Family - Tradition - Farmhouse - Gardening in Szeged, HUNGARY

Detalles

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  Descripción

  We are a family of 5 - NIKI, the mother, GYURI, the father, BARNABÁS, the big boy (born in 2014), PANNA, the big girl (born in 2016) and LUCA, the little girl (born in 2019). I guess I can tell that we are a happy family living in SZEGED, the southern part of HUNGARY, very close to the Serbian and Romanian boarder. Our kids are attending Waldorf schools (both preschool and elementary), so we are part of a big Waldorf community that we really love!
  
  Up until last year we were living in a flat in the centre of Szeged, but after a while we have decided that we want to live outside of the city. We were looking for our new home for 2 years but it was worth to wait that long. We have found the most beautiful farm that we could have imagined for ourselves! It is “connected to” Röszke (about 5 minutes from the Serbian boarder and 15 minutes from the centre of Szeged) which means that it is really outside of all the settlements around, but we have some neighbours about 2-3-5 minutes far from our house. These kind of farms are very characteristics especially in this part of Hungary (it is called the Great Plain) and there are more and more young families move outside of the cities and start a new kind of life there.
  
  Our house is an old adobe (mud) house that was built around the beginning/middle of the 20th century. It has been renovated by the previous owners mainly but as we are using it differently than they do (we are 5 and they were 2 adults) we also make some further works on it. That’s one of the reasons we have started to register on WorkAway. 

The other reason is that I (Niki, the mother) am keen on intercultural exchanges. We are part of CouchSurfing and HomeExchange communities that we very much like and have many good experiences by hosting people from all over the world.

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  Tipos de ayuda y oportunidades de aprendizaje

  Práctica de idiomas

  Ayuda en proyectos ecológicos

  Enseñanza

  Jardinería

  Construcción y bricolaje

  Cuidado de animales

  Ayuda en una granja

  Cuidado de niños y juegos creativos

  Cocinar para toda la familia

  Ayuda doméstica

  Mantenimiento general
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  Intercambio cultural y oportunidades de aprendizaje

  As we are living in a traditional Hungarian adobe house our volunteers can participate in both the old real Hungarian traditions (by helping to renovate our old house) and also by living with us - so one can see how a family of 5 live their life in Hungary nowadays. We love sharing about our past experiences with foreigners, but also we are very much interested in anyone (especially) coming from abroad.
  
  We love eating different meals of different countries, but we can also share our of traditional foods. We both speak in English on a higher level and also some German (if needed, but we don’t use it at all for some years now unfortunately).
  
  Our kids are also very open to other traditions as they are got used to foreigners that we meet and invite into our homes even from their very early ages.

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  Proyectos con niños

  En este proyecto podría haber niños. Para obtener más información, consulta nuestras directrices y consejos aquí.

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  Ayuda

  Here are some of the tasks that it in our mind right now. What needs to be done exactly will depend on the time when the volunteer wishes to come:
  
  
 KIDS
  * being with the kids (teaching language while playing with them - Barnabás and Panna learn English and Spanish for a short time)

WORK ON THE HOUSE (all these tasks will be done with the help of Gyuri)
  * renovating the rooms in the traditional way with mud
  * renovating the rooftop of our terrace
  * renovating the girder in our community room
  * laying shipfloor in our future bedroom

  
  GARDEN
  * helping in planting flowers/vegetables
  * watering plants
  * helping in cutting firewood
  * helping in making compost (also worm composting)
  * polishing the rocking bed
  
  INSIDE THE HOUSE
  * cooking jams/pates together
  * cooking lunch/dinner for the whole family
  * helping in cleaning

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas hablados
  Inglés: Fluido
  Hungarian: Fluido
  Alemán: Principiante

  Este anfitrión ofrece intercambio de idiomas
  My English (I am Niki, the mother) is fluent enough, but Gyuri needs some more practice in talking in English. He understands everything, he has a huge vocabulary but has a little difficulty in speaking. Still, he is willing to learn and he dares to talk, but it would be really good for him if he has the chance to practice in English. I have learnt German for years and it was quite good but I haven't practiced it for long. So I am open to try communicating in German too. As I have a very good friend from Turkey I am willing to learn some more Turkish. But for sure we are open to any languages. But as for good communication we can use English and Hungarian.
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  Alojamiento

  As our home is not ready yet we can offer a room for the volunteer only when heating is not needed (between April-September). This room is in the house but kind of separated from the main part. So he/she can have a private life too while we can also be together easily. This is a rooftop room so it can be approached on steps.

We have a normal bathroom (with shower and WC). The kitchen is well-equipped with anything one needs. We use induction cooktop for cooking and we use our own well-water for both drinking, eating and doing the washing (up)/toilet. We have a dishwasher, a washing machine and also a dryer (we only use this one during the winter).
  
  As I have just written we don’t have heating in all the rooms right now. When it needs to be heated we use a fire stove right now. But we plan to have a whole renovation about the heating system this year (2024). If it is needed we can use electronic heating in the bathroom.
  
  During the summer it can be hot but as the house is an old adobe house it keeps the temperature lower. It can happen that it is too warm if the weather is more than 30-35 degree for days. Fortunately the nights are still cool. Last year (our first year at the farm) we didn’t have a problem about the heat during the night. If it is needed we use a fan. We also have mosquito nets on the windows so we open them for a cooler temperature for the nights.
  
  On the other hand we have a “little forest” around our house so the temperature is definitely better than in the city. There is a lot of shadow around and as we can water easily it is also a good and enjoyable program for summer evenings :)
  
  About our garden: we try to live TOGETHER with nature, so our garden is partly “built” but we can also say that it is party “left in peace” which means that we do gardenings (try to know more and more about permaculture) but also there are some parts where we don’t cut the grass at all - especially not with machines.

In front of our home there is a riding territory with many horses and goats (they are our neighbours) so it is really a beautiful view. I guess it cannot be a better one on the Great Plain :) Around our farm there are fields where farmers grow different kinds of grains normally. It looks beautiful during the summer!

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  Algo más...

  As I have written it already our farm is around 15 minutes far from the centre of Szeged. We use our car for reaching the city but there is also a bus connection that connects us with Szeged. For reaching the bus station, we need to walk about 15 minutes and the bus ride is about another 15 minutes. But as we need to move quite often between the farm and the city we would definitely take our volunteers by our car. In case, he/she wants to leave the farm by him/herself it is possible by bus.
  
  Szeged is one of the biggest cities in Hungary. There are about 160.000 people living here but there are many university students (even from abroad) attending their schools in Szeged. Because of the university the city focuses on young people. There are many cultural programmes during school year (concerts, festivals, theaters, exhibitions, Hungarian dance houses…), while there are quite a lot of programmes for the summer too. There is a huge open-air theatre at the square of the cathedral (Dóm tér) and there are different pools and baths for the ones who enjoy water around. Hungary’s second biggest river (Tisza) crosses Szeged, and there are some open parts where people can have a bath in it too.

There are many more information about the city. Maybe the best way is to check some videos about Szeged.
  
  Szeged can be reached from Budapest quite easily. It is about 160 kms far from it and it is connected by highway. But one can use public transportation too, as there are trains moving between the two cities in every hour. It takes about 2 hours by train. But there are also buses if someone prefers that.
  
  As I have mentioned the boarder of Serbia and Romania is very close too. Serbia is around 5 minutes from our farm, while Romania is around 30 minutes.
  
  This is about the sights in nutshell, but I can share many more if needed.
  
  And finally, I guess I need to add that we are very much interested in the system of WorkAway. As I have written it earlier we have many good experiences by the sites of CouchSurfing and HomeExchange, so I am sure that we are ready for being hosts even if WorkAway has another aspect comparing to these sites. We have been thinking about being part of this community for long but till we were living in a flat there was not too much sense to join. I believe that the ones who were interested in trying our new life-style wouldn’t be disappointed. We are very social and family-centred people who like being together with others. We spend most of our breakfasts/lunches/dinners together. Of course, we can understand if it is too much for someone so we can also accept other way of lifestyles. We are friendly, good-hearted people who finds joy in helping others and by this building a better world.

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  Un poco más de información

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    Acceso a Internet

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    Acceso a Internet limitado

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    Tenemos animales

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    Somos fumadores

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    Puede alojar familias

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  Puede acoger a nómadas digitales

  As far as I understand the question well, our workawayer (the volunteer) would work on his/her own project after/beyond helping us. If it is so he/she is very welcome for sure!

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  Espacio para aparcar autocaravanas

  As we are living in a farm and the garden is quite big (around 3000 m2) there wouldn't be a problem to find a place for even a bigger campervan/motorhome.

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  ¿Cuántos voluntarios puedes hospedar?

  Más de dos

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  Horas esperadas

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week