Many of you have been asking about my time spent as a volunteer at the farm in Denmark, so I thought I'd do a little guide!
There are a few things that you need to think about when you go volunteering.
Firstly, it's important to:
- Figure out where in the world you would like to go to.
- Think about where what kind of place you want to volunteer at. Do you just want to work with farming and permaculture, or do you want to do meditation and yoga? Do you want to work with families and children or or maybe animals? When you're done figuring this out, you can use either workaway.org or wwoof.net, depending on what you are looking for. WWoof is only focused on organic farms, whilst on Workaway you can voluteer at both farms, hostels, family houses, retreats and all kinds of communities.
If you choose to use Workaway which I've done previously you need to go through a few steps:
- Go to the search engine where you search for different hosts.
- Choose which country and area you would like to visit.
- If you like, you can put in a keyword that helps you narrow it down to the type of place you want to find.
- Start your browsing and look through the different hosts available in that area.
- If you find a place where you would like to volunteer, you'll have to become a member to be able to write to the host.
- Check out the profile of of the host that you've chosen and make sure that everything in their description works what you want to have.
- Check that they're able to receive volunteers during the time that you want to come and make sure to really read through what the host expect from you during your stay you don't want any uncomfortable confrontations once you've arrived
When I first worked as a volunteer, I wanted to choose a place where I would be in the countryside, surrounded by nature. Where I would both be able to learn about farming, live in a community with other people and practice yoga. Since I was in Sweden and didn't want to travel very far, I chose to search in Denmark. This way I found Ananda Gaorii, a farm where I've now spent my last two summers. It was exactly what I wanted and needed, and so I will be forever grateful for the opportunities that are created through these sites.
One of my favourite things about this way of life, is that it completely removes all stress related to money. You don't earn anything, you don't spend anything. You're able to take a break from our capitalist society and instead of waiting for a pay check, you work every day for a roof over your head and food in your belly.
Other things to think about when you work as a volunteer:
- Be prepared and willing to work the hours that are mentioned in the profile. Usually this is between 3 to 5 hours per day, five days a week.
- Remember that if you're in a place with many people it's good to balance the time that you spend with other and the time that you spend for yourself. It can be easy to get dragged into too much social time but after a while it can get tiring, so make sure that you get your alone time as well. It's also worth mentioning that conflict easily can occur when you're many people living together, so be mindful of this and remember to communicate well if there are things you are not happy about.
- Make sure that you don't work too much a lot of host can easily take advantage of the fact that you are working for free. Some people might try to make you work more hours then you signed up for, so stand up for yourself and only work as much you can take take.
- Keep an open mind! Volunteering is an incredible opportunity to learn new things, get new experiences, learn from other people, share your own experiences with others, have fun and enjoy working together with others as a team for a good cause.
Let me know if you have any further questions! I will continue to encourage people to try volunteering, communal living and a more slow, natural, organic (and cheap!) way of life.
LOU