Landed one hour ago from Johannesburg. The trip started in Dar es Salaam at 7:25 am local time. From Tanzania to Singapore is like a time journey. From the dark streets of Dar to the lights of Singapore. From the Dar airport to Singapore world’s hub. This was my first trip to Sub Sahara Africa and I have to get my thoughts together. I saw just a tiny tiny part of it, though I did […]
I have given up after three unsuccesfull attempts ot open a bank account at a NatWest branch down the road from the office of ODI where I work here in London. On Wednesday I give it a try with HSBC near the Parliament and Westminster. HSBC is called ‘ global bank’, meaning they have subsidiaries all over the world, they deal with customers from many countries, and I had heard that they provide the possibility […]
I recently found, in the bookshelves of friends’ house, a book I had forgotten. I actually thought it was in my old room in Italy. I found it in Switzerland. It travelled, now I remember, from Italy, to Spain, to Germany, to Switzerland and it is now with me here in London. The book title, in Italian, is ‘La Donna di Porto Pym’. The author is Antonio Tabucchi. A writer I used to love a […]
I am sitting in one of the most beautiful flats I have ever been. I look out of the window behind this laptop screen: the cool wind of this ‘blueskysunnydaywinds’, the branches of a small tree moving softly, the green field where hay is waiting to be cut and stored for the winter time, the large trees of the forest one km from here (much larger pine trees than in Finland), the valley of Lausanne […]
We enter the pagoda compound with the car and stop in front of the sala (or dining hall). It is typical Khmer wooden building on stilts. I step out of the car and see Madame Yort Norng standing at the entrance of the sala at the top of the short but steep stairs that lead to the entrance. She see me great me with the typical smile that can be found only in the rural […]
In never left a meeting with villagers with tears in my eyes. But today it happened. I am in the province of Pursat, on the west side of the Tonle Sap lake. In the afternoon I went with two other members of the team to a pagoda at 30 km from the national road to Phnom Penh. We thought he meeting was for ten to twelve people. We arrived in the pagoda ten minutes early. […]
Battambang province. North West Cambodia. I am near the border of Thailand, in the commune of Samlot. The meeting just started. A young man who is 22 years old and three young women in their twenties joined the meeting. We are under a wodden house built on stilts. It hot. We are sitting on one of those large wodden beds that almost every Cambodia house has. Around us, bushes, no fields, the forest that is […]
‘Nella vita di ognuno giunge un momento che è come il fulcro. In quel momento bisogna accettare se stessi. Non è più quello che si diventerà. È quello che si è e sempre si sarà.’ ‘There comes a time in each life like a point of fulcrum. At that time you must accept yourself. It is not anymore what you will become. It is what you are and always will be.’
Co Anh (teacher Anh) is my Vietnamese language teacher. She is a very patient lady. She usually comes to my office. Twice a week for an hour. I have made good progresses under her supervision, though I do not put enough time and effort in my homeworks. But, as I said, she is patient and every time we have a lesson she does not ask me whether I did my homeworks or not. As I […]
Werde ry is working together with the local NGO Mlup Baitong since 2003. The Green Garden project is implemented in the province of Kampong Thom to improve the livelihood and living environments through home gardening activities. The project reaches 2073 people in 19 villages. Experienced key farmers trained by a previous project by Werde, are now teaching other farmers about home gardening techniques. After two years of the project implementation many farmers have increased the […]