Arrivals, arrivals, arrivals

The trainers and support members arrived in Amarante already a few days before the start of the training in order to make the final decisions about the TC. We had 5 trainers and 2 support members working on the training.

The first participants, Italians, arrived in the evening of April 1^st. Such a lovely group. Although they met for the first time all together in the airport they seemed like a punch of friends. When arriving their first questions was obviously – when are others arriving? Unfortunately I had to disappoint them while saying that tomorrow evening. Still they found something to do for them – first discovering Amarante by night and the next day making the advertisement for the window of Casa de Juventud. It’s a custom of CJ to put an enormous poster on the main window so that everyone else could see what’s happening. The Italians took their job extremely seriously – put on some tunes and started painting, cutting, inventing. At one point the trainers went in and came back with a saying – we should be motivating and inspiring them, not the other way around! But it was true – the deep commitment and feeling was incredible!

Late at night arrived others. First the Lithuanians who were exhausted after their day in Lisbon and almost a 5 hour trip from Lisbon to Amarante. And then started the confusion. First called the Romanians from the airport of Porto saying that their luggage is lost and the are not able to catch the last bus. I advised them to push the airport personnel as much as possible so that maybe they still have a chance to catch the bus. Unfortunately not. Finally they reached Amarante around midnight and without any luggage. They were concerned, upset and tired as one can be after such a journey. And then called the Polish who also were not able to catch the last bus. They were in Porto without any clue how to get to Amarante. Finally we managed to order them a taxi and they arrived a bit after midnight. Only the two Portuguese managed to arrive without any confusion. But nevertheless, we were happy that they arrived safe and sound, some complications are more than normal while taking the routes they had to.