(The sequel to last week)
Carla, expat and a friend from Amsterdam and I in my kitchen, confused about her culture shock
It concerns her tenants. She, like us, has been renting for a longer period of time since Covid, and also more to Portuguese than to foreigners. Just like everywhere else, there are too few houses here – or too many people are moving in – it just depends on how you approach it.
She did not know these people, but the he of the couple was very adamant that he wanted to rent the house, despite her protests that it was not ready yet, not cleaned yet, that some repairs still had to be done. “It doesn’t matter,” he said to everything, “this house is for us! We’ll clean it ourselves, it doesn’t matter. I have a problem with my leg; I can’t work but I can clean.”
Well, what do you do then?
It seemed like a win-win, so the contract was signed, and the agreements were made. And then the stories started. The first rent plus guarantee came a bit late, because the boss had had an accident, was in a coma, had lost her leg, and therefore could not pay the staff. Maybe not until the end of the month.
The she of the couple does have a job, at a health center. Carla stops laughing loudly. “There I was, with a lame husband, a dog I didn’t want, and a woman with a story,” she says with a sigh. With some talking, insisting, back and forth texting and some delay, the rent was paid.
“The boss had recovered, so you would say: it was an unfortunate start, but now everything is fine. Buttttt… (meaningful silence) the next day I am walking the dog, I get a call, it’s her, asking if I can bring him a pair of glasses. 2.5 strength please, from the Chinese shop. She couldn’t do that, because she had to work and the car was broken, so she stayed with her parents.”
“Well…” I say somewhat hesitantly, because I still expect something more now, “a person does something for his fellow man, right?” “Yes, of course, but the next day I got a call again, asking if I could bring him some tobacco. And after two days by him, asking if I could drive him to the café, because he had to talk to that man.” She pulls a face.
“I have more to do than that, but okay, I think: he’s going to buy his own tobacco there, because what would he have to discuss with Carlos? So we go there, the dog had to come along, I get a nice theater performance of how bad it is with that leg, that he can hardly walk, only groaning and moaning, I’m waiting in front of the café … it takes five minutes, ten … so I get out, go inside and see that Carlos is writing on a notepad. I had to come along to pay the bill, while the rent still hadn’t been paid, and those glasses and the tobacco hadn’t been paid either.”
Now she starts laughing, and I join in with relief. We’re hopefully going to a happy ending to this story?
“And I don’t know those people, do I! Anyway, the next day, I’m almost in bed, the phone rings again. Her. If I can bring him tobacco and beer tomorrow, because he can’t walk after all, and she has to go to a funeral, and the car is still broken, she’s still staying with her parents. I think: Pardon? Tobacco and beer? The first necessities of life?” – and now we’re laughing, “I sort of grunted and kind of agreed. The next morning I get a call from him first, then from her, then from him again, and once more from her. The tobacco, and the beer, is essential, he needs it, she says.”
We look at each other in amazement. “What?” I say, because this is the confusing part, “Addicted, understandable, but do they really think you’d drop everything to buy him beer and tobacco? Now I know that the older generations of Portuguese treat each other in a different way, it’s very normal to help each other. That comes from the past, when everyone was poor, then you have to help each other, that’s a way of surviving. And the man-woman relationship is also still quite traditional.”
“Yes,” my girlfriend answers, “we’re not there yet. I kindly explained that I would like to receive the rent first, and that we would then look at things like tobacco and beer and such. It’s already day 13, it’s about time. The next morning I get a call at half past five, that the kitchen tap is broken, it’s leaking, he wanted to make coffee … Desculpe, desculpe, desculpe … Butttt …. the day before a new jar of Delta had suddenly disappeared in our kitchen. Just like that. Gone. Very strange. Never happened before.”
“Put it somewhere else?” I suggest, against my better judgment. “We figured out that it was almost inevitable that he took it. There are no other candidates, no one would do that without a message. After all, he had a problem with his leg, remember? And the woman disappeared with the car. When we went to look at that tap, there was indeed a new jar of Delta coffee. So I say to Bob, in Dutch: Look, there’s that Delta. Bob is mean, he answers very maliciously: Oh dear, look at that, there’s that Delta. And of course he doesn’t understand Dutch, but he certainly does understand Delta.”
“When he went to put a new tap on it a few hours later, it was gone.” “The tap?” I ask, “No, that jar of Delta. That tap … to be honest, he must have been quite clumsy with it, because that thing was completely loose, how he managed to do that in such a short time is a mystery, but tit wasn’t new, so to be fair, let’s just say it had had its time on earth. So a new one is better, clumsy-proof.”
“Gosh, you got lucky with these tenants,” I sympathize with her. She laughs: “If it’s going to be like this every month with paying the rent, then I don’t know if I’ll make it to the end of this term. I’d rather send Bob after him, but hey, you know how he’s like.” Bob is her husband, a sweetheart and a great handyman, but you better not let him do the negotiating and such.
The third culture shock. Never thought it could happen after so many years
Dear reader, what would you have done?
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We moved here in 2000 from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to the Termas-da-Azenha, Portugal.
A big step, especially with two small children.
We are busy to rebuild one of portugals cultural heirlooms: Termas-da-Azenha, an old spa which has been turned into several holiday houses, rooms and a campsite.
You’ll find mosaics and paintings everywhere.
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