portugal

Tell me about the camels. The

Portugal

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www.fretnotgospel.com/portugal.html

Country of the Month

by Noah Arthur

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Learning how to love everyone

Country of the Month         Restaurant

Jan 2003 - Armenia            La Mediterranee, Berkeley
Feb 2003 - Poland              Old Krakow, San Francisco
Mar 2003 - Ireland             Kells, San Francisco
Apr 2003 - Jamaica            Jamaica Station, Oakland
May 2003 - El Salvador      Balompie, San Francisco
Jun 2003 - Nepal                Kathmandu, Albany
Aug 2003 - Turkey             Bosphorus, Berkeley
Oct 2003 - Cambodia         Angkor Wat, San Francisco
Dec 2003 - Philippines        Aroma Cafe, Concord
Jan 2004 - Saudi Arabia      Rihab's Bakery, Belmont
Feb 2004 - Mexico             El Huarache Azteca, Oakland
Mar 2004 - Mongolia          Col. Lee's Mongolian BBQ, Mtn View
May 2004 - Switzerland      Fondue Fred's, Berkeley
Jul 2004 - Afghanistan        Da Afghanan Kabob House, Fremont
Sep 2004 - Morocco          Menara Moroccan Restaurant, San Jose
Nov 2004 - Portugal           Souza's Restaurant, San Jose
Jan 2005 - Thailand            Saysetha, Oakland

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What was the food like? We ate at a restaurant called Souza's in San Jose. There was nobody there besides us because it was election day. The food was good. It had lots of breads and lots of sea food. We got one sea food dish but Daddy didn't like it so me and Mommy ate it. I think it was a shrimp dish. There were also lots of meats with gravy. We were full as ticks. Souza's was a two room restaurant with lots of big paintings and Portuguese guitars on the walls. There was a huge entry way in the back shaped like a Portuguese guitar. Our server was a nice lady who told us about the guitars.

boats on the algarve shoreline

boats on the douro river

nina replica

armillary sphere

What is Portugal most famous for? The Portuguese are most famous for navigation. In 1420, Prince Henry the Navigator started a navigation school at Sagres, on the southwestern tip of Portugal. They picked it because it was the end of the known world. He was only 24 when he founded the school. The purpose of the school was to figure out how to navigate the open oceans. He brought in geographers, astronomers, map makers, and mathmeticians from all over Europe. He did it to get and to give out information about the world, and to make ships better, and to spread Christianity throughout the whole world. They figured out how to make a new kind of ship called a caravel which was much more maneuverable than the older ships. The most famous caravels in history were the ones that Christopher Columbus took to America. At Sagres, they figured out how to sail around Africa to India and Asia. It took 60 years to figure it out. There is a place called Cape Bojador, off the coast of Morocco, that sailors were afraid of, because they thought "monsters and evils" were to the south of it. It took 10 years and 15 expeditions to get past there. Finally, Captain Gil Eannes went far to the west of Cape Bojador so that his sailors wouldn't see it. Twelve years later they made it to the Gambia River and that's when slave trading started. In 1488, the Portuguese Captain Bartolomeu Diaz first sailed around Africa through the Cape of Good Hope to India. In 1511, the Portuguese Captain Ferdinan Magellan was the first to command a ship that sailed around the entire world.

FIRST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT PORTUGAL
Portugal is a Catholic nation. They are 33% Catholic. Catholic is a kind of Christianity in which people pray to the Virgin Mary and to saints. They believe in Jesus to be our Savior. In 1917, three kids in the city of Fatima said they had seen a vision of the Virgin Mary. And now people go to the shrine in Fatima and they approach it walking on their knees. Portugal is one third Catholic which is more than most of the rest of Europe. The rest don't believe in God. I am not a Catholic Christian because I do not pray to the Virgin Mary and the saints to ask Jesus something for me. I just pray to God and Jesus, His Son, our Savior, not through anybody. There are Catholic cathedrals that are made out of Moorish mosques that the Catholics turned into cathedrals. Cathedrals are alot more decorated than our church.

SECOND IMPOR-TANT THING ABOUT PORTUGAL
Portugal used to have Brazil. Brazil still speaks Portuguese. Brazil is large country in South America that the Amazon River runs through. Portugal got Brazil in the 1500's because Pedro Alvarez Cabral, a Portuguese navy captain, was sailing for India but he went off course and landed in Brazil which is exactly the other way from going to India. The Portuguese were the first to figure out how to sail around Africa to India. They got slaves, gems, spices, gold, silver, hardwood, silk, and more. Spain got the rest of South and Central America. The Portuguese also got Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau in Africa, Goa in India, Timor in Indonesia, and Macao in China. At one time they conquered lots of people and were very rich. It is amazing that such a small country as Portugal ruled such a big country as Brazil.

THIRD IMPORTANT THING ABOUT PORTUGAL
Portugal has been conquered by the Moors and the Romans. The Romans used to have a very big empire. They first had Portugal in 218 BC until the Germans conquered them in the fifth century AD. The Romans called Portugal Luisitania and said they were very warlike. The Roman provencial capital was Porto Cale, which is now called Oporto. Portugal got Christianity and roads during Roman times. The Moors are Arabs and Berbers from Morocco. They con-quered Portugal in the 700's AD. They left Moorish architecture but they did not leave Islam because the Portuguese would not take it. In 1139 AD, Catholic King Alfonso I defeated the Moors and they went back to North Africa. Then the Moors started Barbary piracy. For a very long time all the names of the kings were either Alfonso or Sancho.

FOURTH IMPOR-TANT THING ABOUT PORTUGAL
Portugal is one of the poorest countries in Europe. They became poor because when the other countries in Europe were getting stronger economies, Portugal was under the Salazar dictatorship for 40 years starting in 1933. They couldn't have tourism. They didn't build good roads or railroads or good schools or hospitals. They couldn't build factories because they wouldn't let in foreign-ers with lots and lots of money. Portugal now does mostly fishing, cork harvesting, wine and olive oil making and selling. Port wines are from Oporto. Madeira wines are from Madeira. Two-thirds of the people live on farms and only one-third lives in the cities. I do not know why they would be poor because of living mostly on farms. Maybe it is because not as many products get out from the farms to the cities for export.

Tell me about Portugal. Portugal is on the very west side of Spain on the Atlantic Ocean. It is small country about the size of the State of Florida. There are also Portuguese islands called the Madeiras and the Azores well off the coasts of Portugal and Morocco. Portugal has 10 million people. In the northeast there are mostly mountains. It rains 110 inches in the mountains each year. In the south there are hot plains called the Algarve. In the west there are mostly coastal plains. In the southeast there are also mostly plains. Plains are good for growing grass and good for growing wheat because it is a kind of grass. So most of the land is farms. The main cities are Lisbon, Oporto, Setubal, Coimbra, and Sintra. Lisbon is the largest city and is the capital. The Douro River runs through it. Oporto is a big wine storage city and the Tejo River goes through it. There is a big Moorish castle in Sintra. The others rivers are the Sado, Minho, Guardiana, and the Mondego. In 1755, there was a very big earthquake that flattened Lisbon. In 1340 there was a plague from rats that killed one out of three people in Portugal.
Why is there so much wildlife in Portugal? There is a lot of wildlife in Portugal because there are many parks where there are forests. It is different than in Morocco because the people have cut down almost all of the forest in Morocco. The islands of Madeiras and the Azores also have a lot of wildlife because they are tropical and have only farming there. Madeira means "wood" because the island is heavily forested.
What is an armillary sphere? It is a navigational tool with circles made out of metal that are lined up with the sun, stars and the moon. It tells your location it was not accurate. The Portuguese made them better. They have an armillary sphere pictured on their flag. Once the more accurate sextants and chronometers were invented, people quit using armillary spheres.

What Did I Catch When I Went Past the Rock

I am a fisherman boy named Sancho. I am 15 years old. I live in Lisbon. I fish off the Atlantic Ocean. I take my little boat to a big rock along the shoreline and I fish from there. I mostly catch sardines and salmon in the day. One time I went fishing at night with a spotlight. I caught a big ray. One day I barrowed a big boat from my Dad and I rowed a little farther out past the rock. I put my net down and something almost pulled me and the boat under. I tied the net to the boat and rowed as fast as I could back to the shore. Once I was tied to the dock, I asked my Dad to help me get whatever I had caught out of the water. When me and my Dad came back to the water, the knot had come undone and whatever I had caught was

pulling the boat around near the shore. My Dad swam out and pulled the boat back because what I had caught had stopped trying to get away so hard. Once it was at the beach, we pulled as hard as we could to get the thing out of the water. And when it was on the beach it was a giant squid. We mummified it way out on the rock. Once it was a complete mummy, we took it home and put it out in the middle of our cork farm, and we charge people money to see it.

moorish castle in sintra

moorish cathedral

city cathedral

roman ruins

king alfonso I

fish market

cork farm

city market

olive oil tasting

fado musicians

fishermen

pelourinho

southern coast

minho river

douro valley

inside a nearly empty cathedral

tejo river at lisbon

What are the Portuguese world famous for? They are very famous for navigation, wines, pelourinhos, fado music, and azulejos. Azulejos are tiles that the Portuguese have everywhere that look almost Moorish. Pelourinhos are tall posts in all the city squares that they used to hang criminals from.
What do you admire about the Portuguese people? I admire what hard workers they are. I like fado music.
What do you pray to Jesus about Portugal? I pray that all the people that do not belive in God will believe. I pray that their economy with be stronger. I praise God that they have such beautiful forests and coastlines.

Tell me about their history. In 3000 BC the Iberians from North Africa first came to Portugal. In 900 BC, the war like Luisitanians ruled. From 300 BC to 600 AD the Romans and the Carthaginians fought for control. Then the Germans came and elected kings. Then the Moors invaded in 700 AD. In 1139 AD the Catholics defeated the Moors. That started the Alfonso dynasty and the Aviz dynasty, when Portugal was a seafaring empire. In 1580 AD the Spanish conquered. King Joao drove them out in 1640AD.