"Hi! I'm Nena, I'm 17 and I'm from the Netherlands. I moved to Portugal almost 4 years ago (at the beginning of 8th grade in Escola Básica de Sabóia). Now I'm in 11th grade, studying Arts at the Secondary School of Odemira. Last year, in 10th grade, I participated in the BOWING project. Every Wednesday and Friday Matilde and Inês came to our school. They came because our teacher of Português Língua Não-Materna (Portuguese for non-native speakers) left, so there was that free time. They “taught” the communication of expressions and feelings (through practices such as drawing/painting, dancing, writing, music, talking, etc). Almost every week someone special came to teach us something that was important to them, in relation to their job or hobbies. I liked BOWING because of the combination of different cultures, our differences and similarities. Although the Netherlands and Portugal are alike, Asian countries are very different. I also liked it because of the arts. It was something I could more or less relate to. I'm not much of a dancer and singer myself so that part was a bit less interesting for me. Still, Matilde, Inês and the other guests were very convincing because they loved what they were teaching and they really wanted us to love it too. It might have changed me, I can’t tell because I'm a teenager and I change a lot, but yes, they helped in expressing feelings through art which actually, in my studies, they don’t really teach. For example, the only "art" I have is drawing, which is a bit sad. One strong memory I have is for sure the Japanese dance thing: Tenchi Tessen. I don’t know how to explain it, but we had this special outfit and I remember the origin of this sport/dance was actually Portuguese. It was so fancy, and they also gave us a fan with which we had to do the moves. This other time we had to draw each other's profile. It wasn’t that interesting and it also wasn’t very “well done”, but because I’m insecure about my side profile, it might have been somewhat helpful for me."
Photography by: Matilde Real