Come and help out in a multicultural household in central Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Details

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  Description

  We are a culturally diverse modern family living in central Hobart, Tasmania (3.5km from CBD), 30-40 mins walk into the city, 10-15 minutes ride, 5 minutes drive.
  
  You will find living here as at last check-in:
  
  Myself (Bernd), Danijela, my daughter Gypsy Anna (b. 2003) very occasionall (she's now studying in Canberra) and our (Bernd and Dani's) son Leon (b. 2013) and son Felix (b. 2017).
  
  Ours is historically a very open household rather integrated into the community in a number of ways. We are both immigrants to Australia and Tasmania (I have Germanic origins, she Serbian, and we carry German and Serbian as our respective mother tongues). I speak mediocre French and fluent Esperanto as well. I, and my children (Gypsy Anna, Leon and one to come) are dual Swiss/Australian nationals
  
  Dani is a teacher at the university in math and physics.
  
  I am a quality assurance engineer for a software company with a diverse history in engineering (mechanical in a steel factory, communications for telecom providers) and various disciplines related to software development, customer and business management.
  
  I started a games club in Hobart in 2004, and now host monthly games nights for a special interest group focused on competition with leaderboards. I commute on a bicycle and work with the Hobart Bike Kitchen. I have travelled the world extensively for decades now, and for years by thumb and wrote one of the internet's first hitchhiking blogs. I'm a great believer in reducing consumption and waste and in recycling, reuse and re-purposing.
  
  I seriously appreciate either a fairly confident mastery of English or an aggressive stance to learning it, interactive and engaging, asking questions and actively listening (active listening is a practice whereby one listens, then repeats what one has understood in order to check understanding with the speaker). I am frustrated by polite nodding and gestured comprehension where none is and have seen many jobs gone wrong over years because of misunderstandings after someone has politely suggested they understood and were not aggressive enough in their enquiry.
  
  I can provide bicycles but it's hilly and I can say from experience very very few guests want to ride after day 1. I ride to work daily and know its hilly, but then I need a daily workout and there it is. I don't need to go to a gym ;-).
  
  Wifi is available across the whole house and property of course.
  
  We can and do cook vegetarian, even vegan but ourselves are pretty relaxed multivores and if you have special dietary needs, we're happy to cook to your standards now and again but appreciate it if you take a proactive stance to preparing your own meals if you need to so we can indulge in a little relaxation too.
  
  We keep chickens (7 at time of writing) and these need feeding and a little care, and their infrastructure maintenance.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  I can only share what helpers over the past decade or more have fed back: You can learn from the diverse jobs we have to offer if you have skills you're keen to hone, from us personally if you're interested in anything we are which is as diverse language, culture, politics, play, community, society, math, science, technology, the world, and more ... we are both well travelled, and broadly experienced critical thinkers and speakers.

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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're on an inner city quarter acre block, keep chickens, and have three kids and both have day jobs. To wit, we can use any help we can get to help maintain the garden and playground, and infrastructure and have been accepting helpers from other volunteering sites since 2003.
  
  We expect our helpers to relieve us of as much of the kitchen cleaning and dinner clean up as possible and to take on a project or two of their preference from our list, which always includes garden maintenance, and often small construction jobs, or house maintenance jobs.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Esperanto: Fluent
  Serbian: Fluent
  French: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  Varies from a studio out back which is rented online and hence not always free, to cosy cubby house with a single bed, a sofa bed in a spare room or workshop or tent in the back garden. Circumstances need to be checked.

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  What else ...

  In your time off you can do whatever you like, and we are flexible with time. Work some long days and take some off for example. You can walk up Mt. Wellington (Kunyani) from our house (many do), it's a day trip.
  
  I'm not one to count hours, but am sensitive to attitude and contribution. I have said to many helpers over more than a decade, that we go to work and are wage slaves so that we can pay the bank (for the right to live here) the council and government (for infrastructure), the water company, the power company, the telephone and Internet company, to put food in the pantry and fridge, and all I really want is to come home and see that something has happened that I don't now have to do, that is off my to-do list. That is all. Just progress. That alone makes our sharing worthwhile. I'm interested in attitude, effort and results more than hours.
  
  I'm not much of a tour guide alas and we're in central Hobart, Tasmania, you can read up on what to do here on-line at length and I don't need to repeat it. Worse still though, I find what appeals to travellers is very diverse and experiences one traveller really likes, another does not and vice versa. If you have a clear idea of what you like, then I know Tasmania and Hobart fairly well of course and can advise.

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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

  Wifi is good all around here. Most places I'd host someone are comfortable enough to work on a laptop, either with a desk or not. Depends on who's coming when, what's on offer.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  While welcome it's not super convenient, for simple lack of off street parking or flat land. But we have no problem with one parked out front, and it's happened. The street has plenty of on-street parking.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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