Nowadays, children playing soccer or any other game in the street are not often seen in Lisbon, unless we go to particularly quiet areas, with no traffic. By contrast, in some suburban areas, mostly inhabited by immigrants, that's not a rare street scene..
On the other day, as I was walking through a neighbourhood with a high density of African immigrants, my eyes were caught by a little girl drawing a small house in a stone of the pedestrians sidewalk. It was sunday. The street was very quiet. I stopped by the girl and asked her what she was doing. Of course, I knew it well, but I wanted to talk with her. The girl didn't stop drawing, never showed her face to me and kept silent. As I was about to leave her in her own world, an old man - later I understood he was her grandpa - stepped out from a nearby house and told me it was not easy to keep her busy during easter holidays. The family couldn't afford buying colouring books or any other material that might be a good means to entertain her. Therefore, drawing in the street, under the surveillance of grandpa, was the cheapest way...
I was really shocked hearing it from him and a few days later, I went there again and again I saw the girl drawing in the street. I said 'hello' but she never looked at me. Her grandpa was chatting with someone, nearby. As he saw me talking to the girl, he greeted me with a big smile and I handed him a bagful of drawing material for his grandkid. His eyes were bathed in tears...
This is one of the enumerable cases resulting from the implementation of the austerity measures that have been in force in Portugal, a country that has been for a long time in a serious economic crisis that is going from bad to worse...
