Volunteers

 

Yes, eating and drinking together is one of the most important Portuguese ways to receive friends. Here we encourage our volunteers to became “chefs” to share their culinary heritage from their countries.

Our minimum stay is 2 weeks and the maximum stay is 2 months. However you can stay longer if you want to be part of a special group of long term volunteers that form the kernel of this small community.

We expect that they work 25 hours per week in the farm projects in a flexible way – normally there are 2 days off per week but are not necessarily saturdays or sundays. Normally we concentrate the work in the mornings, specially in Summer, and the afternoons are free  or for small tasks. The starting hour is also flexible – usually we start to work earlier in Summer due to the heat.

However activities such as cleaning the toilettes you use, the space you use either for sleep or to eat, preparing communitarian food or meals or getting wood for fire places you use, ARE NOT PART of this time. When they leave they should clean the room used and clothes they borrow.

We started to receive volunteers since October 2014 and they are now a very important component of this project.  We have 6 rooms (max 2 persons per room), 2 toilettes, a living room with wifi, a dinning room with a nice fire place and a kitchen for their use. The other spaces of the house are for paying guests, but exceptionally can also be used by volunteers.

They come from all regions of the World bringing ideas, traditions and stories from their countries. They are gentle souls who seek their inner self and try to gain insights about themselves. Many reported that they started to have more dreams after staying here a week or more.

Some tried to run away from the outside world. I used tell them that running away is not enough, you must seek something – “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, is about learning to dance in the rain” – anonimous. So, we accept anybody independently of their past history, but when you come here you should leave your past behind and start a new page of your life.

And, give whatever you have for the community: your skills, your smile, your energy – “For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life” – St. Francis . We don´t expect that you are a specialist in anything but we hope that you are a genuine person with a genuine good will during the time you stay with us.

If you want to have a look at our previous volunteers, you will find links connecting their names to their facebook pages in many pages of this site.

To come here and/or get Feedback & Reviews check the below three platform

• WOOF
• Workaway
• HelpX

Please don´t call unless you are in the final stage of the process of getting here. I prefer to exchange written messages and I would like to see your profile in one of those platforms or Facebook.

• and go to our Contact page for more information how to get here.

 When you come don’t forget to bring:

• a good sleeping bag according to the season (in Winter don´t bring a light sleeping bag suited for Summer … ).
• good working boots
• good working gloves
• and a health insurance covering health expenses in Portugal; in many cases the National Health Coverage of the home country is extendable to Portugal, but you have to make sure that is the case and take care of the bureaucratic aspects of that extension.

And above all a great smile and good humor.

Thank you!

Audio review by Robert, one of our volunteers

A personal view of Ingun (Korea / Brasil / USA), one of our volunteers  with (from order of appearence)    Esther   (Korea / Brasil / USA),  Ingun (Korea / Brasil / USA),   Kirstine (Denmark),  Nuno (Portugal),  Lina (Denmark),  Sayu Rin (Japan / Belgium),  Lidiane (Brasil)     

 

Lidiane (Brasil), Yuzuki (Japan) and Andrea (Spain)

Gábor birthday (Hungary), Jan (Germany/Norway), Julia (South Africa/Sweden), Guillaume (France) and Robert (Germany/Poland)

Nuno (Portugal), ??? (Germany), Aline (Portugal), Duarte (Portugal),  Judith (Germany), Linda (Sweden) and Sarah (Austria)

Raissa (Brasil), Mariusz (Poland), Denis (Brasil), Steffi (Austria), Jemand (Austria), Me, Balu (Belgium), Megy (Poland) and Dani (Portugal)

Balu (Belgium), Vincent (Netherlands) and Mariusz (Poland)

Gábor birthday (Hungary), Mariusz (Poland), Balu (Belgium), Jan (Germany) and Matyia (USA)

Vincent (Netherlands),  Julia (South Africa/Sweden) and Mariusz (Poland)

Sookkyung and Yon (Korea) and Abel (Portugal)

 

Larraitz (Spain), Abdul (Afganistan / England), Z-ank (Nepal), Aina (Spain), Anne-Marie (Denmark) and Ester (Denmark) and Matt (USA)