Blake and Deborah in Europe: Estoi, Portugal

We are now in the warm and sunny Algarve region of southern Portugal near the town of Estoi. We took another HelpX situation here to help our budget and learn from the experiences of more expats. In this case our hosts are Lucia and Wolfgang, two Germans who moved here 22 years ago. They are in their fifties with a 23-year old daughter, who is in Holland, and their 19-year old son Pascal, who lives at home while he attends school, but is seldom seen or heard. Also here is Rolf (or possibly Aulf), another German immigrant from 20 years back or so. He is a friendly stone mason with 30 years experience and is currently working on the paving stones around the pool. There are also two dogs, two cats, and several chickens. Everyone is quite nice (even the chickens) and their grasp of English is pretty good (except for the chickens); they probably understand about ¾ of what we say. When the conversation turns to German or Portuguese, however, we are quite lost.

This place is really a complex of buildings, terraces, pools, and gardens, all linked with paths of stone pavers. In addition to the main house there are two apartments which they rent out in the warmer months – roughly mid-March thru the end of September. We are staying in one of these; Rolf/Aulf is staying in the other. It's a good situation for us because we have our own space and some measure of independence, mostly just sharing a big meal with the whole group in the early afternoon. The work so far consists mostly of weeding, pruning, bush clearing, and other yardwork necessary to prepare the grounds for the arrival of guests. This is not my favorite type of activity. I pulled plenty of weeds as a teenager, and am willing to occasionally do so at my own house now, but as a 50-year old with a degree in engineering I really didn't expect to be pulling someone else's weeds anymore. But of course I did ask for this so shouldn't complain. Deborah, on the other hand, is having a great time. She actually enjoys this, and will sometimes put in more than the asked for 4-hours of daily labor. She is a strange woman.

Deborah also gave Lucia a haircut and is doing a bit of sewing, as well as helping out in the kitchen occasionally. I'm usually too annoyed at having to pull weeds to volunteer any additional assistance. We generally work from about 9am to 1pm and then break for lunch, after which the day is ours to do as we wish. Since we have no internet at the house, we have to walk into the town of Estoi, which is 2 or 3 km (1 ½ mi) down the road, to hang out at an internet cafe. It's a sometimes steep road going down into Estoi, and uphill coming back. But Deborah hasn't complained too much, having been trained on that incredibly steep dirt track leading to our house in Fiji last winter. At least this road is paved.