Accommodation
Some of the volunteers will stay in a shared room at the farmhouse which is ready to host volunteers all year round. They can also stay in a teepee or a tent during the warm months (between April and October). In colder months the volunteers can also stay in yurts with heating. We are considering buying a caravan for the volunteers.
The plot of our eco village is quite large, and we have three areas here. Each of these areas has a well-equipped kitchen, laundry room, bathroom with showers, a bathtub, and standard toilets. We also have a number of more sustainable dry toilets in all three areas. Wifi is available in two of them. The volunteers will have access to all areas but will mostly stay around the farmhouse, which is the main public area of the community.
We have a large common room with sofas and a dining area at the farmhouse which will be free to use by the volunteers. There is also a large porch with a seating area attached to the farmhouse’s entrance.
The volunteers will live on the lands of the eco village, and will be part of the local community. They will interact with most of the members on a daily basis. They will share the areas (kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room, common spaces) with other members of the community. They will be invited to common meals. In the evenings they will be welcomed to take part in the free time activities or organize their own.
Food
We operate a zero waste shop with basic groceries for the community. Volunteers will be able to use this shop as well. We have a large organic garden where we grow many kinds of vegetables that will be available for the volunteers to eat. Some members of our community practice intermittent fasting, and so the volunteers will take care of their own breakfast, prepare it together from groceries we provide or join the fasting, and enjoy an abundant lunch with us.
The volunteers might be asked to prepare common meals together with some members of the community or alone if they are comfortable with it. The volunteers might also cook just for themselves. The kitchen will be available to them all the time.
Transportation
There is no public transport directly to the village, nor a restaurant, pub, or a shop (apart from our own zero waste one). Nearest town – Čimelice is 3 kilometres away from the village. There are numerous shops, food shops, coffee places, and a restaurant in this town. There is a direct bus and train from Čimelice to Prague (it takes 1 hour). We have five cars in the community and we share them. We can drive volunteers to Čimelice. Also, we have numerous bicycles that are available for the volunteers to ride. The road to town is beautiful just like all nature around the village.
Activities Overview
The volunteers might take part in the production of raw vegan desserts, fermented food, vegan cooking and making kombucha drinks and medicines, as part of their informal education. These products are mostly consumed by our community. The volunteers will learn a great deal about all of these activities while doing them. They will have the opportunity to perform each production and apart from that they will do many other interesting activities like gardening, building from natural materials, making willow structures, cooking vegan meals, weaving carpets, etc.
Apart from the activities that the volunteers will be carrying out and through which they will be learning, we plan to hold special educational presentations and workshops on various topics. These topics include nontoxic, minimalist and zero waste household, soap making, weaving, fasting, raw vegan and vegan diet, mushroom picking, yoga classes, etc.. We also plan to hold evenings focused on various techniques of self-development, nonviolent communication and other communication skills.
We plan to prepare feedback sessions to see how much the volunteers have learned during their stay and to gradually improve their conditions, education and employment. We will encourage the participants to write down a summary and synthesis of what they have learned. They could also do a painting or express their experience in other artistic forms. They will be asked to present their experience to other participants and to some members of the community. They could also shoot a little video about their experience which we can later share on social media and our webpage.