wednesday at wai and aina (liveblog) by Caleb M. '27

– 7:34 AM –

Good morning everyone! Caleb here, reporting live to you all from the sunny⁠01 relevantly, it's actually raining right now, but it's been sunny these past few weeks. for the most part. fields of North Kapaʻa on the island of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi! Caleb, what the hell are you doing on Kauaʻi? Iʻm so glad you asked!

Around the middle of this past semester, my dear friend Noah R. ʻ27 texted me about my IAP⁠02 Independent Activities Period; the session between the semesters in which students are encouraged to explore, take a break, do as their heart desires plans. When I let him know that they were essentially entirely up in the air at that point, he sent me a actually pretty moving message about how he wanted to spend more time with the people he cared about as we danced through the second half of our time here at MIT and, thus, he wanted to know if I’d want to spend IAP with him on… some adventure that we’d figure out in the next few weeks. Since I absolutely adore Noah, I of course agreed immediately and, from there, searched for something to set out on for the coming January.

And, after a few weeks of searching, some wonderful recommendations from friends, and a bit of application writing at the secret Flour bakery (which I can’t reveal the location of, but it’s not the one in Central), we found WWOOF: World-Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming. WWOOF is a work exchange program for organic farms in which people will work on a farm for a certain period of time and, for that work, will be provided with food, accomodation, and support in their time on the farm. It’s a great program for learning what it’s like to farm and to connect with reality, and after spending a lot of time on campus it’s always healthy to step outside of the bubble and engage with “the real world.” Don’t get me wrong, I love MIT, but it does close in on itself sometime, what with the work and the work and the time it takes to do that work. The bubble is tight, and it’s nice to get out of it for a brief change of pace.

Noah and I are currently WWOOFing at Wai & Aina, an organic farm in Kauaʻi founded in 2023 by MIT Alum Jody F. ʻ15! Wai & Aina is a young farm, but it’s thriving, and new projects pop up every day. It reminds me a lot of MIT: you’re thrown straight into the adventure from the moment you arrive, literally—Noah and I were helping Daisy and Kat wrangle Mocha and Maple (cows) and Oma-Oma, Ile-Ile, and …possibly Joey?… (babydoll sheep) to administer vaccines within about 10 minutes of us arriving on the farm. Everything moves fast, new projects pop up all the time, and it’s all around a wonderful place to be spending my IAP, not to mention adventuring across Kaua’i when the day’s work is through (or, in theory, before?).

It’s 7:30 AM, which means it’s time for the day to start! (“Sydney looks beautiful, as always.” -Sydney B.) My first task of the day is milking the goats with Hallee, which I just checked in our W&A web app—time to get to that! See you all soon!

– 10:01 AM – 

Just finished milking the goats—22 cups, or 2 and 3/4 jars full! Top girl goes to Ula with 9 cups (though I’ve gotten 13 out of her before); most improved goes to Cleo, who has actually been #1 Worst Girl my entire time here until about yesterday, when that title was taken by Ashley. Morning milking always takes forever because the kids (they are so adorable.) are in the Middle Pasture at night so that the moms can fill up with milk; Noah, Courtney, and I pulled off a lightning operation with moving the 10 kids last night which I am honestly quite proud of. It’s interesting how much we’ve improved since our first few days here; milking used to take forever, moving the kids used to be war (actually perhaps it still is), and the whole operation was an hours-long affair. Now, it’s just a normal, casual thing. It’s wild how much you can learn in two weeks!

I’m off to feed my most adorable babies who I love more than life itself: Minno and Clara (who I named!), the Wai & Aina bunnies!! They’re actually the cutiest little things ever. They are so fluffy and round. I can’t believe they’re taking me away from them. They’re gonna have to pry me from the warm, fluffy paws. That being said, their paws are only fluffy when they get well fed. So I’m out until breakfast!