Germany
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We are a small family living in a farmhouse south of Harz highlands in the middle of Germany. There's an orchard, few sheep, a vegetable garden, a half-timber building and a barn to take care of. Our village is located near the former Inner German border. It has about 400 inhabitants, some of them building an informal, ecologically inspired commune. There's a bio gardener and a bio fruit juice producer. Public transport is scant. Nearest towns are Bad Lauterberg and Duderstadt. Nearest City is Göttingen, alive with students from the university.
Constanze is a primary school teacher, social education worker and trains to become a Montessori lecturer. She works at a special school. Manuel used to work as a biologist. Lea lives in the city, doing a bachelor in linguistics and an apprenticeship at a centre for modern Indian studies. Winfried visits school and currently takes part in a student exchange, living in Japan for a year.
We do speak German, English, a bit of French (Manuel), a bit of Russian (Constanze), Faroese (Lea), a bit of Japanese (Winfried) and see ourselves as friendly members of the diverse community inhabiting planet earth, open for new experiences.
українців вітають — Refugees from war are welcome, including Ukrainians.
Language practice
Gardening
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
You can live in the center of Germany and explore a quite lovely countryside of rolling hills and rural settlements. You can come to know basic tasks of simple living in a rural environment. You can train speaking German and English. There could be occasion for conversations about the world, science and philosophy. If you're really interested, you could get an introduction to computer hacking, folk guitar playing or advanced ornithology.
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
You can help us with work in house, yard and garden: cooking, cleaning, chopping firewood, gardening, pruning trees and hedges, scything the lawn, feeding the sheep, dog and cat, muck out the pen, restoration of the house with small carpentry or masonry tasks, renovating and painting old windows and timber.
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate
Russian: Beginner
This host offers a language exchange
You can train speaking German (ours is native) and English (we are fluent) or help us to improve our Russian (Constanze) and French (Manuel).
You will have a small room for your own as part of the family house: Bed, table, closet, electricity, internet, shared bathroom. Heating is done with stoves, so you should bring a warm pullover and prepare to be patient while waiting for the water to heat for a shower. There are common meals, but not always regularly. You can use the kitchen and supplies for whatever your nutritional needs are.
We value open, kind and honest communication. We want to integrate you into the family and can give you any help you need with how to do things. But we also expect you to make independent decisions and plans for the day. Smoking is no problem, but has to happen outside.
There are no shops in our village. The next supermarket is 8 km away. There's a bus line with about five departures and arrivals every workday, but not on weekends. It will bring you to the next larger village, Weißenborn-Lüderode. From there you can reach the train station in Leinefelde, stopping over at Worbis bus station. The nearest train station, though not reachable by public transport, is Bad Lauterberg im Harz Barbis. If you got a licence and we trust you, you could use one of our cars if available.
The vegetable garden is quite in disarray at the time. The photo of it is more than two years old.
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Internet flat, 15 MBit/s down, 5 MBit/s up. The village is connected via a radio link and sometimes there's hampered traffic or an outage.
Probably anything that fits with you together in your room. Our dog is usually friendly enough with other dogs, but there may be tensions.
One
Maximum 1-2 hours a day, 5 days a week
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(4.5)
