Trip Report March 2009
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Trip Report March 2009
There is no problem
Data: 12/08/06
Where: Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso
Local time: 9.20
The concept of time just does not belong to Africans.
I do not know what it means “run all day for…”, “have no time to…”, “Monday, Tuesday, Saturday…”, what is the difference … is only the miracle of a new day that is renewed.
The car that we hired in Bamako in Mali for our first tour in West Africa not as a tourist but to lay the foundation of our association, has stopped (has failed come dicono qui) yesterday in this town and Mohammed, our guide, after having deposited in a hotel, he spent all day on the bus to go to buy a spare part in Ouagadougou. Now is the 9.20 the next day and we're only half done. The piece is, but our car still does not work. Ci ha riferito Mohammed che durante il tragitto di ritorno anche l’autobus crashed e ha dovuto attendere diverse ore prima di poter ripartire per Ouahigouya.
The “patience” here is what it takes to live here! And it takes a lot of!
Fabiana, the friend who accompanies us on this journey, you are comfortable with putting his book: realized that here you have to wait.
La hall di questo hotel è dignitosa. Ci sono angoli con divani rivolti verso due grandi finestre che guardano l’unica strada asfaltata di Ouahigouya e dove si svolge tutta l’attività commerciale. At this time there's a sandstorm and rains. The city is covering red sand. We are in August: the rainy season.
Mark goes back and forth to the lobby.
I'm trying to write … but here are never silent … here there is a guy who is approaching the hotel …
La gente non si accontenta di un solo buongiorno, bisogna chiedere anche come va…, come va la famiglia…, il lavoro…, la giornata…, se hai dormito bene…, e augurare buon lavoro…, o buona giornata.
Bisogna fare “le salutazioni”. Sono seduta da pochissimo ed ho già ripetuto questo cerimoniale per ben 4 volte! A Marco, è da ieri che tutti gli domandano …com’è andata la passeggiata (comment est allée la promenade) …per forza, per alleviare il dolore alla gamba che è iniziato qualche giorno fa mentre eravamo ospiti in un villaggio Dogon, does that go up and down in the hotel! I wonder what they will think!
Here Mohammed … smiles … maybe it's a good sign … Yes! It starts.
Burkina Faso's raining more than in Mali and it can be seen from the plantations of millet that define the path we are. Are much higher. And the colors of the leaves are bright green. There are miles and miles of plantations of millet that end where the sky begins. In the distance we can see some cultivation of sugar cane.
Today it is very hot and the humidity should be high. It travels with the windows open and you sweat. We need to get to Bousse … By lunch time we should be by Sister Esther. I learned how to use the conditional. In Africa, there are no certainties!
… Our driver reduced the speed 30 km orari … but it will come for dinner!!
… E’ Simply said … AGAIN WE ARE STILL!!!
Max, the autista, esce dall’auto esordendo there is no problem …A CABBAGE!!!! Non c'è problem!! We have loads such as donkeys, Marco makes male shrimp, the first village is an hour's drive, Nearby there is nothing, … our 4×4 has broken down and he says, … NON C’E’ PROBLEM!!!
There are no words. In silence, we leave the cockpit and sit by the roadside.
Expect! … what? … that luck will assist us!
The laughter of Sister Esther
Data: 14/02/07
Where: Boussé, Burkina Faso
Local time: 10.00
To 10,00 in the morning the sun beats down and the two bags full of children's clothing that we brought from Italy to leave the mission of the Sisters of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart, weigh … ma quel sorriso non si fa attendere per molto.
Eccola Suor Ester che cerca di farsi spazio fra le persone.
Sorride mentre viene verso di noi e agita la mano per salutarci: bon arrivés ci dice in francese con spiccatissimo accento napoletano.
Il suo sorriso e i suoi occhi hanno la stessa luminosità. Il suo entusiasmo è travolgente.
E continua … “come state, cosa mi raccontate…”.
Per tutto il tragitto per arrivare da Ouagadougou, dove è venuta a prenderci, alla missione di Boussé, we told our vicissitudes and our plans for the present and for the future. His determination far exceeds our!
… The gate of the mission opens, parked the car near the entrance.
How different the landscape now from that seen in August. Six months ago it was the rainy season and the green trees, the lawn was beaming. There were vases filled with flowers, the garden full of vegetables … a’ rainbow full of colors.
Now it seems to be gone from here Nero … all burned … all dry. From October to May it never rains in this part of Africa and the heat at certain times exceeds 40 degrees.
E’ the rain here that regulates the life …. not only of vegetation including human.
Sister Esther tells us that in a few weeks the stocks of millet and rice will begin to dwindle … and hunger gets big how big the sky above us.
Il vento caldo che soffia in questo periodo l'harmattan porta con sé solo sabbia e non soluzioni. And this sand comes to cover our consciences, the conscience of those who hold the power. And in the name of this power is put to silence the conscience of the world.
… Between us there is a moment of silence but that makes so much noise.
Come scrive Gregory David Robert nel suo libro Shantaram “silence can hurt like a whip … yet sometimes remain silent is the only way to express the truth”.
Sister Esther took the floor and tells us stories from her experienced that seem drawn from a science fiction book so they are outside of our dimension of Western life … “…the other day, a lady with a baby, wrapped in a rag, of a few days, crying with a sob comes to me and says mission: “Sister I came to leave this child because they do not want to die”. And why must die? I ask. And the woman says to me: “nun he must die because it is another mouth to feed” … “.
Sister Esther continues to describe the details, is due to go to the police who threatened the woman and in any case he had to promise to his mother that the mission would have thought the maintenance of small.
“Here the reality is harsh” Sister Esther concludes after telling us more stories from her lived.
Davanti ad un piatto di pasta parliamo e poniamo le basi per organizzare il progetto di sostegno a distanza. Non costa molto. I need to talk to as many people as possible … can not continue this indifference! Basterebbe un piccolo sforzo per ottenere grandi risultati … sembra impossibile ma meno di 0,50 centesimi al giorno aiutano una vita a vivere!
Le sue origini napoletane l’aiutano a raccontare le cose con quel tipico tocco di comicità … ride e ci fa ridere.
Parla, parla Suor Ester ma quasi non l’ascolto più … mi concentro sulla sua figura, su quel sorriso caldo e avvolgente che non ha niente da invidiare al sole dell’Africa.
Guardo una donna, una donna di grande spessore …
Il vento caldo sta aumentando … and the amount of dust that can lift also comes under this arbor … winds that laugh … and diverts my thoughts …
Dating
Data: 29/01/08
Where: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Local time: 19.00
Last hours. It starts. The return is always painful.
This time, even more than other times … I do not want to go back to Italy, futility of finding those that plague our Western minds …
How much time, how much energy we waste on unnecessary…!
… We sit under this arbor …
In late January, the heat begins to rise and blow the wind of the desert, l'harmattan, but here you are sitting in the shade well
As I write this I stop to think about the people that I met during these three weeks or found: the mother ofcolonel, the friend met in August 2006 The Koupela, who has not lost his leg almost gangrenous thanks to Gino, the Italian doctor who works at the hospital Nanoro; a Ibrahim, the child with eyes as pitch blacks in Segou that gave me a smile; the girl's face polio Mopti that every night I was waiting to greet me; the folk Mass on Sunday morning in a two-hour Nanoro ( … and to think that neither I nor Mark are Catholic!), the laughter and the nodes in the throat …
Living here makes you tougher but it gives you the ability to understand the suffering and needs of others without illusions but with a love and respect even deeper.
Una poesia di Kahlil Gibran inizia così “I question the sadness and I find that does not have the gift of speech”.
… Maybe that's why today I can not put my thoughts in writing …
