The job of volunteering

The project in which we are involved here in Lisbon is an exchange between us and Spin association. Spin covers our board and lodging and our travel expenses, as well as our local transportation throughout Lisbon, it gives us the opportunity to attend a language course and to discover a country through its culture. We return the favor by making ourselves available every day in order to help Spin with its activities, according to our attitudes. They are obviously different from the others; they are the famous superpower that I was talking about in the first chapter of this blog. In this phase, our interests and timetables parted, and we lived different experiences with only contacting each other a few times. 

                                                               Angela

                                         Superpower: Heart of Italian Mamma!!

 Our sweet Angela was assigned to be an assistant within the nursery school “Crescer a Cores” which is located in the same building as Spin, and is managed by a partner association. Angela has also been praised as a cook on a few occasions: we wanted to please the other volunteers with some Italian recipes. The dinner of Monday, the 17th of March, was unforgettable. 

In the following text you can find Angela’s impressions about her voluntary position at Spin.

“What can I say about my experience with the nursery kids.. The feeling from the very beginning was love. They welcomed me straight away with their sincere smiles! The physical contact with them stole my heart, I have warmed their cold little hands and I have smothered them with kisses. After a few days all of them were repeating the games I had taught. The oldest were running after me, competing for my attention and including me in their games… All of the colleagues and nursery staff gave me a warm and friendly welcome. In conclusion, I will always remember the lunches and dinners with Spin’s team in its entirety. They have always been very affectionate and kind with me and I felt like they were my sons and daughters. THANK YOUUUUU!!! Finally I want to thank my wonderful travel mates and everybody that contributed to make this experience UNFORGETTABLE.”

                                                               Pinuccio

                                               Superpower: Brute Force!!!!

The Spin office needed many things to be fixed and/or arranged: the storeroom needed to be emptied and reorganized, shelves to be assembled, walls and ceilings to be painted, heavy things to be displaced… It’s precisely the kind of things that requires a strong man!! Our Pinuccio gave his body and soul with dedication and enthusiasm, carrying out his tasks with accuracy and pride.

                                                            Fernando

                                              Superpower: Handyman!!!!!

 Our professor offered himself from the very beginning for any kind of tasks… indeed he did whatever, helping in everything that was needed, especially in collaboration with Pinuccio. They are both satisfied for having done everything possible to help the Spin’s team.

                                                          Stefania

                                              Superpower: Creativity!!!

Since when I was born on this planet, everybody asks me for drawings. Spin wasn’t an exception and asked for a decorative solution for its office. The big room was as white as a sheet of paper. I thought of a dynamic color and of an informal, joyful subject for three reasons: for the wall’s irregular and rough features, for the harmony of the people working there and for the little time available. The subject represents the activities implemented by Spin, that is to say the cultural and European exchanges; it is conceived as an straightforward drawing in terms of the color, with only the suitcases of the youths moving from capital to capital being colored: they are their counties’ flags, their cultural “baggage”. 

We managed to carry out the job with the help of Zofia, Alvaro, Maja, Enric but above all Aneta and Pinuccio (Saint Pinuccio who gave four layers of yellow!) who worked with the roller flat out. The professor participated as well by making adjustments, hence a work “in harmony”. Outside I have also painted some flowering plants hanging out from the vases. At Spin they don’t exactly have green fingers and the plants struggle a little bit. Thanks to those drawings they will look flowered all year long and they will have a bit of a spring feeling over the winter too. I hope that I could leave something that will remind them of me, as they have left something in my heart that I will never forget.

LIFE OF A....SENIOR

Being part of this intercultural project, we also had some minor representation roles during a few meetings organized by Spin with the Senior Academy. It’s a wonderful reality that has been active now for seven years; it was created by the Junta de Freguesia de Carnide* in order to promote solidarity and companionship, to offer interests and to fight isolation, typically with the elderly. The seat of the Academy is a big, well-organized space composed of wide, bright rooms. Various cultural, manual and recreational activities take place here.

*The municipality: in Portugal, each neighborhood regulate itself. 

11-3-2014

Between the people who attended, the Fantastic 4 will be selected (I love Marvel!) and will go to Lecce in September to participate in the same project in which we are involved, the Grundvig Senior. For this reason we have introduced the Salento region during one meeting at the Academy, explaining its history, culture and the natural beauty of the land that will host them.

My colleagues brought videos to show and a photographic book that we offered to Spin. Being unable to express ourselves in a fluent Portuguese, the presentation was happily macaronic, a patchwork of languages, a creative but effective conversation, as it was warm, full of interest and true participation (we Italians are masters in this!) :)

18-3-2014

.Later we were hosted, again at the Academy, by a group of seniors that study Italian and  had organized an afternoon snack to chat with us and practice their language skills. I hope that we  keep in touch with them. During these kind of meetings, they often sing Portuguese and Italian songs. It is obvious that these people have a clear cultural identity in singing and they offer it to us. Unfortunately we are not prepared in this aspect and we couldn’t exchange properly, but I offered to fill the gap at least with those who will go to Lecce.

19-3-2014

There was another meeting that unfortunately I couldn’t attend because I wasn’t feeling well.

At the Academy they also have a choir composed of around twenty elderly people and a teacher, and they prepared an exhibition of italian songs for us

A very kind gesture for which we are sincerely grateful. During the same day we had the chance to meet the treasurer of the Junta de Freguesia, Paulo Quaresma, who affected us in a particular way because of his dedication and incredible commitment to the development and the cultural, logistic and social improvement of Carnide.

He kindly invited us for lunch in the employees canteen: all young and motivated people with a great sense of cooperation. He introduced us to Fabio Sousa, the very young president of the Junta de Freguesia with whom we had a warm conversation.

20-3-2014

The singing fil rouge climaxed during the fado night. A wonderful memory will always be in our hearts. Together with a big group of seniors we occupied a place close to the Fado Museum.

The night spent there was so good that I want to advertise the place: it’s called Flor dos Arcos and it’s located in the Alfama neighborhood, on Largo Chafariz de Dentro 11/12. How to describe fado? You need to live it, words are not enough, you need to listen to it intensely. 

Four performers sang that night with two very good guitar players. Each of them sang his/her personal fado in a different way: some more elegant, some more popular, some more ironic. They also sang together and involved all the audience. I thought that there was no difference between singers and the audience, they were all fadists. A lady at a certain point stood up from her table and performed, she was so good that the audience liked her as much or perhaps more than the professionals.

These songs encompass many things: history, passion, humanity, poetry, sadness, happiness, angst, joy. I let myself go with the feelings and sensations, it was like hearing Lisbon’s voice. They were all great, the guitar players also performed some instrumental solos and one of them sang with a great sense of pride. We are always hunting for feelings, and fado gives a great deal; people should go out and listen to it there, where its home is, in the old Lisbon neighborhoods, drenched with dried salt.

Ginjinha and gaffes

Ginjinha is a cherry liqueur and a popular local ritual. You meet friends at night in a typical Ginjinha spot. Normally hanging out in groups, arranged in a circle, standing and holding paper cups and a bottle of liqueur.

You drink, you laugh, you chat, you finish your bottle and you start another one; and so on and so forth. You don’t get drunk because there are often many people, but it’s easy to get merry in a short space of time. It’s a moment of informal sociability, which is very pleasant. Last night we had our first Ginjinha with all the Spin’s volunteers and team.

And this morning our first poor showing. At the Portuguese class, no one remembered a thing. TOTALLY UNPREPARED. But our Zofia forgave us, they are all tolerant with us, they take care of us, maybe because we are their first senior volunteers. In Italy we say:  la sera leoni e la mattina c……i! What a morning! We had our class in Belém, an historical area which is amazing, on a public garden, right after visiting that wonderful pastry shop covered in Portuguese tiles which is famous for its “pasteis de Belem”. These treats are cream custard tarts are served warm, freshly baked, and are amazingly good.

THE PUPILS

Today we became pupils again: we started our Portuguse course with the lovely teacher Zofia. The weather was so good that we carried the tables outside and did our class outdoors enjoying the nice spring air.

 We also got some homework!! For the first time we traveled home to Carnide alone, and I must say it was a success. As of tomorrow, we have a meeting with the Senior Academy, with my colleagues starting to show their superpower and to prepare the materials on the Salento for the presentation. I didn’t stay there twiddling my thumbs and I activated my superpower “CREATIVITY” for one thing that I won’t reveal now.

I want to conclude with a thought for the VulcanicaMente girls: as the time went by, I realized that they were so good in creating this team. We are four people who are very different from one another, but we are able to get along well, we desire action and we all consider this experience as a very important one.

Chapeau to our dear “volcanos”!!!!!

FATIMA

Fatima was an unforgettable experience for different reasons. The first one, in order of time, was the feeling of being in a kind of “school trip” had on us. Personally, I wasn’t involved in a bus trip since high school. As soon as we got on the bus, a space-time bubble was created and it took us back at our teens, we became giggly adolescents again, although we tried to hide it.

Fernando kept making jokes: his technique is very dry, which makes him tell them with a serious expression on his face, so he can save (his) appearances. It seems a stupid thing but it’s not, laughing, sharing and sometimes feeling a kid are good for your health!! And here is the second reason, always in time order. Ours was a seniors trip, a lot of seniors, there were five full buses, around 250 people. The majority of them were older than us, and it was the first time for us to see so many elderly people all together.

Seeing Aneta, Miriam and other youths organizing with the joy and enthusiasm for those moments of meeting and recreation made this day unforgettable. Moments of kindness and affection towards us were common; during the journey a lady sang a Portuguese song to us from the microphone and at the restaurant we started taking it in turns to sing. A table sang us a song from Eros Ramazzotti, that is very famous here, and we replied with “Volare oh oh” and so on, passing through “Santa Lucia” we arrived at the Portuguese national anthem. Without these youths from various associations, the day probably would have ended up with a group of 250 elderly staying at home watching television. We can't wait to actively collaborate with them.

The choice of a place like Fatima also has a deep religious meaning for each Christian, let alone for the Portuguese. During one of the sightings the Virgin Mary, she told a young shepherd that Portugal is the only country that will always keep the faith dogma.

The one who is believer is simple and humble. These features make this people precious in a world that runs after consumerism. Personally, I am a believer and going to Fatima was for me a soul joy for which I am very grateful to Spin.

Spin!

Today it’s our first day at the headquarters of Spin association and Aneta took us there. The neighborhood of Carnide, is very beautiful. The office of Spin is a reflection of the guys that created it: simple, welcoming, as bright as their smiles and big as their hearts that work to change the world for the better. We were greatly received here as well:

The office of Spin Association

Welcoming paper for us

We meet the other volunteers and Sara also joins us (she’s the Big Boss), we already met her on Skype with Aneta. They show us the whole building: the nursery, the social hostel, the kitchen, the offices of other associations. Today we still happily eat lunch all together on a big outdoor table, with the warm sun that arrived with us in Lisbon.

I realize that the timetables are perfect, although everything seems informal. We arrived on Wednesday and we had four days to adapt. On Thursday, a day was elected dia do frango (chicken day) by the Spin team. They all eat a chicken dish together, cooked by one of the volunteers, as on the other days they just eat a sandwich, not to lose time on work. With today being that day, we could enjoy this moment without influencing their habits, and they could take care of us in quiet environment. On Friday a trip to Fatima is planned with the Senior Academy and Spin included us, on Saturday and Sunday we are free and on Monday we are ready to start a Portuguese course that will allow us to achieve the best from this experience. As good Italians, we managed to take some extra time, as we brought lots of presents.  

Gonzalo wearing the t-shirt designed by Stefania

Opening the presents

Sara sinks with a water whistle

Applause for the presents

Aneta and Sara, the inquiring ones

Start!

After all the preliminaries, the meetings, the Skype calls, the farewells to those who will stay at home and the preparation of the luggage… THE ADVENTURE FINALLY BEGINS! We flew  towards Portugal, towards a new chapter of our Book. The trip was perfect, two amazing flights with applauded landings. During the landing in Lisbon, the view of the city was wonderful, with an ancient charm made of beautiful architecture, colors, and green areas.

We are four strangers put together by chance for this Portuguese adventure. Adventure within the adventure!!!! Up to now our group dynamics have been great. Let’s introduce ourselves:

FERNANDO GATTO

My life motto is “Live and let live” (not very original, but surely mine). I want to summarize myself in this way: “travel, unexpected and adventure lover. I started travelling more frequently during the last few years, straight after I retired. Maths teacher for more than 30 years, I taught in Torino for 8 years and for 22 in the San Donato di Lecce middle school, where I ended my career. Besides of travelling, I like hosting people from all over the world with whom exchanging opinions, ideas, methods and costumes.”

STEFANIA CICCARELLI

Hi everybody, I’m Stefania, I’m 54 and I’m from Genoa (Liguria) but I live in the Salento region (Puglia). I’ve got a husband from Puglia and two half-blood children of whom I’m very proud, as all mothers (maybe in Portugal they don’t know the saying “Every beetle is beautiful for its mother”- let’s say: it’s Italian culture!).

As with everybody from Planet Earth I’m a zero: before I thought it was an improper condition, but now I think it’s a wonderful thing. As with all the people from Liguria region, and surely the Portuguese people too, I love the sea, sailing and I’d love to discover the world; I feel comfortable in ports and the coast is my natural habitat. I’m happy about doing this trip in Lisbon, above all in this way that help me participate in all the local activities, know a little bit of the language and meet local people. I want to fill my eyes and soul with ALL the beauties of this country, my heart with all the new people that I’ll meet and my stomach with all the good delicious things that they can prepare! There are a lot of sentences, aphorisms, quotes that I like, I’d write them everywhere to surround myself and/or to offer them to other people, but these three are the most recurring ones: To start with, I’d say, “IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN DO IT” by Walt Disney (a genius, and a great innovator of his time); secondly, “WHEN THE GAME GETS TOUGH, TOUGH PEOPLE START PLAYING” by Benito Mussolini (I liked it before knowing it was his!!!!) and finally, “EVERY MISSED CHANCE IS LOST” of which I ignored the author, maybe it’s common knowledge; I stopped saying the last one because my daughter hates it (but I think about it anyway, Alessandra!). This is, moreover, a story about the tiny particles and beams inside one’s eye that everybody should always keep in mind. I’m sure that even in Portugal they know it quite well, the Author is a pretty famous person.

My biggest passion is painting, through it's various shapes and aspects, through which I try to create environments and subjects chromatically and harmoniously, that can embrace the one who lives it in a joyful and beautiful atmosphere. That’s how I want to change the world, in my own small way.  I’m always “hungry” to knowing new things. I’d like to love more and better, but my limits make me fly low. But I don’t give up.

GIUSEPPE FRANCO –PINUCCIO

My name’s Giuseppe Franco, but everybody calls me Pinuccio. I’m 63 and I’m retired. But if you think that I wear slippers and live like an old man…well…, you’re wrong. I take advantage of having more spare time to travel, read and practise my favorite sports, which are speleology and canyoning.

La scoperta della Grotta Micello a Poggiardo 

My motto? I borrowed it from Dante Alighieri and it says, paraphrased: “You were not made to live like brute, but to follow virtue and knowledge!”

ANGELA SABATO

The life motto I’m thinking about is: « “Live and let live”. I try to describe myself: …I’m almost 55 and I often need to remind it to myself J I’ve lived every nice and bad moment of my life intensely, I’ve got a beautiful family, wonderful children. I’ve so much to give, I’ve always felt like learning, meeting new people, sharing life experiences; I like being part of a group and being organized… It’s useless to say that I like to spend time with young people because they give me so much life energy and make me remember the 16 year old girl living inside of me.

I like listening to the others, talking about myself and comparing our experiences. I like rock and roll but I can’t dance it… And finally I love Freddy Mercury like a fool.

As in the funny movie “The Incredibles”, we’re a normal group of ex super heroes, a bit old, but still with a mission to be accomplished, and to do so we need to use our superpowers.

By now we found out that Angela has so much sweetness, Pinuccio keeps has very good physical strength and shape, Ferdinando has a sharp sense of humor that makes us cry more than  laughing gas. I, Stefania, was unanimously elected to be the group blogger, so I have to allow the others make comments about me.

VulcanicaMente selected us and sent us to Spin. Spin gave us a warm welcome and the adventure started in the best possible way. We were welcomed by a happy and joyful committee at the airport composed by Aneta, the Spin “boss”, and two wonderful volunteers: the sparkling Tiziano and the discrete Gonzalo who took us to our new home.

The arrival at the Lisbon airport

They assigned us a beautiful apartment right in the city centre: we have spacious, comfortable and bright rooms, with a view of the castle. We have big and comfortable bathrooms and a great living room. The kitchen is equipped with everything we could need.

We didn’t even fight for the rooms because they are all beautiful and each one can have their privacy.

But it’s not over yet: Zofia, another volunteer who will be our Portuguese teacher also joined us and we all ate something together in a friendly environment.

When an Italian tongue touches Portuguese food it’s love at first bite! And this is how we got to know the amazing sopa de frango (chicken soup) and bacalhau com natas (cod fish baked with cream). (Another parenthesis to my Italian brothers, cod fish here is legendary!!), well combined with wine and juice. Full and satisfied we got ready for the next day.