Hola from a village of 90 (?) percent old people.

I feel like back in a different time, cut off from “my reality” one more time.

There is no stress, there is no hurry… people are sitting in front of their shop and talking, all day.

Every once in while you see someone gardening or going throught he village with the tractor.

And I wonder how they think about the rushing people in the streets of big cities.

Exchange economy and gift economy are normal. Of course, as you live together with the people since many years, you know them, you want to have a good relationship with them, so you share what you have.

The young people go to the towns to find work there. Today we saw some of them with their big cars and wannabe-sexy clothes getting very drunk at noon already in the bar close to here, shouting round loud - on Saturdays it seems they dont have better things to do.

The old people just sit and watch, it seems nothing can shock them. They have their granny-community and it seems they make the best of it.

The gaia people got the “centro de convergencia”-house from the “municipality”, when they asked the government for an empty space in the countryside that they could use.

Aims are first to bring young people out of the city, but also to get the local cultural life and economy running again. People already bring some eggs and other stuff, the few Portuguese kids are playing here.

In future the people who visit the centro could get all their products they use from the local people.But at the moment the people don’t produce, except for their own use.

gaia offers internet, printings, etc, and cinema and other cultural events. But the most important is: it brings (young) life to the village.

This is the kind of centro social that this society needs, one that is accepted by all the surrounding people and open for evrybody, not just for the members of a certain scene.

I am fascinated by the potencial of this place and it definetely goes onto my list of “places to come back to” (-> one amongst 3 or 4 places I saw in this tour!).

The young people and old people here have a lot to learn with and from each other and I hope they will …

I am also curious to see other places that gaia created, as this centro social is only one of 3 in portugal run by gaia. We had an exchange circle and Andre, who is fixed employe of gaia explained us a lot about how it works, etc.

The most special thing about gaia, (which was founded 1996 as a student environmental action group in Lisboa) , is the ideas of consensus decision making and of decentralisation.They are the only big environmental association in Portugal that works according to these principles.

In practical words and pictures: this means, that e.g. if you work here as a volunteer for a year, you are regarded equal in meetings and your opinion is as important as the others ones who are here since longtime. People work TOGETHER.

The people in the different regional groups of Portugal (that is at the moment in Lisboa, Porto and here, Alentejo -one in Coimbra stopped again) decide on their own what priorities they set, what actions they do and how they organise with each other. Exchange happens by people visiting the other places of other groups, there is no central structure for exchange or decision making on a national level.

Andre explained that to have national meetings is just too tiring and that they now see their potencial in expanding according to regional needs and priorities instead of national campaigns (which they did more in the beginning)

It is a bit sad that we didnt get into a deeper exchange but it seems people are very busy.

So we use the infrastructure at least and are sitting on the computers most of the time, trying to fix stuff and doing brainstormings. This evening we meet Rita, who is teacher of the alternative school in Tamera to talk with her about the alternative education congress that she organises, about how to build local (skillsharing) networks and of course tsolife. Sam prepared a presentation of his ideas, a very proffesional one with pictures, etc

Tomorrow we are invited to Tamera, hopefully we meet the journalist that we met in Valle de Sensaciones in Lisboa and then we head off to Porto on Monday or Tuesday

Last 5 posts by anja

• Que pasa? - December 15th, 2009
• project update - July 22nd, 2009
• erste Infoveranstaltung in München / first info event in Munich - June 21st, 2009
• back in the land of rain - June 6th, 2009
• game over ... the last day - May 31st, 2009