Portuguese neighbours

[travelling-man]

My nearest neighbour is about 500 yards away. I've only met him a handful of times, he doesn't speak English & I don't yet speak any Portuguese.......... and yet, despite that I came home from visiting my wife in hospital today & found some kind soul has cut all the lawns around my house.

I figure it can only be him because he's the only one who knows I haven't had time to buy a strimmer because of the hospital visits.

What a nice man huh!

[notlongnow]

Our Portuguese neighbours sadly moved a little while ago and they were the best neighbours we'd ever had - would always bring us big bags of plums and figs from their land - we reciprocated with various cakes and before long barely 2-3 days went by without us taking each other something. At Christmas the whole family came round with gifts - it was incredibly touching. We really miss them.

I wish your wife a speedy recovery

[noserhodes]

Originally Posted by travelling-man

My nearest neighbour is about 500 yards away. I've only met him a handful of times, he doesn't speak English & I don't yet speak any Portuguese.......... and yet, despite that I came home from visiting my wife in hospital today & found some kind soul has cut all the lawns around my house.

I figure it can only be him because he's the only one who knows I haven't had time to buy a strimmer because of the hospital visits.

What a nice man huh!

We have been overwhelmed with our neighbours' and people in the village's generosity, since arriving here in March, we have been given copious amounts of wine, eggs, cheese, bread and a variety of veg and salad, olive oil and other stuff. Also lots of help, we have been loaded scaffolding, had tree stumps taken out for us, been given free wood to build a pergola, the list goes on and on! We are finding it difficult to repay their kindness, so far we have only managed to have them round for BBQ's and have baked them cherry crumbles with the copious amount of cherries we have been given!

As we are the only english people in our village we have had no choice but to try our best with the lingo. The best way to learn is by speaking to the locals so give it a go and one way or another you seem to get to understand each other!!

Best wishes to your wife for a speedy recovery.

[travelling-man]

I guess we'll have a couple of BBQs for the locals if this lousy weather ever improves and I'm sure I'll be able to drown 'em in fruit later in the year! LOL

[Sonho]

I am so happy to hear of your good experiences. Noserhodes, you are right...this is the best way to learn the lingo.

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by notlongnow

Our Portuguese neighbours sadly moved a little while ago and they were the best neighbours we'd ever had - would always bring us big bags of plums and figs from their land - we reciprocated with various cakes and before long barely 2-3 days went by without us taking each other something. At Christmas the whole family came round with gifts - it was incredibly touching. We really miss them.

I wish your wife a speedy recovery

Our experiences since moving here has been exactly as yours, we live in a small rural village and have been "adopted" by the largest family of the village.
This family all live in our village from mum/dad, sons and daughters and their respective sons and daughters and we get invited to all their social and family celebrations.
As an example, the first week we arrived we were invited to a BBQ on the Saturday by the eldest daughter of the head of the family, it was a grand affair that included spit roast javali and copious amounts of booze.
The following day (Sunday) again we were invited to the same venue with the same family members to another BBQ this time the invitation was from the eldest son of the family!....upon asking if this was typical I was told no we just wanted to welcome you to our village............My wife and I were really made to feel like part of this family and since that day two years ago at another more recent family celebration it was announced by the patriarch Romero (84) that we are now offically primos ingleses (English cousins).....and we are so proud of that.