This is a story that includes a concrete mixer, a vacuum cleaner, a paio with more than a meter in length, a Magalhães computer…and the good mood and the knowledge of how to receive from the Alentejo people.
It's a story, but true, one of those people who are used to saying: «only seen, told, no one believes!»
Last weekend, I participated in another cultural visit by the Grupo dos Amigos do Museu de Portimão, this time to Vila Viçosa and its Ducal Palace, which we visited with its director, Maria Monge, as a guide.
After dinner, it was just after ten at night, and because we had seen some fireworks, part of the group decided to go for a walk around the village, to take a look at the party that, due to the music that was heard, was nearby. We had been told that at this party a tractor would be raffled…
We arrived at a square, near the Paço Ducal, almost in darkness, where we came across the following picture: on one side, next to a beautiful and ancient marble fountain, a jeep Portaro was parked, almost as old as the fountain, and illuminated by psychedelic flashing lights that alternated between blue and red. The lights, please clarify, were placed under the jeep. And blinked…and blinked…
On the other side of the square, the most important piece: a pickup truck, with the sidewall open on one side, and, up there, a cement mixer, lit up with more psychedelic lights. On top of the van's cabin, a small computer, also with flashing lights and connected to powerful speakers, from which disco music came at a very high volume. It was like there was a DJ there…ghost.
Because the most curious thing is that, despite the frantically flashing lights and loud music, there wasn't a soul to be seen in the square...
As for the purpose of the concrete mixer, soon there were those who said that, after all, instead of the tractor, the concrete mixer should be the object of the raffles... little did we know...
We were in these conjectures when, from a street that leads to the square, a man came up to us and greeted us very cheerfully: "So you were coming to the party?" he asked us. “Yes…but it looks like it's over, doesn't it?”, we replied. "Yes, but I can explain to them what this party is," said the man.
And there he explained to us that it was a party promoted by Association Alegres Olival, from Rua da Pascoela, right there beside the square, to raise funds. In addition to the raffles, he added, they also promote “garraiadas no olive groves” and, above all, participate in the Florida Street contest, organized every year by the Vila Viçosa City Council and where they have already won two prizes. "We have 118 vases of flowers here on the street, in addition to the paper flowers we make to decorate everything." This year, he explained to us, the party will be on the 7th of July. And then we were all invited to go back there!
But what are these lights, the jeep, the cement mixer?
The jeep, «a Portaro from 1980, with inspection carried out until the end of this year, 2018», as João Nunes, the association's leader, told us, was the main prize of the raffles that had already been drawn during the party.
And the cement mixer? «The concrete mixer? So the cement mixer is the tombola!” he explained, with a laugh. The tombola? Like? And then he jumped on top of the pickup truck, started the cement mixer. Turning and turning, the balls with the numbers that were left over from the draw were well mixed. And he pulled out of that super imaginative tombola a ball with a written number, which was sucked by the vacuum cleaner he held in his hand. In other words, with a concrete mixer and a vacuum there was an animated draw… we, at that point, were already squirming with laughter, with the demonstration made, as can be seen in the video I made at the time.
«And the computer up there, to play the music, do you know what it is? It's a Magellan! Or a Socrates, as we call him!», added the amused host. Another burst of laughter.
But there was still a detail to make this scene more spicy, all of it worthy of a Fellini film…or Kusturica: the super paio!
The raffle prizes were as follows: “1st a jeep Portaro from 1980, but with inspection carried out by the end of this year, 2018; 2nd six liters of gasoline/diesel [said like that: six liters of gasoline bar diesel]; 3rd a reflective vest; 4th a 1 meter paio; 5th a full bottle of wine; and 6th an empty wine bottle». Another burst of laughter from us.
There, and because the night was cold, João Nunes invited us to go to the headquarters of the Associação Alegres Olival, which is nearby, on Rua da Pascoela, for a drink «enamel». And off we went. The minis were taken from a fridge that couldn't stay closed, with the door always opening. When we pointed this out to him, he replied: «that's how he works best!»… and there the fridge was left wide open.
The minis, an offer from the association to the group of Algarvians, sparked the conversation even further. And there was talk, in a good-humored way, about the one-meter-long paio, which was seen there, in the next room, where the store owner was Palad'art, producer of said whose. As his shop, on Rua Florbela Espanca, would only open on Sunday at 10:00 am, and the Grupo dos Amigos do Museu de Portimão would leave Vila Viçosa earlier, so the super paio was sold and bought right there.
Then, there was a volunteer to carry him, on her shoulder, such was the size of the person, to the hotel, which was not far. Neither of the two men in our group wanted to transport the paio…who knows why…
arrived at Solar dos Mascarenhas hotel, we asked the receptionist if it would be possible to keep the paio in the kitchen until the next morning, so that its smell would not invade the room of one of us. The boy, who must have thought that we had bought regular sausages, as soon as he saw the enormously sized paio, exclaimed: “Hey there! This is what a paio is!».
This is, in fact, a story that had to be lived to be believed. And not even what I tell here does justice to what happened, such was the surrealism of the scene. It is an example of our Portuguese affability, this way of being Portuguese. That Californian (inhabitant of Vila Viçosa) didn't know us from anywhere, but soon there were bonds of conviviality and friendship.
we've already tasted on your facebook page, so that we can follow the activities of that association, made up of well disposed and super friendly people. And, because times are social networks, know that, whoever wants to, can even buy raffles for these draws via the internet. «Just tell us, in a message on Facebook, we send the NIB and you do the bank transfer».
And look, the prizes are nothing to sneeze at: in July, for the party on the 7th, an LCD will be raffled, those bottles of wine, one full, the other empty. And the paio, of course. The super paio. Another, that this is already ours and will now be shared…and tasted.
Author: Elisabete Rodrigues is a journalist and director of Sul Informação
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