Last week we said goodbye to Sarah, a WWOOF’er from Sheffield, England, who found out about us on the internet, went to our site, saw what we were up to, and, somehow, said, “Yes. That. I want to do that.”

She sent this to us the other day from L.A. Take care, Sarah. We’ll see you next time the winter gets too cold in England.

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My week at East Jesus — what can I say?!  Well, I had the most interesting and fun time! I first found out about East Jesus when I was researching my trip to the USA and looking into interesting places to Woof — thats Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms: you get bed and board in return for some work.  I looked at the photos of East Jesus and thought “Wow!” at the same time as thinking maybe it was a place full of crazy people that I would never return from!  So, I researched a bit more, firstly to check that it wasn’t a crazy religious cult and to try to glean a bit more information about exactly HOW crazy they were.  I kept East Jesus in the back of my mind and pondered it as a possibility as I travelled, and everybody I told about it said that I had to go there.  After staying at 2 other “organic farms”, I realised that I really did have to go to East Jesus. I did understand that East Jesus wasn’t going to be an organic farm, but the first place I visited in Tucson wasn’t either so I had given up on my original plan of learning about organic farming techniques in the desert and decided instead just to visit some interesting places.  The first place that I Woofed at was Casa Goofy in Tucson, Arizona.  It wasn’t disimilar to East Jesus, although not really similar either as there is probably nowhere similar to East Jesus.  Casa Goofy is pretty much the backyard of an interesting guy called Dennis Williams, plus all of his ideas, projects and links to other groups.  He has built an amazing domed house with greenhouses built in, a series of ponds and raised beds, and my job was to plant as many things as possible, experimenting with the intensive gardening techniques.  Dennis is an artist and has filled his yard with sculpture and found objects, as well as lots of junk that he likes to horde.

My second woofing experience was a traditional farm in the desert outside of Tucson called ReZoNation, owned by a young couple.  I helped look after their chickens, seedlings and compost and was given a comfortable double room and fed extremely well. Then onto East Jesus at Slab City, California…

I was slightly worried when I phoned to ask if they were taking woofers and the reply was “Are we what?”, but Frank sounded really nice so I embarked on the journey to East Jesus comforting myself with the fact that I could just stay a few days and escape back to the city at any time.  I was collected from Niland by a red-haired woman with a puppy — it all seemed harmless so far.  Before we arrived she warned me that they would all be bathing naked in the hot springs later.  I was not quite ready for naked bathing that night, but by the next day when I realised that I could wear a bathing costume, I was definitely ready to try the hot springs.

East Jesus was as fantastically crazy as the photos portrayed and the people living there were all crazy, but in a good way!  I was given one of the less than luxurious suites to stay in — a little trailer (caravan to us English folk) all to myself, even with a lock on the door (which I managed to lock from the outside with the keys inside on the first night after most people had gone to bed — Frank had told me not to lose the keys as it was the only set, so I found another bed in the sunken bus that night until the lock could be successfully picked in the morning!). 

Yes, I had to pee into a bucket and no, there was not running water, but there was wireless internet and a cook!  There was also a good supply of Swiss Rolls, music and interesting conversation.  They lived up to their promise of a lax work schedule, requiring only one hour of work from me each day.  My job was to organise the library which I really enjoyed as there was a fantastically diverse collection of books and magazines to sort through.  East Jesus’s library is now known as the Sarah Emberson Memorial Library – Frank assured me that they were not planning to kill me but that passing over the Atlantic to England was the same as passing away out of this consciousness!

Although nobody is really in charge at East Jesus and they have a lax work schedule, it is all pretty organised and runs very smoothly.  In addition to all the fantastic facilities and mod-cons, they have a hospitality expert, an IT guy, a tour guide, pot washer, wizard and somebody in charge of the shooting range, amongst other essential roles.

I was sad to leave, although did enjoy the hot shower with hair wash and clean clothes at the hostel in San Diego.  Although wierdly I kind of miss the dust, and definitely miss the night skies and desert views.

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Editor’s Note: You don’t HAVE to be naked in the hot springs, we just can’t figure out why anyone wouldn’t WANT to be. English people, man.