Join our eco-living family, creating a community in a village on Pchelina Dam, Bulgaria

Details

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  Description

  Hi! We are Stanislav and Diana - a family with four kids, ages 12, 10, 6 and 4 years. We live an hour away from Sofia in a village located near Pchelina Dam, where we are in the process of creating a community. So far, we are 5 families with a total of 9 kids. Our house is as eco-friendly as we could make it from the old building we got - with clay plastering, wood-fibre insulation, light-earth walls, earthen floors and tadelakt bathrooms. We grow our garden using permaculture principles. Our piece of land is 4000 square meters and behind it is a 5000-square-meters forest that we are trying to revive. Around our place, there are some opportunities for settlement of like-minded families. Our dream is to find new friends to join us in co-creating a community of environmentally and otherwise conscious people who walk gently on Earth and take ownership of our lives, health, education and the planet's well-being, who have fun and grow together, who share food, work, learning, resources and life's bounties to the level each one feels appropriate. We currently have a small Waldorf-inspired kindergarten. Each day we do artwork with the kids, as part of our Waldorf rhythm and invite the volunteers to participate in this activity, if they wish to. The artwork includes some therapeutic techniques, such as wet-on-wet painting with water colors, beeswax modelling, clay modeling, working with wool (wet technique and sometimes felting with a needle), as well as practical things like making soap, making moisturizers, candle-making, etc. At the moment, we are accepting paid volunteers as we are preparing to start the building of a multi-functional dome which will serve as a place for community gatherings, yoga, workshops, meditation, homeschooling, etc. We need help with this project through October and possibly November and we offer payment to volunteers willing to work on this project as assistants to the main builder for the minimum hourly rate in Bulgaria, which adds up to 45 lev per day for an 8-hour day. To paid volunteers we can provide only accommodation and volunteers would take care of their own food. Of course we have community get togethers where we share meals and volunteers are invited to them as well. There is a small house available for housing 1-2 volunteers, as well as a camper. We also need help with managing the household, including cooking and cleaning, some work in the yard, including taking care of the animals - a pony, a dog, three cats and two guinea pigs. It would be really great for us to have someone come over for a longer period, say over the Summer and Autumn. After building the dome, we could do some exciting outdoor projects, such as clay pizza oven, playground areas for the kindergarten, etc. and even schedule some lecture/practice time, or organize together a workshop and include more people. The minimum amount of time we are willing to accept volunteers for is 3 weeks, as it takes time to get to know each other and get into a working rhythm. We would love to have someone with a musical background who can teach us to play an instrument or just sing and dance with us.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Stanislav is a Bulgarian folk dancer, so he can teach volunteers how to dance the ''Bulgarian way." We can also teach them about Bulgaria and the Bulgarian culture, as well as the Bulgarian language, and last but not least - the Bulgarian cuisine. Our neighbors are a Venezuelan family and they can also share the same things from their own country, other than the dancing. :) There is a Belorussian family also looking to move to our community, and once they do - there will be lots to learn from them too - including how to extract threads from nettle and knit hats and other things from them! We also host volunteers from helpX from time to time. We have had volunteers here from Taiwan, Vietnam, Israel, Greece, Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, France, Mexico and USA, so there is an abundance of cultural exchanges happening here.

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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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  Host offers payment in line with the minimum wage

  This host offers accommodation and payment.

  Host has indicated that they will pay at least the minimum hourly wage of their country for each hour worked and that accommodation will also be provided. They are asking for help with a business or business activity. Contact the host directly via the site messenger for more information and details about the wage provided. Any arrangements should be agreed in advance with your host.

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  Help

  We are looking for one or two helpers, or a family with child/ren, to stay with us and help us with the daily tasks of maintaining our space neat, preparing food. At the moment, we are accepting paid volunteers as we are building a multi-functional dome which will serve as a place for community gatherings, yoga, workshops, meditation, homeschooling, etc. We need help with this project through October and possibly November and we offer payment to volunteers willing to work on this project as assistants to the main builder for the minimum hourly rate in Bulgaria, which adds up to 45 lev per day for an 8-hour day. To paid volunteers we can provide only accommodation and volunteers would take care of their own food.
  
  We are offering to provide vegetarian meals to our visitors (including eggs and dairy), as we do not bring meat into the house. It would be nice to have some help with the Waldorf playgroup as well. In the warm seasons, or when the weather allows throughout the year, we will be busy with outdoor projects, as described above. Of course we have a lot of fun and explore the surrounding areas during our daily walks. In the cold seasons, we have quite a few indoor projects as well, including but not limited to plastering, carpentry, creative painting (on windows and wall trims), sewing, etc. We would also like to create some common amenities for the community members in the near future, so we will need help with that as well.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  Bulgarian: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Russian: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
  You can contact them directly for more information.
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  Accommodation

  There is a small house available for housing 1-2 volunteers, as well as a camper which sleeps 5.

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  What else ...

  We have a couple of kayaks that we like to paddle in the dam , which is 4 km away. There are also a number of bikes that could be used by volunteers for very nice nature rides. There are lots of nature hikes in the area. Unfortunately, there is no public transportation, so we go by car to shop in nearby Pernik or Radomir once a week or so. There is public transportation - 20 minutes walk from our house though, which can take people to Pernik and to Kovachevtsi.

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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

  we have had volunteers come with their camper and stay in our yard. It worked out great!

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  Can possibly accept pets

  depends on what kind of pets. we have a dog and two cats, and are planning to get ducks.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  8 hours a day, 5 days a week: Thu--Mon, paid

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