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Help our circus school recover from storm Kristin

5.0
(9 reviews)9

The experience

We are a small community circus/performing arts centre and are creating a botanical garden. Central Portugal has experienced violent storms of hurricane ferostity this winter. So far some of our roof has ripped off, four massive trees have fallen and the grounds are flooded.

We need help to recoverand set up for 2026.

Tasks incude:
Land clearing/ garden planting
Finishing our garden drainage
Cleaning a new caravan and building a kitchen

What you offer

25 hours of help per week

Painting & Decorating: Help with painting or decorating the property facilities.

Building & Repairing: Help with a wide range of repairs or building.

Gardening: Help grow plants and cultivate gardens

What you get

2 days off per week

Shared Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other travelers.

Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.

Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.

Dinner: You are entitled to a free dinner, every day of your stay.

Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.

Bikes at your disposal: You can use our bikes any time you want.

Pick Up: We will pick you up when you arrive, and take you to our property.

Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.

Basic Internet Access: Basic speed internet for you to work remotely

Requirements

Intermediate English

Over 20 years old

Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

We work from 9am to 2pm five days a week and then have lunch. After that time you are free to explore the village, take the bicycles out to explore and occasionally we will go on a trip after work.

On Saturdays I'm happy to drop everyone off in Nazaré or Leiria for the day and pick up everyone in the evening.

On Sundays I teach. Volunteers are welcome to join in the beginners aerial class. Sometimes we also have a flow session on Wednesday evenings, but both of these are weather dependant.

Activities & Shift

This year we need help with:

Chopping up fallen trees and stacking firewood
Strimming, land clearing and garden planting
Finishing our Star Garden drainage system
and digging a new one under our 7 meter aerial rig
Rennovating an old caravan
Cleaning and house maintenance
Outdoor painting

When it rains we have some indoor sanding to do.

Please let me know also if you specialise in flyer design, mural painting, video capture, comedy for social media,..I'm also interested in anyone with experience teaching a circus or movement/arts based workshop to adults or children.

Please bring study shoes and warm/waterproof clothing as it's cold in the mornings and in sections very muddy!

Rules

✨🔥🎪HOUSE RULES PLEASE READ🎪🔥✨

I suffer from insomnia and often start working online from 4am in the morning so I need a bit of quiet in the early hours. No alarms, walking around the house, cleaning or banging things before 8AM please 😊

We are professionals dedicated to training and working especially when in show production, so quiet in the house after 11pm (unless we are having a party or group drinks). You are welcome to stay out late for the weekends.

We are all adults living in one house and working together so we need to be kind to each other. Please share the cooking duties (we may have a roster if there are several volunteers) and if the kitchen, bathroom or living room seems to be messy please clean it up!! Everyone shares equal responsibility for cleaning, this is not part of your workaway hours.

No smoking inside the house. You can smoke outside the back door in the rear courtyard. Please don't leave cigarette butts in the garden, put them in the bin.

Please be kind to the furniture. It's old but it's special.

This is a work site, so don't invite visitors without prior arrangement with Flame ( the director).

The grounds used to be part of a nature reserve and for that reason we have no pets, so I'm very sorry you can't bring your dog to stay.

There are three cafe/bars, some pool tables etc in the village and you are of course welcome to have a few drinks with the locals... but if you can not be up and dresses to work at 9am you will be asked to leave.

😊