9th May – Monday – “What is it like being a Teacher in my country”
“What is it like being a Teacher in my country” – teachers shared experiences, points of view, spoke about their countries and their Educational Systems. Teacher Carlos Ubaldo presented everybody with a very interesting lecture based on children and teenagers’ vision of their Teachers. Fantastic discussion!
9th May – Monday – Workshops
Day dedicated to workshops – engines roared at the Mechanics’; delicious meals at the Cookery’s (if it wasn’t for their delicious green cabbage soup and amazing cod fish, Teacher Alexandra could have kept her record of not having lunch for 3 days …) , “Bom dia! Obrigado! Vire à esquerda! Siga em frente!” learned and “walked” in the Portuguese class; coloured milk and cool scientists at the Chemistry’s; crazy feet moving for the Dance’s, tales retold at the Library’s; talents shown at the Be a pArt.
7 th May – Visit to Lisbon
9:00 am everybody in front of the school. The bus is already here, let’s go to Lisbon.
Arrival to Belém. What’s that? Impossible to get to Jerónimos, impressive parade in front of it. National Guard’s Day! Ok, we go out of the bus and go and watch it. Hei,hei, pay attention, the President of the Republic is coming! Is it because of us? We stand behind the horses, more than 50 of them. Take a picture of Mr. Cavaco Silva!” It’s the first time I see him, flesh and bone!” one of our Tourism students says. Take a picture. The National anthem is played – Portuguese teachers and students sing it loud and clear.
Cross the tunnel to Padrão dos Descobrimentos. Lots of pictures. Fantastic ones. Teacher Alexandra almost is a victim of pickpockets.
The bus can’t pick us there, we have to go and meet it – up, up the hill! Uff …
Bus driver can’t find his out, we aren’t allowed to go our way. What’s that in front of us? A convertible with a bride can’t find the way also. She waves us, we take some pictures.
Downtown – Restauradores. There isn’t enough time to go to Parque das Nações. We walk to Rossio, give some information about the area and most important monuments. Everybody is hungry, almost 2:00. Students and teachers explore the city – Chiado, Rua Augusta, Rua do Ouro, Praça do Comércio – shopping! Some teachers have lunch at Martinho da Arcada. The bus picks us at 5:00 – everybody is on time. Back to Caldas!
6 th May – Evening – Teachers’ dinner
Teachers’ dinner at school canteen prepared by teachers Lurdes and Inês with their great crew from the Vocational Class of Family and Community Support. Great job girls! Guest brought tasty desserts and good wines. Nice decoration again, Luisa and Celeste.
6 th May – Afternoon – Opening ceremony
Great moment, fantastic presentations from the different countries -imagination, creativity, sense of humour, talent. We were together. Fantastic decoration from teachers Luisa and Celeste, amazing artists! Band “Os Toma” made us shout, dance, have a good time – fantastic band leader, Fernando.
Daniel and Sá Lopes – who started the journey 20 years ago, were present among the guests. CIP is alive and will go on for many years to come!
6 th May – Morning – School tour
8:20 school has no classes, civil servants strike. Guest students and host students allowed to get inside. Not many teachers and members of the staff are there. Guided tour – teacher Militão leads the way followed by the several delegations. Each country has a “private guide” – Teacher Elisabete speaking german with the Germans, teacher Teresa goes with the Latvians and Teacher Vera with the Finns. Visit to the new school area, classrooms, arts area where it is given a short explanation about the Quiz “it’s real, it’s not fake” , mechanics and electronics workshops, outside group photos , some labs. At the end some coffee and cookies for the teachers. Some teachers that are in school join us, Teacher Urbina comes a little late, gets near the Finns and says:”I just had the first lesson.” Puts her right hand over her breast and continues:”My name is Urbina. How are you?” Great laugh.
Germans are here
5th May, 14:10, Caldas Central Bus station, the Germans arrive. Dulce and Alexandra are there waiting for them but there are also some other Portuguese students, they couldn’t stand waiting for them at school. They’re anxious – will they recognize them? Will they be nice? Will they understand each other? Fantastic, once again facebook was a great help. Even for Alexandra and Teacher Stephanie!
Short walk to school. Bags are quite heavy but the enthusiasm made them seem much lighter.
Finns are here
4th May, 7.30, Lisbon airport, Alexandra and Mª Céu wait for the Finish. Here they are, right on time and joyfully recognizing one of us. Travel to Caldas, the sun is still shinning. They say it’s hot and ask the driver to set the air-conditioning in a lower temperature. Alexandra and Céu almost freeze to death! All the way to Caldas they sing, they are very happy. Teacher Mari says they have been dreaming with this coming to Portugal all the year.
Latvians are here
Wednesday,3rd May , Lisbon airport, almost midnight. Latvians’ flight is late.Teachers Alexandra and Cibele wait and wait, OK they’ve landed. Time passes, they don’t show up. Ah, finally, they’re here. It’s 00:40. IIze , the Headmaster, she recognizes Alexandra. They’re all very tired. Also the students recognize Alexandra from the Facebook. 60 minutes to Caldas. Some talk in the bus. Arrival to Caldas, Portuguese Badminton Federation, the students stay for the night there, Teacher Pimenta is waiting for us there. 2:00 Am. Sleepy and very tired, but in Caldas. Teacher Ubaldo comes to pick two of the Latvian Teachers that we’ll stay at his house. Greets everybody – two kisses – Latvian Teacher didn’t know we kissed to greet. Almost runs away from him. He explains we kiss. She kisses him three times!O “Outsider” mais “Inside” (English)
I’ve had the happiness to participate in the school exchange programmes, accompanying my wife, Vice-director of The Secondary School Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, by visiting different countries. All of them beautiful, wonderful, even mysterious in what concerns their very own characteristics, whether they are their languages, their costumes, their food or music. But amazing, truly amazing, a wonder for the soul, are the men and women (teachers, pupils and their fellows) that I’ve been meeting and with whom I’ve been interacting and established wonderful and healthy friendships. 
But all of them made me be sure that, on the contrary of what many say, the human being is, undoubtedly, essentially good, pure and loving. Of all the times I had to tell them goodbye, tears ran out of my eyes. I that am scared to death to get in a plane, think I’m cured. I think!!!??? Departure, arrival, connexion airports, I’ve seen some, but Frankfurt with all its automatic runners, is amazing. Stories and incidents of all kind have been happening, but only the good and funny ones rest in my memory. Without any chronological order I remember, among many: – The Greek teacher who, having got lost from the group, right in the middle of the Polish forest, got to the fine conclusion, after a long period during which everybody was looking for him, that all the other 30 had got lost, not him! – The terrible 40º C that could be felt, even at 19:00, in Venice. I can’t even remember the temperature we had to stand at noon! – In Grenoble, France, when going alone for a walk, I found myself right in the middle of a demonstration against the salaries ‘cuts and the retirement age increase. And Mr. Coelho (Rabbit) (Monsieur Lapin), the old emigrant who adopted us and showed us the city? – The theatre play, a real drama, we were presented with at the Vilnius School, which theme was all about kings, queens, kingdoms and their courts, words that in the Lithuanian language all come from the word KING. If you really want to know (you, Portuguese speakers) why I almost cut my tongue in order not to laugh, check on the NET to see how the word KING is written in the Lithuanian language. It’s too much! – In Germany, with its rigid timetables, which makes us really run from the Hotel to the School, we were under such pressure that teacher Dulce didn’t notice what she had done and showed up at dinner with two different shoes, colour and model. – A time when, in Treviso (Italy), I taught our hosts a song, IN ITALIAN, that no one knew about. They got amazed! – The chaotic, really crazy, traffic in Napoli. No entry signs? Red lights? Driving on the right? Those are simple details for the Italian Traffic Code! – That meeting, right in the middle of Piazza San Pietro (Rome), with Priest Eduardo, who was also there going for a stroll. Imagine the Italian teachers’ surprise when they saw me meeting, so far away from Portugal, someone from my home town. And, it was so incredible, because he had been the one who had celebrated my wedding! – The amazingly easy way in which I was able to make the Polish students sing “Atirei o pau ao gato” (I threw a stick to the cat), and the most amazing was that they could understand what they were singing! Yes, for me it was a victory, I just learned English for three years and for some more French, but that was never a reason for me not to communicate and speak with everybody from the participant countries, even by using some words of the host countries where I’ve stayed. I always try to learn some of their vocabulary, not only words, but also some expressions. – To come down, on foot, for several kilometers, from the Olympus Mount (Greece).The tasty wild strawberries we picked in the way? – Finally, in Poland, the fact of having been considered the best “insider” of all the “outsiders” of the project.
João de Deus da Silva Gomes