The
HelpExchange website is a place where someone owning a farm or a house to renovate, called the 'Host', will offer free accommodation and food to someone, called the 'Helper', willing to help with some hours of work per day and per week. The arrangement between the two parties is loose. It is on a kind of volunteering basis on both sides. It stems from the organisation widely used in New Zealand and Australia called 'vwoof', i.e.Volunteer Work On Organic Farms. It is common and popular in those countries for young and less young people to hit the road and travel from one farm to another within this organisation. The system is so popular that it has extended to other types of activities. You now find Hosts having Helpers to do all sorts of small jobs on their properties.
In 2006 as I was already planning to revive my pottery workshop, I received Jessica from the USA as a Helper. I drove to Paris to pick her up at the airport and took her with her large bicycle back to my remote lonesome rural village in the centre of France. She was jet-lagged, culture shocked and heart broken as she had just split from her boyfriend and for my part I had heavy family problems. But anyway she soon adapted to my way of life and we had some good time together. She was very helpful, friendly and well behaved. The only regret I have is that we never became friends. The age difference perhaps. We exchanged travel stories and I raved so much about New Zealand that she went on her travels ending up in New Zealand.
Here are some photos of her stay with me.
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| Stacking logs in St Civran |
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| At the potter's wheel |
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| Walking to Chazelet |
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| Mowing in Chazelet |
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| Driving back from La Borne |
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| Baby sitting my grand-daughter |
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