Description

BellyAcres, located in Kehena, near Pahoa, Puna. (Google for pics)
Please read this information carefully to decide if we are a good match.
We are an artistic ecovillage. We are not a commercial farm.
We welcome serious students of sustainable living and/or performance arts.

Our Interns all share a kitchen and other amenities and are expected to fully participate in this Group Living situation. The management of activities at Bellyacres occurs through regular meetings. Commitment to attend THREE hours of group meetings a week is an essential requirement for all interns.

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 on our IRS non profit land trust has been done voluntarily and with love.

Bellyacres has eight houses and twelve cabins for staff, faculty and interns. Typically we are about 20 adults and 6 kids plus 4-6 visiting interns. Our lives are integrated with several of our neighboring families.

Our organic homestead is focused on exploring location appropriate sustainable agriculture practices. Seasonal crops include coconuts, breadfruit, mangoes, papayas, avocadoes, bananas, many citrus, soursop, jack fruit, lychee, rambutan, berries, passionfruit, pumpkin and medical marijuana. We have 100 hens, 4 roosters, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 9 cats and a stuffed monkey. We only have small conventional temperate climate vegetable gardens since they are mostly inappropriate for our location. We get all of our electricity from solar panels. Our water is collected from roof catchment systems and stored in tanks. We work hard to improve our food production, food processing and local food distribution through our weekly SPACE Farmers Market.

For nearly 20 years we organized 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 raised funds to build our own community performance arts center. Our SPACE facility opened in November 2007 and has changed the focus of our work. We now host a Waldorf inspired charter school, arts classes, a weekly farmers market and a variety of other social and community building events.

Despite our jungle location, we have a well-equipped and cozy communal kitchen with electricity, telephone, free mainland calls, high speed internet, library, hot showers, refrigerators, flush toilets, pool table, ping pong and a sauna. Bring your own computer to guarantee internet connection.

In our tropical lowland rainforest there are bugs, mosquitoes and spiders but nothing kills you! No snakes! 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. We have three buses daily and residents are Hitchhiker friendly. The nearest major town and airport is Hilo, 50 minutes by car.

The walk to the ocean is about 10-15 minutes. About 2 miles away is a clothing optional beach often visited by spinning dolphins, sometimes by humpback whales and every Sunday by at least 40 drummers and 100 dancers.

Work
We have a variety of work, striving to increase the sustainability of our eco-village. The chickens and horses need feeding, the weeds never stop growing and fruit trees need attention and harvesting. Theres never a dull day at the Belly! Interns may also work in SPACE with admin/office duties, assisting teachers with performance arts classes, or helping with cleaning or painting.
Work depends upon time of year, weather, and our priority projects.
We ask for a commitment of 15 hours work plus 3 hours of meetings each week
We require a minimum 8 week commitment.

Sorry we do not have paid work for interns, it is hard to find jobs in Puna!

Sustainance
Our communal kitchen is used by visiting members, some staff and all interns. Our compulsory communal food plan involves food harvesting, purchasing, cooking and clean up with everyone participating positively. We are locavores aiming to use locally grown food from farmers markets, local stores and our farm. See for our basic food philosophy. A willingness to have a flexible diet is essential. Sorry but we cannot accommodate people on restrictive diets. Tobacco smokers are ok providing they smoke well away from buildings. We seasonally brew wines and drink responsibly and moderately! Medical marijuana is grown and used by some of our residents.

Money
Interns pay USD340 a month which covers the compulsory communal food plan and the utility fee which pays for airport pickups, propane, electricity, water, first aid supplies, telephone with free U.S./Canada calls and high speed internet services, washing machine, bicycles, pool table, ping pong table and sauna that we provide for your pleasure. USD340 is payable upon arrival.
The food plan is organized with everyones input and participation.
Living rurally, on the remotest land mass in the world means that imported and local food costs are high. While striving to be more sustainable we pay a high overhead for mainstream resources. The sun and the sea are however, Free.

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 plywood and local tropical woods. Oil lamps are used for lighting. They are clean with raised beds, linen, 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, plus ping pong table and juggling equipment.
We like camp fires, fire dancing, music and laughter, until 10pm only.

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 potluck dinner on Sundays and the weekly campfire gatherings.

If anything written above does not work for you please do not apply.
If you are seriously interested please send me your proposed dates with a statement of why you want to be a Bellyacres intern (500 words or less)
Once we offer you a place we require a USD100 deposit to hold your reservation since some people fail to show up and we hate to turn good people away!

Send deposit to:- Village Green Society. - RR2 Box 4524, Pahoa, Hi 96778

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.

Intern Types

• Environmental Studies
• Sustainable Development
• Performance Design
• Theater, Drama, Dance

Languages

• English

Cost in US$:

USD 340 monthly for food and utilites

Cost Includes:

• Housing
• In-country staff support
• Food

Experience Required

no

Volunteer Types

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.

Typical Living Arrangements

• Other

Participants Travel

Independently

Typically Participants Work

in Groups of 1-5

Application Process Involves

• Online Application plus Application Assessment
• Resume

Typically The Application Process Time is

one week

Village Green Society's Mission Statement

We creatively promote local sustainable community development.

Year Founded

1984