Piera, a resident in Poggio alla Croce
In these last few years a lot has changed
Things were different before, people were simpler
They often came into the centre.
Now they stay at home,
the village is less lived in.
Before we were all concentrated on my shop.
Most of the world,
most of life took place around it.
A place to meet, to understand each other,
maybe argue with different opinions
but still have a dialogue. That was life,
in my view that really was.
Andrea, who conceived the welcoming project
Poggio alla Croce could be defined
as “a small Switzerland”
Located in a beautiful spot
between Chianti and Valdarno
Residents are busy at work
and like to collaborate.
In summer a nice festival is organized
attracting people from both valleys
When problems arise, like with ice in winter,
informations flow over the internet.
Looked like and ideal place
Then in April 2017 the “bomb” went off:
thirty migrants to be hosted in the “palace”,
a former hotel middle of village
It sounded as if a spaceship full
of little black men was about to land
Piera
Black men are coming. Black men are coming.
We are all with our hairs raised,
very worried, me too to be honest because
you hear a lot of good
but also bad about these youngsters
Andrea
The strongest reaction, intense and wide,
was an immediate refusal,
a “belly” reaction that caused
an immediate decision
to collect signatures against,
in less than three days
230 signatures were collected
Even though the Poggio’s residents
are around 190.
Attilia, a teacher in the the school for migrants
A first meeting was held
one and half year ago in summer
before the migrants arrived,
so we did not know them
They had no face for us, they had no name
I don’t live in Poggio alla Croce,
I come from a nearby village
During the meeting there were
some very aggressive people,
I guess they were sincerely scared
Martin, parson of Poggio alla Croce
Their reaction was not due to being bad.
Behind there was also a reality
that must be told. It must be told that
none was pepared because none
had been alerted that these foreigner,
these migrants were coming
Paolo, a resident in Poggio alla Croce
Someone started collecting signatures,
and I agreed only because I wanted to know
where would these kids be hosted,
what did they come for then it became
clear that this was not the reason
they did not want to welcome them
So I said my signature was extorted
and was not in agreement any more
Luana, a resident in Poggio alla Croce
They told us
“in a year time we’ll remind you of this..
we are scared..
I have an 18months old little girl
who won’t be able to walk the streets anymore”
But I refused to sign in
and became the black sheep
Paolo
They are black, and that may be difficult to fathom
Integration is not easy, not easy.
Also on their side
Attilia
There was a bad feeling around,
a terrible atmosphere
My legs trembled, truly.
I recognized kids that I knew
when they were little children.
And now as grown ups they were scared
and said they did not want the migrants
because their life would change,
it would not be possible
anymore to go quietly around in Poggio.
No more walkabouts but they shouted
all this in a really aggressive way..
and I started to tremble and was unable
to tell what I meant,
that I felt very sorry to see children
who had grown up together
accustomed to sharing…and I remember
there were also coloured children
in our classes and they all played together
And now I was frightened
by what they had become
Was more scared of them than
of the coming migrants because
I could sense a rage and violence
that really frightened me
Andrea
When the spaceship
with its little black men finally landed
we managed to organize
a first meeting in a room under
the church that our parson Martin
put at our disposal
for the whole project.
Sitting on chairs in a circle
all mixed up some of us,
some of them, we played a bit.
We sticked a piece of paper on the wall
and each and one of us started to write
“Andrea Formiconi, italian, speaks italian”
Then casually pointed the felt-pen towards
one or the other and they wrote in turn
Each and one of us wrote his name,
which country he came from,
which language he spoke,,,
A simple exercise that opened
a whole world, a universe
because it turned out that with
fourteen-fifteen of them there were
twelve-thrteen languages spoken
That some of them were illiterate,
you could tell by the unlikely way they
brandished the feltpen in their hands,
In fact they did not write but
drew their name. At the same time
some of them attended school
and to one exreme there was one kid
that had escaped while in his fourth year
of Mathematics at university.
This helps understand the enormous
fan of different human stories and situations
hiding behind this stereotype that we call
with just one name: the migrant..
which prompts the image of one
little black man, the same, and his
standard story.
Absolutely not like that !
Malo’, a teacher in the school for mugrants
Three of us that embarked in this adventure
of the “little school of Poggio alla Croce”
without really knowing what to expect.
We felt the urge to do something
to help these youngsters,
and we thought that teaching them
italian language was the thing to do
also to improve their trust in themselves.
As we are scared of them blacks,
they are scared of us whites
They are afraid of us.
The funny thing is that a lot of people
were involved who had nothing .
to do with teaching.
People like Marcie who is canadian
with very little italian but
she taught italian.. and Willy
who is still with us who reads
and does dictation
and anything else with them
I teach in primary schools
on Tuesday when finished
With my class, often very tired like last
year when I taught in first
I sit in the car and say to myself
“why do you do it ?
you should go home to rest or make dinner”
then I close my eyes and think
“if it is the right thing to do I'll find
the missing energies” and there I go
and afterwards I am happy because you get
there and see those smiles with white teeth
and those white teeth of black people
those happy eyes...
I see Ajan, I see Dedo, the Kurds...
waiting for you
who thank you for being there,
who are looking forward
for you to teach them something.
(Car noise...)
I arrived here a bit by chance,
I got to know this experience
thanks to Andreas, his stories
in university classrooms and I decided to
to come and have a look.
The question I get asked most often
is why I'm doing this, especially because
what strikes me about me is the fact
that I come from almost 90 kilometres
almost two hours by car anyway
just to get here.
It's not easy to explain,
because the reason
lies in so many little things:
gestures, looks, emotions,
the feelings you have when
you get in touch with these people
which in the end are lives
are experiences, are worlds
with which you come into contact
and of which you often know nothing.
(Traffic noise...)
(Country noises, chirping...)
(Squeaking bicycle...)
(Background music...)
I go to school in Figline Valdarno
every day, On Mondays and Tuesdays
I go by car but the other days I ride my bike.
I ride my bike. It's not difficult to go,
but it is difficult to return
because it takes an hour and
thirty minutes, It's tiring.
When I was in Africa I didn't go to
school and fortunately I found myself in
Europe and met the people who
are helping me
and enrolled me in school.
My goal is to learn the Italian language
I would like to stay in Italy,
I would like to work to help
my family in Africa. Therefore
I have to concentrate on studying,
it's my goal.
My name is Madou Koulibaly, I come
from Guinea and I'm 20 years old.
I arrived in Italy a year and
two months ago, it was a very
difficult trip, I can't forget it,
It was very dangerous.
I sacrificed my life
to seek my fortune in Europe
and thank God I entered Italy
on 13 June 2018
and I was transferred
to Poggio alla Croce.
I met some very good people who
treated me like one of their own,
they are like my parents here,
not only me but all the Africans
who live in Poggio alla Croce.
I would like to continue studying,
if there is a possibility,
I'd like to study and learn
a job, for example a welder.
(Noise spring water, chirping...)
Italy saved me in the sea,
in Italy I went to school
and I would like to continue studying,
I don't know what will happen afterwards.
Poggio alla Croce is my village.
The path is chaotic,
one cannot expect to follow
a preordained thread:
it would kill this kind of school.
So you have to follow the wind.
An example would be when
Samba had written the curriculum
on the computer,
then of course you try to help:
"Samba, what does this mean?
What's this...?"
Then we read:
"driving experience", so I ask:
"Samba, what did you drive?"
He light up immediately and says
"Cow!"
and a whole other discussion
started from there
about how things change over time,
how they change in Africa,
how they change here.
This is an example of digression.
It's a people-centred school,
essentially.
(Soft music, dialogue in the background..)
We all have attics full of old computers
and we don't know what to do with them.
It's a problem because we have to take them
to the eco-center and so we've been
spreading this information:
"Do you have an old computer?
You don't know what to do with it,
is that a problem for you?
Instead of giving it to the
recycling centre, give it to us,
we install a version the Linux
operating system, a lightweight version
that fits into old computers
and easily "resurrects" them.
The Ubuntu operating system
is so called because it is a concept
from southern Africa and
Nelson Mandela in a beautiful
video that we used
for a work with the students,
describes it with a little story:
"Once upon a time, when a wayfarer
arrived in a village and he was
tired, thirsty and hungry, no one would
ever ask him any question,
they simply brought him something to drink
and food. This is Ubuntu, that is
thinking about the other in the knowledge
that this creates a community
that lives well if we all do that."
Ubuntu is a great African philosophy,
a great African thought...
it's about getting to the help
it starts with the fact that we're all
brothers, if I help one person
that person can help
another person close to me,
therefore a general connection
of society in that we all consider
ourselves brothers and sisters.
What happened in Poggio alla Croce
is Ubuntu, it's definitely
authentic Ubuntu.
(Chorus of African children...)
I think that following a principle
where helping someone will help me
in turn is good for both, better than
fighting with each other,
even though in fight wins may be
happier than the loser.
This principle guides my whole life
since I started reasoning I have always
used the time I had available in social activities.
But not for “goodism”, not because
I am good and consequently must do good,
help others, help beggars, no.
Maybe I am led by selfishness,
I think I earn something this way
and so live a better life, be serene.
You get a lot of rip-offs, but not like
those you get When fighting and losing.
More like opportunities that leave
a bitter taste in our mouth but do not create
big problems. There were racist
symptoms around and that is way
I decided to get involved but basically
it was my way of doing things: I am a migrant
myself in Poggio alla Croce, moving from town
to the country.
I choosed to and almost from start
it was natural to decide joining this association.
It is a way of living, it is normality,
no heroism, I think everybody
can understand this.
When I hear it, the word Ubuntu has an impact
because it means “humanity”.
In jewish religion we have an expression,
“tikkum olam”, that literally means
“fixing the world”.
And I noticed how relationships
developed here; it is really beautiful,
because people one by one are slowly
“fixing the world” and show humanity.
We must concentrate on this positive part
of the world because if we don’t,
if we do nothing, we are doomed to fail.
For me coming here to Poggio is a little thing
but it means a lot in my life.
This idea of Ubuntu, to re-generate computers,
objects tools that were doomed to be
thrown away, is what inspired also
this community to act and slowly
re-generate itself. This is what means
the motto “We need you”
Our local community was re-generated
by your arrival, thanks to your spaceship
with little black men, because it injected
into us a new need to co-hoperate, to leave
our homes and setties, forget about tv,
get out and try to solve together a problem
for the benefit of the whole community.
(words from a malian rap song, music in headphones)
I am Samba and I come from Mali,
I am an artist
But before when I sang with my friends
my family was against me making music,
but I love it.
In 2016 I went first to Algeria then to Libia
Then I arrived here two years ago.
I have a complicated life,
I would like to be an artist
a rapper like many italians (Ghali, Sfera Ebbasta..)
I would like to do what they do
I don’t really know what happened
but we have all changed
I found out they changed in relation to us,
in the begining they would just pass by,
just give us a little smile but when they
realised we really liked them…
I cannot speak for all, but for people like me.
When we see a new one we stop him
with a “ehi”, and if he is tall tell him
to bend down or we can’t reach him, and he
calls us and we say “grandmas and grandpas”
and he replies “grandpa,grandma”,,
We speak italian so we try to make
ourselves understood and when we see
they reaaly don’t understand we gesture
like this..to make them bend down
And so they learn and when they pass
they ask “nonna, need help ?”..
”no, not today, tomorrow”.
Some know some english and so I tell them
“tomorrow” and they understand.
I always said I have No room at home but if
I did I would happily take one in One, two,
depends on how many I could take in
If the house were mine, because in my view
they also need to be understood, to feel
the good not just through a smile. There are
essential things in the life of all, but they
leave their families flee from
very bad systems, suffer hunger.