The first contacts with Mozambique

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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6-diari-johara-1024x474“We need to find a Portuguese interpreter.”

It is my recurrent phrase. I need a Portuguese interpreter to make various contacts and to make appointments immediately to be ready for when we arrive in Mozambique.
Yeah, they speak Portuguese over there, which is not like Spanish, it is a bit different, it is Portuguese indeed. Then I find out that Johara, an Italian-Mozambican girl, lives a few kilometers from S. Cristina, part of Gubbio (Perugia), which also houses Alcatraz.
Johara is a friend of someone who is a friend of a friend of someone who works at Alcatraz.
What a small world …
I get in touch with her, we set up a meeting. She is a beautiful young university student, she lived in Maputo for a long time and she speaks Portuguese fluently.
We are sitting side by side at the computer. We have made notes in a text file of how to introduce ourselves on the phone, what to say about the project, what questions to ask.

Hello, we are Jacopo Fo’s theater company. We are coming to Mozambique to tell you about a ” healthcare theater ” project. Are you interested? Can we set up an appointment?

Poor Johara, these are the “notes”. I can only tell her not to worry, to introduce herself politely, to explain who we are and what we want.

6-teatro-avenidaFirst we call the Avenida Theater in Maputo. In Mozambique!

“Bom dia, soi Johara …”, the adventure has begun.

I do not understand a word of what she is saying. I can guess that Johara is speaking of theater, of a company, of the project, I see that she is taking notes.

She ends the conversation and tells me about it.

Then a second one, then another one … In a few hours – thanks to the fact that our time zones match, and thus the phone never rings unanswered! – we have made the draft of the agenda of the first mission in Mozambique.

We are radiant: we have the confirmation that there are theaters, companies, street artists, performances, cultural associations, a real artistic heritage unknown in the West.

The names, the contacts, the people allow us to gain access to videos, photos, blogs and websites. A lot of extremely useful material.

I update the workgroup on every little news. Like when you are playing with Legos, this project is taking shape, one brick at a time.

Meanwhile we also have the date for the departure for the first mission. I have to close the agenda within a few days!

A little bit at a time … one brick at a time.