November 16-18 logbook

November 16th – At 11 in the morning the dock is full of people, representatives of pacifist associations, associations dealing with the integration of young immigrants, instructors from the Naval League with their youngest students who go on board to visit the ship and then there are the children assisted by the project «Navigare in a mare di salute» promoted by the Association for rare autoinflammatory and rheumatological diseases Remare Onlus Sicilia and the Italian Naval League with the Sicilian and Calabrian sections.

One of those initiatives that should be on the front pages of every newspaper. But unfortunately this is not the case. Why? Because rare diseases are precisely… rare.

So if the problem affects a few people, there is little attention from the media and others as well. However, these people, who are a true "minority", are here with us to talk about peace, a problem that affects everyone.

A lesson in altruism: people who despite their problems can think of others.

Adham Darawsha, councilor for cultures arrives, bringing the mayor's greeting

At 12 noon, Adham Darawsha, Councilor for Culture arrives, who also brings the mayor's greeting. You read well Adham, a Palestinian doctor, an Italian citizen since 2017, is a cultural adviser, in the plural.

Words are important and talking about cultures means that there is not one culture, but many.

And that all of them must be known, valued and intertwined. The councilor talks about conflicts and migrations and how we, all of us, allow ourselves to be distracted by vain political controversies while people die.

We listen to him and in the meantime we think about how to tell the children and youth of the Association that unfortunately by the wind we cannot go out with them to the sea.

We are sorry to disappoint you, but leaving would be dangerous. In the end, they keep on board and seem very happy with that.

The south wind ... - It does not give up, but we console ourselves with a pier full of people, of music. Two friends of Maurizio, our guardian angel who in these days of navigation has maintained contact on land, plays and sings.

A warm welcome is a significant prize that you receive with pleasure

And it is a warm party. When you arrive at a port you have struggled to reach, a warm welcome is a small but significant prize that you receive with pleasure.

Francesco Lo Cascio, spokesman for the Peace Council, runs from side to side on the pier and risks making more miles than we have to do to get here.

Palermo, a city that, among a thousand contradictions, with a lot of effort from the heart of the Mediterranean does not stop sending messages of peace, inside and outside the national borders.

Special city, Palermo, capital and fishing village, a multi-ethnic city since time immemorial, a city where the mafia massacres have taken place but where the movement for legality has begun.

Palermo is the place where every navigator feels at home. And as if we were at home in the afternoon, when the party ends, we leave everything in the air, everything that has been wet in the last three days of sea and splashes.

Dinner at Moltivolti, a place where integration translates into tasty dishes to which we rightly honor.

November 17, we visited the 3P Arcobaleno Association

November 17th - It's cold. Yesterday the sun was burning and we were in our shirts despite the wind, today we have to cover ourselves and there is no sun between one cloud and another.

We are free until the end of the afternoon and spend hours in front of the computer, some perform small maintenance work, others go to the city to meet her.

At 18:00 p.m. Francesco Lo Cascio and Maurizio D'Amico come to pick us up and we go to the outlying neighborhood of Guadagna, where the Arcobaleno 3P association (Father Pino Puglisi, priest murdered by the mafia) is located.

It is a labor structure built laboriously in an old abandoned building, where people and families of all backgrounds who have no home or livelihoods take refuge.

Accredited by the municipality as a first level reception center, thanks to the generosity of individuals and the help of the municipality, it welcomes Italian and gypsy families, immigrants and homeless Italians.

Small community run with love and energy by Sister Anna Alonzo

Men, women, adults and children form a small community run with love and energy by Sister Anna Alonzo.

Francesco, Maurizio and other friends are at home, inventing nights of entertainment in which all the guests participate.

We participate in a night of rhythmic music with drums and the commitment and joy with which everyone (especially children) is busy with improvised instruments is very attractive.

Then everyone is at the big kitchen table to have spaghetti and then again music and songs.

Among us the most unbridled is Alessandro Capuzzo, we do not understand if by the rhythm and personality of the musicians or by the joy of knowing that his nautical adventure has come to an end: we will see each other in Livorno, but he will wait for us at the dock and Wave shaking will be nothing more than a memory.

November 18, we will participate in the Peace Council meeting

November 18th - It's hot, but the weather forecast is still bad until next night, so we decided to leave on Tuesday morning, probably on a route to the Pontine Islands to make a stop before heading back to Livorno.

We read about the disasters caused by this prolonged wave of bad weather and we are saddened by the fate of the Signora del Vento that crashed on the pier and was desalberated by Gaeta's strong storms.

Think of our Venetian friends who ended up underwater. Each wave of bad weather that is triggered with violence in our country reminds us of two things: the urgency of reversing the course of the climate and the need to respect the Earth.

When you are in close contact with nature, with the sea, all this is very clear. We look at the images of the tons of plastic that the storms have brought back to the beaches and we wonder when people will understand the message: we must make peace with the environment.

We hear about many ships that have suffered damage in Italian ports. The world of the sea is like a big family, and you always feel involved in the problems of others. Helping at sea is a categorical, essential imperative. A law as old as navigation.

We are in the town hall in the beautiful Palazzo Pretorio

At 16.00 hours our last and most important institutional effort. Let's go together to participate in the meeting of Peace Council, which must renew your address. We are in the town hall in the beautiful Palazzo Pretorio (or Palazzo delle Aquile).

In front of the entire town hall and the mayor we display our flag and tell the meaning of the March for peace and of our adventure in the Mediterranean Palermo confirms once again that it is the center of initiatives on the Mediterranean, whether immigration, culture or peace.

From here, Mayor Leoluca Orlando sent a letter to the governor of Alexandria, Egypt; to the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Spain; to the mayor of Tunisia; to the mayor of Mahadia, Tunisia; to the mayor of Zarqua, Tunisia; to the mayor of Istanbul, Turkey; to the mayor of Izmir, Turkey; Mayor Rabat, Morocco; Mayor Hoceima, Morocco; Mayor Haifa, Israel; Mayor Nablus, Palestine; Secretary General of the Organization of Arab Cities; Secretary General of the CMRE (European Council of Cities and Regions), to the mayor of Hiroshima by Mayors for Peace.

The first citizen of Palermo wrote among other things:

“Therefore, we want the right to peace to be first and foremost a reaffirmation of the need for disarmament, starting with the prohibition of nuclear weapons and the right to oppose all wars.

We want the right to Peace to include Ecology in the relations between human beings and Nature.

We dream of a conflict-free Mediterranean, free of weapons of mass destruction, free of walls, borders, armed surveillance, free movement of people and ideas, bridge of dialogue between people engaged in a common work, Mar de Paz and not of conflicts
We want the nuclear-weapon-free zone of Africa to spread throughout the Mediterranean and throughout the Middle East.

We want to become Peace Ambassadors, in an organized and not only symbolic way. The Embassies of Peace are born from the experience acquired in the conflicts of Iraq and the Balkans, today we want to propose them in Europe and the Maghreb.

The passage of the 2nd World March of Nonviolence will be an opportunity for its dissemination, involving institutional and grassroots realities that work for the affirmation of Human Rights, Solidarity, the Rule of Law, Justice.»

The day ends with greetings to our friends in Palermo and then on board for the final preparations and for the night's rest.

Tomorrow morning we will see if the south of the Tyrrhenian Sea confirms our expectations of being able to sail north.