One (x2) Down, One (x2) to Go
Getting our vaccination, like all big things in Portugal it seems, came with a story. I might as well tell it.
We got the first hints that something was up during a zoom call with a couple of friends/clients of our massage therapist Kathleen back in Eugene who are thinking about moving to Portugal. During the call I’d mentioned that we’d been using an emigration assistance company, Ei!, when minutes later my phone rang, which is very unusual here. I excused myself and answered it and . . . as is often the case, no response to my “hello” (i.e., wrong number). It was then I noticed that I’d also received a couple of WhatsApp messages (phone dings during our zoom call that I’d respectfully ignored). Walking back to the zoom call I opened it up to find out that the WhatsApp messages were from Ana, our Porto Ei! contact. I texted we were on a zoom call and I’d contact her afterwards.
After the zoom call concluded, I checked the messages and saw that she had just received some communications that she thought must be related to us (sometimes they have to use their contact information when setting things up for us), and then the following screen shot.
A few things were running through my mind while I was reading the messages. First was the fact that the day was 13 May (13/05) and the time was 17:35. If I was supposed to have been scheduled for a vaccine appointment, I had missed it. However, there was hope for Ann (14/05), so I was determined to make sure she at least got her shot. But where in the hell were we supposed to go. Texting Ana she said go to the Altice Forum, at the Lomar entrance. This is why I hate doing everything by just phone or iPad and had walked down to my office, it seems every interaction requires additional research to get completed and I hate switching between apps on a small device, not to mention doing research generally on them. So I typed, “where is the Altice Forum?” on my phone, and immediately typed “Altice Forum” on my computer (thank you Google). Websites for the Altice Forum popped up immediately. “Oh, I know where it is. We’ll be there tomorrow with our residency cards and SNS document that proves we’re registered in the system.” Ana replied, “Perfect!”
From the website and Google maps it was easy enough to locate. It’s the type of place where there is a convention-type center, community sports fields and other buildings that look to sponsor entertainment - pretty much a county fair type of facility. Getting there would take only about 7 minutes, but as is the case for anywhere near downtown Braga, it would require a very circuitous route. Still, easy enough to get to.
Now, to help you understand how unexpected this notification was, I need to deviate from the story a bit. Two weeks ago, AFPOP, an ex-pat organization we belong to that provides information about how to transition to life in Portugal and, most importantly, provides a weekly/bi-weekly e-newsletter that has kept us up on the latest legal requirements during this Covid period, said that if you’re 65 and haven’t had your shot yet, to go to the SNS website (given) and register for one. We went online, tried to register everything for Ann. They said no slots were available in Braga, but that she would be put on a list and notified by text at an identified number. It wasn’t one we recognized. The website then said if you need to change your contact information go to this link, which we did and made the corrections, hit “enter” . . . and then got an error message. I tried going on the regular SNS site to confirm the phone number (wrong number) and so I changed it there and . . . got an error message. I did that loop a few time before deciding I’d have to figure some better way to approach the issue. I also tried to get into the “register” site for myself, but the first question was “what is your birthdate” and it would not let me in. You had to be 65 to even enter the site. So you can imagine our surprise when the text said I had my appointment the day before Ann had hers. Oh, yeah, did I mention that way back in February, we both got texts saying that we are registered with SNS and will be notified when vaccines are available and it is our turn according to the protocol established by the health authorities? So why didn’t we get the SNS text messages directly? Confused, yes, but so much of life here has been like that, despite all of our efforts to be well prepared for the transition. (Yesterday’s AFPOP newsletter [after our vaccinations] said they’ve opened up vaccinations for everyone over 55, so . . ..).
Anyway, the next morning we drove into the big Altice Forum parking lot. Where we needed to go to was obvious from the parking lot. Even I know that when you see a giant 4 meter by 15 meter wall hanging that says “Vacinação” over an entrance with cattle gates leading into it, that is where you’re supposed to go.
We waited a bit to be closer to our designated arrival time (as usual, we were there early . . . just in case), and then walked in. There was a hand sanitizing station, which you always use here. They had what looked to be a head thermometer on the sanitizing stand, which we had no idea of how to use, but seeing a thermometer in the hand of the guard at the door, I figured we’d just walk up to him.
Of course he rattled off a sentence (or two, or three . . .) and I interrupted with my very Portuguese sounding, “Excuse me, but I don’t speak Portuguese. Do you speak English?” Luckily he did. He asked if we had proof of our appointment time. I showed him the text message clip and explained that Ann’s was today at 10:27, mine was yesterday but I missed it. He said ok, pulled us a numbered slip and said, “Both of you, go on upstairs.”
That’s how we know that the Altice Forum is the type of place where you would have a car show, Overlanding exhibition, or any other type of convention. In the big indoor lobby was a lot of chairs and in the big convention space, a bunch more. It was pretty crowded, albeit socially distanced crowded with chairs spaced 2 meters apart, but we walked into the bigger space anyway. There were no signs showing what number they were on but after a few minutes a guy came out and rattled out a bunch of numbers. Uh, oh.
I decided to go into the smaller area to a chair right by the glass wall so I could hear the number calling better, and Ann stayed in the bigger space on the other side of the wall. I knew what number we were, now I just had to figure out what numbers they were on. After 5 minutes or so, the guy came out to rattle off 5-7 numbers. Ok, there’s the first part of “two hundred” . . something . . . and five, six, seven. Like most languages, the way things are spelled and “properly” pronounced has little bearing on what people actually say. It didn’t take long for me to realize what parts of the numbers the speaker cut off, what parts got melded together and, most importantly, what number he was saying. So “trezentos e vinte e três” (323 in 8 syllables) came out “trezentevintetrês” in a single sound. I thought I was good to go until . . . they changed speakers at 343. I was shuddering in fear. Fortunately this guy was easy. He would say “three four three” and hold up his phone with the number on it! Eventually he called 377 and upstairs we went!
We then approached a person who was handing out a questionnaire and I did my, “I don’t speak Portuguese” routine. This time the young lady didn’t speak English. I showed her the text, said I’m Daniel, Ann is Ann and she gave us two forms to fill out and pointed us where to go. Somehow, it always seems to work out.
Now, I want to take this opportunity to thank whoever (person, team, whoever . . .) created Google Translate. It has this awesome “camera” feature that you point your camera to the text and it translates the text, right there and then (well, it does of course work better when you have it trying to translate a form in portuguese from portuguese to english instead of english to portuguese, but . . . that was easily corrected). Used on park signs to see what they want to tell you is great; using it on government forms is invaluable. We were able to be very efficient filling out not just one, but two forms with me translating the form for Ann while she filled it out and . . . me knowing what each of the questions asked (any immune diseases, no, are you pregnant . . . .). We were done before they called our number.
We stepped up to a young guy at a table and I did my stick. Yes, English is fine. He then looked at the form and asked, “So how did you fill this out?” I replied, we translated the document with Google Translate and held out my phone. He smiled. “So you have no medical issues.” No, but she does, it’s noted there. (If I’d had my wits about it I should have said, “No, I’m not pregnant if that’s what you want to know.” But I was in serious mode.) He told us where to go next to get our information logged into the computer (have I ever mentioned Portugal really loves its bureaucracy?).
From the form we could see we were getting the Pfizer vaccination. A woman in line immediately in front of us, who was there for her second round said, in English, “Yes, it’s the good one!”
A few minutes later we were with another young lady at the computer. Another strike out. My stick (I’ve gotten pretty damn good at sounding Portuguese with my stick and saying my NIF [which often gets a double take from cash register operators when I say it in Portuguese]) was immediately followed by this look like, “Wait, you say that so well and you say you don’t speak Portuguese? I don’t buy it” Really, I don’t - I know a few lines, that’s it (unlike all those Portuguese who say they don’t speak English and, after we get our business done, chat with us in English for another 5 minutes).
Anyway, apparently we’re supposed to have a particular medical center we attend, and we simply don’t have that, so the young lady had to figure out what to do and walked over to get some assistance (yup, Ann and I are a couple of trouble makers). A gentleman who knows English came over and, after after we explained that the lock down happened right after we got here, and we haven’t had the opportunity to really set that up - no real office visits and that kind of stuff. He understood and then explained that we will have a date on the card and that we’d get a text about what time we should come. I explained that was a problem because they have wrong phone numbers for us. He said he couldn’t correct that there, but to go to the main office (confirmed as the one on our SNS documents) and they could fix it. Regardless, he said just come on June 11th if we don’t get a text.
We then walked over to get our shots, and then wait 20 minutes or so to make sure we were fine before leaving.
Yet again, somehow things just worked out.
We have our first shots and in three weeks we’ll have our second. I doubt much will change about our lives because Portugal will remain taking social distancing precautions at least through the end of September (so they say) and given the recent WHO warnings, our suspicion is that will last through the winter. But at least we can feel we have an added layer of protection!
Not bad for an unexpected birthday present.