Jody & Kale

Australia
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Profile information

Travel information
We are currently
Travelling
Activities we are interested in:
Surfing, art, hiking, eating, music, content creation, meditation, yoga, kirtan, self-discovery, nature watching, volunteering, learning languages and more!
Description
Hello! We are Jody and Kale, a couple from the Gold Coast, Australia! We both absolutely love travelling, and are currently on a gap year together travelling around the world.

About Jody:

I'm a 27 yr old female who loves surfing with friends, spending quality time with family, exploring nature, learning new information about cultures, creating art, content creation, learning astrology and more. I'm an Australian beach girl at heart and love spending time by the sea and in nature.

About Kale:

I'm a 32 yr old avid dog lover, surfer, basketball player, and professional musician. I'm excited to surf, volunteer and discover new places. My dad passed away in January 2024, and it made me realise life is too short not to follow our dreams.

After retiring from 10 years of working hospitality roles and as a head chef, I am pursuing my dreams and passions of being a professional musician. As part of this gap year, I aim to share my music with new people and places around the world.

I'm half Australian, half American, and grew up equally in both countries. Whilst in the USA I learnt intermediate Spanish, and can speak at a conversational level. I'm looking to expand and improve my Spanish!

Both our diets are vegetarian and pescatarian, so we eat predominately vegetables and fish. Jody LOVES vegan food and tries to eat as much plant-based food as possible, and we are happy following vegan dietary preferences.
Interests
Outdoor activities
Self development
Technology
Nature
Music
Photography
Water sports
Performing arts
Pets
Sustainability
Videography
Politics / Social justice
Van life
Vegetarian or vegan
Yoga / Wellness
Languages
Hiking
Gardening
Fitness
Farming
Events & social
Drawing & painting
Culture
Cooking & food
Charity work
Blogging
Beach
Art & design
Animals
Adventure sports
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner
More details about my language interests
Kale has experience studying and speaking Spanish. He would consider himself beginner-intermediate and can hold a conversation. Jody is a beginner at Spanish, currently learning the language on Duolingo and practicing with Kale. In the past, she has taught English at a Peruvian Spanish-speaking school. So she has experience teaching English as a second language. We are both interested in learning more Spanish!
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Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn
We're interested in:
Languages
Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Life at a Farmstay
Hospitality/Tourism
Some knowledge of:
Charity Work
Teaching
Animal Care
Helping around the house
Able to teach about:
Art Projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Helping with Computers/ Internet
More details about your skills
Jody's skills:

My career back home is in graphic design so I am great at designing logos, doing branding for retail, print design, social media design and lots more. As a passion project I am also a content creator and have a Youtube channel called Shore Seeker. So I have lots of experience in creating videos, Instagram/Tiktok reels, photography and more.

My last big volunteer trip was in Peru in 2017. I taught English as a second language in Palccaraqui, a Peruvian school located in Urabamba. My role included teaching 2nd Grade students basic English, planning lessons, playing educational games and painting wall murals with my peers. You can see some of these wall murals on my profile. But I can also do more professional/cool wall murals with my experience in design and art.

I've also done pet sitting in Indonesia (Bali), and Australia. I love animals and am very happy to look after them.

Kale's skills:

I've worked in hospitality for most of my life as a chef and can cook some delicious meals. I work fast under pressure in the kitchen, and am very comfortable serving up a variety of dishes. Jody helps me out sometimes and I call her my "sous-chef" haha! She is not as certified but together we work really well in a kitchen.

With pets, I've had dogs growing up my whole life, I've raised all of them from a puppy. My mother also always had cats, so pets are a big part of my life and I love being around them. I've also cared for elderly pets, giving insulin injections, tablets, skin creams and any other medications needed. I've also donated my time to charities like Dog Days (in Florida, USA) and BAWA (in Bali, Indonesia), so I have experience with undomesticated animals.

I am great with kids and have given music lessons as well as coached under 13s basketball. I've also taught multiple people how to surf and rules to swim safely in the ocean.

Other skills we both have:

Kale and Jody also have skills in painting homes, general house cleaning, gardening and other general maintenance.
Age
28 & 32
What else ...
We both love playing card and board games. We enjoy Poker, chess, UNO, checkers, backgammon and other board games. We love surfing, both shortboarding and longboarding. As well as skateboarding. Outdoor activities we love is hiking, kayaking, and others.

We also don't drink alcohol often. We might have it once every couple of months for social reasons but we do not drink regularly. We like meditating, yoga, kirtan, breathwork and improving our health.

We're looking forward to meeting you!
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
- Special dietary requirements
  Vegetarian and Pescatarian

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30 Dec 2024

Left by host (Creative people welcome to my ...) for Workawayer ()

Jody and Kale were amazing to have!! Jody does anything you could possibly think of, and she's so eager to do it, and goes above and beyond!! I truly loved having them here, they felt like family! She put together so many professional things for me. Kale helped out around the house, and did whatever odd jobs I could find. It was great having him… read more

(Excellent )

17 Dec 2024

Left by Workawayer () for host (Creative people welcome to my ...)

Where do I begin? This is my partner and I's first Workaway and it exceeded our expectations. Firstly, Chrystal was an amazing host. When you give her your time and love into her project, she returns it twice-fold! She is super generous with what she offers and very flexible with the work. In fact, this exchange didn't feel like a job, it felt… read more like helping out a friend, and every day we would come up with ideas together that we were both passionate about to accomplish in her new retreat centre. She always treats you with respect, and is very compassionate and helpful. Plus I love her positive outlook on life and her focus on health and spirituality. It was so great to spend time with a likeminded person, cook healthy meals together, and have a laugh. We had no set plan on when to leave, so our stay turned into 12 weeks! Because we got along great and the added motivation to leave knowing we had accomplished our goals together, Chrystal was very flexible with our stay duration and I am grateful for her generosity to let us stay this long.

Secondly, the location. The house - now branded as Lotus House ;) - is awesome. It is truly one of the best places to experience Costa Rica on your doorstep. Every day we would spot a new species of bird, insect, frog, snake, that we never knew existed. Every day we learnt something new, and adjusted to the many ebbs and flows of living here in Costa Rica. The house is overlooking a beautiful valley and ocean and there are waterfall trails within walking distance to the home. If you love hiking and spending time in nature, this is the place for you. We stayed in the heaviest part of rainy season but even that was a great experience in itself, as never had I lived amongst mist clouds and watched nature battle the elements. Plus, it was was greenest time to visit, as the forest was lush and the temperatures are low (I got cold many times and I loved it because it can get so hot in CR). Overall the location and stay was great, Chrystal provides a private room with comfortable beds, hot showers, and everything else to be comfortable. We loved the yoga room as well with gear to work out, stretch and meditate.

I also want to quickly clarify to surfers who may be looking at this listing - we are surfers and thought maybe it's a good location to surf, as it's fairly close to Jaco and Playa Hermosa (30ish minutes away). But it was a bit harder than expected. You need a good 4WD to get down the south side (shortest way) to Jaco. We got a taxi a few times but because of the road corrosion and landslides in rainy season, eventually the taxis declined taking us that way. Which ended up quite expensive to get frequently as well, so we didn't end up surfing much. Chrystal did clarify all this before we accepted the listing so it's not something we were expecting on doing, but I wanted to clarify it regardless to surfers who may be considering this listing. I think this exchange it well suited for yogis, hikers, or people who love their peace and quiet. Because you will spend a lot of time up on the mountain if you don't have your own means of transport. Once every week Chrystal would take us down to the farmers markets and supermarket to get our groceries together, plus anything else we needed like pharmacy visits, and then headed back up before dark. She will also give you a ride if she's heading down that way and it works out for both people. I personally found no issues with spending a lot of time up the mountain, because I had so much time to work on her and my personal projects, do yoga, meditate, and nature watch. It was a really reflective time also and a great place to have a spiritual awakening too. Or even a digital detox is perfect to do up here.

Overall we had a fantastic time experiencing Costa Rica and the magic of Lotus House here, and if our paths aligned I would definitely return and work for Chrystal again. I will miss all the delicious meals, crazy bugs, funny frog sounds at night, the energy of the yoga room, and living in one of the coolest places in the world with the most warmhearted person! Thanks so much again Chrystal for making our first Workaway a special one :)

(Excellent )