WWOOFing in Italy: Selecting My Third Farm

3 April 2011

Yesterday I arrived to my third official Italian WWOOF host. I met Fabio at the WWOOF national meeting last month, and made the decision then that I should stay with him in the future. Why? Because I wanted to prove him wrong.

At this meeting, I was conducting interviews as part of my university research with both hosts and WWOOFers. One morning, I began a meeting with the great Paulo, an Italian farmer who counts Vandana Shiva among his friends. Because Fabio and he are good friends, Fabio sat down nearby to listen just as I asked about the material benefits and costs of WWOOFing, such as the amount of money spent and saved due to WWOOFers. Having walked in right after I had finished asking about the nonmaterial benefits (cultural exchange, language, friendship, etc), Fabio was visibly offended that one would ask such a question.

“How American, to always think of money. There are other reasons for having WWOOFers. The money does not even factor into the picture.”

Luckily, Paulo was there to defend me, saying, “No, this girl has really well thought out and well rounded questions! She’s already asked about nonmaterial…”

Despite Paulo’s support, after this encounter I, of course, felt terrible. No—I’m not a typical American! We do not all think the same! The question about the financial aspect I would not have even considered to ask on my own if my professor had not brought it up while I was preparing (I say this purely as a personal ego defense: as far as research goes, it shows that I am totally not prepared to do applied research and conduct well-rounded experiments if I cannot think of a single concrete question like that of finances on my own). I wanted to tell him all this, but in this one short encounter, I had little opportunity.

I probably would not have come all the way to his farm to prove him wrong if it were not for a few factors.

First, I sort of thought more highly of him because he thought less highly of me because I was an American. Not that I necessarily appreciate being lumped into one homogenous sum, but
a) I have certainly done that of Italians, and
b) I agree with him thinking less of me, should I be in the lump sum American stereotype.

Second, I adored Paulo, and a friend of Paulo’s must be a pretty cool guy.

Third, I became quite good friends with Fabio’s WWOOFer of the time, Andrea, during the meeting. He had WWOOFed on over twenty farms in Italy, so he was no light-weight. His biggest advice to me before I left Italy, “Go stay with Fabio. Of all of the WWOOF experiences I’ve had, staying with him may have been the best. He is incredibly intelligent, lives by his principles and shares them, and if you step inside his workshop with any object in your hand asking him to whittle a wooden copy, I assure he can do it.”

So here I am, WWOOFing with Fabio.