ESC in Norheimsund (Noorwegen)

• Café/canteen work: making and serving food, cleaning, taking care of guests
• Help set up exhibitions and other visitor activities
• Help with learning projects for secondary school classes (16+), e.g. ropemaking and woodworking with traditional tools
• Learn how to make wooden baskets, door mats, dog toys and other hand-made items from rope for the museum shop
• Maintenance work on museum vessels and boats (scraping/washing, painting/oiling, repairing ropes, maintaining sails) – in collaboration with boat builders
• Support the sailing crew of the “Mathilde” (captain, boatswain, cook, school camp instructor)

No particular skills or knowledge is needed, but we would very much like our volunteers to take an
interest in maritime culture, history and craftsmanship. Young people who would like to have a
different year and discover new sides of society and culture as well as new sides of themselves will
have a nice stay with us.

We have a house in the museum where the volunteers have one bedroom each and share a kitchen
and living room. When sailing with Mathilde the volunteers will sleep aboard with the rest of the crew
during the week. It is an old house but there will always be plenty of firewood to make it warm and cozy during the winter months.

The food allowance is paid along with the pocket money once a month. In addition to that the volunteers eat
lunch in the cafeteria with the rest of the staff every work day at 11.30 or a little later if they are
helping out in the cafeteria during lunch.

The nearest grocery store is 10 minutes away on foot.

It is relatively easy to get to Øystese and Bergen by bus. Otherwise, bicycle is an option during most
seasons.

We provide a Norwegian language teacher dedicated to the two volunteers. Usually, they have two lessons a week, 1,5 hours each, stretching over a period of 10 weeks, 30 hours total.
In the beginning, and always when needed we will use English as a main language.

At average you will work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, and will have 2 working days off each month.
However, every now and then there will be evenings and weekends that you will be asked to work, compensated by some more days or hours off at a more convenient time.

Hardanger Maritime Center is in Norheimsund by the Hardanger fjord, about 1,5 hours from Bergen by bus. The name of the municipality is Kvam, which has about 8500 inhabitants and stretches around 100 km from one end to the other. The two main villages are Norheimsund and Øystese with around 2500 inhabitants each. There you will find shops and businesses for most needs. Local organizations offer many different leisure activities such as soccer, volleyball, cross-country and downhill skiing, indoor climbing, karate and other sporting activities. There are also several orchestras, both brass and janissary who are always looking for musicians to play along with. These are all nice arenas to get to know local young people.