On Saturday I caught a train from Lisboa to Porto and then headed from the train station to the home of Nancy. Nancy is a GEM missionary who has been working in the north for about 25 years and lives right outside of Porto. We relaxed at her home for a couple hours and then we headed to an English bazaar. There is a nice group of English in the north and they have a club house where they were having a huge bazaar with tons of different things ranging from English specialties to Portuguese items. There were two little kids that were trying to sell little gold star stickers for .50 euros each. They were super cute and would not take no for an answer so eventually we just had to ignore them and walk away. After the bazaar we headed to a church in the area for a chestnut celebration. The pastor of the church is Samuel Paulo and he is good friends with the Wootens, who are retired missionaries and I met at Multnomah, and has also recently spoken at Multnomah. It was really great to meet him because I had heard so much about him from the Wootens and friends from school.
Also, at the church there was a large group of older youth who were very welcoming and open. I was very grateful that they were all willing to speak English with me. I would every once in a while try and say something in Portuguese and they would say, "See! She does know Portuguese!" One of the girls, Rita, shared her testimony with me and then invited me into the kitchen where a group of youth were playing guitars and singing Fado songs. I, of course, quickly followed her into the kitchen because I LOVE fado!!! Rita's boyfriend was one of the guys playing and so when ever they were talking between songs she would tell him to speak English so that I could understand, she was very sweet! I also met at the church the main youth leader who invited me to their youth event on Friday and then asked me to share my testimony which I agreed to. So, now I will be sharing my testimony in front of a group of youth... I am just slightly nervous!
On Sunday we headed into the hills to visit a couple churches and some friends in the area. First we went to a church in Motim that is connected with an English school. The pastor of the church is Brazilian and his wife is English and I met their daughter when I went on the youth retreat a couple weeks ago. After being introduced to the entire congregation the pastor asked if I had anything I wanted to share with the congregation. Dr. Kopp, my fav prof at Multnomah, always told us in our intercultural studies class to always be prepared to share something when you are visiting a church especially in a cross cultural situation.....unfortunately I guess I didn't listen that well because when I was asked if I had anything I wanted to share I became very wide eyed and respectfully declined to speak at the church. I know I should have come up with something but I was so caught off guard by the invitation but I did spend the rest of the time at the church thinking about what I could have said and what I should have said.
We were invited over to the pastor's home for lunch, which the wife made a huge feast for us. Roast pork with chestnuts and tons of side dishes. Following lunch we then had to have dessert and after that in traditional Portuguese fashion we had a cup of coffee. We talked about many different things such as my education, what I like about Portugal, and what I miss about the States. I couldn't really say that I missed too much about the states because my mom has sent me chocolate chips and peanut butter, but I guess the one thing that I am missing is my 24 oz. quad white americano on the rox from the cherrybean in Salinas. They were very shocked when I said that I drank something with so much caffeine in it but then when I told them that I would normally have two a day they were even more shocked! We talked about the youth in the area and how it can be quite difficult to get youth sometimes but then I told them that I was use to the idea of searching out youth because that was the same thing that happens in the Lisboa area.
After lunch and the great conversation we headed to a second church near Fafe and again I was welcomed very warmly. After the service was over many women came up to talk to me but most of them didn't know very much English so they would go search out a younger person to come and translate for us. Nancy had a very close friend at the church that she calls her adopted daughter, Lily, and she kept going around to all of the youth in the church and told them to go talk to me because they knew English. I got to talk to some of the youth students and when I told them that I wanted to work with youth in the north they were all very quick in inviting me to come work with youth in their church. So, I guess I have a job once I get back to Portugal.
From the church visit we headed to dinner at Lily's mother's house and we got to eat dinner with Lily, her husband, and two super adorable children. We had another big meal of trying to get people to eat more and more food and try interesting little German treats. After dinner we headed to the castle of the first king of Portugal, Afonso I. We walked around the castle and the duke's palace, which Afonso actually built for one of his lovers. The grounds were pretty cool and the surrounding neighbor hood was also really pretty. There is an old Catholic church near the castle but they couldn't pay their taxes so it got turned into a hospital.
This is a statue of Afonso and the Duke's Palace in the background.
This is the Castle with one of the entrances by the tree.
After our walk in freezing cold weather we decided we needed to go warm up so we had a cup of tea at Lily's house. Her daughter, Sarai, who is about 4 or 5 wanted to talk to me all night and kept telling me something about painting so I watched her color a little picture from a McDonald's happy meal or something. Then she brought me a book to read and sat in on my lap and opened it up to the first page and then looked at me like ok you can read to me now. Her mom stepped in and told her that I didn't speak Portuguese but I don't think Sarai understood that someone wouldn't know how to speak Portuguese, so after a couple more times of trying to get me to read the book she then "read" the book to me.
All in all it was an eventful first day and a half and now I have 6 more days of exploring and sharing.
Peace out!
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