Blending In

On day 6 before the Games (this is getting to feel a lot like the 12 days of Christmas, isn’t it?), Number 6 in the countdown of the 10 Best things I like about Pescara!

#6…As you may or may not know the Abruzzo region of Italy suffered a devastating earthquake back in early April. Now, a little over two months later, they are preparing to ‘Welcome’ the Athletes and Spectators to the 16th Mediterranean Games here in Pescara, which is only about 40 minutes from the quake’s epicenter—that measured (I believe) 6.9 on the Richter—scale up in the mountain city of L’Aquilla.

23 countries will participate in this sporting event, with an Athlete and Officials count that is near 5,000. If you stop to consider that the athletes for the Summer Olympics total just over 12,000, this is indeed a very big ta-do in the land of Pasta and Olive Trees!

We have a couple hundred of our cast volunteers from the ‘former’ city of L’Aquilla. Tthey do not live in their houses anymore as the entire town has been deemed uninhabitable and has yet to be given the green light for any residents to return to their ruined homes and start making repairs and restorations. They have lived these past months in large blue tents provided by the Red Cross on the outskirts of their beloved hometown. This I would find unthinkable even for the hardiest of camping buffs.

Each day we have rehearsals that require the any part of the cast from L’Aquilla, a Large Imposing Police Bus arrives, a Big Black Metal Monster with bars on the tinted windows. It is a bus that is used to transport prisoners (or so I would imagine by the impenetrable look of this dark monolith!). Or to deliver Police into a riot scene (this is probably the real reason for this battleship-on-wheels). It looks like something out of an apocalyptic movie. This Black Silent Giant pulls up to the rehearsal site and its iron doors open up and a uniformed officer climbs out first.

And then out come one by one our sweet innocent volunteer kids for rehearsals!

Because most of the cars in L’Aquilla were also destroyed, or are still trapped by the rubble, the people of the town must rely on the Police force to get them down from the outskirts of their town to their seaside neighbor Pescara. What was unexpected for us waiting here for the bus was that this became a meeting point for groups of performers who know each other through dance or bands, or other sorts of performing groups, like the famous Italian Large flag wavers.

When an entire town is leveled, it is the casual friends or acquaintances that you loose track of, not knowing if they survived that faithful night that took young and old victims without reason or prejudice. These are ‘friends’ you don’t have phone numbers for, or even know where their live, but they are still part of the ‘people you know’ when the world brings you together for festivals, holidays or friendly competitions.

So a crowd would grow around the doors and wait as each performer got off. You would hear cries of joy. Some would bravely step into the crowd searching for familiar faces. Everyone was welcomed warmly and with respect. We would hold the beginning of rehearsals as news was shared and tears were shed, and then gently we would welcome everyone together and treat them all as a group...

giving the ones who had to come with a Police Escort a chance to blend in and forget about the past for a while, while we all worked together on building the future.