Hello beautiful people! Ready to hear our news? The past weeks we have been on vacation. Chiara has been in Evia, a small island at the south of Athens, and Cassandra has joined the group of Modern Odyssey in their journey for a week. We had so much fun and we had time to recharge and come back to Hopeland ready for the next Volunteering Team. This week we put our hands back to work, by finishing the new Hopeland signs and putting them on the road. We also harvested a lot of

Heyoooo people! We are back! We are full of news, in the past weeks two different groups came to Hopeland, very different from each other and we had very different experiences with them. One of the group worked with us during the whole stay. Together, we built a drystack wall, which is a technique to build walls without using cement. In our case, it will also prevent the erosion of the land. The other one was a project based on LARP (Live-Action Role Play) where we witnessed

Here are some updates from Ελπιδοχωρι: We started the week by welcoming the project Modern Odyssey, in which we saw again an old friend from the Gaia 2.0 project! With them we upgraded the grey water system that had a leak. Then we focused more on maintenance jobs: we renewed signs of Hopeland and we finally finished the roof of the pergola! In the weekend Chiara spent her time in Athens with some other volunteers from the project and Cassandra went camping near the beach. Ca

In the last couple of weeks, we have been experiencing how important it is to create balance in big volunteering groups. In the last project, some challenges helped us understand a different perspective of community life. Besides, we finally erected the structure of the pergola, in the Hood of Hopeland! A lot of work still needs to be done, but it is a big step! We also continued working in the garden and created some bamboo structures for climbing plants that will make shade

Over the past weeks, we experimented a really funny and organic way of ecobuilding: cobbing. We went to a local farm, where a friend of Hopeland lives, and he taught us how to build by mixing clay, sand, hay and water. With this mix we managed to build part of a wall that soon will become a bathroom! This workshop was really useful and was also a way to connect with other volunteers from another nearby community. At the moment, we are more focused on building the pergola in t

These last weeks have been different: the first volunteering group left and we had a beautiful last day dinner and a party. We spent most of the night dancing around the bonfire! Then as our rhythm slowed down a bit, we were able to spend more time with the crew and enjoy Hopeland in a quieter way. It was also Easter, which is a very important holiday in Greece. We had a long weekend and a small trip to Athens. Now we are focusing more on the maintenance of the place and do

In the past two weeks, the time flew by so fast, but we were very busy with all the activities, even if the weather was not the best. We picked up a lot of seasonal veggies from our food forest, such as spinach, lettuce, fava beans and radish. Then, we did some woodwork, in order to create new bed frames. In one area of Hopeland, we learned about the dry stacking technique, to make the foundation of a pergola. And another thing we did was moving the chickens to their new ho

Originally based in Italy, volunteering project Vitality keeps exploring new venues. This year Association Vagamondo in cooperation with Hopeland - Ελπιδοχώρι launched Vitality volunteering in Greece. Meet Chiara, who arrived right after Cassandra! Ciao! I'm Chiara, from Italy. I was looking for a place where I can slow down a bit, take a break from fast life and where I could be close to nature and work more with my hands. I think that a place like Hopeland mirrors all of

Originally based in Italy, volunteering project Vitality keeps exploring new venues. This year Association Vagamondo in cooperation with Hopeland - Ελπιδοχώρι launched Vitality volunteering in Greece. We are glad to introduce the first one to arrive - meet Cassandra! "Hi! I'm Cassandra :) I come from Italy and I'm 20 years old. I will be a volunteer in Hopeland for the next six months and I'm very excited! I've always been passionate about nature and sustainability. Being o