St. James’ Park » Volunteering

An Alternative Campsite and Hostel in Bulgaria

Volunteering

This will be my third summer working with volunteers in Voditsa and I thought that i had enough volunteers untill mid August. However, my present volunteers like this place so much, they have bought ahouse and are now living here! Be warned if you do want to come to Vodita - thats 5 people this year already!
So call me if you want to volunteer here in July and August.

I am also involved in the ongoing development of Voditsa and i am hoping this summer to set up short term volunteering with local Bulgarians in the village - this promises to be great fun and a wonderful experience. Watch this space for more details or contact me.

I mostly get my volunteers from Helpx.net or from this site. The deal is that you work 35 hours a week and I provide accommodation and food. There is one bedroom in the house with 2 single beds (any more than two volunteers and they’d have to share the hostel space) and we share the cooking and domestic chores. The food is usually great, even if I do say so myself! There is no shortage of it and cooking involves seeing what is available in the house or garden and thinking of a great way to use it – different to the idea of thinking-up a dish and then going to buy the ingredients from Tesco…. Eating and cooking is about celebrating all aspects of food and I must be honest and say that I have little time right now for people with food hang-ups or food disabilities. So if there is a list of things that you “can’t” eat or there are loads of things that you think you “shouldn’t” eat, or if you dont believe in seasoning food, then you are not really going to enjoy being here. Enjoyment and appreciation of good tasty food that is cooked with love, is essential if you want to spend time living here.

Please don’t book a volunteering spot unless you’re definitely coming – or if your plans change, which they may do, please let me know. A couple of people this summer just didn’t turn up – those places could have been taken by someone else and I was concerned for their safety to begin with.

Other Volunteering

If you don’t want to do something as structured as WWOOFing, there may be other opportunities to do something around the place. A bit of digging or weeding, or collecting fruit or painting a door – whatever – if you would like to lend a hand once you get here, let me know. We can negotiate on the exchange – a reduction in camping fees or a meal.

Some of the things that volunteers are doing this year:building fences around the perimetre using old wood and willow;designing a system for pumping water up from the well; clearing, sorting and sawing all the wood; making the barn Tino-proof; making a floor for the Tool Room using cob; desiging and building doors for the compost toilets; plastering walls using clay from the river; killing Colorado Beetles; picking plums; making jam….and loads more.

The neighbours are increasingly interested in volunteering and there will be many opportunities to help them – I’m working on this – let me know if you’re interested.

THOUGHTS AND GUIDELINES ON BEING A VOLUNTEER AND A HOST.

Volunteering.

This basically means working in exchange for food and accommodation but it is so much more than that. It’s a way to:

see a part of the world that you might not normally see on a regular trip – it’s the chance to see what goes on in the little villages that you pass on the bus or train
meet interesting people that you might not normally meet –eg. local people farming in traditional ways and ex-pats who have chosen to live a different life and other volunteers
learn new skills – for instance experiencing biodynamic farming or learning traditional methods of house building and how animals are cared for
share skills and experience that you have
surprise yourself with what you can do!

So how does it work?

There are a few organisations around the world whose job is to facilitate the matching up of people who want to volunteer with people who need help. The 2 main ones are Willing Workers on Organic Farm and HelpX.

WWOOFing is about recogniting that organic farming is very labour intensive but many people share the ideology that growing food should be as natural as possible. Some countries have their own WWOOF organizations but many come under the umbrella of WWOOF International. It’s a great idea but sadly there are some difficulties in practical administration from a volunteers point of view for example:

WWOOF International will only accept membership by post. The practicalities of this and the time delay is often a big obstacle for travelers. Not everyone knows that they will be a volunteer when they set off! Its difficult to see what benefit, if any there is in not having an instant Internet based joining scheme but in reality it means that a great many people who would be volunteers use other means a when the time delay is impractical. Hopefully this is about to change.
There is a fee for WWOOF International but there is also a fee for the counties which have an independent organisation (most of which you can join online). Travelers on a very tight budget often have difficulty with this.
What constitutes an “organic farm”. The use of the word ‘farm’ is more about land management. There are many people who manage their land organically and ethically but who are not farmers in the sense of growing produce to sell. Much more difficult is the term ‘organic’. Many people take this to mean simply not using chemicals but in fact it is more of an overall philosophy – for example it may seem contradictory to work the land organically yet pay no attention to recycling or the generation of waste.

There is no regulatory system in WWOOF – it works on trust and it works for the most part but you will always meet wwoofers with interesting stories to tell about hosts – but essentially, it does work, because people want it to.

HelpX is a similar idea but does not restrict itself to organic farms. The website also allows prospective volunteers to advertise themselves and the hosts can then take a more active role in the process. The site also allows feedback and references. You can join on 2 levels and membership is fairly immediate.

Guidelines for Hosts and Volunteers.

Hosts

Be a host! Its great fun, you meet interesting people and you get lots of work done and you get to share experiences with a load of new people. You don’t have to be a farmer to take volunteers. If you are managing your land ethically and organically, volunteers will want come to you. Some things to think about to make the experience a good one:

Be clear how it works in terms of time – for example: volunteers work 35 hours a week and there is flexibility about how it works out – 5 or 6 hours a day for 5 or 6 days a week or its 9-4 Monday to Friday
How long do you expect people to stay – it can be a hassle having someone for only 2 or 3 days – do you prefer people to stay at least 2 weeks for instance so they get an understanding of how you work?
How many volunteers will you take at any one time? Is this flexible?
Be prepared to be frustrated by the unreliability of volunteers’ plans! Maybe the first line in an email response could be “are you reliable?” Although people do not usually intend to be unreliable, volunteers tend to be young people traveling and having some kind of adventure. Flexibility and the opportunity to change your mind is part of that adventure but sadly they often forget that people who need volunteers actually really do need them!
Be clear about what you want the volunteers to do and how you want it done –is it a task oriented approach eg picking fruit or weeding or is it an occasion to use some initiative; try to find out if the volunteer has any particular skills you can use. People get more of a sense of satisfaction from their work if they can see what they have accomplished. In my experience, I usually give volunteers at least one ongoing task, like weeding, but also involve them in some other project that they can see an end to.
Make sure they put the tools back at the end of the day and tidy up around the job.
How does the food work – can they help themselves; is cooking communal; do the volunteers live separately from you; do you all eat together; who clears up etc. Can you handle specific dietary needs eg vegan.
Make sure the volunteers have a comfortable space to sleep; is there a communal living area; is there a TV, games, Internet access? None of these are necessary – I have none of these and in fact for the past two years, I haven’t had a bathroom –nobody has been bothered about that. Just be clear about what is available.
Say thank you! These people are giving you their time for free and often they are doing a task for the first time. They will be trying their hardest to do a good job so praise and encouragement go a long way.
If the volunteers have come through HelpX then make sure you give them a recommendation or more pertinent comment if they didn’t turn up!
Get involved with WWOOF Bulgaria and encourage your friends to be hosts although as you will read elsewhere in this website, my own experience has not been wonderful. But that was purely about the administration and nothing to do with volunteering generally.
Make sure you have public liability insurance cover.
Neither WWOOF or HelpX are responsible for the volunteer when they are with you – they just facilitate the meeting so if there is a problem, its pretty much up to you to deal with it. Of course you can comment via HelpX and contact your WWOOF representative to inform them (WWOOF BG may not be interested!) but for anything serious, contact the police.
Always take the name, home address and passport number of every volunteer. Do this as soon as they arrive.
Contact me if you want some more encouragement.

Volunteers

Be a volunteer! It’s a great way to see the world, meet interesting people, learn new skills and be of use to someone. Some things to think about:

Be reliable! The worst thing you can do is make arrangement to do some volunteering and then not turn up! It happens often and usually means that the Host is left with no help perhaps when they seriously need it. Hosts take volunteers because they need the extra help- its not a game – they will be relying on you and will probably say ‘no’ to other volunteers after agreeing to you coming – so if you don’t turn up, everyone has lost out. Organisations like HelpX have a reference section and Hosts will comment. And its nice to know that you are needed!
Be clear about your role, the work you have to do and how the food works – are you expected to cook? Do you want to cook?
Try to be flexible if you have some specific dietary requirements. It’s possible that your Host has never heard of a vegan!
If the Host has a website, make time to check it out – is this really where you want to be?
Some places are very isolated – are you OK with this? How does transport work, how easy is it to get to the Internet?
Do it! You’ll enjoy it and you’ll see a side of the country that will stay with you after you’ve forgotten about the tourist sights.

Main links:

Respecting the Peace and Quiet

There has never been a campsite here before and Voditsa is lowly getting used to having foreign visitors around. Up to now they like us and we want you to help keep it that way. This is a quiet and peaceful village where most people go to bed early and get up early. You can help us by respecting that – its not appropriate to walk along the street in a noisy group coming out of the bar at 11 o’clock after a good session – actually the only bit that’s not appropriate is the noise – just talk quietly!

There’s a shared outside living area with a BBQ and a fire circle where you can sit up all night if you want but we ask you at all times to respect other people’s space and sleep.

Sharing Your Experience

If you like the idea of what we’re doing at St. James’ Park, please tell your friends and if you have any knowledge or experience that may be useful to us, please talk to me. I am useless with technology and things like plumbing and if anyone can think of better ways to do anything, just let me know. We want your ideas too – before I came to Bulgaria, I had a little book that sat in the middle of my living room so that people could write down their great ideas for the campsite. This will soon be an addition to the site and you can e-mail me with suggestions.

In the mean-time, why not leave a message on our Guestbook? If you’ve been here and want to share your experience, it’s the perfect place. Likewise, if you have some suggestions about what we could be doing, we’re all ears!

Thank you.