Charly & Erin

Netherlands & United Kingdom
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Profile information

Travel information

We are currently

Travelling

Our next destination:
Ireland - from Jun 2026 until Oct 2026
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Description

Both being musicians and artists, we are very creative and drawn to nature. We try to live our lives slowly and in tune with the seasons. We are a queer couple exploring Ireland in the hopes of moving here soon! Charly is from the Netherlands and is fluent in English & Dutch, currently learning German & Gaeilge. Erin has Irish, German & British heritage and is fluent in German & English, speaks some French and is currently learning Dutch.

We are happy to muck in where we can and figure out a way to help out around your home. We are both artists & work remotely in community projects and creative facilitation, so we can figure out a good balance between supporting you and taking time to work and relax. We love meeting new people and getting an insight into different ways of living - creating and nourishing our community is really important to us! We can be quite self-sufficient people with initiative and creative problem solving skills - we're more than happy to entertain ourselves whilst staying with you and explore the local area.
Interests

Self development

Vegetarian or vegan

Sustainability

Politics / Social justice

Pets

LGBTQ

Events & social

Charity work

Writing

Plant care

Photography

Performing arts

Languages

Music

History

Gardening

Drawing & painting

DIY & crafts

Cooking & food

Books

Art & design

Animals

Water sports

Outdoor activities

Camping

Yoga / Wellness

Nature

Dancing

Beach

Cycling
Languages

Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
French: Beginner

More details about my language interests
Erin used to be an English and German teacher, and is happy to teach either languages. We would both love to learn more Gaeilge!

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Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn

We're interested in:

Eco Projects

Life at a Farmstay

Some knowledge of:

Light gardening

Languages

Creative DIY projects

Animal Care

Babysitting and creative play

Helping around the house

Hospitality/Tourism

Light maintenance

House & pet sitting

Able to teach about:

Charity Work

Art Projects

Teaching

Creating/ Cooking family meals

Helping with Computers/ Internet
More details about your skills

Between us, we share an assortment of skills that we would love to share with you! Charly has a Bachelors in Fine Art, Erin has a Bachelor in Music and has nearly Masters in Gender, Sexuality and Culture.

Skills that we already have: music (banjo, violin, viola , washboard, harmonica, mandolin, keyboard, guitar, singing), gardening, (nature)crafts, community engagement, project management, language and instrument teaching, social media & digital support, DIY, crochet, cooking vegan food, sewing and clothes mending, house and petsitting

Skills that we are interested in learning more about: herbalism, homesteading, animal care, Irish folklore and tradition, sustainable and self-sustained living
Age

22 & 29
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
- Special dietary requirements
  vegan

Website Safety

Feedback

7 Aug 2026

Left by Workawayer () for host (Contribute to the well-being ...)

We had a very mixed experience here, partially due to the Workaway ad not being accurate and communication not being clear or direct. We appreciate that Deej and Joanna were very open to our feedback when we shared our thoughts towards the end of our stay! We have shared all of the things in our review here with them directly, and made suggestions … read more where appropriate. We also value the importance of leaving an honest review for other Workawayers so that they can make an educated decision of whether this stay is for them.

We were particularly excited about this Workaway as it appeared to be more manageable than others we saw for being disabled and neurodivergent. We were under the impression that there would be more opportunities to have a variety of tasks that cater to our strengths, interests and experience. One of us is an artist and the other works with community organisations, so we were excited to contribute and learn. About halfway through our stay we both worked on projects that corresponded with to our strengths, which we would have loved to have more time to work on. We figured out a lot of temporary solutions to fill the gaps in structure and communication whilst we were there, but we hope that it can be made into a better experience longer term for everyone involved. We recommend that if you do this stay and have a skill to offer, an idea or project, be vocal about it ahead of time and also when you arrive!

Deej and Joanna do a lot of work to organize the organizational side of this place, but due to the sheer volume of work and responsibilities they have, volunteers are largely left to their own devices with little guidance or structure and expected to pick up where the last volunteer left off. This relies on a crossover between volunteers to tell each other what’s going on, but this expectation isn’t explicitly communicated. We weren’t given an induction or tour upon arrival, which would have been very helpful! Our orientation was reliant on another volunteer that had been there for 3 weeks (who had in turn got their information from a previous volunteer).

The ad doesn’t describe that the working days are Monday to Thursday from roughly 9:30-16:00 with a 20 hour work week, which is helpful to know. If you are on the cooking rota or going to do the weekly food shop, then there is little time to rest after your work day. Lunch is often shared with other volunteers, artists and staff, which can be overwhelming if you need some down time between working.

On the Workaway ad it says that it’s helpful to have a car, but possible to get around and see places without your own car - unfortunately, this wasn’t our experience. The busses come approximately 2-3 times a day, and due to communication about lifts it was uncertain whether we would be able to see plans through. If you want to walk or cycle to leave the property, then you have to do this onto an 80 kilometer per hour road without any pavements, which can be dangerous. Deej very kindly let us use their car a couple of times, but we don’t believe this is a common occurrence.

It’s important to note that one of the dogs, Zena, is attached to a furniture trolly when she’s outside to stop her from chasing local cows. This is extremely loud on the gravel and some people can find this distressing. That being said, Olive (cat), Zena (dog) and Ziggy (dog) are all delightful to spend time with.

In conclusion, despite all these things - we did enjoy our stay, and it was also wonderful to get to know both Deej and Joanna, their friends, learn about the history of the house and explore the grounds more when the grass was cut. Our stay was intense at times and very hard to get into. The majority of info we got through a previous volunteer prepared us for lots of unexpected changes, unpredictability, lack of active communication, lots of guessing and filling in the gaps from our side. We made it work because we are proactive in analyzing what’s not working and finding ways to make it work for us (such as putting people on the tasks they’re good at, creating overviews of things to do). For us, that took a lot of our energy, and we believe it is work that should be done by someone who works here permanently (such as a volunteer manager, if funds allow it), not by temporary volunteers.

(Good )

28 Jul 2026

Left by host (Contribute to the well-being ...) for Workawayer ()

It was wonderful having Charly and Erin stay with us. They brought a lot of new ideas and ways of perceiving to us which resulted in a lot of interesting conversation. They were very helpful and creative with multiple tasks. Erin, with their experience and training in Access Support, helped us develop and an Access document which was very useful. … read more

(Excellent )