More than 7 thousand kilometers in 108 pages. Written by many hands, many: 44 like the cats of the Zecchino d’Oro. Those of the eighth grade students, sections C and D, of the comprehensive institute. They tell the story of Abdoua boy like many others, who left Gambia with a dream to realize unlike many others who instead saw theirs shipwrecked in the Mediterranean Sea.
The sea that for Abdou was bluer the moment he landed in Sicily and from there, by bus, he made the last and most comfortable journey to the province of Parma on a bus, «I looked out the window and perceived the freedom on my skin as I observed the landscape so different from that of my Africa. It was July 2017.”
“The sea is always bluer” is the title of the book written, edited and distributed by third-year students. They did everything coordinated by the teacher Mara Bercella. And it is right to mention all the names of the authors. For the Third C Viola Balzaretti, Martina Borghetti, Federico Borra, Maria Casarico, Beatrice Chiriatti, Pasidu Aloka Sri Mendis Colombage, Gianluca Danielli, Tommaso Juergen De Bernardi, Arianna De Salvo, Sveva Della Torre, Gaia Dotti, Rachele Fietta, Sofia Gambarin, Marta Giovannone, Marco Sihath Lyanage Jasenthu, Delia Mazzoni, Giovanna Moccia, Antonio Gregory Paulucci, Caterina Ramacciati, Jacopo Redaelli, Nadia Speciale, Riccardo Tremari.
For the Third D Asia Abate, Carlo Alberto Aquilini, Olga Borghi, Nicolò Carbone, Emilie Chingoli, Victoria Colensic, Nikol Damarku, Tommaso Errico, Alessandro Fontana, Anna La Rosa, Andrea Mario Lai, Anna Luraschi, Giorgia Maya Mainardi, Beatrice Marogna, Ambra Paolini, Davide Pellegrino, Ilaria Perretta, Federico Pizzala, Sofia Ragabassi, Lorenzo Roncoroni, Angelica Saladadarini, Matteo Alessandro Scarlata.
Abdou’s other dream is to be a tailor who sews children’s clothes, but in the meantime he has found a job as a construction worker. And in Parma, right at work he met Federico, son of Professor Bercella. The two became friends and from there the idea for the book took shape which developed after the classes saw the film “My Captain” by Matteo Garrone, a story similar to that of Abdou.
Yesterday in the theater room of the oratory of San Giuseppe the work was presented, in the presence of the children, the teacher and the director of the institute, Maria Teresa Calippo, proud and moved. A very important pedagogical and educational experience that the children will carry with them forever.
