I was disappointed with my experience during this Workaway. I feel that it is very important to share my experiences so others are well informed about the situation before applying themselves.
I stayed at the farm just over 6 weeks in early 2024. Firstly, in terms of the work that is required, it is very important to understand that your primary
… read more task is animal feeding. The animals need feeding 3 times a day, at 7:30, 12, and 5. This means that your 5 hours of work each is broken up in 3 different sections on a daily basis, meaning that you need to be on the farm every day that you’re working throughout the entire day. The feedings take between 1-2 hours, depending on the amount of volunteers, and are quite demanding physically. Sometimes you will be asked to do additional labor, listen to a lecture, or weed the surrounding planted areas.
It is also important to note that your days off are rarely true days off. The volunteers are the only people living on the property as the owner lives in town, therefore the volunteers are responsible for all the animals, every day, all day. There is a set amount of tasks that need to be completed, and often during days off you still have responsibilities. For example, there are 3 dogs and 3 cats that live on the property. They are need to be feed breakfast and dinner, the dogs need to be walked at minimum 4 times a day, and the dogs will live inside the volunteer yurt at night requiring you to watch them at all times. On days off, you’ll usually find yourself responsible for cat and dog feedings, walking the dogs, and watching the dogs at night upon other things. One of the dogs is disabled and needs constant attention, diapers to be put on and taken off several times a day, and his cage cleaned daily due to constant accidents. It is impossible to live in the space while removing yourself from all work related tasks on your days off because you are directly involved in these activities due to the living situation. No matter what, you are responsible for the lives of all the animals and their well being so you often have to take on additional tasks during days off since the animals rely on you to survive. Additionally, the tasks need to be done every single day despite the amount of volunteers. While I was there, the number of volunteers ranged between 2-3 (including the manager), therefore I often worked 6 or 7 days straight without a day off because there was too much work for the other person to complete alone. There can be more than 2-3 volunteers as the accommodation can carry up to 5, but throughout the month and a half I was there, there was not nearly enough support for the amount of work needing completion despite efforts to find more volunteers. Even with 3 volunteers, and the owner showing up a few mornings a week to assist, it was a significant amount of work throughout my entire stay due to the lack of support. You and the volunteers are essentially left on your own to care for all these animals despite a probable lack of knowledge, creating a heavy mental burden to ensure that the animals on the property survive.
Another important note is the inaccessibility of the property and isolation. There is no vehicle for you to use during your stay. The manager may have access to a vehicle and drive the volunteers into town during errands, but you are completely at the mercy of the manager (if there is one on property) to get places. There is a bus stop a 45 minute walk away that comes every 2 hours. The issue with this bus is that it only goes to volcano National park and Hilo. You cannot access a swimmable beach or other attractions from these 2 bus stops. Additionally, since you are required to feed the animals 3 times a day, it is nearly impossible to catch the bus during working days since you must be at the property for breakfast lunch and dinner. From the property itself, there is no where nearby to walk, and there is not much to do on the property except what you’re willing to create yourself. It is very isolated, and this opportunity will not allow you to explore Hawai’i. The owner expects volunteers to be there to work, not vacation or explore.
Communication was a major issue throughout my stay. The days leading up to my arrival, I messaged the owner numerous times without hearing back. I ended up busing 5 hours and walking 45 minutes with all of my stuff to the property address found on google maps hoping I was at the right place and that they were still wanting me there. Despite planning my stay months in advance and discussing my arrival, they were surprised when I showed up on my arrival day and were not expecting me. Another issue I had, due to the owner being off property and very much not involved, was the scheduling. I took responsibility to make the schedule for myself and the volunteers so that we could try to have proper days off, but the owner sometimes miscommunicated his days of arrival. It occurred where he would show up and tell us we had the morning off after we had completed our work with no previous communication that we weren’t suppose to work that morning. When he did arrive in the morning to help, he was always late resulting in us finishing the tasks without his help since the animals will be calling for food when the sun rises. At the end of my stay, me and the other volunteers planned a 2 day road trip for our days off. I communicated this a week in advance with the owner and told him that there would need to be additional support those days due to our absence. The day before our trip, he told us that he could do the morning feedings as usual. We had rented a car and planned to have complete days off to explore, so I told him we would not be there for evening feed. The day we left, we received several calls and texts trying to organize the feedings day-of. The owner had not organized who would feed during our days off, and proceeded to contact us throughout the day to pull something together. It was extremely frustrating that the lack of communication greatly interrupted and impacted our only days off off-property we took during our entire stay. When I returned, I was told that the volunteers were not allowed to take time off together because someone always needs to work, despite never being informed of this previously when I had been making the schedule for over a month and informed the owner in advance we were taking 2 days off for our car rental together.
Lastly, the farm itself is of need to mention. There are several animals on the farm that are relying solely on you for survival. I received one day of training and was left on my own to feed the animals, resulting in me getting bitten by a donkey during my first feeding alone. The lack of experienced animal caretakers on the farm resulted in me being unsure how to behave around large animals who could very much hurt me, and I felt it was unsafe to leave new volunteers alone to feed powerful animals without proper education. I also was solely responsible for training the rest of the volunteers who came after me (2), and again resulting in very little educated information being taught to people who would soon be left to fend for themselves during feedings. While I was there, there was a donkey that fell gravely ill. She needed to go on medication, receive wound and fly spray several times a day on her wounds, be feed consistently feed throughout the day, receive salt baths, upon other tasks to keep her alive. I have no experience with animals as did the other volunteer, though we were completely responsible for the life of this animal. It felt emotional draining trying to ensure her survival, and I felt it was unfair to have so much responsibility considering my lack of knowledge. This applied to every animal that needed extra care. We needed to watch for any animal that wasn’t doing well, which often came in the form of limping due to saturation in their feet, lack of eating and lack of drinking. Since there are no animal experts on the farm, we did our best to keep them fed and healthy but I often felt myself googling “what to do if I cow isnt producing enough milk” trying to understand what to do. This was very hard on me mentally because I just didn’t have the answers, as did no one, and we were completely on our own with dealing with the problems. There were a lot of big fundamental issues that needed to be addressed as well, like building actual enclosures/barns for the animals so they weren’t subjected to the weather conditions, establishing proper pastures with the right vegetation for the animals, creating more pastures, installing proper fencing, etc. The lack of these elements made the farm upsetting to live at. Watching the cows and sheep having no food to graze, hearing the mother cow crying for her calf, seeing the sadness in the isolated donkey that needs a partner, knowing the disabled dog does not have the proper care and love that is needed, and watching the wet conditions damage the feet of all the dessert animals created a very negative environment.
I expect to have negative response after my feedback, but I feel it is so important for volunteers to understand the situation they’re walking into. I took on so much responsibility because I cared for these animals and didn’t want to see them suffer, that it made me emotionally, physically, and mentally burnt out on a daily basis. I have expressed all this to the owner because I did feel taken advantage of since I had no where else to go, and if I didn’t feed the animals, they’d starve. Hawaii is extremely expensive, so a volunteer opportunity sounds amazing and makes you completely stuck in a potentially negative experience due to your inability to financially afford to leave.
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Animal Care
Hospitality/Tourism
Art Projects
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
Helping around the house
Gardening
Eco Projects
