“A Refugee Story” è uno scambio internazionale, nato dalla collaborazione di Grecia, Italia, Georgia, Turchia, Spagna e Romania.  La capofila del progetto è l’associazione “Ihnilates tou Fotos” di Salonicco, giovane partner greco con cui noi di Eufemia abbiamo già collaborato in passato. Il fulcro del progetto si è espresso nei giorni di scambio e di incontro in Grecia:  42 ragazzi e 6 group-leader si sono incontrati nel villaggio di Agia Triada, pochi Km a sud di Salonicco, dove hanno convissuto per 9 giorni (dal 21 al 29 Settembre 2016).

Le giornate sono scivolate in fretta, tra confronti e discussioni, incontri e laboratori. Le tematiche affrontate rappresentano l’espressione ricorrente della tragedia della guerra: la questione irrisolta del diritto alla Pace, il dramma di chi ha visto la propria terra, le proprie case e i propri progetti sgretolarsi sotto le bombe.

“Vinnytsa è qualcosa di diverso dal resto dell’Ucraina, ha delle sfumature europee e un retrogusto sovietico ormai lontano. E’ stato facile ambientarsi qui, soprattutto per l’efficiente e metodica accoglienza di Nashe Podilla, l’organizzazione ospitante che fin dal primo istante mi ha fatto sentire subito inserito e importante.

La città è prevalentemente famosa per i tram blu importati dalla Svizzera, la fabbrica di cioccolato Roshen gestita dall’attuale Presidente ucraino e le magnifiche fontane che spumeggiano in fronte ad essa.

Questa avventura è appena iniziata e già promette magnifiche esperienze in questa terra che mi appresto a riscoprire, questa volta come volontario e non come turista”

Edoardo

Once upon a time, in the very north of our kingdom, there was a small village named Orvelte. As you probably remind, it comes from the ancient Dutch ovr het velt means over the field. Thus it won’t be difficult for the sharp reader you are, to imagine the scenario: a bunch of small houses, green fields as long as the eye can see, dozens, hundreds and thousands of sheeps all around.

The legend says that exactly the sheeps made it happen an impossible love between a teacher and a shepard, two innocent souls victims of the faith… But I’m sorry, this is another story.

The facts I want to tell you took place during the XVIII year of the reich of Willem Alexander Orange Nassau Van Amsbergen. In the local chronicle we can more precisely read:

<<The 20th day of the 9th month, during the apple harvest, a group of strangers arrive in town. They are so unusual that they look like strangers even to themselves: they wear different colours, brought flags from unnamed kingdoms, speak languages that are hardly recognizable and they repeat their own names every second, as their brains are totally messed up.>>

Well, you know, at those times it was common to give straight comments, we learnt to be nice only some decades later.

But yes, the fact was that those people were exactly unknown to each other, brought there by an unclear destiny and, to be specific, guided by three suspicious characters: the Hawk, the Bear and the Panther.
The Hawk was their captain, always at the forefront, ready to start, serious as hell, not even a wrinkle of a smile appeared on his face. The Panther told me once that he was a very funny mate, but it was before the war. And you know, you can’t really trust the Panther when he is drunk. He is solid like a rock, you can count on him if you are in need and he will work for hours without a break, but, man, the bullshits he can say with a poker face are unimaginable. Don’t tell that I didn’t warned then.
And the Bear, of course. He could lead a caravan through the desert if you have asked him (and had enough money to hire!), his experience is beyond of human knowledge and his spirit flew high over people’s heads. His soul was affected by a strange illness and he was forced to travel from place to place, constantly looking for the place to call home.

So that was Orvelte the place where our group finally met. Their single travels had been so tiring that the first night everyone collapsed without even knowing the name of the roommate, simply trusting that nothing could happen, based on the Hawk word.

The following day the sun was shining (yeah, it was really unexpected for the season) and the group was ready to start the journey. What? Didn’t I tell you about their journey? Well, it’s because none knew at the time. They received an invitation for a secret mission from the Hawk and you cannot really say no to him.

So, the journey. The Hawk gathered all of them in the big room of the house –the stable to be honest- and sketched a plan for the next days. Then he left without a word, leaving the Bear to the dirty work. Because you can imagine, it’s really hard to have no common background and with the pressure of time… By the way, the Bear was a professionist and he knew hot to manage.

He started setting a commong language among them, words that we can’t really understand, maybe he listened them from previous experiences in far away countries, maybe he collected them from a witch or he totally invented them, but that was and here I can give you examples: abracadabra, bora-bora, hakuna matata. I told you: incomprehensible! We lost the exact meaning of them, but at the time they worked well.
He did it even more imaginative: he asked the people to throw small balls over the spaces and to shout their names out loud, to write on each other clothes and to draw their faces. Not to speak about the sorcery he did at the end: he transformed half of the group in beautiful princess and the other half in terrible dragons that held them prisoner. The Bear was a good man, but sometimes his head was a bit broken. Thus he wanted to break also people’s heads. Convincing that was their choice, of course.

He first tried to confuse them with philosophical questions about life, but the results did not satisfied him that much, so he came up with a more practical way: he set a tricky field and forced people to jump over a fiery barrier. Luckily the Panther was there and he put his forcefulness at their service, helping to overcome the obstacle.

The Panther was so kind to prepare a banquet to restore energy and everyone was so grateful for that.

In the afternoon the Bear was too tired so he sent away everyone asking them to explore the surroundings. I’ve already told you about Orvelte, after five minutes you know every single detail of the village, but no excuses, they had to go for almost a hour…and to report their discoveries.

Finally was night. And then happened a very strange thing, again the chronicles help us:

<<That’s unbearable! Those strange human being are partying! It has been already two hours that we can hear from the old stables of De Vries, music, songs, shouting and laughs. It’s evident that they have nothing to do tomorrow morning and they can waste their time in such a way! There’s already a petition ongoing to alert the burgemeister, we hope that he will kick them out of this respectable town>>

And that was. Not the nothing-to-do, neither the wasting-time part, but the party! Oh, if it was a party there! We have no idea of the reason, it could have been the music, the effort did together during the day or everything else, but the atmosphere changed completely in a minute and it went through funny facts, drinks, tasty food and dances. There was even a sharing-time, but only the braves. And this is already another story.

Ciao Eufemia,