In the most critical passages, I also get on the mat and act in Italian but especially with my body: they laugh, applaud me, try again, I stay out to motivate them and give them energy and the scene, magically, succeeds!
The third mission of the Social and Community Theatre operator of SCT Centre, Paola Galassi, in Ethiopia is about to end. Here is her testimony.
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I arrived in Ethiopia for the third time, my last mission. I left the CIFA staff and the PAT – Plastic Awareness Team (a group of 30 young local artists) three months ago, as well as my small studio in Mrs. Fekerta’s compound, who is waiting for me sitting drinking coffee under the avocado tree that shades the courtyard.
This mission is different, I start it thinking that I will be less in contact with the artists and more in the role of creator, coordinator and director of the big final event: the celebration of World Environmental Day 2019. Ethiopia, however, as usual, holds many surprises and I find myself with a new event on the program, not in Hawassa but in Bahir Dhar, in the north of the country. The event is promoted by DOW Chemicals, an American multinational, organized by Child Fund, another NGO. We at CIFA bring the content… and a great charge of energy!
I find the PATs again with immense pleasure for the pre-departure rehearsals and I am surprised by the great leap they have made in my three months of absence: the rivalries and internal competition dynamics have disappeared, leaving room for a great pleasure of being together – finally no longer divided according to their Youth Clubs of origin – and a greater sense of responsibility. The internal roles have been defined, there are those who take care of tidying up the materials, those of the music, those who reprimand the others – and, to my great surprise, the delays decrease from the canonical hour and a half to only half an hour!
For three intense afternoons we try all the repertoire, finding with fun the initial and final rituals that I used with them during our training. They are not the only ones to be different, but I am too: they give me back greater centeredness, trying to tease me with music. During the coffee breaks I let myself be carried away by their enthusiasm and dance with them, who are committed to teaching me the steps of all the traditional dances of the different ethnic groups (which, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region, are more than 40!). After the break we find ourselves on our blue mat to try the show. I observe them, stop them, we do it all over again. In the most critical passages, I also get on the mat and act in Italian but especially with my body: they laugh, applaud me, try again, I stay out to motivate them and give them energy and the scene, magically, succeeds!
Hawassa and Bahar Dhar are exactly at opposite poles of the country and I decided to venture with the whole team on the bus crossing. We leave at 2 am and go around the city to pick everyone up, on a 1st level city bus, with seats and poles in the middle. Although it was not planned, we load the portable speaker and at 3 am the music and songs start at the top of our voices. The journey is a marvel of landscapes, wild dances on the curves, songs, videos, lunch breaks in which I am repeatedly fed as tradition dictates and a sea, a sea of selfies. We arrive in Bahar Dahr after 25 hours of travel. I let the artists rest, while I combine business with pleasure and have lunch with the Child Fund staff, to define the details of the next day.
In the afternoon, outside the guest house where the team sleeps, we make a circle to share the program of the day and our interventions: doing this type of meeting with the PATs is always difficult, their bodies are abandoned, their faces bored, it always seems that they are not listening to you or that they can’t wait for it to end. I have learned, however, not to be too influenced by my interpretation of these signals, because often their words and actions then contradict me: in the end they have understood everything, they ask me questions and they are happy.
The confirmation comes the next day: the team is ready and charged! Half of the group stops at the arrival point of the parade, where the show will take place, to set up the set and do a sound check. The other half reaches the courtyard of the primary school from which the clean-up will start, that is, the collection of garbage on the street. The courtyard is already full of children, the staff is on a small concrete stage, the speakers on the minibus pump music.
The wait will be long, we are waiting for “the guests” arriving directly from the United States and we have to entertain the children. I unleash the PATs, whose skills I now know: there are those who recite poems on the stage, those who dance, those who involve the children in jumps, circles and mottos, those who make jokes, those who do circus, those who get on the minibus and write down the last phrases, the awareness messages to communicate on the microphone. Then slowly the PATs scatter around the courtyard and, once gloves, bags and masks are delivered to the children, here comes the sign of the beginning of the clean-up: our BIG DANCE Flash Mob! The children go crazy and run to watch the dancers, as well as the guests of DOW Chemical, who approach intrigued and equipped with GoPros and cell phones.
The procession starts with enthusiasm, the PATs relaunch choirs, rhythms to the sound of bottles, circles, trains and races, to the arrival point. There, after some typical Ethiopian unforeseen events (delays, misunderstandings, authorities who do not show up) the scientific laboratory held by one of the animators trained by Paolo Legato, director of MAcA, begins. And immediately after it is the moment of the show.
I put myself at the music station and follow them with all of myself, mimicking, dancing, occasionally cursing – but just a little, because it is definitely the most beautiful replica I have ever seen them do. In addition to the guests, around the square a crowd of people captured by the show has formed; the DOW Chemical staff is invited on stage during the final dances and at the end of the event they call us to take a big group photo: the PATs have made an impression, they are filled with compliments during the official thank you speeches and during the buffet lunch, overlooking the lake.
As an operator, I am happy and satisfied: the group has demonstrated great professionalism, without betraying the boisterous soul. We reward ourselves with a trip on the lake – the boat shaken by the songs – and an evening in a traditional restaurant with music and dancers, who are challenged by my dancers directly on the stage!
I toast with them with an ampoule of tejj (traditional honey-based alcoholic drink) in my hand and I wonder: after all, how can you not fall in love with these young people and their passion?
