In Hawaii, there is a system of work-trade here that pairs small farms and transient people into a temporary agricultural collaborative. Farms provide food, supplies, and shelter to people who come to work on their farms. This is a common practice among hippies on the Big Island and is usually called "WWOOFing".
The one I ended up on was a family farm working a guava orchard. The guava crop picked from the orchard was turned in for money several times a week, a critical supplement to their household income. The farmhouse was constructed out of sheet metal. The windows were made out of mesh. Water came from the rain, electricity came from a generator, and food from Walmart. A pit toilet was short walk from the front door.
As I continued to live and work there, I found more and more things that I didn't like. These people were highly religious. They were conspiracy theorists that were afraid of things like Fluoride in the drinking water, GMOs, and government plots to poison people with dairy. They believed in unusual diet fads. They had greedily speculated in the housing market gaffe. They were obsessed with harvesting from their guava orchard, believing that it would lead them to fortune at the pace of 17 cents/pound. The relatives secretly hated each other. The 4 kids were hyperactive and annoying. Why did they have so many freakin kids?
Despite this weirdness, I found them to be decent and sociable people. They worked hard and actually cared about the affairs of the world. They were polite and didn't impose. Life on the farm was a mundane normalcy. After 2 weeks, I felt that I had nothing more to gain. It was time to move on.
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