Volunteering for a slice of Turkish life

Kate Fennell was happy to leave behind the chilly winds of Dublin to discover the delights of ‘Wwoofing’ on an organic farm in Turkey

‘OH, YOU’RE going Wwoofing?” my friend exclaimed, when I mentioned I was going to Turkey to work as a volunteer on an organic farm. Like most people, the only previous association I’d made with woofing was of the canine kind.

However, after my month-long stay volunteering on a lush and fecund organic farm in the southwest of Turkey the wonderful world of “Wwoofing” – World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms – was revealed to me. Since then, from speaking to other seasoned Wwoofers and checking the official website, I realise the possibilities of exploring cultures and countries across the globe in this way, without spending much more than the airfare, are endless.

The seeds of my Wwoofing were sown when I visited Pastoral Vadi, an organic farm in the southwest of Turkey complete with sheep, hens, ducks, dogs, cats, frogs and lizards, as a paying guest a few years ago after a Turkish friend claimed to have discovered the “Garden of Eden” half an hour west of Fethiye and that we had to go there.

Indeed, with such an introduction it was a wonder I wasn’t disappointed when we first went to spend New Year’s Eve there in a gentle sunshine three years ago. In fact, one couldn’t but be struck by the absolute beauty of this expansive green, green valley, lined with row upon row of aromatic lemon, lime, orange, fig, olive and pomegranate trees, hugged on either side by enormous tree-lined mountains which overlook the rushing river Kargi, a much-needed source of irrigation to the fertile soil.

It was when this autumn’s chilly breeze came blowing once again into Dublin that I realised a return visit to Pastoral Vadi was due and, if memory served me correctly, they accepted volunteers to work on the farm in return for bed and board. Time in the sun and nature without breaking the bank was the dream.

So, after firing off an e-mail and getting a positive response I found myself a week later sitting on the veranda overlooking the orange groves, shamelessly sipping a gin and tonic after my hard day’s work, listening to the crickets, swatting the mosquitoes, and feeling the stiffness in my muscles subside as I relaxed into the warm evening air, smiling contentedly as I thought of that chilly wind snaking its way through Dublin.

Over the month, along with the other 10 or so volunteers, I harvested various goodies such as olives, grapes, pomegranates, nuts and figs, we cut hay for the animals, painted signs, collected firewood, prepared the ground for new vegetables and helped the cooks prepare the delicious meals throughout the day.

A mixum-gatherum of volunteers passed through: there was Sevgi, a fiftysomething Turkish lady who had already been Wwoofing on several farms along the western seaboard from Izmir to Fethiye; Ali, a German/Turkish film-maker who needed a quiet place to work on his film script; Anna and Roberto from Venice, who were starting two years of travelling; Fatush, from Istanbul, who needed a few days break from her husband – just the tonic apparently – and a trickling of foreign backpackers who were exploring Turkey and the Middle East.

via Volunteering for a slice of Turkish life – The Irish Times – Sat, Dec 18, 2010.