Help us create a Paradise community while learning about permaculture, eco-building in Covilha, Portugal

Details

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  Description

  !before anything else: special announcement for next year, april/may: we will host a festival, with around 60 People planned. It will be created by the people participating, by friends and family, and maybe you?!
  Art, workshops, live music, DJ sets... exact date of the festival weekend is the 10th - 12th may.
  
  
  We are a group of 12 friends from Germany, who bought a piece of rural land with a big old ruin close to the Serra da Estrella. We came here to live closer to nature and to have more opportunities of personal development.
  Together we are learning a lot about different topics like permaculture, natural building, community building, agroforestry, apiculture and selfsustainability.
  
  Our little project startet in August 2021, when we, a mix of biologists and social workers, first arrived on our new home.
  We had to clean the land from bushes and wild growing trees, because the property was not touched for many decades before our arrival. Even though there is still a lot of wilderness on the land, today there are more or less 6 of our group living full time on the property and working on it, while the others are coming by from time to time when their jobs in Germany allow it.
  
  Our community involves three couples and 5 individuals in their 20s and 30s. There is also a 2 year old child and a newborn, as well as two dogs and two cats.
  We share a lot of time together, but everyone is also doing their own stuff and projects. We appreciate to have privacy as well as shared quality time. For that reason we don't live all under the same roof, but instead everyone has their own little island on the property.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Teaching

  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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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  During your stay you would be a part of our group and get to know the early stages of a new born community. Since we started we learned a lot about community building and living together. We try to practice open communication and grow together as much as possible. We would like to give a little example of how you could make a project like this happen.
  We do a lot in a learning by doing way, but looking back at how we started, we can definitely share some of the experiences we gained on the way. We increased our knowledge about permaculture design, gardening, composting, fermentation and sustainable living a lot while beeing in this project.
  We can exchange about water management and restoration and managing a land with more people.
  We are all beginners and learners in what we do, but very curious and willing to listen to nature and people that know already more than we do.
  We are also interested in artistic projects or alternative schooling (we have two kids here) and rural tourism. We would not define ourselfes as experts in these topics. Everyone of us is still learning and participating in workshops or doing investigations on their own.

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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 need help with:
  
  -Cleaning the water mines, if you like to get your hands dirty ;)
  
  -Ridding the land from weed like broom, bramble and mimosa trees,
  if you would like to release pressure. This is what we do the most.
  
  -Building sheds, to store material and keep it away from heat/rain.
  
  -Weeding and gardening in our recently established mandala garden.
  Permaculture experienced people welcome!
  
  
  We expect you to be quite independent in your free time. We value our private space and time as much as the community time and hope for you to be able to also entertain yourself in nature. The group here is always changing and most of the time we are a bigger group and have friends visiting. But depending on when you come it could be quiet and family-like.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  German: Fluent
  Greek: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Portuguese: Beginner

  This host offers a language exchange
  Learning portuguese is important to all of us because we want to integrate and adapt to the local culture. We would love portuguese mothertongues to help us with this! Most of us learned the basics of portuguese or do at least understand a lot, but it would be amazing to practice more. In exchange we can teach german, as we are native speakers and we can use and improve our english all together. The group changes sometimes, so it would be important to talk about the languages which are spoken here before you come. We are all fluent in english, but there is not always a person on the land speaking spanish or greek.
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  Accommodation

  Our big ruin is still waiting to be restored, so we cannot offer proper accomodation. You will have to come with your own van or tent and find youself a nice spot on the land. If you don't have a tent just talk to us, we have a few small ones to lend out.
  
  We have a well equipped community kitchen/communal area, where you can prepare your meals. We will expect from you to be responsible for your food, and maybe connect with other volunteers for it. Out of logistical reasons we will only provide the living space and sanitary facilities such as hot shower and composting toilet.
  
  But depending on the time you are here it's also very likely that we share at least one meal all together. Especially when the group is a bit bigger it's nice to end the day all together with good food.
  
  Currently we cannot offer any food. It depends on the situation, but normaly we expect 5 hours a day, 3 days a week (its nicer to have full work days and full free days).

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  What else ...

  Our land is located near Covilha, just under the Serra da Estrela National Park- Portugals biggest mountain area. The mountains are a very good place for hiking and short trips. A lot of cold lakes and river beaches invite for a bath and the view from up there is incredible.
  
  The city Covilha is the biggest in the region. Because it has an univerity there are a lot of students and different possibilities to go out in the night. If you come by bus you will have to get off at the busstop in Covilha. We will then pick you up and drive together to the land.
  
  Our place is a bit isolated and it will be hard to get into town without a car. If you don't have a car you will be able to join into shopping trips and other adventures that we do. We are always happy to show people around in the beautiful mountain area close to us.
  
  A taxi into town is around 10 euros.
  
  The next supermarket (Continente) is 4,5 km away.
  Our favourite Pizza Place is 3,4 km away ;)
  
  There are also a lot of opportunities to hike around our place. For example there is the river Zézere in more or less 25 minutes walking distance, which is a nice opportunity to have a refreshing dip into cold water.

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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

  It's very welcome, if you bring your own home. We have only a dirtroad as access to the Quinta, that can be quite rough, but so far every vehicle made it to the land and could also leave with no problem. The largest Vans that visited so far where about 6-7 meters long and up to 2.5-3m high. We have good flat places to park Caravans and Vans. Though it´s on a field and if it rains a lot it can get a bit muddy.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  Hours expected

  3-5 hours a day, 3-5 days a week

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