Fuller Center Build, Braga, Portugal, April 25 - 29, 2022

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.

 

 

 

Friday, two of us spent the bulk of our time chipping off the remaining edges of the roof that had been removed in the courtyard by a prior team of volunteers.

 

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.

 

Weekend in Porto, Portugal, April 22 - 24, 2022

Before going to Braga, Portugal, with Fuller Center for Housing, I flew into Porto, Portugal and spent the weekend adjusting to the time change - eight hours difference between Phoenix and Porto.

Friday, after getting settled into my hotel room, I met up with Celia, Virginia and Richard for dinner.  We found a nice restaurant nearby and I had salad, grilled hake and vegetables.

Saturday, I met up with Mike, Martha and Forrest, and Celia and I wandered the streets of Porto.

We crossed over the Douro River on the lower level of the Pont Luis I - it was under construction so the walkways were just one way in each direction.

We walked along the south side of the Douro River to the lower end of the cable car.

We took the cable car back up to the upper level of the bridge.

Then we crossed back over to the north side of the river on the upper level of the bridge.

By Saturday evening, 13 of the team was able to go out to dinner together.  We ate on the roof top portion of the Casa Guedes restaurant.  A fine time was had by all - Robin and I enjoyed our two liters of sangria and shared it with several others.

Sunday morning, several of us had breakfast at the hotel.  I went out wandering the town and discovered a nice park to wander through.

And there were many buildings, especially churches, that have the famous Porto blue tiles.

Sunday afternoon, all of us gathered and then went off to the FCH Domus, where we will be staying for the next six nights and working each day in Braga.

Four weeks of self limited life due to Covid, Dec. 13, 2021 to Jan. 7, 2022

After returning from Spain on the 12th, I observed that everywhere I looked, Covid numbers were increasing. So we started to narrow the scope of our activities.

When I was out walking the dog, I saw that there were problems on 7th Street - I never did find out what was wrong, just that there was a lot of work and water on the west side of 7th Street.

On Tuesday the 14th, I did my regular day at the DBG, and even though outside, I wore my mask all of the time there except for lunch.  I took some daylight photos of the Chihuly exhibits that were outside.

While out walking with Megan and Piper, I took photos of the downed line and notified APS of the issue - the line had been down for several weeks, but it was good to have them come and check it out (APS did move it back from the street, but left it there).

We installed a new cellular shade in the second bedroom - this one is an up/down shade that combines both light filtering and room darkening.

 

 

My sister Helen sent us a nice floral centerpiece for Christmas.

I met Denise in Europe, at English immersion programs in Poland and Spain, but had never met her in the USA.  She had lived and worked in Massachusetts for many years, but then during Covid moved to Vermont to be near her daughter and grandkids.  She got a job with the Burlington School Department.  After a year, she left that job and started to travel again - between visits to family and friends around the USA, she stopped in Phoenix and we had lunch at the DBG.  She had this nice towel with a map of Vermont as a gift for me, so Patty and I hung it in our laundry room.  This photo also shows the new mixer that Patty got.

 

 

On the 16th, I attended the memorial service for my friend Ken - he died on his 86th birthday, the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving.  I was honored to be asked to speak as the representative of the Tuesday DBG Docents, so I went in my Docent uniform.  Ken's middle initial was F, so I focused on the F words - Farmer,  Father, Federal bureaucrat, member of our armed Forces who like me served in Germany where we chased the Frauleins, etc.  It was truly a nice celebration of his Ken's life.

 

On Monday the 20th, I was at the DBG to help light the 8,000 candles for Luminaria - there was no wind or rain, so we finished in less than an hour.

 

The next day, Tuesday the 21st, after my day at the DBG and the monthly Carlyle HOA board meeting, I found out that one of the docents that was at the memorial Thursday had tested positive for Covid and I had been at the same table with her. So I did three antigen tests over the next five days and all were negative.

Piper continues to delight and amuse us - she really is a very loving and fun dog.

Via Whatsapp, I continue to maintain contact with the groups from my November and December times with Vaughan Town.  Here is one of the funny comments.

Patty, Megan and I had a quiet Christmas. Day together, including a video call with Ben and Martha.  One of the gifts Patty got me was a selection of cheeses from Utah - all very good and all quickly eaten.

I saw this bumper sticker while out walking the dog, looked it up on line and found the weird story behind it.

Our Ikea kitchen has lights that come on when the drawers open.  One of them died and we found they no longer make that item.  So I went to the Ikea store in Tempe (the only one in the Phoenix metro area) and verified which one was the replacement and that they.did not have any in stock.  I was told that some would be coming in January and that I could look up the number and put an alert in the system so that when they arrived, I could get the alert and could then go to the store to get one.

We had a unknown, lazy neighbor who did not put their boxes in the recycling dumpster, so when the dumpster was emptied, the boxes slid just enough to be trapped by the dumpster, leaving a mess.  I had to cut them away from where they were jammed and then put this notice up on the community bulletin board.

 

 

McFarland's Rug Cleaners were closed from Dec. 24 to Jan. 3 for the holidays, so on my first visit they were closed.  When I returned on the 3rd, they were understaffed as the owners had come down with Covid (apparently from a family gathering) and only some of the employees were there.  So our three rugs from Nepal and a fourth from the master bedroom will be there for 4 - 5 weeks instead of the usual 2 - 3 weeks for cleaning.

Patty and I returned to Flagstaff on Wednesday the 5th.  We knew it had snowed a couple of times, so I had about 5 - 6 inches of crusty packed snow to shovel from our driveway.  Here is the sidewalk around the corner from our home.

Winter has caused us to gather the appropriate items to have in the car in case of an emergency.

Because of the increased numbers of Covid cases, I have decided not to restart going to my Silver Fit classes - even with my wearing a mask, being inside around others who are exercising without masks does not seem safe.  Traveling has been canceled.  Fuller Center for Housing canceled the build in Puerto Rico so my Jan. 22 - 30 trip is gone.  Since the CDC has Spain and Czech Republic on level 4 to avoid travel there, I canceled out of English Immersion programs there in February.

That leaves us at home with limiting our outings to quick shopping trips, medical appointments and picking up meals to go, all while wearing masks.  We are trying to get out and walk each day as we need to continue to exercise.   Happy 2022!!