Open borders

On Tuesday I was invited to lunch in the house we manage in Moncalieri. I hadn't been back for a while, and going in as a guest allowed me to fully enjoy the climate and the people without the pressure of having to do things or manage things. The house was opened to offer a place to women who had no home. Over time it has adapted to the needs of new poverty. Over 19 years, 165 volunteers took turns 24 hours a day to offer a home to over a thousand people. A deep relationship was born with some guests and some are now volunteers. For 2 years the house has been self-managed by the guests and the volunteers are present to support the mothers and children on their journey. Each guest has their privacy and autonomy. The role of the volunteers is to facilitate the meeting with respect for everyone without forcing because if a primary need is to have a personal space, an equally profound need is that of openness, of meeting.

The evening of music and dance on Friday, the moment of prayer, the two shared dinners during the week are spaces of participation where everyone, from the oldest to the youngest, wants to be present. You feel that you are not a lost dot in the universe, you experience that it is nice to be together and that the other's culture, so different, is interesting to discover, and so the country from which the other comes becomes a friendly country. In this climate it becomes normal for 14 year old Nigerian Kelvin to spend a few days with Karim's family from Morocco. They met when they both lived in the house and became brotherly friends. So Soumia, Hind and Najat who now have their autonomy, often return to their "family" on Sundays. Everyone brings something and we have lunch together. Because it's nice to have your own home, to be independent, but it's also so nice to have a place and friendly faces to meet and share daily victories and disappointments. Then, two Tuesdays a month, the house opens up to special guests: the older volunteers who have provided their service for a long time and who now return to be together with Renza, Maria and with those who wish to be there.

On Tuesday, there were so many of us under the portico. A table that, under my amazed eyes, became increasingly longer as time passed: the kids returning from school, the Pakistani family who stopped by to say hello, Silvia from San Vincenzo, Carla who is not old, yet on her lunch break on Tuesdays often she comes to be in the company of this crazy family with open borders and which makes her feel less homesick for her distant family.

Simona Pagani

NP Ottobre 2023