SU_T_23

[i] Hi [name]!
[r] Hi
[r] How are you?
[r] Fine
[i] We haven’t seen each other since yesterday, have we?
[r] Yes
[i] What are you doing here in Chiesa Nuova?
[r] Here in Conerenti too. But I work, I work for Centro Sprare, I’ve been here for about 7 years.
[i] And what work do you do? What do you do exactly?
[r] Exactly, I do a bit of everything, I do the manual work that’s there, then I accompany people to the police station, sometimes for those who need to go to the hospital, or to get a document, for a health card, that kind of work
[i] And before coming here to the Sacra Valley, where were you?
[r] I arrived in 2008, I arrived in Milan and then after a month I arrived here in Chiesa Nuova. When I arrived here, I arrived in Borgialo, I had decided to stay for 2 or 3 days, and I left. Those 2 or 3 days have become almost 10 years, which means that I have settled in well.
[i] And why did you want to leave after two or three days?
[r] Actually, where I was born is a big city, I’m used to big cities. When I arrived here in Borgiallo, I saw only two or three houses, a small village. I said this is not the place for me. I’d better leave. But anyway, ten years have passed.
[i] Were you born in Tehran?
[r] In Tehran, I’m Iranian.
[i] And what did you do in Tehran, how did you grow up?
[r] Before I came here to Italy, I studied for 12 years. Then, when the Iran-Iraq war broke out, I went to war. When the war ended, I went to work for a year in a small factory, then I decided to go to Japan. I went to work in Japan for ten years. It starts with Japan and it’s a long story. It lasts as long as an afternoon. I went to Japan to work. I worked in Japan for ten years.
[i] What did you do in Japan?
[r] I did all kinds of work. I was a bricklayer, I worked in a bicycle factory and then I worked in a mechanical factory.
[i] In Japan?
[r] In Japan. I worked in a restaurant.
[i] You said you studied for 12 years. What did you study?
[r] I studied… My situation during the period in which I studied is not very good. Because just after the war ended, during the war, the regime in Iran ended. But I only got as far as the eighth grade. Then we had war for 3 years. When I came back I didn’t study, I started studying. Because those who went during that period, those who went to war, came back and could take an exam for their diploma.
[i] And did you take the exam for your diploma?
[r] Yes, for my diploma.
[i] So you travelled a lot, to Japan, Italy, did you also learn languages during this period?
[r] I met my wife in Japan, she’s Latin American, Colombian.
[i] Fantastic! And from Japan I went to Colombia, then my daughter was born there, then we went to Iran for 3 or 4 years, then my country is a Muslim country, I have respect for my religion but for my wife it was a bit difficult, so we decided to go to another country, we came here to Italy in 2008.
[i] And now you’re settled here, who is Chiesa Nuova?
[r] Yes, I told you before, as soon as I arrived here I said I’d only stay for two days, but then I stayed for 10 years.
[i] What changed from the two days you wanted to escape to staying for 10 years?
[a] Actually what made me stay here in Chiesa Nuova was the job. I found a job. But I understand, yes, when I arrived here I was thirty-nine, forty years old. Who’s going to give you a job at forty? But thank goodness they gave me the job here. I continued with this job. I found it good. I’m happy.
[i] And to find this job, how did you do it? What did you have to do?
[r] I didn’t do anything, really. We’re… I arrived like others. I applied for asylum when I arrived here. That period I was there in Chiesa Nuova, when that period finished I left Pereggetto. Then they immediately told me that if I wanted to work, they would give me an internship. I started with an internship in Chiesa Nuova. I started with an internship, then after the internship I got a contract. I’m still going on like this.
[i] And you like it.
[r] Yes, I like it very much.
[i] And what do you do besides work here in the Sacred Valley.
[r] In the Valle Sacra I work from morning until midday. In Chiesa Nuova. Then in the afternoon I’m here until 4. Then in the evening I’m here until 4. After 4 I go to Borgiallo. I do everything there. We have a lot of apple trees, now we’re pruning. I work there in the afternoon. I cut the grass, any job. On Saturdays and Sundays you can find work at the restaurant in Chiesa Nuova.
[i] Apart from work, which is an important part of your life, you have goals, you have friends here in Val Sacra, you do things that go beyond work.
[r] Yes, friends, yes, Italian friends.
[i] And what do you do together?
[r] But together we sometimes go out, we have dinner.
[i] And you do it at your place or at their place.
[r] Yes, at my place, at their place, yes.
[i] Is there anything you miss in the Sacra Valley that you would like to have, something you would say is missing?
[r] Here in the Sacra Valley or?
[i] Yes
[r] No
[i] Is everything there?
[r] Yes, everything is there
[i] So there’s nothing more to go?
[r] Actually I don’t have any free time to think about other things, someone says I’m going skiing I go there I work more, my time is spent at work. The first time I went to Borgialo, I worked there for a few afternoons or Saturday mornings, and on the first day we were growing vegetables. I said okay, growing vegetables. That’s all the work we did in a day, I think. Then the vegetables cost one euro, you buy them in the supermarket. Why do they do that? All that work, you plant vegetables, you plant tomatoes, you plant aubergines. You can buy all this in the supermarket for 10 euros. The first year… But it’s still work, I have to do it. But now it’s become something that even if I’m not working, I have to go to the vegetable garden in the afternoon in the summer. When I finish work I have to spend half an hour or an hour there. Without working, without doing anything, I have to go for a walk. But I didn’t think it would become something like this, that I would like it so much. Even at work, when I finish work at Chiesa Nuova, here in Coleretto, I go home. When, like yesterday, it rains, there’s nothing else to do at work. I go back to work again, but I take a walk. But I can’t leave from here, from that Chiesa Nuova. I’ve been working here in Coleretto for two years. In Borgialo I’m always at the new church. I’m always here, from morning to night.
[i] So you can do a lot of things?
[r] Yes, I’ve learnt a lot of things. I’d never worked in the countryside, in the vegetable garden, cutting the grass. I’d never done it even in Japan.
[r] Yes, I learnt a lot of things. I’ve never worked in the countryside, let’s say in a vegetable garden, cutting grass, I’ve never done that. I didn’t do this kind of work in Japan either. But now I’d like to do this kind of work every day.
[i] If you had the possibility of having a piece of land, what would you do with it?
[r] The first thing I’d do is a vegetable garden, I really like that. Then I don’t really miss having land or doing something here, let’s put it that way. Because there’s so much where I work. Now with the people I work with, it’s not that I work for them, no. We work together, yes he pays me every month, but it’s a job we do together. I like this job. But I have so much to do, I don’t miss it. Because he left everything in my hands, I do all this work. I feel it’s really mine.
[i] But with technology, this is manual labour, soil, cultivation etc., and do you use the technological part a little?
[r] No, I don’t use it much, no, I use it on the computer, but not technology.
[i] Like what? Technology means… but with computers, yes, I know how to do a few things, not many things, but…
[i] When you go to the police station to accompany them, to do reports, to work on bureaucratic things.
[r] Yes, I do that.
[i] So you use websites, you can fill in forms?
[r] Yes, yes
[i] So you know Italian well, you can also write.
[r] Not so much, but I can write, yes.
[i] And what other languages do you know, since you’ve travelled so much?
[r] I’ve forgotten, but it’s enough that I’m there, I talk to someone for 2 or 3 hours in Japanese, I talk, I keep talking. Then also Spanish, at home they speak Spanish. I don’t speak much now, but I understand everything. Spanish, Japanese, Italian…
[i] And your mother tongue?
[r] Farsi.
[i] Farsi? And you know Farsi well?
[r] Yes.
[i] Both reading and writing?
[r] Yes.
[i] Good, good. Alright, thank you very much, thank you.
[r] Thank you.