Help with creative projects on a permaculture farm near Sethumadai, South India

Infos

• 

  Description

  The farm is a 9 acre permaculture farm located in Tamil Nadu, India.
  
  I (Sanjey) live here on the farm usually seasonally, but it depends on what's going on. I grew up in Mississauga, Ontario (Canada) and after university did some travelling before life led me back to my family's farm in South India. My mom (Devi), my brother (Rahul) and his girlfriend (Lina) live here on the farm. My mom is here permanently, Lina and Rahul travel and come back here from time to time. We also have three dogs on the farm currently (Max, Tommy and Karupa).
  
  I have used workaway for the past nine years as a volunteer and owe a lot of my growth and understanding of this world to the experiences I had as a traveler. Now, I am hoping to use the platform once again but this time as a host. Partly as a way to pay forward the debt of gratitude one gathers on the road, but also to seek help to build and maintain a permaculture farm in South India. This farm is owned by my family and we have slowly been working to make it into a self sufficient permaculture farm. At present, we have coconut, cocoa, pepper and arecanut as our major crops, but alongside the major crop we have close to a hundred different kinds of fruit trees and other timber trees. It sometimes feels like a lot crammed into a small space of 9 acres, but inevitably we seem to find ways to introduce more plants each year, but that's just how building a forest goes. Our hope is to build a food forest, that can sustain itself with a healthy soil and ecology and in turn to coexist with nature in a peaceful manner.
  
  We have local staff that maintain the farm, while my family manages it. Our staff consist of 5 people from the village nearby. We have Chinnathai, who helps out in our home and makes us our lunch every day. Her daughter Kamala, and her husband Senthil work in the farm. Nagu and Sonayan also work on the farm. It's a tightknit community in the village, and everyone knows everyone else. Our staff have been involved in the farm for the past 20+ years, so we have a good relationship with them.
  
  When I am here I work on the farm on several different projects and am learning as I go along. I grew up in a big city in Canada and the farm is a recent reconnection in life, I am working on building the skills to be a good steward. So that also means I am very open to learning from people on how to better my knowledge and understanding of how to use tools.
  
  In terms of house rules: I'm still figuring things out to be honest as this will be my first time hosting workawayers but I've been a workawayer and a guest many many times, so I know how it goes with showing up someplace new. Communication is key, so I'll be sure to communicate my expectations and I hope at the same time you'll take the time to communicate any thing I should consider as well. The simplest of these rules is to just treat the place you've been invited to with respect. Keep things in order, clean up your mess and take care of what you've been trusted with.
  
  In terms of food, we will most likely set people up with groceries to make your own breakfast. Lunch and dinner will likely be shared together most days. Most diets can be accommodated, if you let us know in advance. You'll mostly eat vegetarian food here but we sometimes eat meat on the weekends. There's a diverse selection of vegetables, lentils, leafy greens and fruits here in South India, it's rare for you to eat the same thing every day. Depending on the season, you might get lots of fresh fruit from the farm like mangos, passion fruit, guava, pomegranate etc. There's always coconut to be had, and cocoa. We are hoping to come up with a good recipe for chocolate and make lots of it for our use.
  
  In terms of work: generally the work day here starts at 7:30AM for the staff, and they leave at 2PM. So there's something or the other going on during those hours. But that's not a strict schedule for workawayers. Depending on the type of person you are, you could set up your own schedule. As long as you manage to do the 5 hour a day, 5 days a week minimum, you're free to organize your schedule and time as you like. I typically keep to the 7:30AM - 2PM, as I may have to direct staff to do specific tasks, but somedays I work longer depending on the project. So you could work with me some days if it's a task that requires two people, or I need an extra hand for something. Otherwise I can come up with a task list, and you can pick what you feel comfortable doing and schedule it into your work week as you like.
  
  There's a lot of flexibility here, I also want people to have a meaningful experience, learn new things and enjoy the work they do. So I only ask for your help to find a way for us to make that happen.
  
  In your free time, there's lots of space in the farm to hang out. I could set up hammocks, or swings. We have a tower of sorts on top of our house where you get an excellent view of the surroundings which makes it a good place for sunset or sunrise but also if you have binoculars you can try and spot something out on the mountain slopes. We have a surface well thats 40 feet deep, not super big but a decent size for people to go swimming in if they want to cool off. We have lots of books in our small but growing library, and a communal TV that you can use if you want to. I've got a few basic weights and a punching bag and a bench if you like working out, and a yoga mat if you want to do yoga. The terrace on the house is a great place for yoga, with a view of the mountains. We have a few card games and jenga, and I'll try and get some more board games to play if that's something you enjoy.
  
  Feel free to ask me any questions you may have regarding a stay with us!

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Bénévolat

  Projets artistiques

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Aide à la maison

  Entretien général

  Aide informatique/internet
• 

  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Ferme

  

  Écriture

  

  Animaux

  

  Menuiserie

  

  Cuisine et alimentation

  

  Jardinage

  

  Livres

  

  Soin des plantes

  

  Camping

  

  Montagne

  

  Nature

  

  Randonnée
• 

  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

  ...

  ...

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  The local culture and language here is Tamil, and you will get a taste of South Indian culture at our place. There is a village nearby, where our staff live and they would be happy to show you around. We primarily cook South Indian food, but not strictly so and love to try new things. It's mostly vegetarian food, but we do eat meat sometimes on the weekends. We can cater to any diet though.
  
  We also live at the edge of a tiger preserve, although we don't get many wild animals in our farm, other than monkeys and peacocks, there are elephants in the area further up toward the mountains.
  
  Mostly life moves at a different pace here, with the work done at the farm typically shaping the flow of the week. You will have a lot of time to yourself, to read and meditate if that's your thing or to go on a hike or work on a hobby or skill. You can also just relax, and snooze on a hammock with a coconut :)
  
  It's not a very social scene here, so that's something for you to consider if you're looking for a lot of socializing this is probably not the place. There may be multiple workawayers here at the same time, but that's not a guarantee. Other than me and my family, no one else speaks English fluently (or even at a basic level) which can make communication with the locals a challenge. But in these days of google translate, it's not impossible, people are generally quite friendly here. We are a bit remote, the nearest big city is about 2 hours away, though there are small towns about half hour to 45 minutes away. There's a bus that comes to the village nearby twice a day, which you could use to go further on the weekends if you plan it out.
  
  You will have the opportunity to take it slow and work on yourself while you are here.

• 

  Aide

  There's all sorts of ways you can help out over here. From gardening or landscaping, to general farm maintenance like pruning or digging, to more creative projects like painting, or cooking. One thing I've learned through my experiences as a workawayer is that everyone brings something of value to the table, as long as you've got a good attitude and a willingness to work, then each person finds their own way to help out. Each year will be a little different in terms of projects. There's also lots of garden space and timber that could be harvested and used to build something, be it a trellis, or bridge or a tree house even. We'd also love to have someone who appreciates food, and cooking and would like to share that passion with us. We are open to having artists interested in painting murals or something cool on a wall. Even if you know nothing about farming, or working on the land but have a strong interest in learning something new, then we have a place here for you.

• 

  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant
  Tamil: Courant
  Hindi: Intermédiaire

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  I'd love to learn more French
• 

  Hébergement

  Private room with attached washroom. You'll get a queen sized bed, with a ceiling fan for sure and probably an AC.

• 

  Autres infos...

  There are a few things to do in the area nearby, like a drive up to the tea estates up in the mountains. You can go on walks and explore the farms nearby or use our bicycle to go a bit further. There are temples and other places I could show you as well. Mostly though, our farm is the place for you if you want some time to get away from the busyness of cities and to enjoy nature. You'll learn a thing or two about farming as well, and gardening and property management.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  We have good internet access here, and the speed is generally good enough for work online.

• 

  Espace pour garer des vans

  Cet hôte a de la place pour les vans.

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

• 

  Mes animaux

  

  Tommy

  Brawn over brain, Karupa's brother

  

  Karupa (6 ans)

  Smallest of the pack, but thinks he's the biggest

  

  Max (2 ans)

  Our somewhat confused all the time golden retriever who doesn't really like to retrieve anything

Sécurité du site