emigration

Feliz Malaga!

Personal

I am ending this year on a very positive note. It wasn’t the easiest and it was also a life-changing year yet everything seems to have gone well at the end. I am very happy I spent the last days of 2019 among my nearest and dearest in my new home: Malaga.

For a start, I have avoided seasonal light deprivation and for a change, I am amazed by the fantastic, relatively long and sunny days, impressive sunrises and sunsets and festive lights in the night. Secondly, and this is already the practice from many previous years, I signed out from the Christmas consumptionism and craziness. The craziest being listening to local, traditional Christmas carols which was a profoundly heart-touching experience. With my dearests we reject presents and we gift each other with quality time, cooking food we like or visiting new places to eat out as well as going to classical music concerts. This is so much more memorable than spending money on gifts no one really needs or expects. For a change, you create prevalent memories.

Weather in Malaga helps staying active, for instance enjoying long walks and sports at the beach. It is obviously fun to watch overly enthusiastic tourists laying on the beach in bikinis or taking a plunge in the Mediterranean Sea. Yet, I can understand it, if you come from a sun-deprived country and want to make the most of it. I can say the record high during Christmas was about 24-25 degrees Celcius.

I have been working all these days, but at my own pace, often taking breaks to take care of myself and my loved ones, which is my mom and my partner. For the past weeks I’ve done most of my health check ups and I am so glad to find out I am healthier than ever and feeling energized. I feel very accomplished professionally, I am proud of having built an amazing, high performing and healthy team and looking forward for more to come in 2020. Also, to taking holidays and recharging more often, which kept me healthy so far as well.

Last but not least, I want to share my love, happiness and energy with everyone else who may lack it in this turning point of the month, year, or decade. I have been there and there are always a brighter days coming up. I didn’t plan anything special for tonight, as last night I spent a lovely evening with friends and I don’t feel I need to do anything else this year, I already feel great with all that happened.

2020 plan? Again, nothing special to ask for and still, so much to ask from yourself. Staying on the right trajectory with my North Star being: wellness (in all its aspects), integrity, love for the closest ones and for the rest of the universe, keeping the mind sharp and open for whatever is about to come.

On a closing note, attaching one of my favourite mixes coming from 2015 New Year’s set at Plastic People coming from Floating Points and Four Tet ❤

 

So… pack light!

Personal

Only partially related to travel, but here comes the story of my past month: I’m moving again.

After having spent almost five years in Berlin, like a bird craving the warmth of the sun, I’m heading back South and from there will continue reporting back on Lusofonetica, in the beautiful and sunny region of Spanish Andalusia!

There is a lot going on in my headspace, wrapping up my life from professional to very personal perspective. The change is constant but when such a big one happens, there is barely any time to think and reflect, so to be fair, I am sure the moments of saudade and retrospection will probably come in a few months from now.

I have learnt that it used to be easier to move around the world for me even a few years ago. Once I settled for good in places like Poznan, Barcelona or now Berlin, I grew roots and when moving to the new destination, had to leave a lot behind. Bureaucracy of changing cities, countries and continents is definitely painful but with a good deal of preparation it is bearable to go through it.

Even the most tedious, physical aspect of packing may be fun and gamified, as at the end of the day… these are simply the things. They are often heavy and may no longer serve us, but may bring joy to others. Just in a few weeks I’ve given away some books I love, winter clothes I will no longer (not so often at least!) need in my new home, and a bike which made my life in Berlin so free. I hope I also left a piece of me, not in a material sense in this special city.

Most importantly, I am grateful for getting to know such a great community and friends in Berlin. I will miss you all so dearly, I already actually do. So the most important luggage I take, is the quantity of love, trust and happiness I shared with my all these wonderful people.

Nôs Terra

Travel

Lisbon is especially interesting place for those who would like to discover not only Portuguese, but also Afrolusobrazilian culture.

It is a perfect place if you go to different Portuguese-speaking destinations, either as a stopover location or a final destination. To me Lisbon served as both for the past couple of years. After a brief episode of living in Portugal, I always felt certain nostalgia (cliche term of saudade is definitely relevant here) after this place and longing to travel to Portuguese-speaking destinations.

So last Christmas I gave my heart to the archipelago of Cabo Verde and of course, made a stopover in Lisbon. Apart from some very interesting animation show at the Praca de Comercio, there were some other highlights of that short stay, such as joining capoeiristas by the sunset.
This is where a friend of mine, who is very influenced by afrolusobrasilian culture, introduced me to some cultural associations and places where typically descendants of Portuguese-speaking African countries organize their concerts, events or festas.
I was also lucky to try the typical food from Cabo Verde: cachupa, before actually reaching my final destination. Be it Cabo Verde, Sao Tome e Principe, Moçambique, Angola or Guiné-Bissau, or even further in the world: Timor Leste, Goa or Macau – you will find all the places inside Lisbon, like travelling without moving.
Obviously, this has to do a lot with the history, and multiculturalism of Lisbon is an effect of post-colonialism processes. Upon my arrival from Cabo Verde I started digging deeper the topic of the descendants of the African countries living in Lisbon. ‘Nôs Terra’ shows the day-to-day specificities and also struggles of the Caboverdean community in Lisbon. It shows processes familiar to everyone who ever relocated, the in-between state of not belonging anywhere (the country of origin and current location).
I hope though that the unique multiculturality of Lisbon will stay a value itself. Music industry has already spotted Lisbon as one of the most interesting places in the world and so is becoming with art in general. There is no place like Lisbon, colourful, diverse and full of inspiration.

Poeira de Deus

Travel

My journey to Cabo Verde is not over. After having visited the islands Santiago and Fogo, I started researching about the whole archipelago more and more and it seems that the journey through the available material is endless. Each island represents a very unique history, culture and even more often: a dialect.

So during the cold evenings in Berlin, drinking the flowery moscatel and refreshing white wine from the volcanic soil of Fogo I managed to find a documentary about the Rebelados – a community that inhabits the mountain ranges of Serra da Malagueta, and refuses the catholic religion, that was historically imposed on Cabo Verde by the Portuguese colonisation that lasted until 1974. I find it particularly interesting to see the beautiful mountain landscapes and fascinating celebrations, such as batuque.

I have spent one day hiking around the Serra Malagueta range, and nearby towns such as Assomada and São Domingos, that are the centre of communication to/from Praia and Tarrafal. Also, they offer a bustling marketplaces with food, clothing and what-not. Having in mind that Cabo Verde is a remote archipelago with the majority of its population living abroad, and scarce possibilities for agriculture, many of the goods taken for granted in the Western societies, here are often a basic need to be fulfilled (such as food, or even water).

In some places rain has not appear in years. Even though Santiago is considered the island with the most tropical climate (and hence: cases of dengue, malaria and ultimately – zika are rare, but contrary to other islands of archipelago, may happen due to the presence of the mosquitos).

The magnificent views, however, and the hospitality (morabeza  – the word originating in Portuguese creole) can make up for the certain hostility of the climate on these remote islands. There is a beautiful story to it called ‘God’s powder’ (Poeira de Deus): on the 8th day after creating and sculpting the world, God threw the rest of the powder into the ocean, creating 10 islands of Cabo Verde. Believe or not, I think there is some truth in it.

 

Ilha de saudade – the sad stories from Cabo Verde

Travel

I have written quite a lot about the cheerful, colourful and paradisiac side of Cabo Verde. I believe there are even more adjectives to describe the archipelago, given that there are 10 islands, each of them of a very special characteristics. Yet there is one thing they have in common: the remoteness, from the African continent, not to mention the other parts of the world.

I was always attracted to remote islands, and even more when I read the book from Judith Schalansky. As she said in one of the interviews “Islands, especially those that seem most remote, are perfect places. They capture your imagination. For people who feel stressed, the island is an ideal image of a place where you can find peace, and where you can finally concentrate on what is really important. Maybe that’s where the question originates: What would you bring to a desert island? Each utopia wishes for a new beginning, for a chance to do everything differently. All it takes is untrodden territory and an answer to the question: Is another, better life possible?”.

Is it always the case though? Cabo Verde was uninhabited until the discovery and colonization by the Portuguese explorers in 15th century. Since then, they became an important shipping and commercial route, also when it comes to the shameful slave trade. This shed light on many people of Cabo Verde asking for their actual origins.

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During my stay on the Santiago island, I was also faced with rather unusual place to visit during holidays: a concentration camp. I never heard about the concentration camp on the beautiful location like this, and more about the camp that was running for over 40 years. It was build in Tarrafal in 1936 by the authoritarian government of Salazar and was torn down only with the independence of Cabo Verde in 1975. There is an interesting documentary (“Memories from the camp of the slow death” – due to severe and dry conditions) about the survivors of the camp, mostly political prisoners from the former Portuguese colonies, e.g. Guiné Bissau, São Tomé or Angola:

The feeling of saudade – longing, separation (knowing that the majority of the Cabo Verde inhabitants live in diasporas outside of the archipelago: mostly in Paris and in Lisbon) is also reflected in mornas, the musical style originated in Cabo Verde or in the look of homeless dogs, wandering around from the town centres to the beaches, and all you need to do is to carefully get acquainted with them as you go along.

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Thinking about it a bit more in-depth, Cabo Verde lays nowhere and at the same time, at the crossing of the routes from East and West, North and South and the influences of other cultures and political issues were reflected on this very special islands.