I'm writing from a village near Covilhã, in Portugal.

I joined a community where I've been living for the past 3 months. It's been quite an experience, with many good things, but also some challenges.

After returning from India, the idea of experiencing community life was already becoming quite strong, but I wasn't finding the right opportunities - or at least, that's what I believed.

Back in July, I joined a community in the Algarve. I went there without any expectations regarding how long I would stay, but I was open to staying long-term if I found it to be a good experience. I ended up staying for only 3 weeks.

I met wonderful people, mainly fellow volunteers, but also a few members of the staff.

However, I couldn't see myself staying there long-term, for a few reasons:

1. It didn't feel like a proper community.
The volunteers lived in a separate wooden house, in dormitories, and had to cook for themselves. The staff had their own private rooms in a separate house, and the owners (a couple) had their own private house as well. All the houses were located on the same piece of land.
Meals weren't shared. A few times, some staff members invited us volunteers to have a meal with them, but I never had a meal together with the owners. They rarely spent time with the volunteers.

2. There wasn't a great variety of tasks.
It was the middle of summer, with very high temperatures, so we mainly spent our time putting straw around small fruit trees to protect them from the extreme heat.

3. The food provided to the volunteers wasn't enough.
There wasn't much variety in terms of ingredients either, so we often ended up eating similar meals. A few times, I had to walk to a nearby café to have a proper meal.
The only time we had proper food was during a retreat. We helped in the kitchen and were able to eat the same food as the participants.

Despite these reasons, I don't regreat my experience there. I still keep in touch with a few people I met, and I had some really good moments. The land was quite big and there were lakes where we could go swimming.

A couple I met there told me about the community I joined 2 weeks after leaving the Algarve – the one where I'm staying now. I immediately resonated with what they told me, so I applied to come here.

It's definitelly more organised than the previous one. There are several different departments where volunteers can work, and we can choose one based on their current needs. I ended up in the logistics department, even though I hadn't applied for it.

I've been the only person in this team since I arrived, but they're looking for someone else to join us. I have a lot of autonomy and can organise my work the way I want. However, my work also depends a lot on requests from other departments, so some days can get quite busy.

We're supposed to work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. However, sometimes I work overtime, which I can compensate for with days off later.

In exchange for these working hours, we get accomodation and food. If we're the team leader of our department, we also get a private room and a small monthly financial compensation. That's my case, by the way. Not everyone who works alone in a team is considered a team leader.

These extra benefits make my stay here more sustainable.

This feels like a proper community to me. Life is shared among everyone who lives here, including all meals.

The Kitchen team prepares all the meals (which are vegan), so the rest of us don't have to worry about coooking for ourselves. And the food is delicious, by the way!
So good that, at some point, when I thought about eating meat, my body started saying no to it. I'm not eating meat anymore, and I feel so good about it.
I still eat fish when I'm not eating here, as well as eggs and cheese, but I don't miss any of these while here. I feel like my energy levels are quite high, and I haven't experienced any digestive issues since I arrived.

The land is smaller than the one in the previous community, but it's beautiful as well. We even have a river beach on the property, which is perfect for hot days.

Of course, there are not-so-good things as well. It's far from perfect, but it's an experience I'm enjoying, even with all the challenges.

I've worked quite a few extra hours. Being alone in the logistics team makes it harder to stick to the 6 hours a day. Sometimes it feels like a full-time job, but I'm getting better at finishing work on time.

There's a side of me that's very responsible and wants to do things the right way. I'm super organised and have my own agenda for each day.
But there's also another side of me that values very much work-life balance.
In the end, it's about knowing what's really urgent that needs to be done on a particular day. Not everything that other people consider urgent needs to be considered urgent by me. This sometimes leads to conflicts, but I'm learning a lot about setting boundaries and knowing when to challenge other people's requests or instructions.

This community focuses on spirituality, in its own way and according to its own rules. I don't agree with everything, so I join whichever programs I feel like joining and skip the ones I don't resonate with. I feel there's space to be part of the community without sharing all the same beliefs as the community as a whole.

I've met some incredible people here. I feel so inspired by so many of the other volunteers. Funny enough, though, I don't feel quite as inspired by the people who have been part of the community for a long time, such as those who are on the board, some of the staff members, or even the monks (who also belong to the board) and nuns who live with us or in nearby villages but spend most of their days here with us.

Because of this, there have been days when I've considered leaving the community. However, I ended up staying because I still feel there's so much this experience can give me.
So, I'll stay here for as long as I feel it's good for me.

There's a sense of freedom in my life that I rarely experienced before, except when I was travelling last year. And that feeling makes me feel very much alive.

I have no idea until when I'll stay here, and that's okay. I no longer feel the need to have it all figured out.

Photos Algarve:

Photos Covilhã: