FAQ

  • We are joyfully stance-free and accept any visitors who resonate with our purpose, vision and intentions. Everyone regardless of vaccination status is currently permitted entry to Vanuatu.

  • All prospective visitors must fill out the Edenhope Questionnaire. We use this as a basis for video call meetings, and seek to build a relationship of trust and clarity with the applicant before extending an invitation. The criteria for visitors to Edenhope are:

    • Resonance with our purpose, intentions and way of life

    • Willingness to actively serve our projects with unique skills and abilities.

    • Readiness to participate in community life and daily program

    As long as you meet these criteria, we are ready to support your stay at Edenhope for a period of time that we can all agree upon when we open up a conversation.

  • Everybody here contributes some form of active service to the upkeep of our beautiful home in nature and our projects. What you spend your time doing in support of Edenhope really depends on your unique capacity, skillset and personal inspiration. Whilst there may be one thing that you are really good at, we all contribute in a small way to all aspects of our daily life, which often requires learning a new skill. Gardening is a priority, as we live off-grid, but there are myriad ways you can express your creativity through offering work on a daily basis. For example:

    • Organic gardening, permaculture or syntropic agriculture

    • Off-grid systems management (solar and micro-hydro power, water supply)

    • Vehicle maintenance (electric/diesel)

    • Carpentry, furniture-making and joinery

    • Cooking and food preparation

    • Housekeeping, tidying, and domestic management

    • Childcare, homeschooling and early learning

    • Repairs, mending, sewing or crafts

    • Publicity, digital media and communications

    • Videography and filmmaking

    A strong collective effort and unified intention is required for what we are doing out here, so it is important that everyone here has the ability to work well together and relate harmoniously with each other.

    Shared projects are a measure of group cohesion; the longer you stay here, the more involved and responsible you will be for managing an aspect of our life here that speaks meaningfully to your unique and individual purpose.

    We work with devotion, according to our abilities, because we are continuously tasting the fruits of our labours (figuratively and very often literally!) We expect at least four hours of active community service per day from visitors.

  • We support all visitors, volunteer workers and residents with their food, accommodation and project-related travel expenses. We do not support visas, personal travel or consumables intended for individual use, nor do we cover the cost of medical or dental expenses for visitors or members.

    Residents may work online during their stay at Edenhope for a maximum of 10 hours a week to maintain a personal subsistence income, provided this work does not interfere with community service and participation. You can talk to us about your specific situation and we can let you know what is needed.

  • Personal time and space are held as sacred, although there are many aspects of life here that are, by necessity, shared and communal. We expect people here to interact with each other in a meaningful way from day to day, whilst maintaining personal space as needed. The typical daily schedule for a visitor to Edenhope reflects this balance between time for the individual and time for the community.

    If you have not lived in community before, then you may find it difficult at first to maintain the energetic balance between individual and community time. Some people give their life to the community and end up feeling drained, and others spend too much time on their own projects and end up feeling isolated and disconnected. What we have discovered is that a routine is an important starting point for cultivating that balance, though it’s important to maintain one’s fluidity so as not to get stuck in patterns.

  • Devi and Maitri have been appointed as Guides of the Edenhope Nature Preserve by the Founders, Stephen and Ruth Quinto. We are responsbile for sustaining the life of the community and consult closely with the current Trustee, Jesse Quinto, about all important decisions requiring the use of project resources.

    Our style of community governance is to make informed choices that affect the life of the community in consultation with those who are invested in it. The length of time you stay here and the extent of responsibility you take upon yourself as part of the community will determine your involvement in the decision-making process.

    Consensus is an agreeable concept, though in practice it requires everybody to be equally invested in the outcome of a decision. For this reason, short-term visitors of less than a year may have to accept decisions made by long-term residents for the good of the community.

    Ultimately, the decision-making process of a well-established community is entirely consensual and interdependent. However we are still in the early stages of growth as a community, and it will take you and your unique input to help us grow together.

  • We have excellent infrastructure and facilities, considering our remote location in an undeveloped part of a developing nation. Each house has solar electricity and potable running water. Our water supply is pure, gravity-fed from a mountain-spring, piped straight into our taps. Our electricity comes from solar panels and micro-hydro.

  • Mobile phones and devices are a big deal for everyone these days, including us here. We are on a wifi satellite connection, which enables our communications, aids us in organizing logistical matters, and enables us to homeschool.

    Having connection to technology supports our way of life, however we practice conscious awareness of when, how and for what purpose we engage with our devices. Coming to Edenhope is a great opportunity for people who are addicted to using technology to take a break and connect with nature instead.

    Obviously it is okay to stay in contact with your family and friends, but we invite newcomers to limit their internet usage to a specific timeframe. This is to encourage attunement to nature and the people that share this sacred space.

  • There are very few specialty stores here in Vanuatu, so if you need something in particular (like a battery, a charger, a musical instrument, herbal medicines or essential oils) you will have to bring it with you. Ask us directly if you are in any doubt.

  • Residents are free to prepare their own meals from ingredients stored in our communal kitchens. Our main meal of the day is lunch, which is usually shared, but other meals and snacks can be prepared anytime.

  • Yes!

  • Making music together, ecstatic dance, playing in the river, exploring the forest, reading books, doing math, preparing elaborate feasts for special occasions, listening to spiritual discourses on rainy days, picking flowers, building forts, having ideas, hiking to the waterfall, solving a problem, climbing trees and boulders, miscellaneous frolicking, recontextualising apparent contradictions in the nature of reality, fermenting things, sharing a pot of herbal tea, creative writing, painting, sound healing, massage, natural sculptures, Dervish whirling, fixing things, harvesting fruit, shelling peanuts, making sauerkraut, philosophising, research and development, riding a bicycle, playing dress-ups, learning a new skill, cacao ceremonies, nature photography….

  • We are not a cult. People at Edenhope are not expected to conform to a single ideology, religious practice or belief system, nor is there a charismatic leader who calls the shots on things. Here live spiritually devoted people committed to the practice of awareness in our daily lives and loving unconditionally.

    We study a broad range of spiritual doctrines and teachings to bring truth and reality into our immediate daily focus. Subjective states of peace, joy, and alignment with Divine Grace shape our unique expressions of spiritual truth. And your experiences enrich our own; that’s really the purpose of spiritual community.

    Vanuatu is a deeply Christian country, and to honour our local friends and workers we offer prayers to Jesus at mealtimes; yet we are as committed to the teachings of Krishna and the Buddha, the Tao Te Ching, the Upanishads and Sufi mystic fables as those of Christ in the Gospels.

    We admire the work done by Dr. David Hawkins on consciousness and self-realisation, and refer to an eclectic range of spiritual texts and commentaries both historical and contemporary.

    However, it is our daily experience of relating together and sharing our lives in nature that provides our most direct insights of spiritual truth. The miraculous is not only commonplace, but a vital component of our presence here and the work we are doing.

  • We recognize moments of conflict as vital gateways to increased empathy, understanding, compassion and insight. Conflict is an inevitable part of communal space; how we respond to conflict as a community is a matter of choice.

    At Edenhope we choose to engage modalities such as Non-Violent Communication (NVC), Restorative Circles and The Work in order to contextualise moments of conflict in the quest for deeper understanding of the world and each other. We understand that conflicts arise from deep-seated positionalities that are triggered or exposed in relation to others.

    Therefore, when a conflict arises between two persons at Edenhope, our practice is to look compassionately at the underlying issues at play. Very often, when we explore what is really going on in a conflict, it has little to do with this place and more to do with stories from the past.

    When there is a willingness from everyone to accept their pain – and everybody else’s – as natural and transitory, then the trigger points drop. We don’t project our pain on others. We meet each other in a space of deeper understanding and everybody feels that their needs are met.

  • The onset of the rainy season is generally the most annoying time for mosquitoes. Through the dry months they do not really bother us. In general, the ecology here is quite benign and our dwellings are pest-resistant.

  • Under Vanuatu law, land cannot be bought or sold. The traditional owners of this land live in the nearby community of Tasmate (9kms away down a service road) and Edenhope is the leaseholder for a term of 75 years, dating from 2010, which has been paid fully upfront. The land is a registered Community Conservation Area and maintained under the provisions of a Conservation Management Plan