been fun to show him around. Hawaii isn't exactly typical America
but we still have plenty of the traditional American sights such as
McDonald's, Walmart, Home Depot and lots of big cars driving back and
forth. That's all in town though, life on the coffee farm is more
rural and usually involves manual labor.
When Nicolas arrived on the farm one of his first jobs was to use the
weed whacker to clear all the overgrown weeds from under the coffee trees
in our organic field. It's a two day job minimum, three for a first
timer. I showed Nicolas how I wanted the job done, stressing the
importance of not damaging the trunks of the coffee trees, then I
outfitted him with all the hot, heavy, uncomfortable protective gear and
pointed him towards the weeds. I didn't hear a single complaint and
he did an excellent job. Too bad he won't be here long enough to do
it all again a month from now.
After weed whacking, the next big job was trimming the coffee trees in
the front field. There are over 1000 trees there and every one needed
some attention. I showed him what I wanted done and helped when I
could but he did most of the work himself. Again, no complaints and
the entire field was done in a couple days. We still have to do the
same to the back field but haven't found the time yet.
Other farm jobs Nicolas has had the privilege of doing include spreading
fertilizer, spraying for weeds, painting the new
coffee storage room, mowing and of course
picking, pulping and stirring some coffee.
His time on the farm isn't all work though. We've taken him to the
beach several times. A couple times time the waves were a little too
big but he made it back to the shore alive. He even managed to avoid
serious sunburn until he spent the entire day on the mower.
One challenge for volunteer workers is their lack of transportation.
There's nothing in walking distance of the farm and very little public
transportation on the island. We try to make up for that by taking
Nicolas along whenever we go out. Last weekend we even took him all
the way to volcano, something we don't normally do.
Nicolas took some time off this weekend too. I was talking to another
Kona coffee farmer that also has some volunteer workers. It turns out
that one of his volunteers has access to a car. Not only that, but she
and two other girls were planning a three day party weekend. I
mentioned Nicolas and they immediately invited him along. I suspect
he's having a great time. I just hope he doesn't come back too tired
because I have plenty of work planned for him next week.
We interview potential volunteers carefully because some seem to think it's
a free vacation to Hawaii. Nicolas has worked out great though.
He's very friendly, learns quickly, works hard and is always happy to
help. Maybe I should look for more volunteers from France.
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