terça-feira, agosto 09, 2005

Safe, relatively speaking

As with everything from the climate to politics in Portugal - this area, with such a bad reputation for problems of unemployment, drugs and violence related to social exclusion, is moderate in comparison with the inner city areas I've known in UK.

Coffee and Benfica banter

We hung out in the local shopping centre and had coffee, disrupting the men reading their "Borla" by talking loudly (well, Paula anyway) about football. The spotlessly clean and calm café is decorated from ceiling to walls to floor with Benfica paraphanalia - so Paula's loud claims to be Sportingista were greeted with friendly heckling. The guy who most joined in our conversations was the night time security guard at the school. Our photo of him has him showing off his Benfica membership card.

On one side of the school - cigano community

It was the holidays so there were few people about and we walked round the periphery. The school is set outside the town itself. On one side is an open field where the gypsies who have houses there hang out and where the protesting gypsies have built houses (protesting for not having one of their own). As Paula pointed out, these are the first houses where gypsies have been relocated which also have a tiny bit of land.

The houses have a great air, some with cabbage planted outside and some with buganvilia. There are very wide spaces between the rows of houses. Paula had some great stories of how families live in one room, using the other rooms in the house for storage - of course. And about intimate noises that can be disconcerting for non-gypsy neighbours. The noise of having sex is a public affair as the more noise there is the greater sign you have of the virility of the man.

Opening the blog

Paula, Anália and I met up in Barreiro to go and visit the school, or rather the area of Vale da Amoreira where the school is located. Paula's insider knowledge and amazing banter with the people we bump into made for a really great morning. We decided to keep a blog of our adventures! If anyone wants to join the blog, just let us know. All stories welcome.