Travellers. Workaway. Easter Island

So many things happened from my last post. 

I met fellow Romanians, I lived for the first time on an island, I had my first Workaway experience and also my first semi-disappointment on this trip. 

But let’s split them into short stories :))

1. Fellow travellers

In the last article I was telling you how it’s like meeting new people in hostels. Now I’ll tell you how it feels to meet Romanians 🙂

I’m not in Europe, I’m on the other side of the world. On another continent. So, in my mind, the chances of meeting fellow Romanians were slim. Well … the universe wanted to prove me otherwise :)) and he started pouring with meetings in quite a short period of time.

He put Adara in the same hostel room with me, he put Andreia and Ion literally behind me at the airport queue, he synchronized me, Adela and Andrei so we could meet in Santiago and these days I’ll meet Raluca, who works here. In this rhythm I’ll forget the Spanish that I’m trying to learn 🙂

And because the surprises are not only about Romanians :)) –  almost 2 months ago I was in a big group of Europeans waiting for the same bus. Among them, Marjorie and Wesley. We talked a bit, we boarded the same bus and our roads split…until Easter Island. Where we met again at the same Workaway.

While having these meetings I can’t help to think that we are all like particles: we are all in a constant move through our own lifes and from time to time we will cross paths with other people. The reason for these surprise path crossings? We’ll find it later, when we look back on our experiences. 

2. Workaway

While researching for my trip I discovered these platforms, Workaway and Worldpackers, where you can do volunteer work in exchange for accommodation and food. There you find all kinds of announcements: families needing help in the household, teaching English, working in hostels, working at farms, etc.

And I think it’s a great idea. Clearly you save money, but for me it’s more than this: you get to discover a culture through the daily routine of its members, you receive “To Do’s” which might be new to you and will challenge your working abilities .. and you might also have to struggle to understand why people act the way they act.

3. Easter Island and my first Workaway

In the past 2 days before flying to Easter Island I had a gut feeling that maybe I am getting ahead of myself and I’m creating too much expectation for this trip. But how do I know if it’s too much since it’s my first time on an island and at a workaway?

Fast forward 3 weeks later: the workaway was far from ideal and there were parts of this experience that I did not like. I might feel disappointment, but I am grateful that it happened. Because it put me in front of a cultural clash and I was able to exercise understanding instead of labeling.

What does this mean? That instead of just saying: “all they think is money, they don’t respect the initial agreement, they are not serious because they make promises that they can not keep” I can now say: “living on the most remote island is expensive since everything needs to be shipped and because there is no port they unload the cargo with small barges that can carry small quantities”, “people born on the island might be impulsive due to the nature and warmth of the place – they never had to plan ahead for winter”, “they are humans with family dramas”, “their priorities might be different than ours” etc. 

And that’s how I’m beginning to work on one of my trip goals: how to be a more understanding person. 

‘Till next time I’m leaving you with a Rapa Nui song:

… and with a few photos of the Moai’s: