The mobility in Portugal took place in Rio Maior, from the 9th till the 13th of march 2020. The pandemic Covid-19 had already started so, the mobility suffered serious changes: the schools from Greece, Italy and Turkey didn´t come to Portugal so they didn´t participate. Therefore instead of hosting 29 students and 12 teachers we had to host only 9 students and 5 teachers. This made a huge difference in what concerns all the logistic, which was set for more people, and the programme itself was changed because some activities were cancelled by the entities, owing to the beginning of the confinement period. Then on the 8th of March 2020 students and teachers from the 25th School in Riga, Latvia, and from Magleby Fri- & Efterskole, Denmark arrived to Portugal to accomplish the mobility.

On the 1st day, 9th March 2020, we started with the Welcome activity which included  PowerPoint presentations based on the theme “Water? What future?” and some cultural activities, as for example, singing, poetry and gymnastics. After that all the students took part in a Peddy paper in the town, so that the hosted students  could get to know our town. Lunch was in the school canteen and after lunch there were some lab activities for the students and a meeting for the teachers. It was a strange day: students and teachers missed the others who weren´t allowed to travel to Portugal! Sad! 

Tuesday, the 10th of March: we went to Lisbon and the trip took about one hour. The first stop was in Aqueduto das Águas Livres.  This aqueduct was used to supply water to Lisbon and it was built in 1731. Although there was a terrible earthquake in 1755, the structure didn´t suffer any severe damages. So, we walked along the structure and the guide gave us some interesting information about the supplying water system in the past. We had a quick city tour, which allowed students and teachers to enjoy Lisbon for a while. In the afternoon we visited the Oceanário, which is a huge aquarium complex. There is a large main aquarium, holding 5 million litres of seawater, four marine habitats which create the illusion of a single aquarium and a sole ocean. This exhibition features terrestrial and marine ecosystems, as well as the temperate, tropical and cold waters of the Earth’s oceans. It was very interesting and students and teachers really enjoyed the visit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On the 3rd day, 11th of March, students and teachers walked to Salinas. It was a 3 kilometres walk, under a shinning sun and a hot weather. Salinas, salt pans in English, can be found 3 kms away from Rio Maior, in a valley at the bottom of Candeeiros Mountain. Surrounded by trees, vineyards and other cultivated lands are considered a natural wonder, once the sea is about 30 km.  The guide explained everything about these ancient salt-pans. In the afternoon we went to the beaches, for a walk because the activity “Das nascentes à cidade”, “From the springs to the town” in English, was cancelled by the municipality. So, in the beaches we talked about the life of fishermen, the way they live in those typical villages. 

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Thursday, the 12th of March, was a day of water experiences. In Peniche, most of the students and teachers learned how to surf. It was a morning spent in the water, trying to stand on a board. Students and teachers were really very pleased when they left Peniche. Tired but happy! After having lunch in the city of Caldas da Rainha we went to Nazaré where we had a very important activity: to pick up garbage that was brought by the tides or left on the sand or on the rocks by human beings. We gathered some garbage bags and then the municipality collected and weighed them: 123, 46 kgs of garbage! The Environment and the oceans thank us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last day of the mobility, Friday the 13th of March: it was a very weird day! We knew that almost all schools in Europe would be closed   from the 16th March on. No idea when we would return to school. Students and teachers were really apprehensive but we tried to keep parts of the programme. In the morning, hosted students attended several classes with their hosts, in the middle of the morning there was a little ceremony to hand out the certificates of attendance and to offer some gifts. Students attended the ceremony of flying the Eco-School Flag in our school. The afternoon was free so that students could spend the last hours with the Portuguese colleagues. 

On Saturday morning, students and teachers from both schools left Rio Maior very early. Their hearts and minds were full of uncertainty and fears. They spent a week away from home, away from the pandemic numbers. So, it was time to go back to the reality, with frontiers closed…something that no one had ever experienced before. It seemed that the world stopped, the world closed….