📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
It is the 1st time that a workcamp is held in a little village Skalka u Doks in cooperation with the local association Friendly Hospitality House. Its name refers to the ancient tradition of mutual help of pilgrims. In 2011 the association started to renovate a very much neglected rural homestead, cultivate adjacent lands, set permaculture gardens, grow and process local products. The intention is to create a hospitable cultural and crafts centre for people from the village and wider public and overall revitalization of the place affected by the contested past (e.g. expulsion of inhabitants after the WWII). The aim of the workcamp is to help with restoration of relations between the place and its inhabitants, both contemporary and past, mutual understanding and recognition of differences. For curious people open to others or for those who want to be like this. Interest in traditional spirituality and history appreciated.
💼 What the programme involves
The work will be manual and sometimes demanding, it will take place at several locations. In Skalka u Doks you will for example: help with the reconstruction of the object and cleaning, collect firewood from a forest, shovel compost, take care of permaculture garden and meadows with protected flora, rake grass clippings and restore overgrown public path in the village. In the nearby village Bořejov you will: clean the church, help with preparation of Sunday pilgrim mass, clean the cemetery surrounding the church, esp. the abandoned graves of the ancestors of the displaced inhabitants. Bring proper work shoes, appropriate clothes and a raincoat.
🏠 Accommodation on site
In the main building of the homestead that is under reconstruction. Sleeping on mattresses, you must bring your own sleeping bag. There is a shower with hot water, washbasin, toilet, kitchen on outdoor fireplace. The volunteers will prepare their own meals; you can share your national cuisine, particularly at dinners. Bring recipes from you home.
📍 About the location
Little village Skalka u Doks (170 inhabitants) and neighbourhood. The village is located in a Protected Landscape Area near the Mácha Lake which is a popular tourist attraction. If we work at more distant places, we will take you there by car.
Study part: Getting to know local history and culture (visit of the castles Doksy and Houska), movie screenings, musical evening with the locals, Pilgrim Roman Catholic Mass on Sunday 24/7 in the Church of Bořejov (which we will have been cleaning the week before), meeting local permaculture community, farming in harmony with nature, presentation of spiritual tradition of countries of the volunteers, discussion with the local deacon and parish priest.
Leisure time: Bathing on the beaches of Mácha Lake, evening activities on the beaches and in the town Doksy, meditative walks in nature, mushroom and blueberry picking, closing event at a fisherman’s hut on the banks of the Mácha Lake with a steamboat sunset cruise.
ℹ️ Additional information
For curious people open to others or for those who want to be like this. Interest in traditional spirituality and history appreciated.