Offgrid community life, foodforest, permaculture, tree nursery and reforestation in rural Alentejo, Portugal

Informationen

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  Beschreibung

  Hi everyone!
  
  We would like to introduce ourselves as a Community. We are a group of people who are – like so many other projects and people around us - striving to turn a little piece of our planet into a piece of our little haven/ Heaven . We are giving it our best to live more conscious and more in harmony with nature, each other and ourselves. Our aim is to build a place where future generations can further evolve in this quest. Some of us already had a dream and vision of creating a community somewhere in Southern Europe like this some 20 years ago with the vision of building a basis for more conscious and pleasant life on this Earth. Some of us are enthousiasts who want to help a hand where needed to support positive change.
  
  To make our vision into reality, we took a lot of practical steps. We each put some of our personal savings together to buy a piece of land in Southern Alentejo in the structure of an non-profit organisation (about 10 years ago now). We managed to buy a beautiful 33-hectare land that we now call Home.
  
  As a non-profit association, none of us is the actual landowner. The owner is the association. This structure takes away the struggle of ownership and makes place for a healthier connection to the land and amongst all who tend to it / live on it. As a group managing this whole project, we sat together and streamed down what the main pillars of our project are. This is what we agreed on:
  
  🔸 Living as a family-community: being and working together, with a multi-generational group, being there for each other, while balancing this out with personal life / space.
  
  🔸 Living in a more sustainable way, taking one step at a time to make it last:
  * Producing our own fruits, nuts, veggies. Healthy watermanagement. Rebuilding the soil we harvest from. The use of solar panels capable of producing more energy during their life-span than is required for them to be produced in the factory (most solar panels can't do that and are therefore an eco-scam).
  
  🔸 Make it greener! Trees, trees, and more trees please :-)
  For the regeneration of the land, for the ecosystem, for the animals, for the people, for consciousness, for generations to come.
  *We have been planting trees the past 5 years using different methods (i.e. a agro floresta system) and are currently studying and planning how we will be reforesting some larger areas on the terrain, which is very exciting and promising! Last year, we started our own tree-nursery and it is already flourishing with a nice variety. We are getting our hands on a lot of tree seeds and possibilities to receive young trees. A good start!
  
  🔸 Restoration of the existing ruins on the lands using natural techniques, which will be used as communal spaces for the project.
  
  🔸 Coming closer to our selves, to our essence, to our hearts.
  *This is inevitably something we experience when living closer to nature, with its silence, and with each other. We think these are very valuable things in a noisy world.
  
  
  About us:
  At the moment, the group is composed of 4 people who actively work on the domain: Wim, Anaïs, Marc and Sander + 3 people helping as much as they can from a little further away (raising funds for the project). When it comes to work instructions, you will be couting on Wim (39), Anaïs (28) and Sander (50). When it comes to volunteering applications you will be in contact with Wim and Anaïs. Marc is our eldest member (66).
  
  Wim had a photography business for 10 years which gave him a broad perspective on the reality in modern society. It made him question what is really important in life. He started a non-profit organisation in Belgium that organised 1000's of inner-work workshops, a drug free festival and founded the Ecstatic Dance scene in Belgium. After a few years he decided to take on a next level approach with the birth of our community. A project / a place where all his former activities could root in an applied form: every day life. Since then his focus is set on building this community, reforesting the area, and raising his 2 lovely daughters (7 & 9 years old).
  
  Anaïs studied in the field of sports, yet didn't find her passion to work in that field. She decided to travel the world for a while and help on social/ecological projects and also to do inner work. After some time travelling she went back home to Belgium and met her partner Wim, they have a very similar vision for the future – and now they are actually working on that vision by taking part of our community :-) In a day-to-day life, she really enjoys vegetarian cooking and is always looking for new inspiration! She is also very interested in gardening, natural building techniques and the healing powers of plants. Anaïs is an experienced reiki healer.
  
  Sander worked over 30 years as a technician (mechanics/electrics) in many different contexts and has an amazing skillset. He even worked 5 years as a technician on board of a submarine. This experience brought him to a complete shift of mind-set where he decided to only work for things he actually believes in and wants to support. Over the past decades he lived in communities and co-housing projects in Belgium to eventually arrive as a member of our community where he plans to settle.
  
  Marc, our eldest member and father of Wim, has yet to arrive at the end of the first part of his life, because he's planning on becoming 140 years old : - ) He used to work as a manager of a company producing homepathic medicines. In the last part of his carreer he decided to make a grand shift to work as an animator for kids (pre/after school) and was often called 'the best' by the kids. Now he is enjoying retirement and is an active member of our community. He does a lot of work in the permaculture garden and always helps a hand where needed the most. Count on Marc to go to every village event : - )

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  Arten von Hilfe und Lernmöglichkeiten

  Hilfe bei Ökoprojekten

  Gartenarbeiten

  Heimwerker- und Bauarbeiten

  Mithilfe auf einem Bauernhof

  Zubereiten / Kochen von Mahlzeiten für die Familie

  Handwerkliche Arbeiten
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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

  We are glad to share the knowledge we've accumulated over the past 10 years with you in all fields of expertise: the tree-nursery / the agro-floresta system / our watermanegement / building yurts and platforms / our extensive trail and error in community building / veggie cooking / harvesting / regenerating barren and depleted land / and so much more!
  
  The more there is a free flow of information of what people have learned by experience, the better and faster the world will become a heaven on Earth once more. We believe that it is possible to turn the whole iberian almost-desert into a forest and that it is wise to do so. We are also sure that there are many amongst you who can learn us new things as well which will greatly upgrade our way of doing things. You are very welcome here!
  
  Apart from all that of course we'll have time for lengthy conversations, campfires, visits to the beach or another waterbody, boardgames, etc.

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  Arbeit

  For the first half of 2025 we are already certain we can host up to 6 workawayers. Other periods might be possible too / more might be added the coming weeks. Feel free to ask!
  
  20 january – 30 january 2025
  12 march - 3 april 2025
  24 april - 8 may 2025
  13 june - 14 july 2025
  
  
  The past 6 years we worked hard towards our visions (mostly by ourselves), and we are now ready to (properly) host workawayers willing to contribute to this project. We are happy to meet you and to share a common purpose for a (little/longer?) while!
  
  What are the works we'd like support with?
  -help in the veggie garden: planting, weeding, mulching, composting, harvesting
  -help in the tree nursery: mixing earth, filling pots, planting seeds, weeding
  -help in the agro-floresta / fruit garden: pruning trees and bushes, mulching, harvesting, weeding
  -help with general maintenance of the terrain: trimming and streaming parts of the terrain, pruning trees and bushes, mulching,
  -help in the kitchen: cooking for the group while the others are working on the terrain
  -processing the abundant produce of the gardens to preserve it for months.
  -help with general maintenance of the yurts.
  -help with re-builing the ruïns: yet to come in the form of outlined projects.
  -yearly olive harvest (1000kg) (oktober-november)
  
  
  We work 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, in autum starting around 9am – the start hour may vary with the seasons (earlier in the summer, later in the winter), the weather and the amount of physical work that we accumulated.

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  Gesprochene Sprachen

  Englisch: Fließend
  Französisch: Fließend
  Niederländisch: Fließend
  Deutsch: Grundkenntnisse
  Portugiesisch: Grundkenntnisse

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  Unterkunft

  🔸Sleep: You will have a bed in a shared yurt bedroom (bed linen is provided). You can keep the bedroom nice and warm during the winter with the wood stove. Everyone keeps the bedroom yurt clean and quiet to respect each other's rest. If you would like to come with a van, let us know and we can see what's possible.
  
  🔸Food: Everyone has access to a community space with a well equiped kitchen and living/dining yurt. This is where we share meals. For breakfast, you are welcome to have what you want within what is offered. For lunch, we eat together a vegetarian (or vegan) cooked meal. For dinner we usually eat soup and bread, but it depends on the program/the activities/the temperatures and the needs. If you like to prepare meat or fish for yourself, no problem, the kitchen is flexitarian. We'll harvest and eat the veggies we grow in the permaculture garden and the fruits that come from the foodforest. Everyone helps with washing the dishes after eating, and keeping the kitchen clean, fresh and ready for the next one using it!
  
  🔸Water: We have a real watersource on the terrain of which we tap water and filter it for drinking.
  
  🔸Hygene: We currently use a semi-outdoors free standing gas heated showercabin. So you will feel the outdoor surrounding temperature (not the wind though). Even though it is semi-outdoors it is a truly comfy and warm shower. Laundry can be done for a small fee. We use compost-toilets.
  
  🔸Internet: We have very stable and rather fast internet available. Streaming movies/youtube etc is done max on 720p so the line doesn't get saturated by a few on 4K. Digital nomads are welcome.
  
  🔸Refreshing in summer: There is a waterbasin with sourcewater in which we refresh during hot summer days.
  
  🔸Couples: We can accomodate 1 couple with a double bed so if you'd like that let us know in advance to check if there is availability.
  
  🔸We cannot welcome animals for the moment.

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  Was noch ...

  🔸 Where are we located:
  In South-West Alentejo in nature close to Luzianes-Gare, 15min from Baragem Santa-Clara / 17min from Mooji and Casa Nirvana (Sao Martinho das Amoreiras) / 50minutes from the beaches of the west coast.
  
  🔸 Going out:
  We live a 50 minutes walk away from our local village. It is a small village with few activities but it has a very friendly vibe. There are 2 oldschool portuguese bars, a mini supermarket (which is very limited in offer), a cash withdraw machine, a weekly wednesday 'chicken day' where you can eat and drink as much as you want for 7euro with the locals. There are some fantastic yearly feasts/cultural markets in the village if you are lucky to be there around that time. We are 17 minutes car drive away from Casa Nirvana which is a cozy restaurant (part of the Mooji Ashram).
  
  We go grocery-shopping for the community (about once a week) with our car in Odemira city, that's a 35 minutes drive. We sometimes go to the beaches of the westcoast on a chill day or drive to the barragem of santa-clara for a swim, but as we only have one car, possibilities are limited. So keep in mind that we are currently not in a place where we can easily go out much. Usually it is not an issue at all since everyone who comes is happy/willing to stay at our magical location as much as possible. If you have your own car, you are welcome to come with it of course! Public transport is limited, though there is a daily bus between Odemira and our village.
  
  🔸 Best way to arrive: The trainline Faro – Lisboa goes 4x a day and stops at the trainstation of Santa-Clara Saboia. This is where we can pick you up/bring you towards. It is a travellerstrain so you have to book your seat in advance and they are fixed seats like in an airplane. When coming from Lisbon airport you can take this train at the station called 'Oriente'. Otherwise the best way is by car.
  
  🔸 Temperature:
  We live in a valley, so be prepared for both warm and cold weather! It is not a mediteranean climate. We can have minus °C in winter nights and mornings, though during the same day it can be t-shirt weather all the same.
  
  🔸 Medical care:
  The closest doctor / hospital / dentist / farmacy are far and it can take a long time to get an appointment too in Alentejo. We have to be realistic about this, if something happens there isn't an easy fix around here. So, if you have intolerances / allergies / diseases / special needs, be prepared for that and let us know about them in advance, not only for practical reasons but also for your and our well being.
  
  🔸 Things to bring:
  - Bring a flashlight for the night!
  - Warm clothes for the mornings & evenings.
  - Good shoes (prepare for mud in the rainy season).
  - Working clothes.
  - If you need any medicines, bring them with you.
  - Towels (for showering/beach).
  - Good vibes.

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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 very stable and rather fast internet available. Streaming movies/youtube etc is done max on 720p so the line doesn't get saturated by a few on 4K. Digital nomads are welcome.

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  Platz zum Abstellen von Camper Vans

  Campers / Motorhomes are welcome.

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  Kapazität - wie viele Workawayer maximal

  mehr als zwei

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