Family welcome help with sorting out our olive grove in a mountain village of Galilea in southwest of Mallorca, Spain

Details

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  Description

  Hello,
  
  We are a family of 4: Emma (British), Eladio (Spanish), Emelie (10 years old) and Elia (6). We live in the beautiful mountain village of Galilea in the southwest of Mallorca. It's a very quiet, peaceful location with spectacular views down to the sea and offers complete tranquillity for nature lovers. Palma, the capital is only a 25 minute drive away, as are the beaches of the southwest coast. The village has a couple of bars and a pizza restaurant, there is also public transport to Palma but it is not especially frequent. This is a place especially suited to nature lovers. Hikers and keen cyclists (who don't mind serious hills) will love it but those wanting a great social life will find it a bit boring!
  Our house is a traditional stone cottage of over 100 years old with a lovely olive grove where you can see enormous, centuries old olive trees. It was abandoned for around 30 years and we are slowly getting it back into shape. Many of the drystone walls have collapsed so they need repairing and the land is completely overgrown so we are doing a lot of pruning and cutting down of trees to get to the old olives trees.
  We run a small bed and breakfast and hope in the future to be able to produce our own olives, honey, fruit and vegetables but we need a lot of help before we can get to that stage!
  We are looking for volunteers who can help us during the autumn, winter and early spring primarily with work on the land, cooking, cleaning and possibly a bit of childcare. We offer independent accommodation, self service breakfast (we'll supply cereals, milk and general breakfast things), and a cooked lunch and light dinner with us in our house with shared cooking and clearing up duties. On your days off lunch and dinner will not be supplied.
  It might be a nice project for friends - the rooms can be made into twin rooms. It could also be good for a couple. The work is more often than not very physical so be prepared for a workout!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We really love sharing our home and experiences with our volunteers and for us, the fun of having volunteers is sharing their stories and experiences too. We try to integrate everyone into our family and love participating in the work with our volunteers. We hope we can pass on our knowledge about life in Mallorca and about all the many things we have learnt from living here. Although not experts, we can share our skills on dry stone walling and other traditional mallorcan agricultural skills such as pruning trees or harvesting. We know a lot of history about the place and can recommend plenty of things for you to do on days off. We can also help with learning a bit of Spanish or English. All of this we like to combine with a relaxed and fun attitude which will hopefully leave you feeling like you've had an amazing experience.

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  Projects involving children

  This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.

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  Help

  We'd like people to come for around a week or two.
  What we really need help with is the olive grove, possibly building tasks, cooking and childcare. The gardening is quite hard manual work involving dry stone walling, pruning trees, strimming the land and burning. You may need to lift heavy stones, dig, move around wheelbarrows of soil and stones - it's not work for the weak and feeble!!! It is however quite satisfying.Help is also needed with cooking and cleaning up and entertaining the girls after school.
  If the weather is bad there are always other things that can be done - we also restore furniture and you can help us out with that. You could also give us a hand with some bits of DIY- here there will always be something to keep you occupied!

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  The accommodation is in our bed and breakfast rooms which are spacious and comfortable. They are en suite and have internet access, fridge, air conditioning/heating and coffee making facilities. There is no kitchen or television, so bring your own entertainment for the evenings! We have two rooms which can be made into twins and each one has its own independent terrace area. If friends come you will be in a twin room. We expect you to keep the room clean and also to help us with cooking and cleaning up after eating.

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  What else ...

  It is very quiet here and transport is not the best. There are buses to Palma everyday but they are quite limited (4/ day monday - friday and 2/day at the weekend). It costs around 4.50 single. A lot of people hitch hike down to Palma and it's pretty easy to get people to pick you up. We also go out quite frequently and are happy to take you somewhere on your days off. We have a mountain bike you can use but as I said, it's not easy cycling here. If you are feeling rich, the best option is to rent a car and at this time of year it's actually pretty cheap. This will give you the freedom to explore the beautiful island and it is well worth the effort. If you prefer to stay around Galilea there are a few lovely hikes. The village also has a couple of bar/restaurants if you prefer to just hang out and you are of course more than welcome to just chill out here!

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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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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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