Graham Denby: Graham becomes an emissary to the local mayor

Feb 17 2010 by Graham Denby

HAVING written quite a number of articles for The Examiner about our life and times out here in the Portuguese Alentejo, I wondered recently if I could do anything for the local authority to promote the area.

With this in mind I logged on to Almodovar Camara (council) on our old mate Google and did a bit of reading about the hows, whys and wherefores of the organisation.

You can try it yourself – it’s quite informative and easily translates to the mother tongue!

I established that the mayor, or presidente, has what we would call his public surgery on Tuesdays in his offices. I thought ‘that’ll do for me, start at the top’ so I popped into the camara reception and dropped quite lucky.

While trying out my (very) basic Portuguese on the receptionist she (slightly) panicked and sent for a translator who turned out to be the very efficient Patricia Romba, who, it happily transpires, works for the camara and she was happy to offer her assistance. Quite suitable to my needs!

I agreed to be there when the doors opened at 9am and Patricia said she would be on hand to translate and assist. We had a bit of a chat over coffee, well, tea for me, and our needs seemed to correspond – mine for information for the articles, hers for publicity and assistance from a ‘foreign’ perspective on tourism and camara facilities with respect to attracting new money in the shape of tourists and relocation from the UK and other EC countries.

The next day I was on time, but the mayor wanted to devote some time to the meeting and would I mind waiting until 11.30am when other business matters would have finished?