More than twelve years ago we first listed our home on the Intervac-homeexchange.com site. My wife's sister had been using that service for a long time, and she highly recommended it. It is a home exchange service and is used by people all over the world. Once, my wife Sinéad and I went to France on our holidays with her sister Máire and her children on a house exchange. We had a great house in the middle of the country with lots of space inside and out. Having a house was much better than a hotel because we could cook our meals, wash our clothes and settle in as if we were at home.

After our positive experience we signed up with Intervac shortly thereafter. It only took a little while until we received a message from people who were looking for a house in Ireland in exchange for their apartment on the island of Hawaii. We couldn't believe it and needless to say we didn't hesitate to take that great opportunity.

Carrickshock

The man's surname is Doody and he traced his family roots back to County Waterford. So he was looking for a house in the area. Carrickshock would be suitable for him to do his research. We made the deal and shared information about our homes together. We were not in Carrickshock ourselves when Louie and his wife went over and spent three weeks there. They had a great time and Louie was able to learn a lot about his Irish ancestors.

Hawaii

Later in the year we went to the big island of Hawaii for our vacation. Louie and Dolly were waiting for us in the apartment and made us feel very welcome. Each of them had a 'lei' for us as is customary in Hawaii. It is a flower wreath given to visitors to Hawaii as a welcome.

Louie and Dolly are gentle, kind people, with interesting backgrounds. Dolly is from Cleveland, Ohio and Louie is from Boston, Massachusetts. They met as students in the sixties at the University of Hawaii. Both received a scholarship that was available at the time from the American government to study the Far East. Dolly was studying Japanese culture and Louie was studying Chinese culture. A friendship grew between them because they had a lot in common, but after graduating with a master's degree, they went their separate ways. They both had great careers. After obtaining her doctorate, Dolly got a job for the State in the culture and arts center in Honolulu (on the island of Oahu), and after a long time she moved to Hilo (on the island of Hawaii) with a new job as director of the Lyman museum from 2001 until 2013. Dolly was (and still is) a very active member of the Hawaii Democratic Party for a long time. Louie was a middle school history and French teacher, a position he held for 30 years. When he retired, he and another teacher started writing books about Native Americans and especially about the Cahuilla tribe. The book focuses on the terrible experience of the Cahuilla people under the Spanish, Mexican and American authorities in the 19th century, when the number of Cahuillas decreased, most of whom were expelled from their homeland. That book received an award from the American historical association in recognition of the work done by the authors to preserve and interpret local history. When Louie's wife – who had severe rheumatoid arthritis – died some time after they retired, Louie had to make a new start.

New start

Louie contacted Dolly and before long moved to Hilo, Hawaii. After dating for a while, they got married, and have been together for about twenty years now. Louie began writing a historical fiction novel under a pseudonym, and published a few books. Dolly edited them. They loved to travel and when they were younger, they spent a lot of time traveling to Asia. Dolly spent time in Japan, and she speaks Japanese. Louie has spent time in China and Taiwan, and speaks Mandarin as well as French and Russian. It is not surprising, then, that they decided to travel together to Asia and the European Union. Dolly already had an apartment in Hawaii, and Dolly and Louie bought a house in Hilo when they got married. When they came across the Intervac-homeexchange.com site, they were instantly convinced that they could use the apartment to do a home exchange. And that's how we met them in the first place. We were in Hawaii for a week then, in 2012, and we went back in 2018 for another week.

Back on the Big Island!

We recently wanted to go to the big island again. We have been in contact with Dolly and Louie by email from time to time, and I sent them an email on the off chance that we can rent the apartment for two weeks. I got a reply from them saying that the apartment was not being rented, but that they had another idea and it might be easier to talk together on the phone. We phoned them and they said they wanted to make another visit to Ireland next year, although they weren't sure about it yet. Anyway, we swapped houses together with the understanding that they would be able to use our house next year. We had no problem with that arrangement. We spent a good time with Dolly and Louie, telling stories and relaxing together.

I would highly recommend Intervac or a similar service, and who knows but you might just make new friends too, like we did!

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