Help at a permaculture, yoga, meditation, (raw)-vegan finca in the mountains near Malaga, Spain

Details

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  Description

  Welcome to our finca, please read the profile entirely before applying to stay with us.
  
  Our last big achievement: Build and install a 6Kwp solar system, giving enough energy for the summer and a large part of the winter months
  What we need help with now: building a compost toilet, gardening.
  
  Who we are
  We are a German family that moved to the south of Spain in 2000. On the 1.3 ha property we grow Aloe Vera, fruit trees, as well as olive, almond and fig trees in the mountains near Málaga. Since 2017 we are transforming the finca into a permaculture-designed fruit-forest, planting many more and diverse trees, with a focus on species that need little water.
  We live a life with a focus on inner peace and meditation when possible. To get to know you closer during your stay, we would welcome it if you take part in our group activities, such as yoga, music, heart sharing circles and spiritual conversations.
  
  The place
  Located outside the 180 souls village Benaque, the finca offers a magnificent view of the mountain range Sierra de Tejeda and the Mediterranean sea. Our lifestyle is very simple, we live in small wooden houses and caravans.
  It gets very hot in summer (also with many pleasant mosquitos ;) and it can be windy and cold in the winter. As such, we ask you to prepare yourself to the expected weather. This means ecological sun and mosquito protection as well as long light clothing in summer and warm clothes in winter as well as a warm sleeping bag! There is no air conditioning in any and no heating in most of the caravans. Extreme temperatures are around 0 and 40 °C. Otherwise, all caravans and houses are supplied with water, and electricity.
  
  Please bring your own towels, working clothes, a water bottle, and a torch. There is a clothes exchange to your availability, but it’s not guaranteed that we have your size 
  
  Severe water shortage: this means, utmost care in the usage of water during washing dishes and brushing your teeth. Never let the water tap run if you don’t use the water. If you take showers daily it should be merely a rinse to allow for the use of soap and wash the soap off.
  
  You as a helping guest
  We welcome all people who aspire to lead a disciplined, ethical life and have a positive attitude to life and physical work. At the moment we have a special need for helpers who have solid experience in setting up and maintaining irrigation-systems, in building/ eco-construction, general construction like tiling and brick laying, as well as woodwork and/ or permaculture garden work.
  
  You will help 4 hours per day, 6 days a week, breaks are extra. Cleaning of the common areas is not included in this working time, and we consider around 30 min/day of kitchen or bathroom cleaning a necessary contribution to a tidy and clean community space. We generally welcome that helpers work during the same hours to be able to organise tasks and the day routine more easily. This leads to a schedule of roughly 8-10 / 18-20h in peak summertime (because of the midday heat) and 10-14h in wintertime.
  
  We would like to have a short skype (or similar software) conversation with you before deciding on your stay. This can be beneficial for you and for us. On the day of your arrival, there will be a short welcoming and an initial “get to know each other” and one of us or a volunteer will show you around.
  
  We propose to have one week for a mutual “trial period” to see if your and our needs are met during your stay. If you appear to be unwilling to follow the clearly mentioned rules (see below) even after reminding you of them, we will kindly ask you to leave within one day.
  
  There are no buses from and to the coast to the finca. We pick you up from the bus station on the coast after agreeing on a time. During your stay, on limited occasions you can share a ride if someone from the finca goes anywhere by car. We do not lend our cars.
  Vegan living food
  
  We have been eating mostly raw vegan for the most part in the past 2 years, but our guests can also have some vegan cooked food on the finca. We have salad and vegetables from the garden, fruit we mostly buy, except for figs in August/ September, when there are plenty.
  
  We offer one prepared (raw) vegan mealfor lunchtime. This meal is prepared by volunteers for all. For breakfast, dinner and Sundays, everyone is responsible for their food. Our previous guests have always been very happy and joyful about the variety and taste of the available fruit, vegetables and dry foods.
  During the preparation of the meals, we would like the cook to be concentrated on spiritual music or spiritual thoughts (as this has a big influence on our health and our meditations). Only the deputed cook and their helper(s) are allowed in the kitchen and food storage room during cooking time. The food is served in the living-room area and/or on the terrace. People who want to change their diet and would like to know more about (raw) vegan food are very welcome.
  
  Yoga and meditation
  Spiritual development ( realizing ourselves as soul) is the main focus of our project.
  We have a strawbale house, which serves as a yoga and community house. Hannes is a yoga teacher and gives once a week yoga-lessons in a nearby village, which you can also attend.
  We personally practice meditation on inner Light and Sound with the support of a spiritual teacher from India. We have a certain daily meditation schedule and on Sundays we have our personal retreat. From this we derive the strength and inspiration for our project.
  (We would like to mention that we disapprove from the use of Reiki, as – to our knowledge – it involves mental powers and can result in karmic burdens.)
  
  Music
  We make music on guitar and sitar, tablas (indian drums), esraj and harmonium and any more instruments that you – our guest – would bring along. Three times a week we offer an evening program which can include music, a short spiritual talk and a training in mindfulness/ meditation. We meditate between each song for about seven minutes (naming it "Seven for heaven – prayer for peace"). In our kitchen we often listen to Classical Indian music.
  
  Communication
  We aspire for and try to practice an honest and loving communication between each other to be in a harmonious atmosphere. Respect and gratitude should be the basic attitudes. We might have meetings where we practice the use of "Nonviolent communication" (according to Marshall Rosenberg), the so-called "empathetic or heart communication"upon request. This has proveen to be very helpful for keeping harmony in relationships and community settings.
  
  Sustainability of your transport
  
  Inspired by our son Michael who studied "Sustainable Tourism", we ask you to come to us in the most sustainable way possible, of course you cannot walk over the ocean  But there have been people who came by bicycle from Belgium or Berlin. One man came walking from Denmark and he is continuing his journey, walking to Tanzania – Charlie from "Walking for Water".
  
  Duration of stay
  A minimum of two and a maximum of four weeks is the duration we like our working guests to stay. Since we have many people who wish to come, a longer stay is only possible after discussing it on an individual basis in a conversation before the ending of this period.
  
  Special rules we ask you to follow
  
  - We expect the people to live (raw) vegan on the finca, no smoking, drugs or alcohol.
  
  - The first half of our common meals we do not talk. This leads to more mindfulness and enjoyment the food.
  
  - As we use our grey water for the irrigation of trees, please bring along only natural soaps and shampoos, thank you (from the trees). As mentioned, we ask you to shower as short as possible.
  
  - Please adhere to a respectful clothing attire (both men and women) – covering your upper and lower body by wearing T-shirts and skirts or trousers – in all common areas. Please live your romantic relations discretely. This helps to keep the focus of the place which is on growing spiritually, the awareness, that we are souls and not bodies. It helps to be focused inward.
  
  - Please respect the calmness of the place and do not put loud music publicly (only with earphones).
  
  - If you like to help less than the required hours or cannot help due to some reason, we can reach other agreements that we can discuss in a call beforehand. In the case of inability to help because of sickness longer than one day, we would kindly ask you to contribute from your heart economically.
  
  - Since we have cats, please do not bring dogs along.
  
  - We do not take responsibility for any health issues or accidents happening to you on the finca.
  
  - You need to have your own health insurance.
  
  - Group-meetings: we have a daily helpers meeting and a short thankfulness circle after the breakfast and before helping, please be on time for that.
  
  Cleanliness
  
  We want to keep a high standard of hygiene (more details about the kitchen are provided upon arrival). All our helping guests are jointly responsible for the tidiness of the kitchen and the common areas and the time of the cleaning is not included in the helping hours (see above). Everyone is expected to help with cleaning about 30 minutes per day. The kitchen is to be broomed and wet-cleaned daily.
  
  Laundry: you can give us your laundry and we will wash it with the machine at the required temperature. We only use natural soaps for washing. You can also wash by hand if you like.
  
  Internet
  - We have good internet (speed via cable 30Mbit/s). Please bring your own laptop if you would like to use one.
  - We have a designated caravan with internet access including WIFI, but please only use it during certain hours of the day and you as a working guest should please only use this place for internet (not the kitchen and/or the living room area!).
  If you are interested to visit us, we would be happy to receive a copy-pasted and answered version of the below questionnaire. This is really useful for us.
  
  Questionnaire for volunteers
  
  - When would you wish to come and with which transport?
  
  - How long do you wish to stay?
  
  - Do you have physical or mental health problems that you think would be helpful to communicate to us?
  
  - Do you have a valid health insurance that will cover you in Spain in case of injuries or sickness?
  
  - Please confirm that only you yourself are the responsible one for any health problems or accidents occurring during your stay at the finca.
  
  - Do you live a vegetarian/ vegan life?
  
  - Are you willing to attend our group meetings like yoga, music, non-violent communication?
  
  - Do you agree to help with the cleaning of dishes, the kitchen, and toilets/showers additionally to your working time?
  
  - Are you a smoker?
  
  -We have caravans for the guests and compost toilets. Can you adjust to these simple living conditions?
  
  - Please give us an example of severe water shortage you have witnessed.
  
  - Is there any other information that you might think that would be useful to communicate to us?
  
  - How do you feel about the mentioned rules? Do you agree to follow them to the best of your abilities? Do you understand that we will kindly ask you to leave if you (repeatedly) ignore them?
  
  -What is your complete name, email address, skype (if you have) and telephone number? (You are not obliged to answer, but it would facilitate our communication with you)
  
  
  The final questions are just to know a little bit more about you personally, feel free to answer or not.
  
  - What are your hobbies?
  
  - What has most importance in your life?
  
  - What was the topic of one of your most meaningful conversations in your life up to date

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  As is written above you can learn a lot about simple life, eco-gardening, cooking of vegan food, spiritual music, yoga, meditation and empathetic communication. You can train your English, German , less of Spanish.
  If there are permaculture-courses or other courses for example on eco-building, music etc. by other teachers than us, you can take part for reduced conditions.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  - We like you to stay minimum 2 weeks or more, less is only exception for specialist people on special projects.
  - Please keep us informed about your plans, especially if they change. We get many request and some people take their time in reacting.
  
  We expect you to make a maximum of 25 hours per week in exchange of lodging and good food.
  
  There are special conditions for those who want to volunteer less, please email us.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  French: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  Several caravans and 2 wooden houses

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  What else ...

  If you come by airplane you take a bus from the airport to the main bus-station of Malaga. From there you take a bus in direction Torre del Mar. We can pick you up at one of the bus-stations between Malaga and Torre del Mar at the coast-road, nearest is "Chilches" and "Los Rubios". If you come by car we will give you the description, better than by google-directions.
  In your free time ( besides reading, doing yoga etc) you can go hiking around, visiting the villages or go to the beach. Now there is the possibility of going by a small bus from the next village to the coast.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  Can host digital nomads

  This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  5hours, 5 days a week plus sharing the cleaning of common places

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