The Short/Long/Real Story

The short story is that I will land in Lisbon exactly two weeks from now. The longer story is that this trip has been in-the-planning-stages since last May, but my ticket was booked just a week ago. I have since bought my Lonely Planet, booked my airbnb for the extra days I'm staying and have learned that - if nothing else - I must gorge myself on the above egg tart pastries every hour of every day. That they are worth gaining many pounds over.

I also must eat buckets of seafood stew. And grilled sardines:

OK, Marjie, you say. But WHY are you going to Portugal? And for FREE? Who in the world bought you a ticket to go there in the middle of February?

The longest story I have about this is that a woman named Carolina applied for a grant from the European Union to collaborate on their storytelling project. She contacted us (Ingrid and me) as one of two necessary "partners" from other countries to fulfill the goals of their grant proposal. The other country representing their storytelling program? Norway. (It always comes back to Norway...) The project in Lisbon is called  Ubuntu Lives (The concept of Ubuntu = I am because you are). Here is their mission statement:

The initiative aims to promote democratic values, including human rights and minority rights, to fight against discrimination through the development of a program that aims to design and present, in the first-person, "life stories" of young immigrants and minorities from vulnerable/at-risk communities with the "personal storytelling" methodology. 

Here is a video explaining the program (you have to turn the subtitles on):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFdf2Xv9CJ8

Somehow they found our www.writetoright.org website and we've been in (very sporadic) touch for months. Last week, she bought me a ticket and two days later we Skyped (I hope she didn't regret that order). Now I am putting a presentation together that tells the story of how our own storytelling project has taken hold. Sadly, Ingrid cannot attend with me.

So the biggest story is that by harnessing other people's stories and watching the owners of those stories transform and keeping track of it on a website (thank you, Ingrid!), I have harnessed a big story of my own. I'm excited, scared, and a little confused when I consider how big everything has gotten. That is why I am looking at Portugal's food at midnight  - as a way of meditatively preparing for my trip.

I know it will be amazing (both the food and the collaboration). And, as usual, I plan to keep you posted here as long as I am not whisked into the Portugese underground mafia - what my mom fears is the real story.

And, yes, Kathy, I do plan to eat octopus eyes on this trip. Finally. 

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