Simone,
do you want to go to Mozambique??

by Simone CANOVA

It seems easy to be supportive... #1

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How do they laugh in Africa? #2

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Simone, do you want to go to Mozambique? #3

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I am going to Mozambique! But to do what? #4

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The meetings #5

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Where do I start? #6

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Meeting with

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The first contacts with Mozambique #8

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Agenda first mission in Mozambique #9

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First mission: arrival in Maputo #1

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But where am I? #2

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Meeting with Alvim Cossa #3

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Teatro do Oprimido Show #4

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Meeting with the Machaka Association #5

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The Show by the Machaka Group #6

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Manuela Soeiro and the Avenida Theater #7

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Gonçalo Mabunda #8

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Meeting with the Luarte Association #9

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Luarte Show #10

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Maputo - Pemba Journey #11

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Vitor Raposo #12

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Pemba – Palma Trip #13

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Visit to the village of Quionga #14

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Visit to the village of Quirindi #15

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That wonderful beach! #16

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Visit to the village of Pundanhar #17

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The Mamãe Kit #18

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Visit to the hospital in Palma #19

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Return to Italy #20

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The project continues! #1

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How many meetings are we going to have?!? #2

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Agenda second mission in Mozambique #3

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Second mission in Mozambique, arrival at Pemba #4

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Felix Mambucho #5

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Performance Vitor Raposo and the Tambo Tambulani Tambo company #6

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Pemba – Palma Trip #7

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Performances at Palma, on with the casting! No, stop! #8

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Grupo do funzionarios #9

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Performances (and casting) in the village of Pundanhar #10

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Performances (and casting) in the village of Quionga #11

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Selecting the actors for the Italian stages #12

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Are you ready to come to Italy? #13

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The return to Italy and end of the second mission #14

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Preparing for the first training period at Alcatraz #1

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Arrival at the Libera Università di Alcatraz #2

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We begin! #3

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Mario Pirovano #4

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Acting with Mario Pirovano #5

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Arms going up on their own! #6

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A dive into the theatre #7

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Let’s tell a love story! #8

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Being an actor is hard work #9

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What days! #10

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O falso médico! #11

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We all go shopping! #12

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The performance takes shape #13

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We need an ultrasound! #14

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Rome has never been so beautiful! #15

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Second training session: the first day... #1

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The return of the Mozambicans #2

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A tragic day #3

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Memory tests with Mario Pirovano #4

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Rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals… and that script in 3 languages… #5

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First reading of the script in Swahili #6

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Just for a change, we rehearse... #7

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That damned video! #8

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In and around Perugia #9

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The last rehearsals #10

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Action! #11

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Changes to the show? Change the title?!? #1

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Confusion in Fatima’s House #2

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Preparation of the stage design #3

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Ready to go (again)? #1

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Arrival at Pemba #2

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At Palma under the palm trees (wet!) #3

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First day of the tour: Mute #4

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Second day of the tour: Pundanhar #5

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Third day of the tour: Quionga #6

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Fourth day of the tour: Palma #7

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Fifth day of the tour: Olumbe #8

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Thank you Mozambique, thank you so much! #9

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It is an ordinary day, in the heart of Umbria, at the Libera Università di Alcatraz (Free University of Alcatraz).

I have been working here for several years, I deal with good news, as I always answer to those who ask me what I do. Ah, I forgot… my name is Simone Canova.

I run across Jacopo Fo, who is the master at the Libera Università di Alcatraz; greeting rituals, then the destabilizing phrase of the day: “Simone, do you want to go to Mozambique?”.

Here, this is how  the adventure of the Theater So Good started for me, the author of this travel diary.

DSC_1882To tell the truth, now and then the name of Mozambique had come up for some time. There were rumors about presumed theater courses in the African country to promote healthcare and health and good nutrition.

Indeed, during the previous months it happened a couple of times that Jacopo talked to me about this project … but for me it was one of the 15,837 ideas that we could carry out one day, perhaps … And today, suddenly, this question!
I rush in my brain to open the “James speaks to me of Mozambique” drawer and collect the little information that I remember: yes, it has to do with theater courses for Mozambican actors, all related to a project for the promotion of health, particularly of mothers and children. It was all I knew, all that the “boss” had told me and that I had stored as simple ideas, mere hypotheses. Therefore, there is little information I can dig out from the memory, but thousands of questions that need answers. Does that request make it all official now?
Have we found the partners for the project? Which project?!? Who is going, who is coming? When am I leaving?

DSC_1882IBut I just answer: “Yes, of course!”
Because if Jacopo asks you whether you want to go to Mozambique you just answer yes, the rest are insignificant details! Besides, I know Africa a little bit, Jacopo cannot have asked me that question by chance.
I participated in an international cooperation project in a village in Burkina Faso for four years, where we built a well and vegetable gardens, chicken coops and barns for animals in an abandoned and uncultivated field.
There I lived and worked in very close contact with the Burkinabé, perhaps the poorest of the poor. We registered more than 150 children from three villages for elementary school and planted about a hundred of new trees. And we distributed farming tools … and how many cases of cured malaria! This experience profoundly changed me, dramatically modifying the order of my priorities.
But Jacopo escapes, he has other commitments. “Can we talk about it?” I ask him. “Yes, sure, meanwhile just start to think about it…”