Calheta de São Miguel - the last hours - The 16th of September 2012

The birthday party would not have been possible had it not been for all the work and commitment on the part of Marlene, Dulce and another of their sisters at cooking all the food, as well as the precious contribution of Mr. Meno, who was the party DJ and hlped us through the decoration process of the party room.

My gratitude also goes out to Mr. Breitenstein, whose money paid for all the decorations, which always make the delight of children and adults alike.

 

Marlene serving the chicken soup (left) and Dulce during a short break (right).

Mr. Meno

I would not be totally fair if I didn't mention the invaluable work of Tarine, Leinira and Marline throughout the whole the phase of decorating the room, selecting the little gifts to put in each bag for the children whose birthday was being celebrated and blowing the twenty something shaped balloons each child was entitled to take home (quite a hard "technical" job and definitely not as simple as it might have looked at first), together with a minor help provided by Lou.

 

Tarine (left) and Marline (right).

Leinira

Our primary concern was Tarine as we intended to get her out of the sad mood she had fallen in the day before, because of the "godmother"'s issue ...  

I felt we managed to at least have her under our "protection", busy and feeling useful. The four of them were allowed to stay at the party right through to the end.

Each of the participating children was allowed to take home what was left as far as food was concerned, together with the decorative paper plates, glasses and hats.

Because we had not yet been able to hand out everything we had brought, we headed back into the village when the party was over.

We first stopped at Lola's to hand her the money sent by Carla Carreira for the girl's school ...

Lola's grandmother

... and then continued towards the village port, where we called in at Dona Celeste to give her a little gift I had for her and to have a  drink, as the weather was rather stuffy and hot.

At Dona Celeste's restaurant by the port.

We then continued towards Ismael's to hand him out some school material Maria João had bought for him, as well as a T-shirt I had bought him myself. A lot of people gathered around us, including his mother and grandmother. We filmed his heartfelt message and hanged around for a while before getting back to the pension in time to catch the cab that would drive us into the capital city.

As we reached the pension Pedrilson whom Marie Hélène had bought a game for showed up to proudly collect it, whilst Lou made sure we took some photos of her wearing the new blouses Celeste had sent her. We also photographed Marline holding the presents for her little cousin Aniza, which we had forgotten to drop at their grandmother's.

Pedrilson and Marie Hélène

Lou

Marline holding Aniza's presents

The presents and money we were not able to hand out personally (Carla Veronica and Nelsinha) were given to some one we fully trusted so as to make sure the ones they were intended for would get them later.

It is always very difficult to leave Calheta de São Miguel. There is a community spirit one does not easily find anywhere else and ... then there are the children ... the reason we keep on going back  and will hopefully keep on having a strong bond with ... in the name of their progression as young men and women of the future.