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Host is looking for help immediately
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
26 Jul 2024
Reply rate
97.7 %
Usually responds within 3 days
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77
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Details
Description
**
CURRENT AVAILABILITY :
- Now, up until the end of July - GARDENING
- From September 2024 - ELDERLY CARE
**
Hello, I'm Lola.
I'm a Canadian/ Irish/ British theatre actor and have been living and working in France for 25 years. In 2022 I bought a 100 year old stone house in a town in Ariege in order to look after my mum during her senior years. Two other members of the household are my dogs: Jalia, who is very friendly and affectionate and Samy who is a recent rescue - timid but very sweet.
With the help of wonderful Workawayers, from all over the world, I have been restoring the house over the last two years and there are just a few jobs left now so I have a Workaway team coming for a month of DIY in August (2024).
JULY - I would love some help in the garden, mostly clipping and tidying. I would really appreciate someone who has gardening experience if possible.
FROM SEPTEMBER ONWARDS - I would like to start getting back to my career little by little. So I would really appreciate a helping hand looking after my mum. It would be mostly just being here and keeping an eye on Mum, making her tea, putting dvds on for her, making her meals. I will not be working full time so the hours will be no more than 5 hours a day and 5 days a week. My mum has dementia but is still her lovely, jolly self. Of course it would be fabulous to have experience in care work but it is not necessary. I think the qualities needed are : to have empathy and to be responsible, caring and practical. It is necessary to speak fluent English as Mum only speaks English. It is also important to be able to communicate a minimum in French in case of an emergency. I think a minimum stay of a month would be good and longer stays would be welcomed. You would have the guest bedroom which has a sitting area and room for a desk if you'd like. You would of course be welcome to use the rest of the house too. The work with Mum won't be very much so helping out in the house and garden, perhaps a little DIY or art projects would be great too.
General Information:
It would be nice to share the rest of the cooking. I like learning recipes from different cultures and sharing mine.
We have bicycles available and there is a train station in our town so on days off you would be able to get around easily. There are frequent trains to the city of Toulouse and, in the other direction, to Foix and into the Pyrenees mountains. The town we live in has some shops, a few restaurants and cafés. There is a food market on Saturday mornings and a flea market on Sunday mornings.
We're friendly people and enjoy meeting new people, exchanging culture, sharing good food... Of course you will also have your own space.
I speak fluent French so can teach English, French or anything to do with theatre.
I would really appreciate a helping hand.
Best regards,
Lola
(Mary Lynn, Lola is my nickname)Types of help and learning opportunities
Elderly Companionship
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
- learning French or English and about different cultures
- learning about theatre
- surrounding sites: historical / natural
- hiking, water sports...Help
JULY - Gardening
FROM SEPTEMBER - Looking after an elderly person:
- serving tea and meals
- putting on DVDs
- helping out with the house, garden and perhaps a little DIY or art projectsLanguages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
French: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
I'd quite like to learn some Spanish or Italian.Accommodation
- unlimited wi-fi
- guest bedroom
- bicycles available
- train station close byWhat else ...
Activities and places of interest nearby:
• The Pyrenees Mountains for hiking
• Prehistoric caves
• A big prehistoric open-air park/museum
• Medieval towns such as Foix, Mirepoix and Carcassonne are beautiful to visit
• Montbel Lake with beaches, sailing and fishing
• Ziplining, tree climbing
• Canoeing on the Ariege river
• Parachute jumping
• The lovely city of Toulouse, rich in culture
• Roman Spa at Ax-les-ThermesA little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
Fiber internet connection.
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
Hours expected
No more than 5 per day, 5 days a week
Feedback (31)
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Accuracy of profile:
(4.8)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(5.0)
Lola is super friendly and her mum is an absolute poppet.
I'm full of admiration for Lola tackling so many jobs in her house restoration. I loved doing soft furnishings for her and would be really excited to see her finished… read more
...I stayed at Lola's place for almost 4 weeks and I enjoyed it so much! She is a very lovely, caring and easy-going person and even offered me her own bedroom when she went on vacation. Moreover, she always made sure we are fine with the work and we never had to work too much;) Her mom Betty is a very cheerfull person as well… read more
Unfortunately we couldn't communicate as much as I would have liked because of the language barrier but with a translation app there was no problem for her to understand what help was needed.
I would thoroughly recommend hosting… read more
The work was very much fun and we did achieve much while renovating all together Lola’s kitchen. Some of my tasks were for example cooking, smoothing walls and painting them.
Lola is a perfect host because she is a very caring,… read more
Pamiers is a really nice city to stay and you have everything you need there but can also go to different cities easily.
I enjoyed all of the different work tasks. Which were painting cupboards, building… read more
Alicia was a great help! She is a hard and efficient worker, always cheery and willing to do the variety of jobs I needed doing. She worked very well with the other Workawayer and together I was surprised at how much they got… read more
My room was really cozy and I slept so well in my comfortable bed.
The work was a good combination of different tasks like painting, gardening and building lots of Ikea furniture ;)
I… read more
It was a great experience for me. Lola, Betty and Jalia are all lovely and helped me to be comfortable during my stay.
In my free time I went to the sea, Sidmouth is nice, and really close, and Exeter too. We also went out all together a few times for some great pub lunches… read more
Best wishes for the future!
MaryLynn, once again, thank you so much for everything. ^^
Mary Lynn
Thank you Jarred
And thank you… read more