I’m writing from my new office, in a bedroom I share with my two daughters in the volunteer accommodation in Caseres! We are pretty much settled in and it’s been a busy and productive week getting to know the new babysitter, clearing out the garage, making a washing line, and just feeding everyone 3 or 4 times a day is soooo time consuming. I haven’t even been to the Boodaville site yet because I knew it would be an effort «landing» in Caseres. Next week I’ll be there for a couple of hours each morning. We haven’t been to the river spot in the photo yet either – actually that will be a bit complicated because it’s a 15 min walk on a dirt road and it’s HOT. We’ve been to the pool a few times though. 

projects and plans 2023

This week we heard that the Youth Worker Training we were planning with Alfred Decker is denied funding. This is a blow for the association income this year and makes me wonder if we should go for the Erasmus+ accreditation to have guaranteed funding for these exchanges.

I spoke to Laura about 2023/24 yesterday and it looks likely she won’t stay next year which gives me the green light to start doing proper recruitment for someone to commit to be site manager and mentor to the volunteers starting January 2023. It will still legally be a volunteer contract, with expenses and «other living costs» reimbursed, and the first step for anyone interested is to go and stay with Laura for a week anytime from now onwards!

I’m moving forward with accounting, still suffering a slow process to do some paperwork with the bank, looking carefully at budgets and financial planning and we are getting organised as part of our drive to transform into a fully functioning professional outfit.

what’s been going on this week

Boodaville Barcelona are busy with social media – the food forest series continues on instagram (@boodavillepermaculture) and we are catching up to publish posts on the events so far this year – Maranya Festival, Botanical tour on Montjuic, Youth Worker Training on Nature connections (Erasmus+), Youth Exchange Living Vidalia (Erasmus +).

Here at Boodaville Caseres Laura and the team are attending a bioconstruction course at Mas la Llum, the amazing nearby project with a huge strawbale house and tourist accommodation.

And today I’m going to join a conference about Regenerative Futures with Gaia Education, the other collaborators in the project are in person at Findhorn, I missed this chance to visit because I’m busy caring for baby Joanna. Next time…