Help us to make our dream come true in the Nepali hills, Nepal

Details

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  Description

  Hi we are Maaike & Prakash, a Dutch/Nepali couple in their late 30’s living the dream at Sopna Hill! Sopna means ‘dream’ in Nepali and 'Hill' you know ;). We met in 2017 in Portugal, and immediately it was clear we had the same vision of life; live pure, organic and natural in a simple but comfortable and cosy athmosphere. Now it is time to make that dream into reality! Which is a big excitement. :)
  
  We left to Europe for a while to give a warm welcome to our new family member; Noya Shiva! He was born on the 29th of November 2022 and he is now part of our dream project.
  
  We both travelled and worked in many different places. And now we want to settle 8 months per year in Nepal on a piece of land we own from Prakash family. From June till September it's rain season in Nepal, not the best season. But for us an oppertunity to go to Europe to see Maaike's family and to earn some money for the project.
  
  We want to create a place where we live life how it should be, we want to be self-sustainable as much as possible and we would love to share our lifestyle. We have many ideas what we can do with the land but for now the biggest focus will be to be able to live on it. It would be amazing to welcome some travellers in the future who would love to stay at our place for some relaxing time, cultural exchange and/or retreats.
  We want to create a place to live and share life with the family and the local community and a place of peace and simplicity for travellers and volunteers. If you come to visit our place or to stay for some volunteer work, you will experience the true Nepali way of living and sharing with a little touch of Western comfort. (as in wifi, electricity and a shower)
  We work and live together with our Nepali family; Prakash’s father, his 2 brothers Krishna & Apshan and 3 sisters Laxmee, Samichchya & Apechhya (2 sisters are not always around, one lives in Pokhara and another in the next village) We also have a dog Lucy, a cat Nemo, 4 goats, chickens and a buffalo with a baby buffalo (born in November)
  
  Prakash is a gardener and he knows a lot about the Nepali way of growing your own. He is also a yoga teacher and sound healer. In the future we would like to let travellers & backpackers stay with us for a retreat with yoga, meditation, soundhealing and a fully experience of the Nepali culture.
  Maaike used to be a primary school teacher in the Netherlands. And at the moment she’s teaching online classes. In the future we also would like to make Sopna Hill a place for kids where they can come for some activities. Sending volunteers over to the nearby school is also a project which is on our wish list.
  
  We have also local people working on our site. During the building of the house we had a team of 8-10 people. The structure of the house is finished and right now we have local people working for us with skills like a carpenter, someone who's plastering and a guy who does all the electricity connections.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We are located near Beni, a small city 80 km west of Pokhara (3/4 hours drive by bus).
  Beni is a crossing point for the Annapurna circuit, so if you’re planning to do the Annapurna basecamp or circuit, we are actually on the way! So a good point to start or end your trekking. Beni is not a busy tourist city, so you would really feel you are in a very local place.
  At our place you will get the opportunity to learn about the traditional way of Nepali living. All our family members and everybody in the community will welcome you with a big smile and they will give you the change to learn and experience the actual Nepali way of living. Prakash can teach you lots about gardening, but also about yoga and breathing techniques.
  
  We are located on a hill, with the Myagdi river just 200 meter below us. There is also the road that goes to the next village and to Beni. The next village is a 10 minute walk. There will be some little shops to buy food. Beni is a 45 minute walk. Be aware, to get back to us it will take some more time because we are located on a hill! From our place, we have a beautiful viewpoint where you can overview the river that goes into the direction of Beni. On a clear day you can even spot a smiley peak of Mount Dhaulageri. From our place you can have a hike up for 2 hours where you will have an amazing view over the Himalayas. During the walk you will meet with the Nepali culture and community.
  Near us there is also the medical hotsprings. Many Nepali are going there to heal from some health issues. If you want to experience more a relaxing type of hotsprings, you can take a 2 hour busdrive up North to Tatopani. Also you will find the longest and highest walking bridge in Kushma and the tempels of Baglung located around Beni.
  From March unwards it's getting warmer, on warm days you can always go down down to the river to get some refreshment!

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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

  At the moment we just started our project and to be able to live on the land. We have a family house with all the facilities (toilet, water, kitchen, electricity etc). Don't expect Western standard! We don't have a throne for your daily foodload.. We are living a countryside lifestyle. We spend lot of the time outside where it is most of the days sunny and warm! December & January can be a little bit cold though.
  
  Right now we almost finished the main house we are going to live in. We still want to build an outdoor bathroom, a yoga deck and a little wooden house. Also we want to make a grey and black water system. If you have any skills in plastering, painting, building, of grid living.. we would be delightfull to have you as a volunteer!! If not we are also happy to meet you and give us a helping hand. We are open for any ideas and creativity. We actually love to have some cool wall painting too! 😊 So, many things you could do!
  
  We have a vegetable garden, which always need some love and attention. Also the animals need care and attention and there is always help appreciated with the household things, like cooking, cleaning, washing etc..
  We don't count hours as workaway hours if you help cooking for dinner or doing the cleaning up after, same for the meals during the weekend if you stay with us. We really appreciate it when you help with these tasks! :)
  
  We ask you to work 5 days a week (Monday till Friday) from 9 till 3 pm with an hour lunchbreak in between. (due to the type of jobs we have, this can always change a bit. We are flexible!) In exchange we will provide you 2 big meals and some fruit/snacks/lunch in between and ofcourse a place to sleep.
  We also have sometimes local workers working around the house and on the land. They mostly work from 9 till 5 and they have a lunch break in between where we serve them food. There's always help needed to prepare the food for them.
  
  In Nepal, we are used to have our fist big meal (call it 'brunch') around 10/11 o’clock. That means that you will have some work before that. In the morning we can provide you some tea, fruit or a little snack. Nothing big. Around 10/11 o’clock we provide you a Nepali style breakfast/lunch.
  Around 19:00/20:00 o’clock we will all eat dinner together. A family member will cook the daily meals for everybody. You’re free to help cooking and learn about the Nepali way of cooking.
  Our family is very warm and always willing to help. We share lots of time together and we learn a lot from each other.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Nepali: Fluent
  Dutch: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate
  Portuguese: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  The family of Prakash is living in the main house, the family house. We are about to move to our new build house. We just refreshed 2 rooms in the family house where you can sleep. The room will be all yours! It’s simple and clean. You will wake up with the sound of the countryside. Birds, chickens and the family around who is waking up to make you a cup of Nepali morning tea (chai).
  
  We eat twice a day the famous Nepali 'dal bhat'. This comes always with dal, rice and a vegetable curry. Sometimes we also make some extra side dishes or we eat meat. One of the family members is preparing the food for everyone. For volunteers we can offer the same and they eat together with us. The base of our food is vegan. But we do have meat sometimes or milk/yoghurt. We also offer snacks and fruit. Basicly all the food we have can be eaten :)

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  What else ...

  We are located in a rural area, so bring good shoes, clothes that can get dirty, a torch and warm clothes for the evening (specially for the months November till February).
  We talk English and Nepali. Prakash’s father and his older sister don’t speak English, but there will be always someone who can translate and you will definitely leave our place with some new Nepali words.

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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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  Can host digital nomads

  We have a good working internet connection. Sometimes there are powercuts and they can take 2 minutes up to some hours.. But you can also always work with 3G or 4G (if you have a Nepali phone number) this is very cheap and works well too. There will be always a space somewhere where you can work.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

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

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