Magnificent Maia

Maia De Montcal is only 5k as the crow flies from Serinya, but the differences in attitudes between the two villages mean that Maia could lie on the other side of the moon.

Maia exhibits a spirit of cooperation between all its residents and the population round about, a desire to involve everyone, young, old, incomer or native in the village activities and encourages participation and contributions from all who wish to be involved.

Today was a splendid example of what can be achieved by a small population, probably 400 at most, when they put their common abilities in harness. Today was the inauguration of the Fira de Formatge i Vi ( 1st wine and cheese fair of Maia). Twenty stalls selling everything from hand painted pictures of the locality, ferocious and quite un-necessary knives, cheese (of course), caramelised nuts, those hideous colouring sets from China that portray dragons and fantasy scenes, local wine (naturally), the dreaded products of the aloe vera plant beloved of health fascists everywhere, lovely artisan breads, herbs, a stall from the local school selling tee shirts and badges to finance their trip to Gambia, an interesting exhibition about the production of bottle cork, speciality rices, two or three exhibitors from local restaurants with signature dishes, and even a local entrepreneur who was promoting electric scooters, electric mini-cars and electric skateboards.

My personal favourite was the buffalo cheese stall, apparently a local (well 30k away in Emporda) farmer has a herd of buffalo who give rich milk and from that the local cheese maker produces a gouda like semi soft cheese with a delicate and nutty flavour. I even managed to ask in my halting and ungrammatical Catala , "How do you milk buffalo?" the answer appeared to be "With great care!"

OK , so it wasn't Covent Garden, or even Perth Farmers Market but what it was was a very humbling experience of what can be achieved when local people get together and decide to make something happen. It was fun, friendly and a triumph for the organisers, a cross between a village fete and a parade of local characters, neighbours meeting , gossip exchanged, children laughing and a fine promotion of the community. Spain is in an even deeper pit of do-do than the UK just now, but local people selling local products in an atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration is one way to dispel some of the gloom.

I will stop now before I lead the community singing, but there is a message here. Serinya are you listening?