Page 12 - C.A.L.L. #29 - Winter 2007

KALEIDOSCOPE

Let's see what's going on in some other parts of the world. Help yourself to assorted
reflections on the subject, beginning with Dona Willoughby's "Is Hosting Work Exchangers
Worth it?" taken from Communities 134 of Spring 2007, mostly dedicated to just this topic.
Let's see:

Is Hosting Work Exchangers Worth It?

Brittany stops by my cabin for a few moments of intimate talk before dinner. (Brittany came here
at age 27 as a work exchanger, and after six months of living with us and loving our land, decided
to pursue membership. We're elated that she has chosen us as her family and home community).
As she and I listen to the melodious birdsong resonating through the rainforest, she gazes out the
window and asks, "Do you think it is worth it having work exchangers? Wouldn't it be easier to
just do the work ourselves?"

It's a valid question. At La'akea, our intentional community on the "Big Island" of Hawaii, we invite
folks to live and work here in exchange for a place to stay and the chance to share community life.
Today two work exchangers left, and as a result Brittany feels lighter, like a burden was lifted.

La'akea was a permaculture demonstration and educational center for 12 years when our group
purchased the site in 2005. Our five members and four trial members include teachers, healers,
administrators, facilitators, co-counselors, permaculturists, tropical gardeners, carpenters, coconut
palm-climbers, and long-term communitarians. We embrace sustainability in our relationships and
in our interactions with the Earth, and attempt to produce most of our food on the land. Although
the tasks necessary to grow food and keep our home and retreat center functioning are immense,
our lives flow with nature and with each other. Life is abundant and good! Why then, do we invite
people we don't know to live here”?

It began when, shortly after our arrival, various people began asking that they live with us in
exchange for labor, and we agreed. While we called these folks "work exchangers," we soon
realized they were much more than that. We are such a small and intimate group that even short-
term residents become woven into the fabric of our community and our individual lives. They not
only work alongside us, but participate in our heartshare meetings and morning check-ins, cook
with us, eat with us, play with us, and sometimes even bathe with us. We want to support them
and we want them to support us in return. Actually, I would like more than that: I would like to
open my heart to them and love them. I prefer that people who live here become long-term
friends, extended community members, or even core community members.

These temporary residents come from all walks of life. They are of varied ages (more younger than
older), and are of varied ethnic, educational, and socio-economic backgrounds. They find us in
assorted ways: from our exhibit at a local Earth Day celebration, the WWOOFER catalog
("Worldwide Workers on Organic Farms"), our larger Network for New Culture community, our
website, or by word of mouth in our local community here on the Big Island. Some arrive penniless
and with no transportation. Most have never lived off the grid or lived in an intentional
community…

…At the same time, hosting work exchangers has sometimes burdened us with additional work
and emotional turmoil, especially when we attract people who don’t share our values of openness,
realness, and transparency in communication. We have learned to understand and conserve our
own resources of emotional energy. We cannot be available to minister to the emotional needs of
work exchangers having difficulties, for example, when our own energies are depleted. The
delicate balance of keeping ourselves nourished while nourishing others is not easy. In a
community as intimate as ours, maintaining this energy balance is both a personal and a
community challenge.

Reprinted by permission of the author

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