BUILDERS OF CREATIVE AND COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE

Samba Résille meets the Alentejana tradition

Tuesday 27th of February 2018 – 4pm – Traditional Alentejano singing workshop

Back to Amadora for a part of us, neighborhood whose social project is to gather people. Here, rooms are at disposal for associations or local groups to gather, organize sportive activities, rehearse or just drink coffee.

One of these groups try to make last a tradition of polyphonic singing, transmitted from generation to generation in the region of Alentejo, agricultural and vinicultural region expanding from the south coast of Portugal to the border with Spain in the west, and lining the Faro region at the extreme south.

Before the time of social networks, the farming and ascetic life of those regions offered few distractions to the young men meeting at night to sing all together the life of a man in the countryside, love and nature. Some representatives of this traditional heritage, in the list of the UNESCO World Heritage, are facing us this afternoon to give us of glimpse of it.

Ten grandpas, red scarf around the neck and lots of lapel pins on the jacket, proudly begin to sing and take us in a trip to the past. These living museums don’t have scores; their vibrant voices take the whole space and our heart’s space. These little songs lean on musical codes that our ears don’t have the habit to listen, with harmonization on the fourth and the fifth.

Our little assembly is really focused to master the pronunciation and the singing, but at the end the experience is magical! Our eyes are shining in front of these men holding a tradition that doesn’t interest their grandchildren and that should die with them. We have the feeling to live a unique moment, to receive a gift.

At the end, a little exchange of questions allows the meeting, but what seals this beautiful exchange is the offered lunch in this tiny place, where old and young, music and singing amateurs are piled up around soup tureens where nothing is missing (pasta, chickpeas, bacon, potatoes), and whose walls have club flags and yellowing pictures reminded the memory of the disappeared.

Friday: we leave at 2pm to go to Lisbon… By bus.

The concept of interculturality of the Erasmus + stay is already within the group, with its colorful tastes and eclectic topics of discussion. We share our hypothesis on this coming experience of busy meetings, we share pieces of music, and we share food… Precisely in Spain, and we put in common our team’s games (childish interculturality) during the long break in Salamanca at 3 am.

I have to confess that something unifies us: we all wear tracksuit or saroual pants, essential and totally transcultural element to make the trip comfortable. We all anticipated the collective experience! And crossing the Pyrenees and Spain was exactly as we thought it was going to be, even if we had the surprise to search for a gas station between 1 and 2 am in the Salmantin countryside, adventure that kept us in suspense with our eyes wide open and got us to arrive in Lisbon really tired but excited.

First experience of the intercultural beyond the border: the Portuguese language. Since we stopped in the highway cafeterias or even when we entered the city, many of us try to pronounce Camões language, to understand it and to invent strategies to speak it. Eu falo un pouco de português… Camões, de la compréhension et des stratégies pour parler. Eu falo un pouco de português…

9:30 am: after 19 hours of bus and lots of kilometers behind us, we unload our luggage near the pier, and we proudly carry our instruments decorated with our logo in the streets of Lisbon. And we need courage to go up the slope, eyes still full of sleep and bodies tensed by the bus seats. Arrived in the Old Town and Alface hostels: by their international characteristic, they allowed us to meet strangers like us, already charmed by the atmosphere of Lisbon and giving us good advices.

Then it’s in the bedroom that interculturality occurs: “who sleeps above? Underneath? Who has its outfit for the week? Do you brush your teeth with an electrical toothbrush? I took aspirin, just in case… I have a multi-socket…” Words of the daily-life that take nothing out of the charm of this collective life, on the contrary!

12h: It’s time to go to lunch and the group splits to discover the city. Between those deciding to taste the ginginha in the closest bar, those deciding to stride along the streets to find terraces in the sun, and those deciding to discover the market, everybody experiments the Portuguese drinks and cooking.

And while some decide to continue to experiment by tasting the pasteis de nata and visiting Belem’s beautiful architecture, others go to their bed to take a nap (not really intercultural, unless…). Don’t forget our brave comrades of the Cooking Team already cooking in Bombrando’s place (metro station Arfonelos).

5 pm: we meet outside our hostels to go to Bombrando’s place, we exchange on our beautiful discoveries and share good deals.

6 pm: discover of the singular and living cultural and social center where Bombrando Bombrando has its offices and spaces for rehearsal. And the moment we all waited for comes: we meet Bombrando’s team! After the general hugs and some drinks, we have our first intercultural games, led by Clément and Mathilde. And we make line, we are all together. We wear signs covered with answers on questions asked by the comrades of both groups. The interculturality is this time written, and it’s really beautiful to read! The atmosphere is at its apogee when the intercultural diner arrives: the first courses are from the south west of France (cold meats, delicious sauces), the main course in the bacalhau a brás, and the diner finishes by the succulent deserts from Mafalda.

Fabio, Antonio, and all the Portuguese teenagers and young adults… So many beautiful meetings or reunions for the second evening of our Erasmus + stay, which is really about exchange! We all look forward to continue the adventure, although our eyes and brain need some hours of sleep.

Boa noite, or as the Fabulous Trobadors from Toulouse sing it, « Good night, good night, it’s time to go to bed, we wish you to have sweet dreams, it’s free cinema!”

The kit of the perfect manager

European mobilities are the opportunity to live exceptional moments: artistic exchanges, giggles, extraordinary learnings, culinary discoveries, amazing meetings, beautiful visits….

But all these experiences can’t happen without a rigorous and adapted management!

1.Pouch with all the necessary documents for a relaxed mobility:
List of all the participants;
List of all the important contacts (including the bus driver’s!);
Planning of activities and road maps;
Attendance sheets and sign-off sheets;
Invoice of the hotel and lists of rooms;
Insurance papers in case of medical problems, repatriation, etc.

2.Marker pens: 4.Post-It to deal with the last-minute changes and the important meetings with the partners (or the web-conference with the European commission)

3.Calculator to respect the budget in case of unplanned expenses!

4. Post-its pour gérer les changements de dernière minute et les rendez-vous importants avec les partenaires… ou les web-conférences avec la Commission européenne 🙂

More a few gifts for the partners and we are good to go!