The return to Italy and end of the second mission

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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At this point you know the journey: Maputo, Johannesburg, Frankfurt, Milan. The journey lasts 25-26 hours, 30 if you count the train from Milan to Alcatraz in Umbria. I pass the time sleeping mostly, uncomfortably, but sleeping. The return journey proclaims the end of the mission, this time we were here for 17 days, and Tiredness with a capital T falls on us.

I didn’t speak for two days after returning the first time!

In a few weeks, when the actors arrive in Italy and the training period begins, I will see all my travelling companions, Bruno, Jacopo, the boys of the video troupe.

We all have plenty of things to do!

42-ritorno-italia-fine-seconda-missione2I was a river in flood with Jacopo Fo. I reported on the mission, looking at him face to face, one beside the other, no longer on Skype with a few thousand kilometres of distance between us.

I finally told it all, from the theatre performances that we saw to the intrinsic difficulty of the project. There were moments of hesitation and moments of tension. Sometimes, between us Italians, we didn’t beat about the bush.

Then you sleep on it, you eat on it and everything passes. And you start working again, so you’re there…

The mission was a success. On the word of Jacopo Fo, who gives me the point of view of a person who sees things from afar. We have gathered lots and lots of information. I let him see the video of some pieces of the performances of the people who were selected.

“He’s Agostinho, she’s Ana Bela, look at her smile! Safina! Safina dreams about being a singer, she’s the only one who spoke about a dream!”

He asks me about comical theatre, about Harlequin.

42-ritorno-italia-fine-seconda-missione

No, I didn’t find Harlequin in Mozambique. I took note of almost all the scenes when the audience laughed.

“Look, he tells her that if they get together they can talk on Facebook and Whatsapp, the audience started laughing, understand? Facebook and Whatsapp!!!”

We also speak about the health structures.

Yes, I asked a lot of people what they thought about the new Health centre in Palma, or the peripheral centres for the villages, I asked what the relationship between modern and traditional medicine was like, I asked the Cuamm doctors and also the normal inhabitants about that, to have all the different points of view.

There are difficulties and fear: difficulties in reaching the Health Centres, above all the one in Palma which is a true hospital for emergencies with operating rooms; fear of imagining that a pregnant woman has to distance herself from her family to stay at the Casa de Espera and be monitored during the last stages of the pregnancy. There’s diffidence towards the doctors and towards medicine. It’s true that there has been collaboration and also meetings between traditional doctors, here known as curandeiros, and Western doctors, but the process is long, it should be followed constantly.

During the first mission in Mozambique, Dor Iara, who is still head of the Palma Health Centre, told us that the problem was communication. “We speak different languages” (the doctors speak Portuguese, the patients one of the local dialects: Swahili, Macua, Makonde).

We should use a simple, understandable language during the performance, the message must be clear and simple, direct.

Otherwise we’ll be just another unsuccessful experiment on international cooperation.