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.