“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.

First 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.