Intentional permaculture community in progress: San Agustin, Colombia

Informationen

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  Beschreibung

  Hi! My name's Steve, I'm English and I live in my own little slice of paradise with my kids and a Colombian volunteer family, on a 7-hectare farm, with spectacular canyon views to one side, and our own accessible patch of river on the other.
  
  I split up from the Colombian mother of my children and since then have decided to start a community here on my land. A lot of the work needed will be in eco-construction initially, but also agriculture and general cleaning, maintenance, etc.
  
  We have our own waterfalls, and are within 10 minutes walk of a series of public waterfalls. We just finished building a wood-fired forest sauna made of earth bags, which we are trying to promote to tourists.
  
  We are looking to create some integration activities on specific days on the farm such as 'digital detox / day without power', playing music together (twice a week), movie night etc. We are offering a space and time for volunteers to offer their own workshops or to share knowledge. We have a space for swapping / selling products made by volunteers, ourselves or other members of the community. We can also offer free meditation classes in the morning and volunteers are also encouraged to offer yoga classes in the morning if they choose.
  
  We live about an hour's walk from town, taking in breathtaking valleys and small-scale coffee farms. Our aim to is to be entirely self-sufficient economically and in terms of food ... some day ... but it's a challenge especially when you have young children and limited resources...
  
  In other words, we need some help....
  
  We have lots of projects that need enthusiastic hands. We want to build a temascal sweat lodge, work on growing organic food, finish the green roofs on our structures, build a house for me and then houses for other members of the community.
  
  We are vegetarian, and at the time of writing we have a vegetarian chef on the project who is available to cook food for those who want this service at a cost.
  
  For others we are asking for a small daily contribution per day to cover gas cooker, gas shower, internet, electricity, toilet roll, washing machine etc
  
  We like to play a lot of music together as part of the community bonding process. Musicians are more than welcome but .... everyone is a musician when you have maracas! We can teach the basics... We also encourage workshops and are beginning to offer the sauna every week to tourists.
  
  In exchange for help we can share our knowledge of permaculture and natural building, and you can experience a truly stunning setting with a great atmosphere, with views over a canyon and nature reserve, our own waterfalls, river etc. It's great for birding / birdwatching. Come along we could use your help!
  
  We are working towards achieving food self-sustainability, using the principles of Permaculture to try and reduce our impact on the environment as much as possible. We have taken local courses on organic farming, and are slowly working to improve the soil health. We are trying to adapt our diet to more traditional local foods, including 'Achira', manioc, Plantain/Banana, Sweet Potato, Wild rasberries/blackberries, sweet cucumber, Yota, etc. However, we have been mostly dedicated to building so our garden has been neglected a little...
  
  I have lived for 20 years in Colombia, first working as a teacher in Cali, then looking to find a more natural, less hectic life in San Agustin around 10 years ago. I enjoy playing the guitar and djembe, permaculture projects and hanging out with my kids who are mostly here at the weekend.
  
  We are an equal opportunities placement and welcome all races and LGBT+.

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  Arten von Hilfe und Lernmöglichkeiten

  Kunstprojekte

  Sprachpraxis

  Hilfe bei Ökoprojekten

  Gartenarbeiten

  Heimwerker- und Bauarbeiten

  Mithilfe auf einem Bauernhof

  Babysitten und Kinderbetreuung

  Zubereiten / Kochen von Mahlzeiten für die Familie

  Hausarbeiten

  Handwerkliche Arbeiten

  Hilfe mit Computer /Internet
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  UNO-Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung, die dieser Gastgeber verfolgt

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  Was ist das?
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  Kultureller Austausch und Lernmöglichkeiten

  I have lived in Colombia for 20 years and have lots of stories.
  
  We have made some lifelong volunteers friends in the past, and we are happy to share our experiences of living in Colombia / the Colombian countryside. We also have experience of building using bamboo / earth techniques. Though we are still in the learning stages in terms of organic agriculture, we've made some good progress, and have been studying with local experts. We are eager to share our knowledge and listen to suggestions.

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  Projekte mit Kindern

  Dieses Projekt schließt möglicherweise den Umgang mit Kindern ein. Mehr Informationen findest du in unseren Verhaltensregeln und Tipps hier.

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  Arbeit

  (November 2023) We are putting the finishing touches to the earthbag sauna and looking to build a temazcal sweat lodge. We need help with organic agriculture too. We are about to start a bamboo house. The work is pretty varied really. We also need help with social media and digital marketing, house cleaning and maintenance, playing with kids....
  
  We will always try to explain and demonstrate what needs to be done and we understand that most people aren't used to natural building / permaculture or agriculture (:

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  Gesprochene Sprachen

  Englisch: Fließend
  Spanisch: Fließend

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  Unterkunft

  We live in a big house overlooking a canyon with some spare rooms. We have compost toilets and a hot shower.

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  Was noch ...

  We use compost toilets, which are without water. Please Google this if you don't know what it is....
  
  We are located behind the San Agustín archaeological park, in the Huila region of Colombia. We are 15 minutes from the town by motorbike, or an hour's walk through beautiful valleys. Motorbike taxi to town costs COP 15,000 or COP35-40,000 by car taxi.
  
  San Agustin has a temperate climate, neither hot nor cold. It has the highest concentration of national parks in Colombia, and has a variety of activities for tourists including: visiting archaeological sites (we are within walking distance of the UNESCO World Heritage SIte Archaeological Park and other statues); Horse riding (we can organise cheap tours from the farm); cycling tours; Jeep tours; coffee growing tours. We can rent our motorbike.
  
  The town is steadily receiving more interest from foreign tourists, but is still relatively 'undiscovered' when compared to comparable sites in Colombia and South America. Our neighbours still live in a simple, traditional way. You can find locally-produced milk, cheese, eggs, and honey within a short walk from the farm.
  
  Particularly welcome are badminton players, musicians and lovers of 90s rock, biologists, animal lovers, Vipassana meditators and yoga practicioners, and wanderers looking for an answer to life's contradictions... Also, if you have children you are more than welcome as we have a 7 year-old and a 3 year old!

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  Etwas mehr Information

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    Internet Zugang

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    Eingeschränkter Internet Zugang

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    Wir besitzen Tiere

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    Wir sind Raucher

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    Familien möglich

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  Kann Digital Nomads unterbringen

  We have good broadband internet but it is about 80% reliable. If you are depending on video calls at a certain time of day this could be a problem.

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  Platz zum Abstellen von Camper Vans

  We are 5km from town but it is unpaved and quite steep in places.

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  Hier sind Haustiere in der Regel willkommen

  We have 3 female dogs and 2 cats .... So male dogs integrate more easily... I'd prefer not to accept more cats because of effects on biodiversity.

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  Kapazität - wie viele Workawayer maximal

  mehr als zwei

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  Arbeitszeiten

  The morning = 3 hours, 5 days a week

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  Dieser Host verlangt Gebühren

  mehr dazu

  Warum lässt workaway.info Einträge von Gastgebern zu, die einen finanziellen Beitrag verlangen?

  In Entwicklungsländern (wo die meisten Gastgeber gemeinnützige Arbeit oder Gemeinschaftsentwicklungsarbeit anbieten) verlangen einige unser Gastgeber einen kleinen Beitrag, um die Gastfamilie oder NGO zu unterstützen (meist handelt es sich um weniger als 5 USD pro Tag). Workaway lässt diese Art von Einträgen dann zu, wenn die Spende direkt an die Familie oder die NGO geht und nur dazu dient, die Kosten des Aufenthalts des Volunteers abzudecken. (Dies wird im Eintrag des Gastgebers deutlich angegeben).
  Wir lassen keinerlei Inserate von Agenturen, „Vermittlern“ oder Projekten zu, bei denen wir das Gefühl haben, dass sie Profit aus dem Aufenthalt von Volunteeren schlagen wollen.

  
   

   

   

  Around US$1 per day (COP $2,000)

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