Profile information
Host rating
40
Last replied
13 May 2023
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Details
Description
Hej hej! We are a little family from Leipzig - I am an independent mother (33) living with my almost 12 years old son. We are not the average conventional german family, already by constellation but also by view of life... I am not grinding away in a 9-5 for a house and car and my son is not going to school. I am an ethnologist, he is an unschooler :) We both are travellers for life. We prefer to live a life of meaning and experience instead of mindless consumption. But still our homebase is Leipzig and while we are here, being busy, we'd love to have your help and exchange at home - so we can be travelling while staying put so to speak!
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
Language practice
Teaching
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Well, I could teach you how to make bobbin lace - I am a triple International Master in this ;)
Otherwise you will find out what it means to us to unschool and to really trust and respect people of any age, social and cultural background, sexual orientation, religon, political orientation and so on - for example children. We are also very aware of all the discriminations all around us and are working diligently every day to reduce them inside us and on the outside. I work as a headmanager of a refugee camp and also for womens rights, empowering them and helping them to overcome trauma. Things like that are very dear to my heart and I could introduce you to some great resources for that if you wish. Also alternative pedagogics is a field I am very, very passionate about. We could also let you know a lot about Germany history, the sometimes archaic traditions of the hidden German mountain region close by where I am coming from or how to simply enjoy life frugally. As an Ethnologist (Social and Cultural Anthropologist) I am very aware of everything that is necessary to understand in intercultural communication.
Or how to tend a garden to grow your own food on small scale.
Or I could teach you how to hoop-dance properly...
But you also could just discover crazy everyday mini-family-life :D
So many options!
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
As I am spending much time at university and my son is unschooled, I would like you to be around him when I am away. You are very welcome to engage him in educational topics, but he does not want to be homeschooled. Perfect would be if you just like to spend time with each other, having fun with the stuff you are both up to doing indoors and outdoors while doing all this in English as my son wants to brush up his English-skills before we are leaving to travel again. So immersion is what we want, preferred from a native speaker (but not a must!).
Also household and garden-work or repairing bikes (I am really bored by this!) is possible and appreciated.
As my son loves to play chess and I am not patient enough for it, it would e a wesome if you like chess as well and play with him!
Or if you can play the ukulele I would love to get some help from you :P
Anyway, pretty much every skill you have and can share will be very appreciated here! Life is for learning, so let's exchange and have fun!
And great energy, fantasy and curiosity will be a huge bonus!
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
Sami: Fluent
Swedish: Fluent
Arabic: Beginner
French: Beginner
Hebrew: Beginner
Italian: Beginner
Accommodation
You will have a fully furnished room with shared bathroom and kitchen in our appartment for yourself. You will not need to buy food for yourself but however we might not be catering to your exact taste - but are happy to share cooking skills :) We are omnivores but usually do not often have any meat or so around. I am also about to scale down on dairy products myself while my son still loves them. Have been vegetarian myself for ten years and am always happy to try out yummy vegan and raw food besides the vegetarian we usually have. Every eater is welcome if you can respect our approach!
You will also have a bike for yourself to use.
I expect for this an exchange of 5 hours on 5 days a week. Usually weekends will be off, but everything we will discuss together and find a solution that fits all of us so you could also go off and explore for several days if you wish :)
Any use of alcohol or tobacco, weed and any other drugs is strictly forbidden when you are with us. If you cannot comply to this rule, please do not apply. Thank you. Also please do not bring home ONS. We are open to all sexual orientations and genders but please respect our privacy.
Also we have a few gerbils (mongolian desert running mice) in our home - I hope you are not allergic to them.
Families: unfortunately I will not be able to support everyone of you coming over with food depending on your size, but you are still very welcome! Let's discuss and squeeze you in :)
What else ...
Leipzig is a vibrant, young and thriving university-city in the of east of Germany with about 600.000 inhabitants while still having its unique charme and a certain village-feel. We life in the southern part of the city, which after the German Wall fell, was taken over by squatters and now still is a very distinct left-wing place. But you will find so many places to go out and have a drink, catering to any taste, and concerts for all kinds of music tastes as well. You can listen in the opera house to classic music or dance in same dark and dirty cellars to breakcore. Or dance with the elves on psy-parties during the summer in the meadows of the vast greenery in the city. It is really green! And also full of water: you can paddle around in Leipzig for days as well. It takes 15 min. from our place by bike to the former and now renaturated to lake brown coal mine in the south for beach life (nudist as well if you wish) and 10 min. to downtown. There you will find loads of great museums (fine arts, history, ethnology, design, musicinstruments, history of GDR and so on). We are 3 min. by walking away from public transport which leaves every 5 min. to be 10 min. laterarriving at downtown or 15 min. at the main trainstation.
I really love this city and there is so much it has to offer and we will be happy to show you around :) It is also only two hours from Berlin and 1.5 hours from Dresden with its famous buildings and Saxonian Switzerland - or two hours to Czech Republic, 3hrs to Prague.
When you are staying with us, I'd like to see and treat you as an independent, conscious, responsible and self-reflective person. But I also would really appreciate if you are doing this, too ;) But of course I will also support you if any challenges arise.
You can use everything we have, but please clean your own mess!
And if you are a not respecting boundaries, adultist, misogynist, sexist, racist, people-shaming person in any way - please consider staying with people either more of your kind than us or come with an open mind and attitude ready to reflect and maybe even change your ingrained beliefs <3
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
