Arte Via Workshop for adult learners in Lousa Portugal

London Uxbridge 9th November 2009

Grundtvig Lifelong learning Partnership: Let's Do It Creatively...for the Benefit of Adult Learners.


Like Jonathan Borg of Malta, I believe UK left Portugal with a high "esprit de corps". This two year project has given us many challenges but I do not feel we should be afraid and that we should be encouraged by any obstacles. My message to those that have some private fears is that in anything negative can be found something positive.

The first few weeks leading to the Arte Via workshop in Lousa Portugal have been a steep learning curve for JPE especially in the administration of the preparation of Schengen Visas for our non EU staff.

There has also been a learning curve and revaluation of how we should organise our journeys to the international workshops. We went for the most economic travel plans but we found them most time consuming. We crossed London in the early hours of the morning on Thursday the 5th of November 2009 and found that our most direct “Underground” link the Piccadilly line had failed us due to signal failure so we missed our Easy Bus link to Gatwick Airport. Even so we had an adventure. At Victoria station a kind information receptionist told us that the Southern to Gatwick is far cheaper than the Gatwick Express. At Gatwick airport we disseminated about our Grundtvig project to the Easy Jet lady at the baggage check- in. As we had jars of home fermented gherkins and edibles for our European Gastronomic buffet donated by one of our adult learner Edwiga and a preparation of my great grandfather’s “recipe”, the Easy Jet lady kindly slapped a few orange fragile labels on a bag and wished us a “bon appetite”. We had to buy a few bottles of water at W H Smith due to the dryness caused by the air conditioning at Gatwick South. We boarded the easyjet plane smoothly. We slept through the flight and reached Porto fresher and less anxious.



At Porto airport: a very efficient, clean airport, Joji John passed through the non EU passport control easily. I think that my presence at his immigration desk also supported his Schengen visa. Her eyes arched when Joji told her that we are going to a Grundtvig workshop in Lousa, he spelt it and she corrected our pronunciation to Losa. The Porto terminal is airy, open plan and laid out in marble and other durable stone. It’s a very beautiful building.

There is a very good and efficient information centre on the ground level of the airport which was able to sell us tickets for the light railway- "Metro" and give us information on how to get from Coimbra University City to Lousa pronounced Loza.

The light railway connection to the railway station was very quick and took twenty minutes. We found that we had plenty of time to catch express from Porto to Coimbra B pronounced kuˈĩbɾɐ or Kwimbra. I was surprised by the strong security and police presence on the line. We had good hot chocolate for one euro at a family owned bar across the road from the railway station.

The train left Porto station and went across a long high bridge and we were able to photograph the city and river below. As the train sped along its way I captured Atlantic white waves beating the coast on video. Very quickly it went dark and when it reached Coimbra B nothing could be seen except the twinkle of lights in this University City. At the station we tried to get information about reaching Coimbra A, the next station, but we had a language problem however a young woman told us that the next train was at 18.13. After a few minutes we arrived and again in a mixture of French, Spanish and Italian, we got information in English for walking directions to the next station. On the way we were lucky to meet Miguel (Michael) who told us that the next train to Lousa (Loza) was in nine minutes. We ran to the Coimbra Parques station and I think that this local train was held up for us whilst we bought tickets. Miguel was interested in our reason for visiting Lousa (Loza) and we talked to him about Grundtvig and our project. He was very interested in our project and later we passed his telephone number to Ana. He was keen to improve his English and he invited us to the annual honey fair in Lousa. His scout group had a stall selling honey, edible chestnuts, sweet cakes and key rings made of knots. We were overwhelmed by his hospitality and he and his wife Thelma offered to drive us from the station to our accommodation.


Joji and I enjoyed meeting everyone. Joji told me that he networked with most of the group and sees now that there are many opportunities for career development in the enlarged Europe.

The European evening was fantastic and I was able to capture quite a lot of the dancing and the audience on video. I was surprised how the Portuguese country dancing of another era and the chords of music had some similarity with 19th century dancing in Malta and folklore dancing of Mazurian-Polish folk dancing.

The next morning we learnt much from our presentations about our diverse institutions during the first workshop and I had good feedback on improvements for my power point presentation. We learn from mistakes best. It was a good start for a team building exercise.

Following earlier suggestions of Frank Fabri, Kevin split us into groups and we worked and got down to further business.


It was interesting to see how our different Grundtvig National Agencies interpret differently the rules about finances.

I was happy that we were still in agreement about our objectives and that there is commonality though our institutions are so diverse.

Our institution found good rapport with Lukas Richterek of Czech Republic over mathematics and science and we agreed that language awareness in communication of these topics both in the mother tongue and foreign tongue should not be too simplistic. It was good to meet with Jonathan again and talk about innovation and creativity in sustainable development. It was good to meet with Frank Fabri and Franco from Theresa College. Their Maltese expertise in European projects was very useful.

Our audience varied from 23 to one or two hundred and more depending on the type of activity that Ana Amaral had organised for the 10th anniversary of Arte Via. I learnt quite a bit about their motivation and enthusiasm and joy of living and learning. This is not genetics; it is in their environmental and educational training.


The two days were packed full but I have already forgotten so many of the visually experiences. I remember the workshop activities, and all the singing and dancing but my memory of what we ate is missing. I have the visual recall of drinking hot chocolate in a bar in Porto; I have the visual memory of preparing the foods and eating the other European delicacies but maybe next time we could have a postcard by the dishes explaining what it is and a short recipe in English and the mother tongue. This is a photo opportunity for language awareness. I remember that my great grandfather's recipe attracted a lot of comment. I remember tasting the coffee in the coffee shop during break but most of all I remember the animals made from pastry in the Lousa cafe window by the library.

Unfortunately I don't remember what I tasted during lunch and dinner. I remember it was a lot, too much and very little fruit as we networked so much during these meals. My personal routine is for a large breakfast, a light lunch and an even lighter evening meal. Joji told me that the feedback he got from veterans of international projects is that large meals is normal. I remember that in the ancient hotel / restaurant, that we reorganised the tables, drank some corked wine and I found a bone in the meat which looked like a small molar tooth but the light was too bad and I too tired to complain about it. Sorry the light was not bad it was romantic but some light theme music from the 18/19th century might have given the room more mood.

The Fado singing organised by Arte Via later relaxed us. The eloquent full pronunciation by the singer in comparison to modern popular songs was interesting to hear and see.. When I closed my eyes, though the words were not understood; the assonances and consonants and the Fado tune of the mandolin relaxed and unwound.

I shall remember the dancing at the disco on the other side of the road. I think the keyboard player/singer enjoyed our interaction as an audience and we encouraged the best out of him. Jonathan , Pepe and Frank used this opportunity to disseminate about Grundtvig and our let’s project in an innovative way. The owner / barman and waitresses (who are reading degrees or diplomas) and pianist were recruited to our project and we hope that Ana Amaral can encourage them to join her centre. I wonder what the pink Floyd song leave the kids alone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUASiDg-kg4 or the Just Do It song would sound rewritten as a Fado and played on a mandolin. Maybe here is an opportunity for a future gold disc and I hope that the young man and the Fado singer can be motivated to rewrite the two songs together.

My best memory will always be recycling handfuls of maize leaves and the Berlin Wall to coax the fire and D----- K---- complaining about the danger and then seeing her face as she enjoyed the heat of blaze. I enjoyed grilling a cob of maize to the rhythm of drums and accordion.

I shall always feel sorry for the ghost of the princess of Lousa castle and her two lovers who died in a duel. At least her two lovers settled it privately unlike the Greeks and Trojans who fought bloody battles over Helen of Troy.

I shall treasure forever the memory of sharing an impromptu meal of sweet figs and salted whole grain bread with 3 Lousan children, in the dark night by the exhausted glow of a brazier on the cul de sac before Castle Lousa, after the dancing, on the tenth anniversary of Arte Via; and sharing a shot of fig moonshine with a Lousan mother and buying her half empty bottle of this moonshine with a kiss..

The restaurant at the bottom of a 1 in 20 gradient of Castle Lousa was amazing but I had been already jaded by the feast with the Lousan mother and her children. The features of the restaurant converted from a watermill are astounding. The Portuguese children, the I---- participants , remarked were better behaved then those back home. The first course was delicious and consisted of traditional sausages with beans and a salad of goat cheese. Unfortunately my appetite had been spoilt by the figs and salted bread and I could not do justice to the traditional salted cod and boiled potatoes in skins or the mess of different sweet deserts.

The evening in the restaurant ended well with the handing out of certificates of participation by Kevin and Ana. Our farewells in the evening and morning were emotional and we parted like sisters and brothers of the very large family we had become.

Joji John and I arrived safely in the UK. We walked to Lousa A station at 8 am and reached home in Uxbridge after 9 pm. 6 hours of that was actual travel time. The other six hours was waiting. As there were only us two: keeping up a conversation; attempting some evaluation, developing thoughts for the future was an easy matter. I think that taking a larger group of adult learners is going to need many alternative plan B’s for each organiser just incase there are delays. I think that learners like Ana Amaral's village which has such cohesion and esprit will not have a problem (I can picture them doing an impromptu dance class at an airport or at bus or train station).

Our Easy jet plane had 100% occupancy, we had to sit separately. It was so tight that once I sat down, I had no chance to take off my coat and jacket or find my belt.(I can hear the sniggers about my weight already:-)) The flight was very bad and we both had headaches.

The metal foil of my aspirin set off the alarm in the airport. The security refused to allow our breakfast orange juice into the airport even though it was packaged and sealed. For whose benefit this is supposed to be I do not know; I think the airplane benefits the most because the price of a soft drink starts at 1.50 Euro.

The worst to happen to us, was in freezing London, where tube delays were caused by weekend engineering works of the circle underground, failure of the metropolitan and traffic jams near Chelsea football stadium. The building works at Heathrow airport and engineering problems on the Underground of the Circle and Metropolitan brought us back to earth. The Portuguese treat life in a different way.

Krzysztof

12th November 2009

"This Grundtvig project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein."