Still more presents for the children of Calheta ...

I wish I could say these are the last presents I shall pack for the children of Calheta, but I can't, for there are still a few children left and I am beginning to get worried with space constraints ..., and so are the four people who are travelling with me.

Presents for little Odete (left) and Rivia (right).

Presents for Justina (left) and Elias (right).

Beta's presents for both her "godchildren".

Many presents have been identified with the photocopies of the children glued onto the packages, once some of the children's names are not known yet.

Presents for Eduardo Furtado (left) and Juciene (right).

Presents for little Velker (left) and Jefferson (right).

Presents from Dulce and Ângela for their respective "godchildren".

The last presents handed out today were from Olga for her "godchild".

I must confess I am touched because the more we are feeling the crisis the more we seem to have a solidarity approach to other people's difficulties.

May these people who are worried about these children and have taken the time to buy presents for them be blessed.

Some of the last presents for the children of Calheta ...

I have been handed out some of the last presents for the children of Calheta and with the exception of  some I haven't collected yet and one which is still on its way from France by postal service (which will hopefully reach me before I fly to Cape Verde) all the children we have been "protecting" will be getting their Christmas presents, despite the fact that it is slightly late.

Presents for Nélida (left) and Rosana (right).

 

Presents for Diva (left) and Veronica Conceição (right). 

Children who have recently got themselves "godparents" have had their present bags identified by the photocopy of their photographs, once I didn't get enough information about them last time, with the exception that they needed someone to "look after" them. The necessary information will be gathered during the forthcoming trip and later referred to those who have "chosen" them.

(To be continued)

Temporary exhibition "The image of you that I composed" - Homage to Julio ...

I have been to a temporary exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum pertaining to Gulbenkian this morning, an exhibition  focussed on the initial artistic stages (1928 through to 1960) of Julio dos Reis  Pereira's career, especially  those linked to Surrealism and Expressionism.

A sequence of  human figures in vibrant colours contrasting with the black outline of their forms ... urban landscapes as the setting scenarios in many of them ... female figures in their various  perspectives ... conveying sensuality ... inspiration ... involved in macabre looking scenes ... alone ... accompanied by sinister looking male ...

 

 

Many of his pencil ink drawings (also being exhibited) reminded me of Marc Chagal's paintings, particularly those which include musicians in upside down positions ... or in dreaming-like scenes ...

Amidst the paintings many of his poems, which he signed under the pseudonym Saul Dias and whose extracts I have copied down ...

"A poem

almost without words

A diagram

of undefined traces

The echo of a sound

that may never have vibrated

A portrait 

made from none of this

with all of this." - Everything

"Why do you insist on writing?

Why should you insist on marking instants, hours

mornings, afternoons, inopportune

glimmers, reflections?" (...) - extract from Envy

"Losing

is finding the essence

of what has been lost

Thus, I

will always keep you

safe, 

like the golden object

in the Museum ..." - Essence

To further understand his paintings in a pictorial poetic type of approach there is a documentary film directed in 1965 by the Manuel de Oliveira "My brother Julio's paintings" with poems recorded by José Regio worth being watched  within the exhibition room.

The exhibition will be on till the forthcoming 7th of April and is definitely worth being seen. I may eventually try to go there one more time, as I realised photos of his paintings, as long as one does not use a  flash, are allowed and the catalogue I have bought hasn't got but the reproduction of just a few.

Manuel ...

Yesterday was Manuel's last day at work prior to joining all the retired staff personnel who have been recently leaving the Training Centre I work for.

It is when we see colleagues emptying their drawers and packing the things they grew so attached to over the years that we realise we might be among the next "lot" ... or maybe what you actually think about is how old you have become and to which extent the enterprise you have dedicated yourself to and worked all your life for does recognise your importance ... (if you happen to have or have had any).

Whenever someone leaves under similar circumstances the discourse seems to always be the same, whether you made the enterprise the premises of your regular job or contributed towards its "growth" in a committed way ...

A few years ago I started distributing photos (I had taken over the years) at work to those I felt might be interested in having them apart from myself and Manuel was one of those. He has had the need to show it to me yesterday ... (I feel I know why ...)

The photo taken in 1993 shows him (an Administrative Head then) and I during one of my English classes. Many things have changed since then ... we look older ... Directors very rarely attend English classes nowadays ... the focus of the overall training has been Air Traffic Control almost exclusively ... and the rest is history ... memories ... some disappointing moments ...

 

Manuel and I

Manuel started at the then recently opened Training Centre the same year as I did (1982) and was always recognised as being the "backbone" of centre ... nobody seemed to know as much about the centre strategic approaches from the administrative point of view as he did ... and that's how his career has come to an end ... I doubt anyone will ever be able to "substitute" him ...

As he was leaving ... two colleagues from the Administrative sector and two colleagues from the General Training sector paid him their due respect ... by showing up to say good bye ... (that's the least one could and should have done ...), whilst many others simply ignored the fact ... as if that could have been a day like any other ...

Manuel with Isabel Pinto Basto (left) and Ana Coimbra (right).

Manuel between João (left) and Ana Borges (right).

Oracle Night by Paul Auster ...

I have just finished Oracle Night by Paul Auster and it will certainly not be the last of  Paul Auster's books I shall be reading in the near future  ...

The more I read his books and the more I get used to Paul Auster's narrative style ... the more I want to read whatever he has written ... I don't exactly know whether it is the way he writes ...or what he writes about ... or both, but there is definitely something about him that keeps me hooked onto his books.

This particular one is in fact an intricate layer of story upon story ..., each of which"blends" into the main story, which  according to Paul Auster himself it is "a story about love and forgiveness", though one could easily add that it is also a story about life reconstruction following an unexpected event ... 

Quoting a critic it is essentially "about  survival against the odds, about the belief that we only truly find ourselves when we find the limits of what we can endure".

Endurance ...  one's reinvented trajectory of life, following loss or as part of a grieving process ... it is definitely worthy reading ...

More presents for the children of Calheta (still) ...

Presents for the children keep on "pouring in", as I try to distribute them by the available space in our pieces of luggage. I don't think we'll be able to have everything finished but by Wednesday ..., as there are still fifteen children, whose presents haven't been handed in to any of us.

... I have seen a lot of enthusiasm though and that has given me some additional strength to carry on with this project.

Presents for Veinilson (left) and little Ana (right).

Presents for Ismael (left) and the little boy under the "protection" of Pedro (right).

Presents for the siblings Maria de Jesus (left) and Nolita (right).

Presents for Carla Veronica (left) and Ivanilda (right).

Presents for Ineida Patricia (left) and Ineida (right).

Presents for Wilson (left) and Patrick (right).

Presents for Lola (left) and Daniela (right).

 

Presents for Jessica Patricia (left) and Lavinia (right).

Extra presents for Lenira (left) and Tarine (right).

 Extra little presents (bracelet and earrings) for Elcy.

I have today collected more than a hundred photographs I had asked to be developed from my last trip to Calheta, so that the children may have them put in their photo albums. The expense has been divided between Lurdes and I, as we both feel these may be "visual" memories for the children's future reference. 

I have been handed quite a few second-hand puzzles, books and games (though most of them as if they could have just been bought) Silvia's two little girls put aside for the children of Calheta ... and what touched me most is that solidarity does sometimes at very early ages ... I may not be able to carry them all with me, but I am sure that whoever gets some of those will appreciate the gesture ...

 

On behalf of the children of Calheta I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the project so far and those who despite no being as committed as the "grandparents"  still contribute on a regular basis.