Help out with Puna Hawaii family life, USA

Details

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  Description

  Aloha. We are family living in the Puna district of Hawaii. Porter is an acupuncturist. Our 2 children are Eureka (7) and Bhumi (4) Evan (the dad )is a Waldorf teacher who lives nearby in his own home. We have a cat named pizzalani and as of spring ‘23 a dog named Paipai.
  
  I just found out our current travelers have a family emergency and have to leave this week. I am looking for someone who could step in quite soon and stay for at least eight weeks.
  
  
  Our home is in the jungle but walking distance to the beach, on the grid and our volunteer would have their own room (technically a lanai with 2 solid and 2 screened in walls.) We would love a guest(or 2) to stay and enjoy our positive environment while helping out Porter with household chores, gardening/land work and kitchen. Usually we can sit down at the beginning of the week and come up with a schedule of times where we know we will be expecting your help and the rest of the time it’s up to you if you want to go to the beach hang with us or whatever. When we share meals together we expect that you hang around for 10 or 15 minutes to help with the dishes and clean up after we eat just as a part of being in the house.
  
  Porter used to be fluent in Italian although she is a little rusty now, Evan is fluent in Spanish and we would love to practice these languages. I also would be happy to have a Korean, Japanese or Mandarin speaker/ couple to learn some language from- generally we prioritize international travelers to be our guests.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Language practice

  Help with Eco Projects

  Gardening

  DIY and building projects

  Animal Care

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  General Maintenance
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  We like to think of ourselves as a friendly family and would be happy to share our knowledge and passion for Hawaii and Hawaiian culture with our volunteer guests. Our home is walking distance to the beach and near an interesting part of Hawaii

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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

  It would be great to have 1 or 2 people that could help with meals, household tasks, cleaning and yard work.
  
  I usually ask that you do a daily list of chores around the house at your own timing and then give a second list of other projects to do during the week when you like.(could be anything from cleaning to garden to carpentry depending on your strength,)
  I have been really grateful for the contributions that people have made so far and try to adjust my requests based on your strengths and skills. I like to say it’s the 'honor system' in terms of your hours- you keep track of yourself and we can always check in on how the workload is comparing to our expected contribution agreement.
  
  
  We would ask for 23 hours of your time a week and you can expect to have your all your meals here if you like. If you want to eat food that's different than we are making then that would be your own purchase.
  
  I can be providing dinner and staples (always rice, beans, oatmeal and coffee available but you buy the snacks, fruits and other things for eating that you enjoy throughout the day.)
  For a single guest it’s nice to stay for a longer period and get to know the kids/area/ tasks well and really get in a flow. For 2 guests we usually do shorter duration stays (like 4weeks) since the house can feel a bit full with so many people after a while. But it all depends on the person/season/ situation.

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  Languages

  Languages spoken
  English: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent
  Spanish: Intermediate

  This host offers a language exchange
  I would love to practice Italian and would be happy for my young children to hear other languages as well
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  Accommodation

  Our house is medium size and our visitors sometimes call it a "tree house" with the jungle all around.
  
  Downstairs there is the bathroom and outdoor shower, and two large rooms. One we use for our bedroom. The second room is a large shady room that acts as an acupuncture clinic/ office and chill space (off hours) for the workawayers whose room is on the lanai off the office. We have grid electricity and rainwater catchment.
  
  
  
  For food we would plan to have one meal several days a week that is planned shared that we eat together (most often dinner.) We like to eat things like quiche, hearty soups, taro, homemade pizza, spinach dishes, burritos, salads etc. We try to eat as much local fresh produce as we can and mostly only buy organic and natural groceries. We are vegetarian bur do eat eggs and cheese. If you really need to eat meat then you could take yourself to a restaurant and get some but we don't do meat in the house. If you are gluten free that would be fine for some meals but there are times we bake bread/ eat pasta or whatever and you may want your own alternatives. When I’m not home and preparing dinner for the family, it’s up to you to use the ingredients in the kitchen to feed yourself.

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  What else ...

  Our area is so beautiful! We are in the district of Puna on the Big Island of Hawaii in the Kalapana area. This side of the island is rainy and our coastline is black lava- so no white sand beaches or hotels. From our house one can walk to the black sand beach. There are some nice warm ocean pools down the road as well.
  
  
  
  Our home is in a sweet neighborhood but there are no stores or commerce nearby and the town with stores is 15 minutes away by car so it is good to be comfortable with going to the store only a few times a week. This is a jungley place, which means we are close to nature- a definite plus but it is best to be comfortable with the possibility of cock roaches, ants, little lizards, coqui frogs and random critters mostly outside but sometimes inside as well. There is some public transportation, but it takes time to get around the island without a car.
  
  We are not married, and have a very modern arrangement of coparenting.
  
  We like to go to the beach and swim but we tend to go in the morning or afternoon and avoid full on sunning.
  
  It's quiet in the evenings and we are just home and kicking it a lot of the time.
  
  We don't smoke and the way the air here is thick and the windows are only screens it wouldn't work to have a smoker in the house.

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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

  The internet connection here works pretty well for regular internet stuff . There is a desk by the room for the workawayer.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  Two

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  Hours expected

  23

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