Some Observations About Portugal

Portuguese people are not at all shy or retiring. When we lived in Uruguay, we found the people to be mostly quiet and not given to outbursts. I accidentally made a workman cry when I told him that my high school woodworking class would have done a better job on the cabinets. Hey... I was angry. Our house in Ilhavo is right on the street and you can hear conversations coming a block away.

One of the many local cafes

Coffee is just an excuse to sit around and talk for hours. When I stop into a cafe... it is to get a coffee. But I learned, today, that the best thing I could do, to learn Portuguese, is sit outside, with a coffee, next to a full table and just sit back and listen. Almost free Portuguese lesson.

The Portuguese have a great sense of humor. They love laughing and that is a great advantage when you are massacring their language. I think they get a laugh out of my poor attempts. I remember when we lived in Germany, that the locals enjoyed teaching us slang phrases, because it amused them when we spoke them. While sitting at a table for lunch, I said (and this is not spelled correctly) "schmeiss mal die butter ubber", which, loosely translated means "toss me the butter babe". The head of the table, gave me a solemn look and said "don't lower yourself, Wally".

A German friend of mine who spent some time with me in New York, learned some phrases and tried them out on his wife. "You know, dear, this morning we had a job that we thought was a 'piece of cake', but it turned out to be 'a real bear'." He was so proud of that, but it was so funny to hear him say it. So I get the humor of listening to my attempts to speak the language.

Anyway... got off the track. So the take-away is that I love Portugal and am very glad we are here.

Zoom Assembly

Wally and I, just finished attending our 1 day Circuit Assembly (by Zoom). We are in a foreign language congregation, English! So the entire assembly was held in the English language. Great for us!

Even though, we couldn't see them, there were 3 people baptized. The morning attendance was 902. I joked that Wally and I were the 2! The afternoon session saw an all-time high of 1003 in attendance.Those were English speaking attendees. Portugal has over 50,000 Jehovah's Witnesses. There are Spanish, Russian and English speaking congregations in addition to the main Portuguese language ones.

The day started at 9:40 am. and went till 4:40 pm; with a 1 hour and 15 min. break for lunch. There were audio Bible dramas and video presented situations to remind us of Bible principals. All in all,

the time flew by.

Chave Movel Digital

The citizens area

We were able to get our Chave Movel Digital, today. What is that, you ask? It is the government sponsored account that allows you to identify yourself, via your cell phone number and a 4 digit code you select. It is used in banking, healthcare and many other areas.

All the operations are visible

As non-citizens, we had to appear in person at our local town hall after making an appointment. This is a citizen's area where such transactions are handled. It was done very quickly and efficiently and in the end, we were able to log onto our health network, easily. With access to SNS (national health system), we can view our prescriptions and appointments. So this is a big help.

After that, we went over the the clinic where we had our blood drawn for tests, yesterday and received the results. When I have my next appointment at SNS, I will bring these. The costs for the blood tests were a whopping $0.00. Of course, that is in euros.

Centro de Saude (Central Healthcare Clinic)

We had planned on using our private healthcare system, the cost of which is quite reasonable. But having had an examination for the driver's license exchange (which has to be done through SNS), apparently we are in their care system.

That is why I received my first Covid shot last week and am scheduled for the second one in a few weeks. Again, at the whopping cost of $0.00. They seem quite intent on keeping us healthy, here.

I got my first Covid-19 vaccine shot from the Public Health Service in Portugal. This was a free service and I was very impressed with the process.

First of all, it was offered to me via messaging on my phone. Obviously it is linked to my SNS account information. They gave me the option of accepting or rejecting the vaccine. Normally I don't take vaccines. Not out of any great bias, one way or the other... simply I'm usually too lazy. But it was free and that appealed to me. After accepting the offer, I was immediately given an appointment day and time.

Then a day or so before my appointment, they texted me and after that a person called me on the phone to confirm. Wow! That was unexpected.

I showed up a little beforehand and was ushered right in to a table to fill out a simple, one-page questionnaire. Then they took me to a private room where the vaccine was administered. I was given an appointment for the second dose and the card they issued stated the type of vaccine and the batch number (should anything go wrong).

After the vaccination, they kept me there for an additional 30 minutes to make sure I was OK and then let me go home.

Very efficient and I am appreciative. BTW - the shot was administered without any discomfort.

So far, the care we have received and the help to acquire necessary paperwork have been very helpful. Portugal has been very good to us.

2021 Portugal Census

City Hall - Ilhavo

We just finished filling out the 2021 census. Having lived in the U.S. for many years and responding to many requests for census information, I found the Portuguese process VERY detailed, and yet somehow comforting.

The U.S. census asks a few questions, and at this point, there are a lot of questions they don't ask, because of various restrictions. But Portugal has no such restrictions. You log onto the census website, using the code and password provided on the form they leave at your door. This quantifies the information to the local.

Some of the questions for which they wanted answers were: Where are you from, How long have you been here, When did you arrive, Have you lived out of Portugal for more than a year at any time, Do you own or rent your home, How many people live there and what are their ages, Do you have health problems with hearing, seeing, getting around, understanding, being understood, memory... What is the square footage of your house, How many rooms are there, What is your religion (Jehovah's Witnesses are listed on the form)?????

And that was all I can remember off the top of my head. Now some would rebel at the thought of revealing so much personal information to a government, but it was surprisingly reassuring, as it seemed that the questionnaire was designed to provide the country information on how to best care for it's residents.

I found out through the process that we are "reformados" or retirees. I am finally reformed after all these years.

Errands

 

Such a wonderful, sunny day, today. It seems like the first time I have finally enjoyed our little community in Ilhavo. We moved here to be within walking distance of services and today sure proved that to be the case.

First thing, this morning, I bought bread from the delivery person who comes by our street every morning (except Sunday), announces her presence with a loud bicycle horn and parks right across from our house.

A nice clothing store

Our little shopping strip

Then I went walked less than 5 minutes away to: 1. mail a letter to the Washington DC embassy with a notarized copy of my wife's driver's license 2. Went to the store a few shops away to buy a dress shirt for meetings 3. Stopped by the pharmacy a few doors from our house to pick up a prescription 4. Picked up flowers for Denise - the first of our stay here.

Then - took my little cart and went grocery shopping at our local Continente, and picked up 2 wine glasses, a free bonus from purchases I made the last month.

My shopping bonus

Denise was able to walk over to a frame shop a few blocks away, and put in 2 posters that she had purchased to get framed, so we can start having a little decoration in the house.

When we both got back to the house, we went down the little Chinese store (we have 3 of them in town) just to pick up some miscellaneous items. I was able to find some nice fitting sandals, so I was happy that I went along.

This might not sound like an exciting day, but after so many dreary months locked away (it seems), getting out and running errands was a day off.

In Search of a License

Even though we don't own a car (yet), it is important for us to exchange our driver's licenses while the opportunity exists to do so without a driving test. This is no small feat. It requires many steps, some of which we should have taken before arriving in Portugal. So this will be a cautionary tale, as well.

Here are the steps to be taken. 1) Obtain your driver's records from your current location and send them off to get them apostilled by your state authority.  2) Get a notarized copy of your driver's license and send it to the Portuguese embassy, along with $30 to request the Certificate of Authenticity of Driving License. This is the step we missed doing while in the U.S. and now we are having to do it via 3rd party.

And you also have to have your NIF (like a national identity number) and a Residence Card (the plastic card, not the temporary), as well as a medical exam.

The medical exam is why I am really making this post, since this was the first doctor's visit that we made in Portugal, using the National Health System. Even though we maintain private insurance (at very reasonable rates), the SNS examination is needed to certify for license exchange. And I was very impressed with the process. So here are some of the highlights.

Firstly, we needed an eye exam from an optician. We had one just at the end of our block and it was very thorough, with a cost of €20 each.

We were given an attestation of our vision to take with us to the doctor's appointment. When we initially received our Numero de Utente (the patient number you use with the SNS, or national health care), we were given the appointment one month away. This is probably the downside of free healthcare. However, if we had needed any emergency care, we were free to come in to the clinic at any time. It is just that scheduled visits are probably always a little longer. In fact, we were told to come on the weekend, if needed, as that was the best time to be seen by a doctor.

We were ushered into the office and the doctor saw us both, together. She looked over our paperwork, asked a few questions then took blood pressure as a matter of course. I was able to ask her for a prescription for the two medications that I take and she not only filled them, but suggested a better blood pressure medicine, since I had received a basic (thus cheaper) medication from VA. I'm not complaining about the VA medical. They took great care of me, but she felt that the medication I was prescribed was in common use in the U.S. and not the most effective. We shall see if it helps.

Denise, on the other hand, had very high blood pressure. Very unusual for her, as she is usually too low. So the doctor gave us orders for a blood panel to be taken by a local clinic. We will have to do that in the next few weeks, as well as make a daily diary of our pressure readings.

All-in-all, I was very impressed by the care we received and the patience shown by the doctor who worked with our limited Portuguese, but never made us feel bad about it. The total cost: €0. Our next steps are awaiting the Attestation from the Embassy (being handled by my sister) and on the medical side, getting our blood drawn for the examination to come.

This will be the last step to finalize our move here. We have to file taxes this year, but since we received a 10 year "pass" on paying, due to an incentive program we took advantage of, this will be a simple matter. Will keep you posted on our progress.

A Day At The Beach

 

O Farol da Barra

Finally, for the first time since I arrived, Denise took me to the beach. It is about 11k from our house, a 15 minute drive. Of course, since we don't have a car (OMG, how can they live like that?!!!), we took an Uber for a cost of about €9 each way.

We went to Praia da Barra and took the Uber to the lighthouse. It is the tallest lighthouse in Portugal and the 2nd tallest on the Iberian peninsula. At least that is what my wife says, and you can fact check Denise if you have the guts.

Walking out to the beautiful white sand beach after being shut in for so long was exhilarating.  It is very fine sand and the beach was clean... no trash. Of course, after months of lockdown, it's cleanliness will have to be gauged after it has seen some use.

A ways down the beach is a breakwater and Denise took a look off the end.

It was a warm day (low 70's), but by the afternoon it had cooled off, as clouds came in.

Eventually, the day came to it's end. We weren't able to enjoy any of the restaurants that would normally be open at the beach. And since it was getting cooler, we didn't visit the well known Costa Nova, with it's colorful striped houses, but we will leave that for another day.

For now, I am very happy we had a day at the beach.