Welcome

My warmest thanks to everybody whose visit (though virtual) and nice words - which I keep with pleasure - have encouraged me to go on with this most agreeable task of divulgating the Portuguese language and culture in particular; other languages and cultures in general. As I very often mention, but it's never enough to recall, it is in diversity that lies the beauty of life.

I wrote these pages for all those men and women interested in cultural and historical subjects in general, also for those with a special interest in Portuguese Gastronomy.

Knowledge is to be shared otherwise it will become useless, I therefore took advantage of my early retirement for health reasons to give a more humanistic direction to my life by putting at other people's disposal the teaching and knowledge life offered me.

I'm particularly worried about children and young people and their access to reading and education in general, and this is the main reason why I created the children's site Barry4kids.net with stories and games and activities for learning in an amusing way.

Most of those features were inspired by the stories of my first book for children, the French and Portuguese versions of Barry's Adventure. The idea of these stories came to my mind one day at Christmas time, and by writing them I try to express my great affection for children as well as to pass on to them true values like respect and love for animals, those living creatures who share with us this Earth where everybody and everything should live in Peace and Harmony with Nature.

After publishing this first book for children I got involved in various activities for children in different European countries like France, Luxembourg, Belgium and even Romania. Inspired by the stories of the book, a few schoold children in France showed a remarkable talent for poetry. Please read those charming KIDS Poems.

And since History is one of my favorite hobbies, I made it the subject of a few of my articles in magazines and multicultural websites, as well as of my conferences.

To those interested in knowing Who am I? and having a deeper knowledge of my past and present activities and future projects, I would suggest a regular visit to this site.

And last but not least, I believe that as citizens of the world we all have a word to say about what goes on around us, so it occasionally happens that I express myself on such items thru articles and chronicles.

Whatever your choice, do not hesitate to send me a message either with your comments and/or suggestions or to my Guestbook.

And no matter how old you are, do not kill the child who sleeps inside you, because, as the great Portuguese poet António Gedeão* would sing:

Dream our Life drives. And whenever a Man dreams, The World moves on and thrives, Like a colourful ball, In the hands of a child. (in Pedra Filosofal, 1970)

* pseudonymous of Rómulo de Carvalho