Latvia
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Autumn 2019. We will be very much focused on 2 main big projects - house and forest. Rebuilding of the house which is partly also campsite main building is going on since 2017 and we do it slowly and mostly by ourselves. We have also signed long-term contract for renting of the forest where we will create a place for the school group activities. Thus, people who do not mind their hands get dirty and prefferably with some DIY skills and ability to work with any kind of tools are very welcome. The forest is also a place where we can go very creative making furniture from forest material and creating whatever crazy art!
This is a beautiful place, a family campsite and also our home where we invite to join us!
I am Zane (Latvian) & my partner Sebastian (Swiss) and my children Miks (10) and Tina (14).
Our season as for the campsite is very busy from April to November, its 24/7 for us, so there is not much time to meet my friends. Therefore I love my volunteers to be my friends and I want to have fun together! Which means that I prefer people who like to socialize, hang around, chat while I am cooking, talk and share and party. If you want mostly to be on your own and be here only to do what needs to be done disappearing when job is completed - there are better places for such type of volunteering. Come here if you want to be one of us!
We have many years experience in hosting travelers, our camping guests and for the last 9 years - volunteers. We have done volunteering ourselves - in 2012 we spend a month in France and in Spring 2016 me and Miks were volunteering 1 month in Spain. Help given by workawayers is very valuable to us, but we do not take it as a cheep labor. If you come to stay with us, you will become member of our family and we will share our everyday life with you.
This will be the 10th year for our own family business - leisure club and camping. We had been working hard to build up the place from zero and most of what you can see is DIY. We have done a lot, but there are more to do by improving and adding and rebuilding as new ideas pop up every day.
Our club-camping is in a country area some 15 km from the capital of Latvia Riga. There are 2 squash courts with patio surrounded by garden. Also a pond and canal for swimming, big children playground, canoe boats and 3 romantic floating bungalows. We are opened during the summer season from April until November and help mainly is needed within these months.
If you love to play squash by the chance, this is a wonderful possibility as you will have unlimited access to the courts!
Thanks for our fantastic volunteers and friends we had been able to achieve so much and also had a great time together! We are very thankful to all the people we have hosted - we love you all. Without you life would be not so interesting!
Gardening
Building
General Maintenance
Other
Help with Eco project
Art project
Though the place is a family business place, you will live here in a family and become one of us. We eat together, go to parties together, go to the beach, play board games and card games, watch movies, make BBQs - it s fun. You will be part of little crazy Latvian family (oh, we are divorced now, but still own the business together).
You can learn some national dishes, more about gardening, DIY projects - many things going on here. Never tried to play squash - we can teach you!
Every year here is so much different from the previous...
Though the site is a family owned business place, we also live here ourselves, so the work and everyday family life is blended together and it s difficult to understand where one ends and the other starts :)
We never considered or used volunteers to replace regular paid staff. Thus - many things might be for the business we do here with volunteers, but you will not be much involved in routine jobs. Instead, we will do some fun projects together and you will be invited to get creative, learn how to do things and share your knowledge with us. There is only one routine work we all get involved - cutting the lawn.
We work a lot with children - in spring and autumn we host school trips and everybody is involved in these activities. During summer we have children camps which is very busy time for everybody.
We also have 2 squash courts, so anybody playing squash is very much welcomed! We have all the equipment here, just take your sneakers with you! If you have no idea how to play squash - we will teach you. There will be unlimited possibility to use our squash courts for training and playing. Every week there is also a weekly a round robin (tournament). There are different tournaments taking place in Riga and You will have a chance to participate.
Usually we have 2-3 volunteers here at the same time and we do our best to spend some fun time together apart from work.
What type of work you will most probably get involved? Let me explain. If you have any knowledge /experience working with tools like saw, screwdriver, etc. - there are always things we are building, fixing, improving. Be ready that most of the work will be physical - not necessarily hard labor, but still. Painting, digging, planting, sewing, cutting grass or willow branches for the fence, some cleaning, carrying stuff, making things for children activities, etc. We are campsite, but there is not much reception work to do or direct work with clients, so be ready to get your hands dirty.
Latvian (native), Russian (excellent), English (excellent). Kids speak excellent English as well and Sebastian speaks Swiss-German and German and a bit of French.
Volunteers will be staying in a caravan (have a heating too, we ourselves slept there until mid-November). The caravan is for 3 people, so you need to be ready to share this place (and may be even big bed) with strangers (all genders).
All facilities will be in the main building where we live now, In 2017 we started to rebuild the main building, so in 2019 our office&kitchen&living room will still be looking little bit like construction site.
We have WiFi. Volunteers can also use bikes if they like and canoe boats and may be a car too.
We will provide all meals or food so that you can cook yourselves. Normally we cook lunch and a big evening meal and provide you with food for self-made breakfast. I am pretty good cook, so promise you will get tasty meals! Please note, that helping in preparing meals and cleaning kitchen afterwards is not considered as work, but sharing of house chores. One of our family is vegetarian, so this is not problem. But, we do not and will not cook vegan or provide spacial vegan stuff (coconut milk, nuts, tofu, almond/soya milk, fancy expensive fruits&vegetables, etc.). If you are vegan, you are welcome, but you will need pretty much to look for your special dietary needs yourself.
The closest village Kekava with shops and bus to Riga is 20 min walk away form the campsite, Riga is 30 min on the bus, easy accessible.
Latvia is a small, but very beautiful country, an unspoiled oasis. Beaches are fantastic and there are plenty of things to do (including Riga nightlife if you go for it!). If You look for volunteering job to improve or learn languages, this is a good chance to learn Latvian or Russian.
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Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
More than two
25 hours a week
