Sam

Travel information

I am currently

Description

When volunteering I like to see if I can learn a bit about using natural building materials to build or restore houses. I own an old house in Bulgaria made partly of mud bricks which I bought with my partner. It needs some repairs, and I also might want to build a whole new one in the future.

If I spend time in Bulgaria I use it to improve my property which I actually have a Workaway hosting profile for: https://www.workaway.info/en/host/674547787335

I've been a builder's / carpenter's assistant in the past and did a fair bit of repair and improvements on an apartment I owned in Brighton, England from 2002 to 2024.

. . . Also, throughout my life I always seem to end up in situations where I am training/looking after dogs! Whether it be my family training guide dogs as puppies, being a dog sledder, or volunteering in a charity dog kennel for strays. There also always seems to be dogs whenever I house sit! I thought it would be good to mention dogs here as there seems to be many people tha need help with dogs on Workaway profiles for Romania and Bulgaria.

In 2021 me and my partner adopted a stray dog in the Bulgarian village where we bought a house. Now she travels with me wherever I go if my partner is in The Netherlands.


> > IN GENERAL < <

I'm an easy going, hard working, respectful chap. Independent, physically adept, and thorough. I think the people I work under tend to appreciate me as I never complain or cause much hassle, and just tend to get on with what I have to do. I'm low maintenance.

My life today has some how developed into an addiction to wanting to experience different life styles with different people.

I worked in an office for a while and it's not for me.

Since 2008, I've spent a significant amount of time living and working in different parts of the world, and amassed a fair amount of varied experience. To begin with most of the time I spent abroad was spent teaching English, but over time I started to do more and more volunteering, which has involved: building, landscaping, general house maintenance, a self initiated land art project, looking after animals, dog sledding . . .

In 2017 I moved to Romania, and from 2018 to 2025 I spent a lot of time at a place where I became a long term volunteer and an 'onsite manager' of sorts: https://www.workaway.info/en/host/837699821335/feedback.

In 2020 I bought myself an old house in a small village in Bulgaria.



> > BIO < <

(A bit long maybe, but just in case more is better than less as I've got some years behind me now!)

Born in London.
Left for edge of suburbia/countryside (Hampshire) aged 10, lived next to a NATURE RESERVE surrounding a lake
http://www.fleetpond.org.uk
Loved it, did a bit of volunteer conservation work.
My family TRAINED GUIDE DOGS as puppies, which we walked around the lake.
Did lots of different SPORTS when I was young, which gave me an appreciation of keeping fit and healthy.


Went to UNIVERSITY in East London and did a BSc in MULTIMEDIA with communications.
In plain English, that's 'creation, manipulation and use of images, animation, video and sound using COMPUTERS, plus knowing about the tech to create the media with. The minor was basically, amongst other things, film studies and screenplay writing.

Moved to BRIGHTON.
Was a bit 'rock and roll' in Brighton . . .
Hung around with creatives
Was involved in a casual band
Did casual work for a record label.
http://www.tru-thoughts.co.uk/
My day job was working in a complaints department talking to the most problematic customers and replying to complaint letters.


- 2008 -

Went to SOUTH KOREA and through the Korean EPIK program TAUGHT ENGLISH for a year in a state middle school.


- 2009 -

Went to AUSTRALIA for a year.
Got an accredited online TEFL qualification (English teaching as foreign language) whilst I was in Australia.
Discovered WWOOFing in Australia (the first 'Workaway' like organisation). Loved it.

Through WWOOF . . .
Helped BUILD a property using sustainable materials at one location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCGUCtdPZ7A
Was a CARETAKER/LANDSCAPER/GARDENER at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm for the owner's property.
http://cygnetbaypearls.com.au/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGRoJut8tp0

The owners would go away for weeks at a time on occasions

I also did work as a pearling boat crew member.


- 2010/11 -

Came back to ENGLAND
Did a fair bit of work improving my property in Brighton.
Got a CELTA qualification (English teaching as foreign language) whilst back in Brighton.

Worked at the European Headquarters for American Express in Brighton.
Pay good, work easy(ish), left to my own devices, no boss on my back, nobody bothering me, no stress, . . . apart from the work was mind numbing and unrewarding (apart from the money). Decided I would try and never work in an office again, or be sat inside in an office in front of a computer doing something that I didn't value.


- 2011/12 -

Went back to KOREA to TEACH ENGLISH for 6 months this time to students as young as kindergarten age, and in a very small school (40 students?), in the rural mountains.


- 2012 -

Came back to ENGLAND.
WORKED as a BUILDER'S / CARPENTER'S ASSISTANT for a period
Did some WWOOFing on far north western Scottish island. Looked after chickens, geese, ducks, pigs, dogs whilst property owners went away.


- 2012/13 -

Went to GEORGIA to TEACH ENGLISH for what ended up being about 9 months.
Stayed with a Georgian family, who, like most Georgian families, led a VERY AGRARIAN LIFESTYLE.
They kept chickens, turkeys, a cow and grew their own produce.
Got approval for doing an ART LANDSCAPING PROJECT using rocks to construct a land sculpture by the side of a river. This was to draw Georgian villagers' attention to the amount of rubbish they were dumping in the river.


- 2013 -

Came back to ENGLAND.
WORKED as a BUILDER'S / CARPENTER'S ASSISTANT for a period


- 2013/14 -

Through WORKAWAY went to far northern Arctic NORWAY to do a season DOG SLEDDING at a KENNEL: https://www.workaway.info/551484952441-en.html
I actually ended up helping the neighbour Roger Dahl who would come around to eat . . .
https://youtu.be/Cqkd3DN5rcc?si=Sixj0sOxgUfVb8AE&t=361

As part of my duties I . . .
Helped look after around 70 dogs.
Fed at least half of them every morning.
Scooped their poo.
Took a dog team out for a 5 hour dog sledding run most days.
Helped guests (customers) set up their dog teams before going out sledding.


- 2014 -

Went back to the UK, as my grandmother had a bad accident and it seemed she would likely pass away very soon. 'Very soon' turn out to be 2 years, which I stuck around for because she became bed ridden and had to be moved to an old people's nursing home.

Did work on my apartment (MAINTENANCE, REPAIR, admin, DECORATING, improvements)
I had to do some quite major work fixing some water damage to the shower.

WORKED as a BUILDER'S / CARPENTER'S ASSISTANT for periods through to end of 2016


- 2016 -

VOLUNTEERED in Scotland through HelpX HELPING TO BUILD A HOUSE which used traditional methods plus hay bails.
https://helpx.net/host/1059397HA
They also had a Workaway profile (now inactive), which I wrote feedback on, but their feedback for me is on HelpX.


- 2017 -

MOVED TO ROMANIA.

VOLUNTEERED at a tourist centre as a video editor for creating promotional materials. Here's a something I did for them . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxU82qC0cLI

VOLUNTEERED at a family run charity to house vulnerable old people in the countryside. The old people hadn't moved in yet as the house was still being prepared. The volunteering here involved all sorts and a lot of the time I was the sole person there running the project. I managed other volunteers and accommodated paying guests. I've did a lot of landscaping, decorating and general maintenance there.
https://www.workaway.info/en/host/837699821335/feedback


- 2020 -

At the beginning of 2020 I did some VOLUNTEERING with my partner in Romania through HelpX. We volunteered at a settlement in BALSA, Hunedoara County. This was until Covid started to affect everything and we had to leave before we got locked down!
The hosts also have a Workaway host page:
https://www.workaway.info/en/host/446317773746

Me and my partner decided it would be good to have our own house in the countryside because of Covid, so throughout the second half 2020 we LOOKED FOR A HOUSE IN BULGARIA, and eventually found and bought one.


- 2022 -

Me and my partner spent a couple of periods LOOKING FOR A HOUSE TO BUY IN ROMANIA and found a very basic old house in HUNEDOARA County, in the Băița area. It is the last house on a dirt road up a hill, isolated currently with no/distant neighbours, only accessible with an off road car. It has two rooms, no resident water source, no bathroom, but, an amazing view and is surrounded by uninhabited hills, fields and forests!

Within the two periods of our time searching for a house, we spent some time volunteering through WORKAWAY at a DOG KENNEL in Romania. The kennel took in stray dogs and found them homes in Belgium and the UK.
https://www.workaway.info/en/host/589593698345


- 2023 onwards -

In 2023 we started our own Workaway hosting page for our house in Bulgaria:
https://www.workaway.info/en/host/674547787335

Since then I have continued to volunteer here and there as I love it!
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Interests

Culture

Sustainability

Nature

Architecture

Music

DIY & crafts

Carpentry

Languages

Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Romanian: Intermediate

More details about my language interests
I myself would like to learn better Romanian, and I've had experience teaching English. I'm a CELTA certified TESOL teacher and have taught at state schools in South Korea and Georgia to children of all ages for one and a half years in total. I last did that 10 years ago, but I am happy to blow the cobwebs off my teaching brain and see if I can help whoever out with learning some English.

Find a language buddy

Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn

I'm interested in:  

Eco Projects

Animal Care

Charity Work

Art Projects

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Some knowledge of:  

Gardening

DIY and building projects

General Maintenance

Hospitality/Tourism

Languages

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Able to teach about:  

Helping with Computers/ Internet

Teaching

More details about your skills

Painting / decorating / maintenance / small repairs of property
Builder's & carpenter's assistant.
A bit of a HANDY MAN.

PC Computers
I can build a desktop PC.
Very computer literate
Multimedia: Video editing, image processing, graphic design programs + more
Degree in Multimedia computing

CELTA/TEFL qualified (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), 2 years experience abroad

Fit and enduring.
Self sufficient.

Landscaping/gardening - I've done a fair bit of this and like doing it. Sometimes I like to get a bit more creative with it.
In Georgia I started a creative project on my own initiative. For it I used rocks by a near by river, to create a land sculpture / mosaic to draw peoples' attention to the amount of rubbish that was being dumped in the river.

I'm good with DOGS, trained guide dogs + been a dog sledder.
I'm used to being amongst animals

Age

47

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies
  No

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  Special dietary requirements
  No