"The border disorients you" a Journey in Ethiopia with VIS

Today we are in Gambella on the Southern Sudan border
Abba Filippo, a Salesian who smiles all the time, explains to me that in case I should ever run into a python I should lie down with one leg stretched out and the other in the air so that the reptile could start swallowing me by the stretched out leg, but couldn’t go any further once it reaches my groin
I, obviously having a box-cutter in my pocket, would then open its mouth in a mortal smile and peel it off like a boot.
How can I not to think about it?
Suddenly we meet a truck queue
The road has collapsed because of the rain
The same rain that is so precious in this area where it nourishes this troubled land
Today it erodes the road.
We can not proceed
Dozens of people are encamped waiting for someone to arrive with a rescue vehicle to take the trucks out of the mud
They wait without anger, frustration or fatigue
Some sleep, some use the puddles of water to clean themselves
We reverse and go back while we still can

We reach Ibago, one of the villages where VIS built a well
Locals receive us in celebration, smiling, they run towards us
Adults and chidren
Uninhibetdly wearing their nudity or half-nudity
Women work grinding corn for hours with a huge club until it becomes a golden flour
Old ladies drink coffee, which tastes so good around here
Some hide from the camera
Two little girls pull each others hair
What is the reason for the dispute

Shacks, animals, nature
If it wasn’t for a few kids wearing famous soccer players t-shirts I might think I have gone back in time
Maybe to the Middle Ages
I wonder where their thinking stands
Their evolution of thought

VIS volunteers walk around smiling casulayy
They know bringing potable water changed these people lives

Drought emergency is a priority in Gambella as well as in the whole Somali Region
In Las Hanot we attend a capacity test of a depth drill well.
Global Heating find10-15 meters drilling insufficient for finding water bearing stratum
Now it is necessary to drill up to 120 meters with heavy machinery
Not an easy thing to do
Especially in this areas

Dozens of people celebrate
Singing and dancing
The powerful jet of water bringing wet earth
Pure magic
Safety

We arrive in Gogti after driving 10 exhausting hours on non-existent roads
“Water is life”
The welcome sign says it all
We had two flat tires
Local volunteers replace them as quick as in a F1 pit stop
Entire warthog families and hyenas walk around the arid land
Charming and scary at the same time

For VIS the priority is not only water, but also education
Schools and a place where women can meet and work in a safe environment
Schools are small blue and yellow buildings
Children are not back to school yet, because of the rainy season in Gambella
A blessed relief after the drought and hot weather of the Somali Region.
Carola, VIS president, looks at the rooms and asks about the teaching methods and about the scant educational material available
I think she is wondering how to improve the situation.
Education, teaching, learning a job
To us these are part of everyday life, staging posts, our own right, but they should not be taken for granted… not in Ethiopia, not in Africa

Addis Ababa, means “New Flower” in Aramaic
It is the capital city, where 80 different nationalities and as many languages cohabit
A city where opposite realities live together
Where a coffee-shop chain won a legal battle against the Starbucks colossus
Guilty of copying their logo
A city where an impressive number of children and teenagers live on the streets
Sometimes by choice, sometimes out of necessity
Escape
Despair
They come from the countryside
Attracted to the big city
The New Flower

Every Tuesday some Salesian volunteers, supported by VIS search for street children to tell them about a place called Bosco Children
Where they can find a shelter, food, teachers and other ex-street children who can teach them a job, such as creating furniture, metal work
Where they can find street artists willing to share their “magic” such as vaulting in the air and juggling with balls and clubs

There are rules they should respect
But no commitment to stay
The gate is always open
Both for those who decide to come in
And for those who decide to leave to go back into the darkness

I have always thought that any form of art, whether you look at it or create it lifts your spirit
Looking at children trying, with care and pride to vault in the air says I am right
Making art and expressing ones self does lift the spirit
Jumps that hoist them from the dust and dirt on Bole Road, Addis Ababa’s road, where they slept and lived for who knows how long

The border disorients you
But at the end of your journey you understand
You find your center
The balance between borders
Including those of your soul