One of my favorite students at CCSF has family in Portugal. She asked me to bring them a backpack with some gifts for them and especially for her new baby brother, Santiago. They live in Costa da Caparica, which is about 45 minutes from Lisbon by bus. Luckily, my friend Shelly went with me because my Portuguese is still not good enough to communicate well.
We had a really nice time meeting Vania, Lindemar, Ingrid, Yasmin, and baby Santiago. Vania prepared an amazing lunch which included very delicious Brazilian-style food such as a stew with "maniocas", an orange vegetable (cassava) like a sweet potato, feijoada (beans with some meat), rice and of course there was some excellent Portuguese wine. We were so impressed with their hospitality. They made us feel so comfortable and welcome.
It was very special for me to meet this family and to get to see where my student Fran is from. So often, I teach people from all over the world and though they sometimes show me pictures of their families and where they are from, this is the first time I have actually visited a student's family. It was such a great experience for me and I'm very grateful to Fran, and her family, and to my friend Shelly for making this possible.
After lunch, Shelly and I wanted to go to the beach and Yasmin decided to go with us. Lindemar gave us a ride to a little train that you can take to different beaches along the Costa da Caparica. It was so nice there. It was a sunny day and the water was warm. Yasmin wanted to go in the water over and over again so I went with her. We had a great day at the beach.
Later, when we returned from the beach, Vania had prepared a wonderful sobremesa (dessert) for us. It was a "maracuja" (passionfruit) tart. I have remembered that word, maracuja, because of that delicious treat.
But, the biggest treat of the day was meeting Santiago. He is a beautiful boy and I know Fran is really looking forward to meeting him very soon.
I'm so glad that Fran asked me to make this special delivery. It was a window into the life of a hard-working and accomplished student who I know will go very far. Now I can understand more about the lives of my students and where they come from. Thanks Fran and special thanks again to Shelly for everything !!!
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