WORKAWAY - Not So Ethical?

Since I have recommended Workaway many times in the past to an unknown number of people, I feel it appropriate to follow up. Knowing what I now know about the organization, I recant my recommendations and provide disclosure of disappointing practices.

A reminder to my ever faithful family and my new readers – as I know I am welcoming a few here…..I did not join workaway due to wanderlust or a passion for travel. It was to assist me on my quest to finding my place as you can read, or refresh your memory, in Baring My Soul and Planting A Dream.

Initially discovering this travel trade website in 2014, I was so excited and promptly shelled out the money for my membership. What I learned along the way is:

·        Hosts pay no membership….just the volunteers.

·        A greater percentage of hosts I personally contacted don’t respond.

·        Less than stellar feedback (by paying volunteers) is removed – basically false advertising. Obviously this site is geared toward accommodating hosts so workaway will have a product, albeit not always honestly portrayed, to sell to volunteers.

·       Workaway implies situations have, for the most part, 5 hours work, 5 days per week in exchange for food and accommodations. That scenario is actually pretty rare at least with the hundreds of profiles I looked into (unless you also include a space to set up your own tent or paying extra for meals or having a space to prepare your meals).

·        Workaway monitors private messages too in spite of their denial….I have correspondence to back that up but don’t wish to spend any more energy there.

Here is the feedback that I gave for the first place, and ONLY place via workaway, I experienced.

(See: If I'd Have Known & Really......the Desert?!) Through the grapevine I heard that even the owner agreed it was truthful. This feedback was subsequently removed by workaway. It makes reference to the description of the place that was posted at the time and what I actually encountered. Note: I was being kind.

[09/02/2015]

I spent almost a month here. Just a heads up that it isn’t quite a Hotel/Resort and Restaurant in the usual sense. It is more of a backpacker’s hostel. There is a dining hall and kitchen to prepare your own food but not a restaurant that has food and you can get meals prepared for you. A group of young people live there and like to chill. They are great about cutting down coconuts, when available. Nothing like drinking fresh coconut water right out of the coconut! So if you are looking for something more laid back, this might be the place for you. You need to be prepared for all situations like often no water much less hot. You also must like the company of a pack of untrained dogs following you wherever you go….yes, that includes the kitchen. There is much that needs to be done around so you will have no trouble finding ways to help out and can probably choose the jobs you prefer. The facility sits on a beautiful beach backed by desert-like terrain. The beach is constantly littered with trash so Mother Nature would love it if you assisted in the trash collection helping uplift the Planet. It is about an hour drive south of the city of Manta and about ½ hour north of Puerto Lopez. You can easily catch an inexpensive bus right on the road to either location and more if you’d like to do a little sightseeing or shopping.

I must add that I stayed in Nov 2014 and haven't had a chance to post this earlier so things appear to have changed. I know they changed their description after I left a review on another site back in Dec.

Left by Workawayer for host

(Neutral)

for Help a hotel 4 km north of town of the fishing village of Puerto Cayo, Ecuador.

Knowing everything happens for a positive reason, I thankfully see many gifts resulting from being involved with workaway. If I hadn’t joined, I wouldn’t have met a number of wonderful folks – many of whom have since become dear friends.

Mary was one of the first that I made a magical connection with…..no surprise….on the beach! She shares an inspiring blog about her adventures and life as an expat in Ecuador. Mary, in turn, assisted me in making the synchronistic partnership with Hosteria Nantu including Andrea, Mauritz and what quickly became my Nantu Family.  At that time I assisted in getting Hosteria Nantu listed on workaway. Here are the reviews we posted for each other:

(Excellent)

for Volunteer at a Hosteria in Southern Manabi province, directly on the beach

[09/02/2015]

Words aren’t adequate to express my gratitude and happiness regarding my 2 month stay. Andrea and Mauritz were gracious hosts indeed. They and the staff quickly felt like family to me as we worked together….sometimes a little humorously due to my limited Spanish skills. It was an honor leading so many guests in daily morning yoga too. Between my hosts, the staff and a number of special guests, dozens more have been added to my heart for life. It was a real treat living and working right across from the beach. I got a chance to see all the different rooms in the hosteria. The reason this is significant as they are all artfully designed and decorated in their own unique manner. If you get a chance to volunteer here, between the hosts and the tranquil area, it will be an opportunity you remember fondly on for a long time to come!

Left by Workawayer for host

(Excellent)

Michelle

[08/04/2015]

We still miss this lady. She changes our life and the way to see things around. We really appreciate all she did around our hosteria, we still have people coming to look for our yoga classes and massages, I highly recommend Michelle as a worker, friend and person. Thanks a lot for all you did for Us. Everyone here keep talking about how great you were. You will always be part of our family, doors will always be open for you Michelle.
Left by host for Workawayer

Tessa and Alie frequented my poolside yoga class. Thanks to fb and their blog Happy Goats, we are able to stay in touch. Manuela from Italy, another beautiful yoga regular, co-owned restaurant Paella Mar in Puerto Lopez with her partner Toni from Spain. Loved their crème brulee! One more of my yogini friends is sweet Nadia. She shared my gypsy spirit and was on her own quest. Her time to move on came before mine and she gifted me with a beautiful handbag that she lovingly made for me herself. It was perfect for my needs (ok wants) at the time. Of course, I must express immense gratitude for my experiences with my furry, feathered and water friends - dogs, seals, seabirds, turtles and seahorses! 

During my research I came across a significant number of others who had similar, unsatisfactory findings and less desirable encounters through workaway. Will not go into any more detail so as not to immerse in the negative. Just backing up my own findings to save others unpleasant situations in the future.

Bringing the focus back to the bright side…..I am still open to that magical tropical location being shown to me in my night dreams and day visions. In the meantime, I continue Putting It Out To The Universe.... Please share ANY and ALL leads that may come to you regarding where on earth this Paradise might be or ways that I may discover such! Perhaps YOU would like to Personally participate with me in finding this Tropical Retreat?! It would be a powerful way of being the change we wish to see in this world…….Just Sayin’ ;-)

Thank you all for being such Bright Lights in my life!

P.S. Here's my workaway profile in case you can refer me to potential hosts...or if you may be one yourself!

MONEY – NOT The ONLY Currency

While money definitely isn’t the root of all evil, it certainly doesn’t make the world go round.  Since internet presences began (Gee, how many eons ago was that?), I have had 5 or 6 people who were going to assist in monetizing my Universal Wellness website. There are so many stories about why, both the efforts that were implemented and the situations that came up keeping others from materializing, took place. Basically, over the now decades, none of my marketing efforts have been that effective in generating much money. While it could have been that some of the marketing was “faulty”, it surely wasn’t the case across the board. Instead, my marketing efforts attracted many situations in which I was able to support many folks and make an exceptional difference on this planet….just not make a lot of money doing so.

Although I was never rolling in dough, there was a period of time at least I had enough that most people would consider comfortable. From that place I never could have imagined how I’d be living since 2009…….living without money - or at least not much.

Countless Benefactors worldwide have been housing, feeding, clothing, entertaining and otherwise

providing for me. Deep gratitude goes out to them all daily! This was undeniably a unique calling I answered as I could have easily stayed in one place making “comfortable” money. Over the past 7 years, I have continued helping people in many ways I used to get paid for. Now, I just don’t get paid, for the most part, directly by the people I assist in that manner. At the same time, there is no way I could monetarily pay back all the kind people that have been taking care of me. It is a type of energetic exchange that goes around. Money is energy – just one of the myriad possibilities of an energetic exchange. I have traded goods and services many times with others which I prefer doing whenever possible rather than using money.

An example of which is my time in Ecuador that many of you are aware of from previous posts If I’d Have Known and Really….The Desert?!  There I taught yoga, did massage, assisted with hotel registration, cleaning, food service and other aspects of running a business in exchange for my housing, food, pool, laundry etc.

Back to…. “You May Say I’m A Dreamer, but I’m not the only one!” There are many humans out there who believe and live similarly, in many ways, to me. You may enjoy reading about a few of my friends here and their alternative ways of dwelling on Planet Earth.
Nora Dunn – The Professional Hobo http://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/
Colin Turner – Free World Charter http://www.freeworldcharter.org/en
Daniel Suelo https://sites.google.com/site/livingwithoutmoney/
David Morrison – Vagabond Film Maker https://www.youtube.com/user/VagabondFilmmaker

My Angel Daughter recently held a yard sale to assist me in my travels. Yes, there are still areas I need actual money. The airlines won’t let me trade my flight in exchange for me bringing drinks, meals and blankets to other passengers. Verizon is too big to see my smile to decide it wants to give me a special deal on my phone. You get the idea. In addition to Natasha’s kindness to me, I know thousands were touched by her generous actions. While we know there are plenty of people who have money that go to yard sales for the fun of the hunt and love finding a great deal, others are not in that position. Many who buy things at yard sales would not be able to have those things, be it clothing, children’s toys or kitchen items, were it not for tag sale prices. At $3 a stuffed bag, lots of folks will be sporting new condition Abercrombie and Fitch, UnderArmour, Victoria’s Secret, Roxy, Volcom and more. Numerous generous individuals were purchasing things for others who could not afford them as well. I can’t even tell you how many supporters contributed to the sale by donating abundant goods of all sorts. As the sale was winding down, my daughter invited charities to pick up things they needed. The dog shelter, autistic kids, and woman in crisis were all aided. Finally, Natasha declared a Very Merry Unbirthday to everyone….or something like that.

She posted the vast remaining items for free to anyone who wished to stop by and get presents. Besides the hundreds of people who physically stopped at the event, you can imagine how the ripple effect of my daughter’s thoughtful endeavor touched thousands or more. You notice, too, that some of it involved the currency we call money while much involved simply the currency of love and kindness.

Again, I am not saying money is in any way bad. The love of, or attachment to, money can get people in trouble but that’s a completely different topic. Money is beneficial in infinite ways and often a convenient method of exchange. I am just proposing the idea that there are many more currencies. Perhaps it could add to many peoples’ freedom to explore some of these alternate energy exchanges and systems. Perhaps you don’t need to stay in a job or career you don’t like just because it “pays well”. There are many resources on the internet to research what I’ve been sharing. If you’d like to explore these ideas with me, I invite you to investigate my service of Wellness Coaching by Phone.
This is one of those services I generally do in exchange for money. However, if you have access to something I could use like website services, travel or accommodations, I’m open to playing with the possibilities!

California Layover

As you may have read from my previous blog post, I was absorbed for a few
weeks in the Pura Vida of Costa Rica. While there, I continued to engage in my ongoing planting of seeds worldwide to determine where my Spirit was calling me next. As a result, I was in communication with a gentleman in Florida I connected with via craigslist who had a room offered in exchange for work. The work was a very worthy charity that I could easily align with and provide major assistance in a variety of ways. I was almost at the point of going directly to Florida from Costa Rica. For a number of reasons I was guided to stick with my previous set itinerary of returning to California. However, I figured it would be a quick turn around on my way back to the Sunshine State. My excitement to be back in Florida near my beach clouded my vision regarding this particular work-exchange in the

beginning.
Cloudy or not, it became clear to me that the communication between this man and I was definitely not on the same page. Disappointment was a fleeting emotion as I promptly called to the Universe, “Next!” I must admit, due to the possible situation that wasn’t meant to be, in my mind I was already in Florida. There I was happily running, walking and strolling on my warm beach. There were my Dolphin Friends welcoming me back with a joyous display. The Y was just waiting for me to bring back my smile and energy to volleyball. I was there! Now to figure out how to flow my way there physically as well.

California, of course, had its blessings too. While I didn’t let very many folks know I was back since I planned on leaving soon, I did get to spend some quality time with my family….Mom and Dad, Tasha and Jeffrey (my kids for any new readers) and extended family. My Sis, Seal (my pet name for her – ok, if you must know, mine is Shell), her boyfriend, Paul and her son Paul came all the way down from Washington for a visit. It was a blessing for my presence there to coincide with theirs. Even my musically gifted nephew, Greg, made an appearance a few times and entertained us

with his exquisite guitar and mesmerizing voice.

Meanwhile, I hunted through listings, posted ads, mailed requests looking for ways to sustain myself in Florida. Among my efforts, I looked to find someone interested in trading their house in Nokomis for my land in Costa Rica. If you are interested in checking it out, I even made a Facebookpage to that end and postings on craigslist. What I thought would only be days or weeks became a month until I was actually ready to do something. Yes, it was still kinda vague but I had a couple strong possibilities lined up one being that of renting a room from a delightful lady named Elizabeth. Still hoping for something that would allow me to have my own place or a work/exchange or something that got me on Casey Key……I headed for the unknown in that magnetic area that kept pulling me back over and over again. Stay tuned for the magic that burst forth when I arrived…..

My Grandpuppies