We had to write a text about "HOME". Since we have to put our texts in our blogs, here it goes mine.

Bela Teles is a 38 year-old wife, mother, daughter and sister. At the age of 9 months she travelled with her family towards a new home…

Bela was born in her grandmother’s house, at Serra Pequena, a little neighborhood in Amadora, but soon she went to Murreaux, in France. She lived there for 9 years. There she used to play with her sisters, cousins and friends. When she returned to Portugal she found it very hard to fit in and make new friends. I asked her what she thinks “home” is.

“Home is not always with our family. I made a lot of friends in France and suddenly I had to move to another country (with my family) and be away from them. For a child of 9 that is very hard. That time I felt my home was in France. Until today I have lived in Portugal and now my home is here. I have my own family now, my husband and my children whose life has always been here.”

I am Bela’s oldest daughter and this text is about her because she knows exactly what missing home means, just like I do. I lived in Serra Pequena for 10 years, and there I was very happy because I had all my family around me, which for me is very important. My mother’s family was one of the first to get there and built their home. Mine does not exist anymore. My house was built by my family and we all grew up in that neighborhood. I miss it a lot! But now I live in another house that is my home. Here I live the joys, sadness and worries of life with my family. That is why I call this house my home. I also feel that I do not need a house to be at home, wherever I am, as long as it is with my family, I am at home.