A head-and-shoulders illustration of Caleb. He is smiling, has glasses and a mustache/goatee, dark brown skin and short, dark coily hair. He is wearing a grey collared shirt.

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

and leaving the mit bubble

– 7:34 AM –

Courtney standing in a green pasture with hills behind her and a rainbow in the sky.

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?).

Noah pointing at Poppy, a white-and-brown-speckled cow.
noah and POPPY, who would moo constantly for our first week and a half on the farm
Me holding one of the kids while the others sit across the fence.
the kids and i!! and cleo before i knew how much of a pain she'd be
Noah behind Eros, a baby cow. Eros is being led by Daisy and Kat, two other workers on the farm.
us moving eros, the baby cow, into the middle pasture on our first day!

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 M. ʻ26, 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!

Me milking Ula, one of the mother goats. She is black.
me milking ula, #1 best girl and #1 champ every day on the farm no contest
A few of the kids (Eclaire, Kona, Peanut, Wally, and Hazel) laying together in a pile.
a bunch of the kids napping together :,) they're so cute!!!
Cashew is laying across my lap and Eclaire is sitting by my side.
cashew and eclaire (daisy's kids) and i hanging out in the south pasture
One of the kids stuck through the fence.
the kids loved to rip through the fence and it was my job to a. push them back through and b. fix the fence
Me and Wally, one of the kids.
wally!!! the cutest little guy. he kept trying to...
Me and Wally, one of the kids.
...nibble my ear. such a funny little kid :)
Grace holding Cashew, one of the kids. She is sitting on a rock in the South Pasture beside Mary Kate, one of the mother goats, and her son Wally.
grace holding cashew and sitting with wally and his mom mary kate
Noah holding Cashew, one of the kids. Cashew is white.
noah and cashew <3

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!

Minno and Clara, two bunnies. Minno is black and Clara is grey.
minno (left) and clara (right) :)
Minno, a black bunny.
minno!!!
A close-up shot of Clara, who is a bunny. She is grey.
clara!!!
Me holding Clara, a grey bunny.
clara and i :)

– 10:53 AM –

And, finally, it’s breakfast time. Oh it’s so good. It’s divine. Made by our dear friend Courtney, we’ve got a classic W&A 10:30—scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and Puacaccia. What’s Puacaccia? Pua is another one of my children: the sourdough starter! And we usually have either Puacaccia (focaccia made with Pua) or Puenglish Muffins (english muffins made with, well, Pua again) with breakfast. I feed Pua at night and make the dough; Jody and Hallee prepped it in the morning; and Courtney cooked it all up for our divine breakfast!

Breakfasts are always accompanied with a crossword from my book of NYT Wednesday Crosswords! Noah encouraged me to buy it before we flew out and now it’s an important part of our daily W&A life!

Okay. I want to eat now. See you after breakfast.

– 12:54 PM –

We finished the crossword!! Which, sure, doesn’t seem impressive, but believe me, it is quite the feat to have the day’s crossword done during breakfast. Great work team :)

Now working on deep cleaning the Safari Tent. Aromatics: mold and bleach. Once I get through with these windows I’ll be weedwhacking around Minno and Clara’s house so that we can catch some chickens and move them into an enclosure that I’ve been working on with Faith, Sydney, and Max the past few days. Back soon!

– 7:17 PM –

Did you miss me? Sorry, I literally forgot that I was liveblogging. Oops. But I’m back! I switched from the Safari Tent to working on a new scheduling interface for the farm tours (which I couldn’t log into… ah well) before having some bomb lunch courtesy of fellow WWOOFie Landon, who made some excellent burgers.

After lunch I went to the store with Noah, Courtney, and WWOOFie Faith to grab some snacks as well as the Juice Hale, an acai bowl spot that Noah and Courtney were dying to go to. Courtney and I split a Mo Butta Mo Betta and Noah got the King Kong. Definitely recommend!

We ended our excursion with a stop at JoJo’s Shaved Ice in Kapa’a. JoJo’s is a spot that has three locations across the island, and when Noah, Courtney, Faith, WWOOFie Julian, and I finished a hike in the north to some beautiful falls and stopped by the Hanalei location on Sunday, we found out about the fabled JoJo’s Passport: if you went to all three locations and got your card stamped, you would get not only 20% off your 3rd shaved ice but you’d also be rewarded with The Exclusive JoJo’s Super Fan Sticker. And when I saw Faith’s excitement about that sticker, I knew that I needed to get my hands on one. Thankfully, Noah, Courtney, and I were going to the west near the Waimea location on Tuesday, and we were staying in Kapa’a, so the entire plan was set…

…that is, until the Waimea location was closed. Thus, upon today’s trip to the Kapa’a location, I laid out the story to the lady behind the counter: I don’t need the discount because I didn’t purchase shaved ice at the second location, but I went across the island for the passport; can I get the sticker? And then, even worse—they didn’t have the sticker. But, thankfully, the lady let me get one of the other stickers that they had (and was nice enough to tack on the discount anyway :)!), so I got a sticker with a chicken (the wild ones wake us up every single morning) standing on the Tropical Breeze, our favorite flavor at JoJo’s (well, it was the only one we tried, but still). Faith, we did it for you!

Anyway… I’ll fill this out tomorrow. We’re getting to Night Games now. See you all soon :)

 

  1. relevantly, it's actually raining right now, but it's been sunny these past few weeks. for the most part.⁠ ↑
  2. Independent Activities Period; the session between the semesters in which students are encouraged to explore, take a break, do as their heart desires⁠ ↑