Skip to main content

Startracker

Yesterday was the first Startracker event in Mozambique. Startracker is a global talent network for Portuguese people. It is kind of like asmallworld but you have to be Portuguese and you have to have some kind of international experience. Cooler than facebook because it requires invitations, cooler than asmallworld because there is actually a sense of community. It is a place to show that Portugal is not that small and Portuguese people are doing great things around the world. A series of events have been happening in different cities and yesterday, Maputo was the place to be as a “Startracker”. João, an expat who seems to love organizing events (and is pretty good at it too) got Tiago, one of the founders, to stop by on his way to a family trip and gathered 90 of the 150 people Portuguese in Maputo that are Startrackers. He wants to make it to 500 by December, I think he can.
But better than that, he wants to help me out! Well, not me maybe, but the NGO. He proposed Um Pequeno Gesto to be the supported charity of the Mozambique branch and invited me to present to them. Luckily enough João (this time another one, the one that has been hanging out with us a lot) prepared an awesome (and I must use the American word here because it was really awesome) movie showing all that we do. It still amazes me to see all we can accomplish. After a movie like that, even shaking-Sara could do a speech, no-one would remember my words anyway, after the power of the pictures and the music he put together. And I did, and I even said a lot of what I thought I would say… that was a first! We got 21 sponsors for the children and closed the sponsorships for the year and we got furniture donations for the Nursery to see if we are able to get it going soon. And we got tons of supportive people offering their services, their knowledge, their network and their help. Even coming from Harvard, the power of this network still amazes me. Thank you Startracker!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

We are not afraid.. are we not?

I see signs saying we are not afraid. Londoners are tough and endured the bombings of WWII. But those Londoners are hardly the same as the ones here today. Yes people in general are resilient, more than we think we can be when looking outside out. That is anywhere in the world, not just in London. And truth be said there is merit in not letting fear control our lives and terrorism win.  Well I just walked into the district line, 5 stations away from Parsons Green and I am afraid. I am not shaking, crying or running away. But I am afraid mostly because it is all so natural. Life must go on I said, as I decided I was not going to cancel my lunch and avoid the tube. But that is what makes it scary. Life goes on and in an effort to not be afraid we recklessly do not change our habits and rely on the stats that more people die on the road then on terrorist attacks. Reality is, the law of probability does not matter because terrorist events are binary.  So I think about my frie...

Flying Sunday

It's been a while, I know. But time is really a precious asset and I have not been leveraging on it well enough... But today I did and I am proud. I threw all the plans out of the window and took the irrefusable offer I was made "Do you want to go flying today?". How does no work as an answer there? Here is one of the c. 30 airplanes you could see there. First reaction from our pilot: "Why are all these planes here, don't people realize it is an amazing day for flying?". Well, I had not untill he told me so! But the best is still to come, as the only girl in the group I got to ride in the front, get first view in take-off, listen to the radio of the air control all the time (we get Boston airport frequency), check the map, speeds, everything... I guess throughout the way we were some quiet passengers, in the wonders of realizing you are on air, the curiosity of identifying different places and the struggle to take the best pictures as we pass the Harvard...

What happened?

Yes, something had to happen to keep me away from here for this long. I had been behaving so well blogging more and more and now what? Very simple, Francesco was born! In a day full of emotions, tears of joy and setbacks Francesco greeted me with his wide open eyes and his calm ways (at least for now). Everyone struggles to point Mum and Dad’s features in him but all I care about is himself. He has long been waited for in this world and I was proud to follow closely his first 4 days. Now, I have to limit myself to technology and hope Patricia likes to skype to make sure I see him growing, crying, moving and smiling. It will be a month until I see him again, precisely a month from the 12th of November and I will miss experiencing his first triumphs to win my sister’s heart. He has barely been here and I miss him already!