Sunday afternoon, we all gathered at Hotel Moov Centro in Porto, walked to our bus and rode to Domus, our home for the week. Domus is located in Palmeiro, Braga, Portugal - Palmeiro is a suburb of the city of Braga, the largest city in the province of Braga. Monday morning, we were greeted by Filipa.
We then drove to the build site in Tadim, another town in the province of Braga. The building is about 100 years old, had been used as a factory and was now being converted into six apartments.
The building is in a nice neighborhood and has common walls with other very nice residential buildings.
One area has had the roof and ceiling removed and will become a courtyard for the apartments that connect to it. Many people spent many hours smoothing over the walls - on the other side of the courtyard walls are other residences not part of the Fuller project.
Another task was cutting two holes in the wall for windows - the holes had to be 100 centimeters/40 inches wide and 140 centimeters/56 inches tall. The wall in question was as thick as 75 centimeters/30 inches. That meant many very large rocks, concrete, mortar and stucco had to be removed. We also had to brace the upper sections of the openings because we were removing the vertical support.
On Wednesday and Thursday, our team was split into two groups to work on another apartment that would be used to house refugees from Ukraine. After Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, many refugees from Ukraine moved to Portugal and have continued to reside there. When Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, those earlier 2014 refugees took in the newer 2022 refugees - but since it appears they will need long term housing, new residences need to be found. This apartment is on a busy city street and is on the top floor (third American floor, second European floor) with a auto mechanic business on the ground floor.
The roof had leaked, so much of the work here involved patching and repairing walls and ceilings.
Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evening, we had dinner prepared by Sophia, one of the staff at Domus. All fifteen of us sat around the table together. Wednesday evening, we had been scheduled for a walking tour of Braga and dinner at Retro Kitchen restaurant - but because of rainy weather, this was rescheduled to Thursday evening. Instead, we had pizza delivered for a relaxing meal where the Chairperson of the board of directors thanked us for our efforts. We also ate all of our breakfasts here. Lunches were eaten at local restaurants near the two work sites.
Did I mention that some of the rocks we took out of the wall were huge? It took a lot of work to dislodge them and to get them safely from the opening in the wall down one meter/40 inches to the floor.
On the first hole for a window, framing and pouring concrete had begun.
Since several of the boulders were too large to even roll by two people, we used a drill to make a series of holes across the rock, and then using a sledge hammer and chisel could break the rock into more manageable size pieces. This rock was eventually broken into four pieces - each of them too heavy to lift, so they were carefully flipped end over end out of the way.
Multiple projects were going on simultaneously, in spite of nearly half the team working at the apartment for the refugees from Ukraine on Wednesday and Thursday.
Thursday evening, we had our walking tour of Braga, starting at the old gate on the south side of the city, then through the city to view many of the historical sites.
The city of Braga does not have many green spaces, so the open space they do have is well cared for and kept in top notch condition.
Our tour ended at the Holy Cross Cathedral (above) and we then went to Retro Kitchen Restaurant for a marvelous dinner (click on the link to see more of the restaurant).
Friday, the team was back together with all of us at the 100 year old building in Tadim. That meant we could take team photos.
At our morning break, there was a school group performing in the plaza across the street from us. I took a couple of photos and a video of them.
After cleaning up and putting away tools, we had a short closing ceremony. We each received a certificate recognizing our volunteer work with Fuller Center, said our goodbyes and took some fun photos.
Back at Domus, a couple of us went in the pool and all of us socialized. Our build ended with Sophia's superb home cooked meal. And then it was time to pack and get a good night's sleep before our tour on Saturday.
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