We arrived in Portugal after a long, but smooth journey. We got bumped to business class (which was lovely) and even boarded the plane with John Cusak (an L.A. moment). All luggage arrived with us and we were met at the airport by two folks from Tamera, the community we're staying at here in one of the most undeveloped places in Europe - surrounded by a rolling, dry California-like landscape. Cork trees are scattered, their bottom halves black, where the cork has been harvested. It's dry and hot by day - chilly and humid by night.
Tamera is 130 hectars and has many buildings spread throughout. The founders are German, so there are lots of them here; many with sun-bleached hair and stinging blue eyes.
We're spending most of our time in the Youth Village with 22 "youth" (19-35) from all around the globe who are here for two months to study peace work. They're from Ghana, Brazil, Columbia, Finland, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the U.S., Israel, and Palestine, to name a few. Amazing people with touching stories who are doing powerful work in the world. It's so inspiring.
I spent most of my first day playing music with people, amazingly unfazed by the time difference. Claudio (one of the warmest and most charismatic people I've ever met) is a musician much like you, Adam. It just pours from him with unbridled enthusiasm. He's teaching us all to dance, sing, and play Samba (I'm in . Aaron and I were invited to a session later that night in their meeting hall which ended up being an unbelievable groove/funk dance session with incredible musicians and totally unexpected. We've been asked to play at the opening of Summer University and have a rehearsal tonight - yes! Seems like there's music coming from somewhere at all times here. Conversation is always rich.
We're in session with the Youth Summer for the day for the rest of the week and then we'll be doing service in and learning about the solar village here before their biggest event of the year. 350 peace workers from all over the world will be arriving for Summer University next week. I can't even imagine. It's been a profound experience to live in a truly global community and our presence, as Americans (we're the only ones in the group), has been welcome. Phew.
Aaron is well too, in a super-human way. It's like he didn't travel at all and has been running through the hills and doing yoga in his spare moments.
We're missing you all and hope that you're well. Let us know! We should have a chance to be online a few times a week.
MUCH love,
E&A
