text and images britt-arnhild
Steep up the hills from the place where we stay this week you find the small, charming village of Camacha, best known because of its wicker industry, based on traditional methods. Today around 2000 workers are involved in this money-spinning industry.
Our levada walk started close to Camacha, so before starting hiking we spent the morning walking around in the village, having coffee at a local bar where the chairs and table, all different, were made by long willow sticks.
This handiwork has always fascinated me, and when we found a huge handicraft center selling the local work, I was all a broad smile. The center had several floors, and following the stairs all the way down to the bottom basement, we found the artists busy doing their work.
The morning was quiet and the area now crowded by tourists, so we were able to follow the work close up, and better even, we are allowed to shot photos.
Wicker work is hard work. I stood for a long time watching a man making a basket. The willow he used was thich and hard, still his fingers moved smoothly, fast, creating perfect forms. "Oh, his fingers must hust from years doing this work" I said to Terje, almost feeling the pain in my own arthritic fingers. I spoke Norwegian, but the artist must have understood the pain and the caring in my voice. He looked up from his work, found my eyes and said, in Portugese, a language I have learned about 10 workds of from our week here, still I understood his words clearly "Yes, it is very hard work for the fingers, it causes a lot of pains over the years" We hold each others eyes for a long time, in understanding and sympathy.
We hadn't planned to buy anything, the house in the woods is filling up to fast with world travel memories, but after watching these men we went back to the shop, we were fascinated and wanted a memory. We bought a huge pizza serving plate for our Friday pizza, and a beautiful purse which I will keep on my table and fill with latters from around the world.
