Help us to keep up with our garden tasks on Bornholm island, Denmark

Details

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  Description

  We are a couple from Belgium although Diedrik was born and raised in South Africa while Sofie is from the Flemish part of Belgium. But when the traffic around Brussels became too much we decided to move to Bornholm, (Sofie’s family originally come from here). We have an ecological garden, for instance we have “wood wall-fences which attracts numerous bird species and small animals. With our experience of seeing African wildlife, we were very pleased to find a wide range of wild animals in Bornholm, including our 15 European bison!
  We live close to Rønne, about 8 kms away, the regional airport is close and the Baltic sea, fishing and diving spots and beaches of course are only about 1 km away, at Arnager. More info about the island, photos and our house please ask us for details. You can see photos of former workawayers (many have almost become family, and they visit us afterwards!) We discuss everything over dinner and breakfast, no topic is taboo, we are interested in the views of young people, we like being educated by them as well.
  We have also built a pétanque (boules) court and we have a couple of bicycles (old school) you can use. The island is a hiking and cyclists paradise (the main cycle paths were laid on the old railway lines that were removed years ago) and if you play golf the course is only a short bicycle trip away. The local bus stops very close to us (you can buy a bus ticket that takes you right around the island). (Transport on the island: (Dantaxi +45 5695 2031) or buses (BAT: +45 5695 2121))
  
  Our yellow house (originally the local school in 1888) is surrounded by farmlands and meadows. We are less than 1 km from the sea & sand beach at Arnager. Bornholm is known throughout Scandinavian countries as ‘The Sunshine Isle”; and for good reasons too as it has on average more sunshine hours than any other place in Denmark. See this website for any info on the island: ()

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Sofie comes from a family of educators and she has broadened her education in the graphical industry to qualifying as a hat maker, as a Health Coach and more recently as a Baker and chef.
  
  Diedrik is a former lawyer but when we moved from SA to Belgium many years ago, he became a qualified wine educator and he runs the European Wine Academy. So, culturally-speaking we could teach you some Danish and Dutch, as well as Afrikaans and of course English. We could give you an insight into the general history and the cultures of Europe, Denmark, Flanders, Belgium and South Africa and chat to you extensively about its bushveld and wildlife.We could show and teach you some typical Danish, European, Flemish, Belgian and South African recipes.
  
  Our communication with you will be in English. If you’re interested Diedrik can show you how to taste and evaluate wine correctly, how to read a wine label etc. Sofie can also talk about weaving (you will see the many Gobelin tapestries in our home, the work of her father) or about plants and food. Good and lively discussions are always welcome around our table and we love food and wine.

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  Help

  Important:
  Sofie works full time and as she is essentially the person with whom you will discuss daily tasks, and who will also work alongside you when she is free, we ask that we use a slightly different work week. As you know you will be working a total of 25 hrs per week, but we are asking that you work longer than 5 hours on a Friday (which is a day Sofie is free) and also work on the Saturday, for the same reason. Obviously you will be able to be free on other days to make up for the extra hours on the Friday and Saturday so that you still work only 25 hours per week.
  
  Projects:
  We both work full time, and as Diedrik is no longer as nimble as when he ran double marathons, we are interested in persons who can help us with these projects (to avoid misunderstandings, we have listed the types of projects we need help with):
  
  • General gardening, trimming hedges, building wood walls
  • Chopping firewood
  • Yard maintenance
  • Digging holes for plants and poles
  • Repacking, cleaning our garage and 3 small sheds
  • Various painting jobs, various, inside and outside, also garden furniture
  • Helping in the house when needed.
  
  Experience using a chain saw and lawn mower would be great, but only if you really have experience. We do not have animals which require your attention although we have some chickens and ducks but there's not much work involved there, but feeding them every morning.
  
  Because of our chickens and ducks, and serious allergy issues we do not allow any pets, cats or dogs.
  
  INSURANCE: it is your responsibility to arrange for insurance to cover yourself against any injury etc whilst living with us. Look at the page on this website (Workaways) where they offer advice on what to do. So, when you enquire about staying with us we will be asking to see if you have indeed arranged cover for yourself against injuries, Denmark is an expensive place for medical expenses and it is not fair that we have to pay for such medical costs. We will do our best to avoid you becoming injured and will supervise as much as possible.

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  Languages spoken

  Afrikaans: Fluent
  Danish: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  German: Beginner
  French: Beginner

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  Accommodation

  Your apartment:
  Outside the Summer season you will stay in one of our small aprtments with its own bathroom and a small kitchenette (which also has an Air Fryer), TV (Netflix) and wifi. If it is not free in the summer season we will provide a large double bedroom inside our home. It, and our house, is a strictly non-smoking and a zero-drugs environment. It has 2 single beds which can be a double bed.
  
  Meals:
  Since people have different waking up times and nutritional requirements, it may be that you prefer to eat breakfast and lunch separately, especially as you have your own fully equipped kitchenette, if not you are welcome to join our table. We have learnt that the ideal time for brekfast is at 07.00 which gives you enough time to finish your 5 hours by lunch time.We generally enjoy pretty standard European-style food, with porridge, muesli or sandwiches for breakfast. Lunch can be anything, usually typical stuff, and in the evening, well…. that just depends on what is fresh and available! You are of course welcome to help with the cooking, especially if you can teach us some of your own region’s typical dishes. We are not particularly vegetarian nor vegan, but we respect people who are- just inform us of that in advance.
  
  So, there will be breakfast, lunch and dinner provided in general, but there may be days if we are not at home that you will have to cook for yourselves.

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  What else ...

  As you will have seen from looking at the other Bornholm hosts our island is a pretty special place! Bornholm is unique in that it has a wide range of habitats, with sandy and rocky beaches, woods and forests, farms and fields, small towns (largest population is about 13 000, and that is for our ‘capital’, Rønne!) and rolling hills. It has less than 40,000 inhabitants, so the pace here is very different to that of the city. One of the things that I like most about our island is the quality of the water, and in fact in 2019 it won the ‘Grand Prix ‘d Vand’award for the best quality water in Scandinavia. Our beaches are clean and in fact the sand is so fine that in previous centuries the sand of Bornholm was used in hour glasses. Yes, Bornholm can rightly be described as the Pearl of the Baltic. We have most of the amenities which metropolitan centers would have, including a theater, shopping malls, supermarkets etc, but the emphasis lies on the rural character and not so much on the urban. Bornholm, because of the special light, is famous as an arts and crafts colony. Dont forget to look at the website:) which tells you what to do, events, restaurants, etc, far better than we can.

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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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  Space for parking camper vans

  This host can provide space for campervans.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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