Wow! So much has happened since I came back from Madrid. Here’s a whirlwind recap.

Early October was hot and dry. It felt more like August than October. Finally the rains came, and they have not stopped. Normally we get some nice sunny breaks in between the rain, but those have been scarce. When the sun makes a weak appearance, we dash out with umbrellas in hand to do our errands.

Bridget’s Big Birthday Bash at Sao Bento

My friend and neighbor knows how to throw a party.

Bridget doesn’t do anything small time. So when she decided to throw herself a 50th birthday celebration, she booked the clock tower at Sao Bento. Friends and family flew in for the event, and I doubt those old rafters had seen a party like this before. Thank you, Bridget!

A Celebration of Kindness

Our Silent Auction for a Worthy Cause

Whenever expats gather and discuss our latest experiences, a recurring theme is how kind Portuguese people are.

“Yesterday while walking, an older man who had trouble walking had no umbrella and was getting wet. A lady walking towards him, stopped and covered him with her umbrella and walked him back to Trindade.”

“I fell when getting off the bus and two lovely young girls helped me, got me some ice nearby, and stayed with me until I was able to contact my friend.”

“The lady drove me to the doctors when I was lost and at the wrong doctors office. When I asked her why – she said the Portuguese believe being kind and helpful is the right thing to do.”

So, when our expat group was searching for a name for a silent auction benefit for the Associação para o Planeamento da Família (Portugal Association for Family Planning), I suggested we use an umbrella theme called Porto Kind. It met enthusiastic approval, and we were off and running. When you gather a group of dynamic women with years of professional experience in their backgrounds, they are pretty much unstoppable. We had about €250 +/- cash available for expenses. But everyone pitched in, the manager of a newly opened luxury hotel donated the venue, and it was a smashing success. Our hope was to raise €1,000 to purchase a new dryer for the community room and repair some flood damage. Our final total was over €2,600 (about $2,900). The dryer has been ordered!

It was literally a dark and stormy night outside, but inside all was golden light and joy.

How It Began

The International Women of Porto & Gaia is a lively and diverse group from around the world. Some of us were looking for a way to give back to the community we live in. We were introduced to Nuno Teixeira, the Northern Regional Director of the Association.

APF was created in 1967, when families, especially women, had little access to health education or support. It was a radical, even dangerous action, since Portugal was a very conservative Catholic country, still under the Salazar dictatorship. They persevered, and today APF activity focuses on community intervention projects with vulnerable groups (victims of human trafficking, Roma communities, homeless people, victims of domestic violence, victims of female genital mutilation and forced marriages, among others.)

Along with Nuno, the president and past president of APF attended the event. Silent auctions are not known in Portugal, so this was a novel experience for them.

My role was to design and produce brochures, invitations, basket tags, bid sheets, name tags, social posts and more, and it became a full-time project. I had already done some brand consulting with Nuno back in the spring, and we worked together on the information brochure that was distributed to attendees.

Fun with Friends and Other News

Next Up: Rome and US

I’m excited about my upcoming trip to visit my niece and her husband in Rome this weekend. A week later, I’m heading back to Greensboro, North Carolina. It’s time to liquidate everything I put into storage when I moved to Porto a year ago. Not a chore I’m looking forward to, but it will be great to see old friends and take one more driveway yoga class from Ann. I’ll return to Porto in early December to enjoy the lights and the season.

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Para português nativo e especialistas, por favor, perdoe quaisquer imprecisões nestes blogs. Sou iniciante, otimista de que, à medida que aprendo, vou melhorar.