After working for weeks to prepare the documents they need to leave Mozambique and enter Italy, and preparing all the logistics needed for their stay, the moment has finally come!
I’m at Fiumicino Rome airport, Terminal 1, and in a few minutes the “Theatre is good for you” company, composed of 5 amateur actors from the District of Palma and two professional actors from Maputo, will appear behind the sliding doors. During the journey they were accompanied by Iacopo and the rest of the video troupe, Paolo and Daniele. Maybe I didn’t need to come to Rome but I don’t want to miss their faces, their reactions to their first impact with Italy.
There they are!
Arlete, Safina, Ana Bela, Felix, Adelino (junior), Adelino (senior) and professor Agostinho, impeccably dressed in a jacket, shirt and tie.

I’ll leave you for a few minutes, I want to welcome them one by one…

“Ahora” (already speaking Portuguese) we’re on the bus. I see them smile at me and at themselves, see them watching the view as it slides past the windows, and then see them fall into a deep sleep.

They are all sleeping, the only words we managed to exchange were that they are fine and that they are exhausted.
Their journey began days ago, almost a week, first from Palma to Pemba, then from Pemba to Maputo for the visas, and then from Maputo to Italy. I think they feel as we did the first time we arrived at Mozambique: you create an idea and then you find that the reality is completely different; an adventure begins that seems to be a film in parts.

We wake them at Casa del Diavolo in Umbria, I tell them they need at least 24 hours to get rid of the tiredness of the journey, to relax. They are as polite as ever and also very formal, but I can see they are tired.
We eat and then rest (even if the person writing this got up at 5.30, nothing in comparison to them but it was 5.30 just the same, according to some it’s a violation of human rights…).

A long chat with Jacopo Fo before dinner, now we are all here, Italians, Mozambicans and all those involved in the project who didn’t have the chance to go to Mozambique personally. They want us to tell them about the project again, they ask questions, we laugh, Jacopo tells us about the outline of some of his theatre plots and other short traditional stories, we clarify what the objectives of the training period would be.

What will we be eating?
Black Venus rice with prawns and rocket, chicken kebabs with courgettes, fruit salad, vegetables and cheese, aubergines au gratin, raw vegetables, shortcrust pastry packets filled with spinach and ricotta cheese, and zuppa inglese. I thought that food might have been a problem…but after seeing the empty plates, I’m sure it won’t!