Hello and Ola
We are Phil and Jurema; we are serial volunteers who have been around the world helping others in exchange including house and pet sitting and our own flexible terms for accommodation whilst working in Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Ireland, the UK and Holland for the last 8 years and developed a love for natural building and permaculture.
This is an appeal of sorts for likeminded peeps, the wanderers the vagabonds, the new age hippies and the free.
Our situation is a bit different from others volunteers at the moment we are looking for a place to call home wherever home may be and have settled on exploring the region.
We are looking for a place that will allow us to expand our skills and knowledge of natural building and to get more hands on experience in the garden of a different climate, whilst being able to integrate ourselves within the communities, and hopefully be able to find our haven.
We have previously Wwoofed up and down Portugal a few years ago and fell in love with permaculture and natural building we have since volunteered in countries abroad, unfortunately its always been conventional building/animal care related and this time around we are looking to get our hands and feet dirty with natural building materials.
We have researched and found paid internships aplenty but that is not what we are about, we are looking for people starting out or in the midst of a natural build for themselves, family or community we would love to offer our assistance and skills and whatever conventional knowledge that can be adapted and moulded into suiting natural building, learning this way via one another and overcoming obstacles, the exchange of knowledge is wealth that cannot be withdrawn from a bank machine for a certificate.
We have found via experience that making our own rules with the host or family, adapting and deviating from the norm of volunteering becomes more about what works well for everybody equates to a fantastic experience for everyone.
We understand the need for space and time, independent thinking and initiative, self-manageable and reliability. This is not a holiday or a break, for us, this is a way of life constantly beckoning.
Self built homes, food security, healthy eating, and living seasonally, a strong community of friends along with some hard work.
A little about us,
Phil from Belfast Northern Ireland is profoundly deaf, but even if you could see his hearing aids under the mop of hair he currently sports, you would have never have guessed. Fluent in sign language and as verbal as a sailor, communication shouldn’t be a problem.
A dab hand with a hammer with over a decade of site and general household building and renovation experience, no job is too big.
He is a hard worker, with a keen eye for detail and a flair for the artistic.
A dog lover and somewhat a dog whisper an animal lover all round, pig’s, goats and horses all get the phil treatment of a good scratch behind the ears.
Jurema is Mozambique Portuguese, with a flair for languages fluent in English Portuguese, Spanish, understanding Catalan, French and some Dutch.
A computer extraordinaire with a talent for organising data and a special needs swimming instructor, out of the water a companion and helper. Really enjoys the garden type of work, seeding, weeding, transplanting, mulching and so on.
Cat lover with a soft spot for dogs, snake and lizard admirer along with the spiders too.
Together we work unusually well, in groups or alone we are not shy to earn our two cents and hard works loves us.
If this sounds like something you could work with please don’t hesitate to get in touch! Work trading ,land “share” exchange is an option, we are flexible and open to any offers or ideas you may have.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Jurema and Phil
