In late June, 2024, the Peace Secretariat of Servas Portugal held an online conversation around the theme: “Inner Peace through Transformative Journeys”. The contribution from one of our members was appreciated so much that we asked her to put it into writing.
Here is what Manuela Gama had to say:
Manuela Gama is a member of Servas Portugal since 2005.
I learned to be a Servas host in Brazil during a two-month trip in 2005. I was welcomed by 11 Servas hosts. Once back home, it was very easy for me to start hosting people who requested it. Marina Garcia from Pontevedra is the first entry in my guestbook. She arrived on Saturday, April 8, 2006. Since then there have been a total of 62 visits, not counting the repeat visitors. Some came back because our conversation needed more time, to carry on practising Portuguese, or simply because my home is a place that lends itself to writing, reading, and resting.
Each visit brought me much more than my hospitality had managed to offer.
When the time for goodbyes came, I felt the cultural enrichment and understanding of the world that each visit brought me meant I had received much more than my hospitality had managed to offer.
If I look for a common link of greater relevance in all these encounters - which would have been highly unlikely without Servas - what stands out is not the pleasure of sharing, of being together on walks or having meals. Nor would I choose the enjoyable discussions about books, movies or politics. All of that was/is genuinely good and enriching, but what was/is truly transformative was/is opening the door to strangers in total trust.
When my first Servas visitors came in 2006, several people in my family thought it was a risk and that I was... unwise.
But, very soon, after joining in moments of Servas socializing, my family members were already asking: “When are the next ones coming?”
From the time you open the door, an immediate egalitarian interaction takes place.
Here lies the transformation: fears turned into trust. The unknown other became one of us.
And this trust, present right from the time you open the door, then settles into an easy, immediately egalitarian interaction. In the LOI (Letter of Introduction) there are no diplomas or marks of social status, so the communication is truly between equals. Acceptance is free from conditioning. It allows for a very rare innocence.
In society, in "real life", this freedom is rare, so exercising it is potentially transformative: it shows how, over the course of two days, close and fraternal communication is possible.
Isn't it this trusting closeness that opens the paths to altruism and cooperation, fundamental for world peace?”
By: Manuela Gama, Secretary of Servas Portugal General Assembly (2022-2025)
