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The Sleeping Beauty of Bucelas
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Posted by
Anonymous
Tuesday, April 23, 2002
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A project is being set up “slowly, slowly” to open a holiday retreat centre and rest home in Bucelas, Portugal. We would like to invite you to consider whether you are part of the team. And for those of you who feel you are, we invite you to a holiday meeting in Bucelas from 14 to 23 June 2002.
Sarah Ashby in Bucelas
Bucelas is approximately 10 hectares of land owned by Subud Portugal about 20kms north of Lisbon. It has several buildings: the Albergeria (a large hall surrounded by ten bedrooms built around what was the shell of an Andalucian style house), the stone house (converted from an old water mill), a youth hostel with adjoining bull ring, a latihan hall and three wooden chalets.
Yellow Chalet in Bucelas
The Bucelas project began as a lively conversation with Burhan Gebhardt in the Bualu Hotel swimming pool in Bali. It was shortly followed by a massive receiving ten days after my return from Bali, basically telling me to open a holistic holiday centre in Bucelas where people would find their purpose/talent.
Having up to that point always been jealous of people with massive receivings to do interesting projects, I was at first delighted with mine, then worried, as I realised this did not mean fear would go away, almost the opposite…
I have since prepared my own life and affairs so I can fulfil the receiving and talked to many people about my idea… I also decided it might be a good idea to actually set foot in the country I was supposed to create this project in, and so went twice to Bucelas, the first time with Arifah (ex. Alisa) and Burhan Gebhardt from Austria and the second with Sarah Ashby from the UK.
Both times, we felt the reality of the project on the one hand and an overwhelming awareness of the amount of work needed to achieve the vision. These recurring experiences have shown us that this project will need to develop at its own pace. We have also found that taking it all step by step helps to keep the panic and paralysis at bay.
It seems that the next step for me is to organise a holiday/meeting for people who might be interested in working on the project. I therefore extend a cordial, if somewhat short notice, invitation to all interested in joining our team at this stage.
THE TEAM..
But first, let me introduce the current members of the team: Sarah Ashby is a retired management consultant who amazes me by her ability to create an atmosphere where miracles are possible and where I can be at my best. She is also very keen on growing Bucelas (gardens and possibly medicinal herbs), and has taken her huge personal step by moving to Bucelas in mid-April, two and a half weeks after her first trip there with me!
Francisca Pedroso from Portugal is a senior civil servant, best known for having worked on a project to set up one-stop shops for public services throughout Portugal. She and her colleague and Subud sister, Denise, are interested in starting a rest home project also in Bucelas, and have expertise in the workings of the Portuguese Government.
I am a second generation Subud member and psychologist, currently working freelance as a coach, facilitator and personal development specialist within organisations and the public sector.
SUPPORT FROM PORTUGAL..
We also have the generous support of some of our brothers and sisters in Subud Portugal. More specifically, we have received much help and encouragement from our friend Hamid da Silva (current zone 3 representative) who can offer his expertise in business management and land development, and from Muchtar and Sofia Martins who know the land “by heart”, literally. Muchtar and Sofia can offer their architectural expertise and continued support when we visit Bucelas.
Richard Rodgers, current National Chair of Subud Portugal, is supporting the project by ensuring Subud Portugal can discuss the future of Bucelas at an upcoming extraordinary general meeting and so, hopefully, will enable the legal situations surrounding ownership and use of Bucelas to be cleared up.
EVOLVING PURPOSE..
The purpose of the project itself continues to evolve, and my first vision has changed somewhat with each new person coming in the team. The general feeling is to set up a centre where people can experience healing and peace, thus bringing them closer to their inner guidance. This will take many shapes and will be much refined when the next step of the project commences, i.e. drafting a solid business plan.
My personal interest lies in organising holiday retreats for people to review their relationship with their work and to look into the notion of purpose in life. I would offer personal development to my clients and ensure that other levers for personal growth would be available for my clients’ inner journey, from SIHA-type sessions (i.e. health and therapeutic sessions) to arts and music.
I imagine that Bucelas will be made up of several such mini-projects that together will form a rich annual programme for the centre. Bucelas will therefore support a range of activities for short term visitors as well as be a live-in community and rest home.
In terms of infrastructure, our current vision is to develop about a third of the land only, starting with the minimum amount of capital investment to start a viable business and continuing from there organically.
We propose to build and renovate around a dozen chalets of various sizes and comfort levels, a swimming pool, a place for workshops and a cafÈ bar. We think we will want to develop the infrastructure along sustainable development principles, but we also want to make it a beautiful place, thus releasing the sleeping beauty of Bucelas.
If you already have had the pleasure of visiting Bucelas, I am sure you will agree with me that Bucelas is a very special place indeed (on the inside mostly, at the moment!). I feel at peace very soon after arriving there, with heart and mind strangely packed away in cotton wool. I feel as if nothing at all is happening and I am just relaxing, until suddenly a whole issue might reach resolution like a dead leaf dropping from a tree. This quality is what needs to be shared with the world and why it is important to develop Bucelas’s potential, as and when it wants to be developed.
MEETING IN BUCELAS (June 14-23 2002)
If you are seriously considering joining us on this adventure, we would like to invite you to Bucelas from 14 to 23 June 2002, to experience the Bucelas effect, to meet with the team and to see if there will be any next step for you in this project. We will cook for each other and take care of our living environment together, sharing the current accommodation in Bucelas (basic).
We hope to have at least one excursion to nearby Sintra, a wonderful wooded hill full of pretty villages, a Moorish castle, various monasteries and a palace. We also plan to celebrate Bapak’s birthday with the members of Subud Portugal, thus marking the birth of this new venture and acknowledging the amazing amount of love and work already invested in Bucelas.
The closest airport is Lisbon airport (Bucelas is 20km north of Lisbon). We have estimated the cost of accommodation and food to be £200 for ten days. We can only afford to welcome a maximum of a 12 to 15 people on this particular trip, but there will probably be other opportunities in future.
If you know of somebody likely to be interested, but unable to access this article, please talk to them about this project.
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