Diario di missione umanitaria: Carlotta Linguadoca

Catapulted into a reality that has been described to me so many times, but that I would never have been able to fully imagine.

In Africa, everything is different.

They live in a way so distant from ours. It's another reality.

Yes, but it remains only an idea until you see it with your own eyes. We left from the airport in Rome and we found ourselves in Enugu. Rosi kept telling me to stay close to her, not to talk to anyone, everyone threw themselves on her... Everything was so different and I was full of curiosity, I wanted to know, to understand what was outside my little world.

It was strong, unsettling.
What was?

Maybe the streets... I will never forget the Nigerian roads. I think the streets say a lot about a place... And there they were screaming. There was no road signs, there was no asphalt, there were countless potholes and every rule of the road was nothing, and yet, I don't know how, it had its own balance. Maybe I saw kids my age, or younger, on the street jumping into cars to be able to sell a handful of peanuts. I looked at them and thought of me, who until a week before, was at home arguing with my parents because I wanted to stay up later in the evening. I couldn't help but feel guilty.

Then I met those children, those young people capable of smiling despite everything, capable of having fun, of being happy, of contentment, for better or for worse. There would be so many things to say, but perhaps this one struck me the most.

– Carlotta Linguadoca