Discover rural life by helping a single Mom and her family in Istria, Croatia

Details

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  Description

  EDIT: I'm looking for a volunteer urgently.
  
  Welcome to the magical peninsula of Istria! I live in a safe, peaceful village surrounded by forest, 20 minutes drive from Poreč and its beautiful Adriatic sea.
  If you need a short break from tourist stuff, can offer help with your skills, write in!
  
  We are a single Mum, an 8-year-old boy, and a small dog. He goes to school and I work for myself and in the company as a content marketer. My parents live near, too, and my sister occasionally visits us with her kids and a dog. There are also some chickens and a garden.
  
  Having you here is our way to travel, learn, and have fun. It is an incredible experience to see my son learning a new skill from you.
  
  We welcome honest volunteers who know how to organise and perform small tasks around the house and house, like changing floors or moving smaller pieces of furniture, but also people who love cleaning, helping in the house and with kids with English, for example. I prefer a video interview on Zoom or Skype beforehand.
  
  However, you must be curious about children, that you love spending time with them. But we can arrange something, maybe even another accommodation, if you're not fond of kids, but have amazing renovation skills, I don't discriminate:D.
  
  
  It is best to write up a maximum one month in advance.
  
  I'm really looking forward hearing from you!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Art Projects

  Language practice

  Teaching

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Babysitting and creative play

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  Kids benefit us no matter what: I learned from my son and nieces. They are the biggest teachers and energy boosters one can meet.
  
  SIGHTSEEING: When you're free, you can go to Porec in the morning with me, to go the town for coffee or sightseeing. You can also use my bike.
  
  FREE TIME: I do go hiking, see friends, to some events occasionally, and sometimes you can come with us.
  
  ABOUT ME: I'm an ex-journalist and I hitch-hiked, surfed, and traveled around Europe, India, and SE Asia. I lived in India for 1.5 years and I learned about yoga, and digital marketing which I do for a living today.

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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

  Winters are slow, but all the exciting work happens before the egg gets hatched:).
  
  It would be work related to small house maintenance jobs, painting, helping my father in renovation of the old house,
  e.g., putting new floors, moving lighter stuff, putting paintings on the wall.
  
  It can also be arranging garden areas, chopping some wood, painting the wooden house...
  
  Other things we highly appreciate.
  - Talking, joking, playing with my son- anything that puts my son away from technology:)
  - Turning my English into a level "incredible" if you're a native speaker (point out my writing and speaking mistakes)
  - Teaching us Italian (I learned it for 4 years)
  - Refurbishing the old furniture if that's your thing
  - Play music if you know how
  - Something else we need help with at that particular moment
  - Something specific you need help with
  - Something artsy you can do... I love artists.
  
  As we won't be here during the day, I provide breakfast and dinner, lunch is up to you.
  
  We eat a lot of seasonal food, traditional Istrian food based on healthy carbs and not so much meat which means whatever we can find in the garden and much less processed food from the store. Anything you need extra, we go to store town often so you can get for yourself (e.g., mango or something we don't normally buy).
  
  We had more than 50 volunteers/couchsurfers and I learned an honest open communication from the start is the key:).
  
  Please, if you have any issues that you think might disturb an 8-year-old boy, let me know in advance.
  
  It's hard to have a proper schedule, but I'll do my best. The village people, and my family are rather used to spontaneous arrangements and there's not much I can do about it even though I tried:D, it's like in Africa or Greek islands, I'm more German style, but with ADHD:D.

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  Languages spoken

  English: Fluent
  Croatian: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate
  German: Beginner
  Italian: Beginner

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  Accommodation

  We will welcome you to our warm, ground floor which is just for us:) (direct access to a big sunny terrace with a garden) apartment.
  
  Since we don't have a spare bedroom, just a spare garage that can be used for exercise or time alone, it is for short stay only, around one week as volunteers stay in the tent or camper van on the terrace or in the garage.
  
  We have a dog inside of the house at all times.
  
  I love clean home and we can clean together, it helps for my motivation:D, but if you have serious OCD, maybe not for you:).
  
  You can smoke in the garden.
  
  You'd be someone who stays here as part of the family concerning some privacy (e.g., we might go upstairs to give you a free night. And it is more than welcomed that you spend some afternoons/ evenings out of our home for sanity:).
  During the week, both my son and I might be away during the mornings and afternoons.

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  What else ...

  Our village is quite urban (people jump into the cars and do stuff in a 5 minute away village with a shop or 20 minute away beach town that has everything you need). But it is settled in a beautiful nature with loads of forest trails. Nearest shop, the coffee bar, doctor, pharmacy... is 4 kilometres away. It is all very close to beautiful Motovun (8 km), the medieval town you definitely must see in Istria. Groznjan, Oprtalj are also not so far (app 20 km). The nearest swimming beach is 17 kilometres away, wild, nudist, touristic.. whichever you prefer. Obviously, it is less attractive during wintertime, but I swimm in the sea during cold months, as well as many people:). The water goes down to 16-13 degrees and more.
  If you've read all the profile, please put: gentle love as a keyword in the message you write. Now, let's continue:).
  
  Public transportation doesn't exist, but from Poreč, there are buses to other towns like Pula, Rovinj, Rijeka, Pazin.
  
  Poreč, Rovinj, Novigrad, all the Istrian cities except Pula and Labin, are on 20 to 40 minutes drive away.
  
  
  You can also hitchhike or use my bycicle (it's a bit hilly), I did it a lot as a youngster.
  It is not easy sometimes but it can be totally fine and exciting:).
  
  Airports Pula and Trieste are less than 100 km away.
  
  When you come for the first time, I'll come to pick you up: Višnjan or Poreč are the good pickup points for the first time. We don't have public transport, it's for people who want to be in a village and occassionally prefer going outside.

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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

  Full time? It depends.. I don't have a great internet but while I work, you can also do part of your digital work. I have two tables, no privacy, but it's comfortable enough.

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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have a lot of yard. Some of it it's near the road. We had campervan travelers before and it was great. We don't have any camper facility - e.g. outdoor toilet and electricity. It's very important that you take your litter at paid places, not to the nature.

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  Can possibly accept pets

  I have a small dog so anything compatible. Not huge dogs, not dangerous ones,.. you know the drill:D.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  One

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  Hours expected

  15 h a week with extra time for things you'd do for yourself anyway, like cooking or cleaning, unless it's your main job. It might depend on the day.

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