Well yes, we’ve unpacked the last suitcases, and now here we are: at home, in Italy. It’s quite something to remember (and if Ethiopia is a memory, it’s already passed), it’s quite something to realize that those five months of the project that initially seemed like an endless period… are indeed over.
The last mission in November was a handover: slowly we realized that we had to “do” less and observe more. We watched Tsegaye, our social worker, learn to lead the “The Path of Life” snakes and ladders game and, during the tests done in schools, with children aged 10 to 14, take up more and more space, until we found ourselves on the sidelines, sitting on a wooden bench, watching him smiling and proud. But this is already the end.
The beginning is us and the nine sheets of “The Path of Life” board scattered on the office floor. Scissors, tape and our Abesha colleagues amused and intrigued by the appearance of that unknown game. Tsegaye, Gebre and Wubshet helped us so much to understand the critical issues and improvements to submit to our illustrator and above all they foreshadowed the challenge of the month: how to explain what a die is to someone who has never used or seen one? As has often happened, Ethiopia forces us to never take anything for granted and to find simple, creative and effective ways to communicate. With this intention we went to schools: small empty and dark classrooms, with long desks equipped with benches, sometimes resting directly on loose earth, filled with 50 pairs of attentive and surprisingly polite eyes.
Each test was a discovery and a new attempt: how to conduct, how much to theatricalize, how to make the pawns, how to use the die… but it was after holding the first workshops dedicated to teachers and youth associations that we managed to find the right measure for the game to be dynamic, fun and at the same time allow us to address the issue of irregular migration in a thorough and target-appropriate way. Tsegaye worked on the translation of the content and together with us saw the potential of the game; little by little he became less didactic in his conduction and let himself be inspired, spontaneously improvising small theatricalizations that thrilled us and filled us with confidence: he will now take the game to the schools of the woredas of Ambassel, Tehuledere and Worebabo and pass on everything he has learned to teachers and youth associations, so that “The Path Of Life” spreads, and with it also awareness of the risks of irregular migration.
The test with the young people, members of an association of the same administration as Hayk, particularly struck us; the game involved them emotionally and the discussion that followed revealed what we already imagined: leaving is not a choice, in the face of the complete absence of government initiative in the field of youth employment.
As social theater operators, what we can do in this case is reiterate that spreading awareness and creating a network has a concrete value: The first step to solving a problem is in fact recognizing the existence of a problem, understanding it, confronting it and joining together to fight it. Or to fight for something. What we have done in these months has been to bury small seeds through our work, give ideas and stimuli and create the time and place for meeting. We know that it will be up to them to decide to nurture what has been born. You cannot order the sprout to bloom, but you can prepare fertile ground. Although there have been moments of discouragement, just before leaving we had a farewell gift: we went to have breakfast at the Comfort, and here appears Mohamed “the smiling one” – one of our trainers, vice principal of the high school. He insists on offering us coffee, we take the opportunity to ask him if he has seen anyone from the group again.
He replies that some kids have turned to him to talk about migration and that a discussion club has been formed in the high school. “It is said that the slightest flapping of a butterfly’s wings is capable of causing a hurricane on the other side of the world.” 1 This is enough to make us return happy, satisfied and full of this experience.
