September 2025 -

I often find myself thinking back to my time in Tanzania, looking again at the photos, rereading the notes I frantically took in my little notebook at the hospital. It is as if I were trying to cling as tightly as possible to the memory of that place, to stretch this experience a bit longer, to carve it deeply into my heart and mind and always carry a piece of Mvimwa with me. There, among the red dirt roads and the huge blazing sun, you do not feel ordinary emotions. The length of the journey almost seems to prepare you for the intensity of what you are about to live. Every single patient I saw, every single monk I greeted with “Habari,” every smiling child who ran toward me, has stayed engraved in my memory; every hug with Eliza, the little girl who was hospitalized for a few days at the health center, every laugh from Anu after I tickled her, every “enjoy your meal” from dear Father Lawrence. Thinking about how I left, I can say that what I learned and made my own is so much. In particular, I will always carry with me “pole pole,” which I must admit I found a bit hard to fully internalize. This idea of taking life literally “slowly, slowly,” one piece at a time, accepting what comes and shaping yourself around it instead of getting agitated when some plan falls through, is something I now feel to be fundamentally part of who I am, and I learned it right there in Mvimwa. In short, I lived what now seems almost like a lucid dream to me—an extremely rich moment, yet grounded in simple concepts that, unfortunately, I do not see so often here in Italy.

August 2025 -

This summer I left for a “family” volunteer experience together with my husband and my six children (aged between 9 and 18). Needless to say, it was an incredible experience that launched us into a world light-years away from ours, yet one whose welcome, affection, and simple way of living we deeply appreciated. We left together with another family from Turin, and we were a bit of pioneers of this “families on mission” experience, and I have to say it was a winning choice. From the very start a wonderful feeling and a very intense bond was created; our children seemed as if they had always known each other. Sharing an experience like this cannot help but create strong relationships, and I have to say it also helps to process the heavier moments and to joke about all kinds of unexpected events, which in Africa never fail to happen. During our stay we had the chance to try many different activities: helping the monks care for the vegetable garden and animals, building a pen for calves, preparing snacks for the children of the primary school, preparing food for the patients at the Health Center and for the workers employed around the Monastery, cleaning and reorganizing the pharmacy and some rooms of the Health Center, visiting villages, sports and play activities with children from the villages and schools, and play activities with the children who in the afternoon attend Nomadelfia. Today, two months after our return to Rome, we still strongly miss the monks’ daily and sincere smiles, the colors of the sunset, the starry sky (never seen like that before), a “pole pole” life, the children’s gazes and warmth, and that serenity that, despite their extreme poverty, people transmit to you. Even today, almost every day, my children tell me, “I want to go back to Mvimwa.”

September 2025 -

They had warned us that two weeks would be too short: time flew by, leaving us with the desire to stay longer in that little paradise called Mvimwa. We encountered a hands-on kind of medicine, made of touch, eye contact, and creative solutions, often with truly limited resources. But above all we worked side by side with passionate, generous, and well-trained local doctors who welcomed us not only as colleagues but as friends. And then there were the monks… impossible not to mention them! Smiling, helpful, and often surprising. Life at the monastery was also light, filled with laughter, evening stories, and a sense of community that you do not often come across. To future volunteers: bring adaptability, a desire to learn, and a few backup snacks. The rest you will find there—stories, challenges, lots of laughter… and an experience you will carry with you for a long time. I truly hope that, if there is a chance, I can return. Asante Sana.

March 2024 -

Giulia and I are University classmates and we decided to go on-site to complete our engineering thesis. Our professor put us in contact with Golfini Rossi ETS Association, and we organized work that could be truly useful to the Association and the Monastery with them. We worked on creating the Technical Office of Mvimwa Health Center. Working in that context was very beautiful and stimulating; we met extremely helpful people who did everything to help us and give us the information we were asking for. Having stayed for a month, we had the chance to take many trips, visit other hospitals, and meet many professionals. Life at the monastery was interesting, fun, and above all inspiring. We'll always carry Ponziano's helpfulness in our hearts; he accompanied us in all our adventures and misadventures, was our guide, helped us get into the right spirit, and introduced us to part of their life and culture. For us, it was a wonderful journey; what remains in our memories and hearts is indescribable, I recommend everyone experience it to understand it.