There's always something to do at Neverland Farm!!! We wake up at no later than 8:30 (ok, ish) so we can be at our work assignments by 9:30. There are usually a few options to choose from as to what you're doing.

Several ecuadorian men and women work with us, so the dominant language is spanish. No worries, you will pick it up quickly- some of our helpers also like trading english, french, german, whatever, for spanish lessons. But you have to go and work with them in the garden or field or on the mountain to learn! All really nice people, and pretty

fun, good teachers.

We have lunch at 12:30-1:30. Lunch is large- we almost never serve less than 10 people and we try to have soups and meat and vegie daily. We drink a lot of our own hand picked cafe. After lunch we work till 3:30 or so. This is Mon-Fri so it should work out to 25 hours a week although it is in reality closer to 18-20 hours due to weather, unexpected circumstances, and general lounging (that hammock is deadly, after lunch siestas can go long). It's relatively hard work (weeding, turning garden and compost beds, planting, etc) but, it's not a real long work day and we usually have some fun in the process. Bring gloves!!

Generally, we have between 5 -15 volunteers at any given time. Volunteers stay from a few days to a few months. At least a couple of weeks is preferred to give you time to really experience the farm but it's not mandatory. We have bunk house type accommodations with 4-6 in a room but also have rooms for couples and even larger spaces for families (we do have private individual rooms as well). We ask for a $35/wk contribution which helps cover food and operating expenses of the community, each person contributes equally in this community, and it IS an egalitarian community. It's nice, since we all put in equally no one has to ask permission to make a snack or bake cookies, all food is communal. Include

d in this are candles, laundry for sheets and most everything else.

We eat VERY well!!! Vegetarians and carnivores alike are accommodated (fruitarian, too). At this time we buy most of our produce off the farm from organic growers but are aggressively trying to bring our self sustainability up to at least 70%. We are fairly remote, being a 45 minute walk to the nearest little barrio Tumianuma which has a usable telephone most, but not all, of the time and snacks, beer, soda etc. as well.

Vilcabamba is the closest town of any size and that's an hour bus ride from Tumianuma (population 300 +/-). It has telephones, internet cafe', an ATM, and some of the comforts of civilization. Loja, another hour ride from Vilcabamba, is a larger city and is where you'd need to go to find harder to find items. We don't have electricity yet but hope to get our hydro-electric unit on line in the not too distant future, work to gather rocks for the wall to support the big water pipes is ongoing! Tumianuma and Neverland should have wireless internet by Sept. 1, 2009, thanks to a lovely donation from globalgiving.com. We do have a pretty good solar panel for charging batteries etc.

Speaking of, PLEASE do not bring non-rechargeable batteries to the farm. They tend to accumulate (disposable batteries are NOT) and we have no way of disposing of them properly.

Please do not attempt the path out at night for your first time, you will get lost. Our neighbors will save you but its better in daylight. If your bags are too heavy for you, 35-45 minute walk, leave them at the store in Tumianuma, with Gloria and her family. They will be safe there and you can get someone to help you come in with a burro

to pack your things out. Don't try to be a hero carrying a monster weight. And try not leave your things sitting beside the path to retrieve later, many people walk this path, and while they are not thieves a big pack just sitting there in the middle of nowhere does look kind of like a nice gift, no?!

I hope this answers most of your questions. If not, just drop me an email. Please refer to the rest of this website (www.neverlandfarm.org) for detailed lists of what you need to bring, directions to the farm and lots of other useful info!!! Peace, and happy travels!