Artistic Eco Village Internship Program

  Hawaii (USA)

Pahoa

  United States

Hawaii,  Pahoa

Term: Fall, Spring, Summer 
Duration of Program: 5-8 weeks
Typical Duration of Program: 5-8 weeks

Description:                            
Bellyacres located in Kehena, near Pahoa, Puna.

We are an artistic eco village - we are connected but not a community.

We purchased our 12 acre kipuka island of trees in 1987. There are 35 founding members (mostly jugglers and performing artists) from 8 different countries, who met at one of the 19 Hawaiian Juggling festivals. We loved the Big Island of Hawaii enough to decide to live or visit here regularly and organized ourselves to establish a permanent home and performing arts center.

We bought an abandoned jungle homestead that was overrun by vines and weed trees. Since 1987 we have worked thousands of hours on the land, and have turned a slice of raw jungle into a tropical paradise. Almost all of the work has been done voluntarily and with love.

Bellyacres has six houses and twelve cabins for members and renters who live here year round. Currently we are 17 adults and 6 kids plus 6-10 visiting volunteers.

Our organic farm is focused on exploring location appropriate sustainable agriculture and grows a great variety of diversified crops for the residents and local community. Crops include, coconuts, breadfruit, mangoes, papayas, avocadoes, bananas, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit. Tangerines, Tangelos, soursop, jack fruit, lychee, rambutan, berries, passion fruit, pumpkin. We also have about 100 hens, 6 roosters, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 7 cats and a stuffed monkey.

We do not have conventional gardens which are inappropriate for our climate but are currently building a large greenhouse in which we plan to grow greens and some temperate crops. We will be installing irrigation infrastructure to support this new development. We get our electricity from solar panels. Our water is mostly collected from roof catchment systems. We are working hard to improve our food production, food processing and local food distribution.

For nearly 20 years we have been a traveling circus (HICCUP - Hawaii Island Community Circus) providing weekly performance arts classes throughout Hawaii in schools and in rural communities, plus presenting a range of community performances and circus training camps. Due to the success of these activities we have raised funds that enabled us to eventually build our own community performance arts facility. Our SPACE facility which opened in November 2007 has changed our focus. We currently have limited circus programs since we now serve as the local community center for loads of arts and cultural activities, we host a small Waldorf inspired charter school, a weekly farmers market and a variety of other social and community building events.

Despite our jungle location, our well-equipped and cozy communal kitchen has electricity, telephone with free mainland calls, high speed internet, library, hot showers, refrigerators, flush toilets and a sauna (presently out of commission).

In our tropical lowland rainforest there are bugs, mosquitoes and spiders but nothing kills you! The coqui frogs lullaby you to sleep.

We are about 20 minutes by car from Pahoa which is the nearest place for buying food, banking, etc. It is up 9 miles of hill to Pahoa and not fun to bike. The nearest major town and airport is Hilo, 50 minutes by car.

The walk to the ocean is about 10-15 minutes. About 25 minutes walk away is a clothing optional beach often visited by spinning dolphins, sometimes by humpback whales and every Sunday by at least 40 drummers and 200 dancers.

Work
Due to the fact the jungle is always growing just to keep the land maintained is quite the job. Additionally, we now maintain and run a thriving community center.

We ask for a commitment of 15 hours work weekly (leaving lots of time for beach, bicycling, relaxation and other fun). Work will depend upon time of year and the specific projects we are working on. We require a minimum 4 week commitment.

We always have a variety of farm work, we have made huge progress recently increasing the sustainability of our farm and our village. The chickens, horse, pig and cats need feeding, the weeds never stop growing and fruit is dropping constantly and needs to be harvested. Never a dull day at the Belly!

Volunteers may also work in SPACE with administrative office duties, assisting teachers with performance arts classes, or helping with set up and clean up.

Food
Food is not included in our offer except for fruits in season (mangoes, papayas, avocados, bananas, coconuts, oranges, limes, lychee etc.) available from our land for your consumption.

We have a communal kitchen for visiting members, renters and volunteer workers. Either you will join a group food plan and share purchasing, cooking and clean up or do your own independent thing (it generally costs USD7- USD10 a day to eat well). If you do not have a vehicle you will need to co-ordinate transport to town with other Bellyacres villagers, its pretty easy we have several vehicles.

Money
We ask each volunteer to contribute USD100 monthly to cover costs of airport pickups, kitchen basics, propane, electricity (even solar costs to maintain), water, telephone (free U.S. calls) and high speed internet services and maintenance for the pool table, sauna etc. !

Living in a rural area on a remote island means that these costs are much higher than other places. While we are striving to be more sustainable, we presently pay a costly overhead to be hooked up to civilization living in the remotest land mass in the world.

Accommodation
Sleeping accommodations are custom built private cabins (we call them jungalows) situated along short trails in our wooded area. They are rustic 12 x 16 screened in, made of bamboo and local tropical woods. Oil lamps are used for lighting. They are clean and have raised beds, mattresses, a table and chair.

Fun
We will provide you with a bike and guide you to our local beach, surf spots or unique excursions that tourists typically never experience. We have an active pool table, busy ping pong table and new foozball game. We like camp fires, music and laughter. We often have surprise guests , many of whom entertain for a living.

Connections
The glue for our village lifestyle is provided by means of the connections that we make. Community is only possible with communication in a group setting. Everyone residing at Bellyacres is expected to attend the weekly potluck dinner on Sundays and the campfire talk story gatherings held on Mondays.

If seriously interested please send me your proposed dates and a resume. Hilo is our closest airport about a 50 minute drive. (Kona is 3 hours away). Please fly into Hilo.

Highlights: Experiencing how a collectively owned organization functions, living with alternative energy, enjoying our proximity to a pristine black sand beach frequented by dolphins, plus the opportunity to see molten lava, bike ride along one of the most beautiful roads in Hawaii, our local warm pond, steam vents and above all the chance to run away and play with performance arts.

Qualifications: A willingness to give a positive exchange for staying in our artistic eco village.

Cost in US$: USD100 monthly plus 15 hours work a week

Experience Required: no

Typical Volunteer: Our interns are typically comfortable with a semi tropical rural outdoors lifestyle, usually physically fit they like to play with others in performance arts, bike riding, swimming, and are interested in learning about co-operative living, organic farming and self-sustainable lifestyles.

Age Range: 18+

This Program is open to Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel Independently

Typically Participants Work in Groups of 1-5

Application Process Involves:

• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Resume

Village Green Society's Mission Statement: We creatively promote local sustainable community development.

Year Founded: 1984