Volunteering Abroad
When we started this project we didn’t know about Workaway and volunteering abroad. We didn’t know how important it would be to the growth and running of this place. If it wasn’t for the 100+ volunteers, we would still be building the first building and caring for only a handful of horses and animals.
However, things evolved for the best, and we grew enormously — very quickly. We started with only one volunteer, then three at a time (all of whom have since returned for multiple visits). As we grew, the number of volunteers grew too. Two years ago, we were all working together on everything. The girls were feeding and cleaning the animals, which didn’t take much time back then, and the rest of us were building — learning more about cementing than we ever imagined we would!
We were like a small family — sitting around a candle, eating from a camping gas hob cross-legged in the dark, carrying the “poo chair” to find a secret bathroom spot. This was all before we had running water, electricity, or a toilet. But we survived — and we had fun.
Over time, things changed. We got a little more sophisticated when we installed our first “poo bubbler” — a natural waste-cleaning system — and had our first bathroom. Then came the solar panels. Then came more animals and, subsequently, more volunteers. People lived in tents, caves, vans — anywhere they could find space. (That part hasn’t changed much!)
