Come and help on our family farm near Georgetown, Guyana

Details

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  Description

  We are a family living between Guyana, South America, London and New York. Each member play a role in the building and running of the farm, from running a food business, running cane juice stand, doing organic farming, looking after the cows, building and everything in between. But there is never enough hands!! The farm is a Family effort that aims to provide our family and visitors with a healthy, virgin rainforest space where to live, visit, learn and work. But the project is growing: as part of the family runs a charity in London, UK, dedicated to help people to return and get closer to Nature the aim is also to build a sustainable, permaculture oriented heaven to produce fully organic vegetable produce and hand made products to supply the neighbouring housing schemes and beyond with affordable, varied and quality vegetables, fruits and herbs. The area (and the city as a matter of fact) currently depends on highly processed food supplied by supermarkets having this a very rapid and negative impact on health population. We also plan to run workshops and cultural & skills exchange for locals and foreigners alike, being ourselves a world schooling family constantly seeking opportunities to learn, teach and exchange intergenerational and international knowledge.
  The farm, although located right outside Georgetown, is positioned within a farming area, with very few neighbours, and immersed in a pollution free zone, where nature abunds. From farm, a 15 minutes bicycle ride will take you to main road where there is plenty shops and buses passing often connecting with Georgetown (15-20 min to town's market) and Linden highway.
  At the moment the water that surrounds the land had been helped to run through the land so planting has started!
  
  The farm is less hot at nights than in town and staying overnight provides a full pleasant immersion in nature, in a safe environment.
  Update January 2024:
  At the moment we count with running water, electricity and internet connection but nevertheless the wildlife is abundant.
  We are currently working on building accommodation for the family and workawayers alike and need lots of ideas and skilful people to help plan this as sustainable as possible with a long term vision. We need to plan plumbing and ideas on reusing and cleaning grey water and irrigation systems, and general building help.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Babysitting and creative play

  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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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  The family has a vast knowledge on organic, natural methods of agriculture and farming as well as learning about living in harmony with nature and the rainforest biodiversity. You can also learn a lot about running local food business, recipes, cooking in the fire, etc, about local life and diverse culture of Guyana, world-schooling/homeschooling/unschooling from a 23 years experienced family, languages and about travelling in South America between Guyana and Argentina by land and much more.
  We are interested in learning from other people's experiences, new sustainable farming/building techniques specially suitable for tropical areas.

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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

  At this stage help is required for a wide range of activities: planting, watering, building, designing/creating building systems of irrigation and other sustainable systems specially following permaculture principles; grazing cows, harvesting and low processing of vegetables (such as sun dry tomatoes etc), driving from town to farm, shopping, helping in the kitchen, scrapping sugar cane, looking after 1-2 children, running errands, helping with house maintenance. Please note that you have to be willing to do more than one of the jobs mentioned above as required depending on season.
  Many of the jobs are physically demanding, although the high sun is avoided, weather in Guyana is very hot and humid; but you will be looked after by whoever member of the family you'd be working with and we will trust your judgement of capability, there's always another job that might suit you better.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  Portuguese: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  Volunteers will either stay in the farm, in simple cabins with mosquito net hammocks or in a room in the family house in Georgetown, depending on the jobs you'll be doing.
  Meals are usually shared with the family, always vegetarian, preferably vegan (Ital), either cooked together or from the family's food shop. At the farm there's a cob cooker where you can prepare your own meals and in the house a portable cooker will be available for volunteers to do own meals. All ingredients can be provided.

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  What else ...

  From the farm you can reach main town's market (15-30 min ride) to commute to any other bus to visit museum, different markets, shopping area/malls, botanical gardens and zoo, seawall, national park etc. But from the main road you can also get transportation to go over the Demerara river or in the opposite direction to Linden highway, where the most beautiful natural swimming spots of rich, full of properties, black water creeks are.
  The family will be happy to show you, take you or go with you to different places, other towns, local events, etc. in your free time, whenever they can.
  Guyana also offers beautiful waterfalls, thick ancient rainforests, tropical savannah, endless and powerful rivers and a multicultural history to explore.
  Contrary to the media's endless reports on crime, Guyana is not a dangerous country and we believe that if you are willing to learn from local customs you will find beautiful people and memories for a life time. As workawayers ourselves we reject the idea of doing tourism but to embrace cultural exchange and learning experiences during travelling.
  The family will be happy to show you the do's and don't s for your stay to be safe and enjoyable.
  As Guyana economy is very rapidly growing there’s multiple new modern spaces, opportunities and adventures available and new ones popping up regularly; we cannot catch up ourselves!

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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

  We have just installed unlimited and stable Wi-Fi connection.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week