1th of October - Religion in Bezerra
The main religion in Portugal is christian - catholicism. In the majority of families, parents are married for church, while in rural places like this town the importance of religion is even more present. The 'padre' appears to be an attractive young men for the ladies of VERTIGEM. A motivation to be present sunday morning.
One important activity is production of honey. The wooden boxes, where we collect the honey, are often contaminated by other species (like wasps). The only solution is cleaning with gas-burners and knives.
Because our residence is heated basically by wood in the fireplace, we have to transport chopped trees from the forest to our place. The only possible way without a car is by our strong donkey, 'o burro Ambrosio'. This folklorisitc medieval activity surprises no-one, this is rural Portugal, welcome. Better then a BMW, I'm convinced ...
7 october - Frutas
Important sweet fruits from this country are figgs and persimon fruits. Usually we harvest them on our farm in october, november and sometimes in december.
In december you can harvest the 'pomme-granata', the red coloured seeds are an option for fruit salads.
Don't be surprised if you spot several goats on the middle of the road, this is a normal activity. Our goats are not loved by anyone anymore in this town. One week ago, they ate all the tomatoes of the neighbours. We improved the fence to keep them where they should be !
Our mentor, Rui Cordeiro, bought a horse. It's a lovely creature ! And we have Armel, who is professionally educated in horse maintenance and horseriding, trains 4/7 days to keep the animal fit. Everyone likes it. And we have space !
Usually, they store meat in amphores, like in the roman empire. It's great to see things like this. Boxes with salt are not special neither in this place.
The 28th of October, the bulls had to be changed after they became 1 year old. I liked to play with this bulls!
The 1th of November , Tudos -os-santos.
A day of eating cakes and tremocos, of spoiling kids with presents, door-to-door. Like in Belgium on the 11th of November. Unfortunately, this traditions are only in the rural places in Portugal. It's so nice !
Our Turkish participants arrived. But adapting to the daily routine and living style takes time, for me it was not easy. In technical jobs, they have showed their potential, they can construct everything ! Incredible !
Another thing is picking fruits daily, making brooms according to the traditinoal principles, and taking care of the boxes with bees. But the infection with wasps is problematic.
Another task is localized at the water well. Our Turkish volunteer, Onur, is expert with concrete. the same time, the gardens with strawberries and kiwis had to be prepared for winter time.
21 january - the weather conditions are horrible in january and february.
It rains without stopping, and windgusts up to 130 km/h . Sometimes we have no electricity in this case. It's a strange feeling if you arrive in Bezerra and only volunteers with candle lights , praying for an internet connection, are around the table. What I don't like about this is that the intensitivity of activities is decreasing, the bird-watching walks and the projects in the caves. I always like to have a certain satisfaction, the idea that I realized something during the day, to do fysicaly something outside.
In Batalha, there is a market with local products from farmers in the neigbourhood. But also chicken, turkies and other animals can be bought here ...
Preparing the firewoods for the winter. This task is routine and part of daily life in the wintermonths. Here, it's considered as pure man-work, weman are not allowed to do this.
Also, agricultural land has to be maintained.
Unfortunately, the axe didn't last more then 1 day. After 3 months, still we don't have a new one . Why ? Welcome to Portugal , '"reparar" e "poupar" , because spending money is not done/possible. I have to adapt to this mentality.
12 february - Carnaval
Carnaval is something incredible in Portugal. Probably it is associated with Brazilian carnaval, and the parades are significant. There's also a national holiday, the 12'th of february.
The volunteers of Bezerra worked together with the youth of Portela do Vale do Espinho to present 'o nosso carro'. We wanted to illustrate the difficulty of organic and biological farms nowadays. But our preparations were limited, allthough our motivation was strong ! The ghosts were nothing more then the future of biological farmers ... the other participants represented the subject of 'organic farming' ( abeilhas, coelhos, ...).
Finally the jury gave us the last place (place 8th), but anyway we received a cheque of 100 euros. It was not that bad because it was amazing to have an overview on the other cars and concepts.
Other cars ...
18th of february. - Apprender a fazer pão
Today, the long-term volunteers learned how to make bread in the traditional style in Portugal. No machines, no instruments, only basic ingredients and use of hands.
Whe helped to make the fire and heat the furnace. This is the best bread there is, only cereals are missing, it's almost only farinha, aqua e fermenta ...
It takes about 30 minutes-1 hour to prepare 7 breads with a delicious pure taste.
On thursday the 21th of february I made it myself; but I didn't succeed properly. The difficulty is heating the oven to the appropriate temperature.
Also making cheese is something we do, especially now when our goats were pregnant
2 march - Dancing -O rancho folklorique
Having some sportive, artistic or cultural activities every week is important.
In a town near to Bezerra, Arrimal, they offer on every friday courses to learn folklorique dancing. Because some participants have been taking courses already for 10 years or more, I take it relatively serious to learn. Dances are in pairs, 'em pares'.
Music is provided by live musicians, they also create a suitable adorable atmosphere.
14th of March - Animals
while I collected firewoods, I discovered this lovely cobra-lisa-bordalesa (coronela girondica), a small snake with only white and black colors. We caught it and released it near the forest, it was quite nervous and agressive.
28th of March until 4th of April
1th of July - Arrival 3 Polish participants
25th of July. Cutting and collecting of herbs
This job should be done yearly to collect food for animals.
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