Arrivato: WWOOFing in Italy 2010: Arrivato: Sciacca and the sum of all its parts

It will turn out that I will think of Sciacca for the duration of my stay. Without knowing it Sciacca and the Mazzotta brothers will be a hallmark on which I will measure all of my experiences in Italy and Sicily.   Every place has its good parts and bad, but it is here that I start to understand reciprocity Italian style and the art of exchange, what I think is the founding concept of the WWOOFing program in Italy and probably one of the reasons why farmers and workers choose to do it in the first place.

We were collected by Fabio at the station. Not really a station. It is a sign on the street. His car was small enough for three grown men to lift and place on its side. "Hello I am Fabio." There was no reason to confirm who we were.   He greeted us knowingly.   Me, the lovely over packed and my three friends filled that car to the brim. He just giggled shaking his head. He gave us a brief drive by tour as we made our way to his home. "Welcome to Sciacca. Here is very famous for ceramics. The best in all Italy. Here is anteeka. Very old." "Oh I have seen italian ceramics when I was in Orvetto." "No, no they are even more beautiful here" he corrected me.
"It is very beautiful here" I said. Raising his brow, he nodded in an 'of course it is silly' kinda way.

As we approached the country side we started with a round of who am I and where do I come from introductions like one would at a workshop. He smiled with genuine pleasure and mimicked our accents. "Mar-e-etta." He repeated after Eleanor as though the letters were being pulled from his belly and his lips felt the form of each letter. "Fantastic" He looked at me as if he were prompting me to agree. I just smiled politely and thought. "That's not how she sounds."

The little car whizzed and bounced us madly. He turned on a dirt road as we approached the house, a steep dirt road. "I hope she makes it. If not I will take you up the hill a few at a time." Smacking his knee and laughing at his own joke. "Cross everything",   he gunned it. we fished tailed a little, blew up lots of dust and climbed to the base of the drive way. "Oh myee, what a gud carrr" he said and patted the dashboard, like a man would pat a horse.

We unloaded ourselves and our goods. The car free from the burden, was at least six inches further away from the ground. I placed my backpack on with a grunt and followed everyone inside. The property was in a panorama of olive trees, the house a stuccoed cube with terraces outside every door and window, a cat walk per say, but deep enough for tables and chairs. The hand rail was curly and deep red.

The house was three floors. The first a lab for Alessandro, a chemist, the second the house and the third for storage. The height of the house made the sky to big here. I think I photographed the sky more than 100 hundred times over the 6 days that will follow.

We climbed the stairs to the second floor and were showed the rooms. "It is not my business how you arrange yourselves for sleep but I will tell you this is where you will do the sleeping." He pointed to the doors and gestured that we should decide. Zoe and Eleanor in one room, Christopher and I in the other. I put my things on the bed after asking Chris if he had a preference. Fabio waited in the doorway. He pointed to some bottles on the dresser "Don't drink my whiskey or my absenthe." I sighed. "of course not." I replied with a smile.   It seems that we will need to prove ourselves here too. Fabio was restless, watching us as we settled in a little. We sensed that the tour is only just beginning. The two of us followed like ducklings behind their mother. We walked down the hall to collect the girls. All of us in tow, he brought us to the bathroom. "Here is the switch for the hot water for the shower. Turn it on 30 minutes before you want to shower. There is lots of hot water after it heats. Here is the bucket and moppa. Clean up after yourselves when you are done. clean very clean. Moppa after the shower. Everytime."    Next to the kitchen. "Here are the lights. The switch closest to the outside are for outside and the one on the inside if for the inside. if you are not in the room do not use the light."

"Now we will go outside. I must leave. The house will be locked. Do not go into the house." he said pointing to us. "I show you what I want."

For some perhaps they may have felt like they were being treated like potential theives but for me, i was feeling relief.   After being in a house where the rules seemed to be inforced with yelling and humiliation but were never described, his specificity was welcomed.   I knew I was going to work hard and not steal anything so I did not mind his firmness.

I have to confess, I did have an underlying feeling that no one else can see starting to mutate. It was similar to your socks rolling down under your pant leg perhaps a little more intimate for me like your underwear falling down, still being held up by the crotch of your pants. A secret sense but still a little embarrassing. It rendered me shy and self conscious, with a small dose of paranoid. I was twice the age of most of these
people I was traveling with and I had this nagging question can I keep up or will I be asked me to leave. Or even worse, will people just smile at me politely, knowing that I am the slow one in the group, the weak link.

He brought us to the fields. Olive trees obediently placed in tidy rows, most were around 30 years old. He handed Chris a saw. "You are the man. You will clean the wild olives away from the base of the trees, all the blackberries and vines. For the ladies, they will clear away for you these things and move the piles into one." That being said he was on his way and we were left to the task of doing as we were told.

It will amount to 1000 kilos (2200 pounds) of brush, branches and weeds cut, pulled, moved and then placed into a container to be taken to a composting factory. I will tell you I kept up it turns out and I will tell you that after this particular job, I worked without doubt until this day. Hooray for me. I mean it. Horray. I was so pleased with myself. This particular job paved the way for other thoughts. A bit more space. Maybe soon there will be more room for Italiano.

Fabio returned. He drove by us in the car. He pointed to his watch, "work until 7." he said. "Well we are all pretty thirsty and hungry." I reply, a little surprised by his demand.    I dismissed it for the moment and manufactured a smile. I put my hands on my hips and stared at him. He looked over my shoulder, placed both hands in the air as though he was holding up two trays, resigned. "Va Bene, come to the house." After he drove off I looked at Eleanor in disbelief and she waved at me as if to say. "it will be alright, come on girl let go in."

We met him at the drive way. Behind that car were four six packs of liter bottles of water.

"Take one each upstairs, there is one for each of you." Fabio said.

"Eleanor does he mean a bottle?" I asked.

"No I think he means a six pack." she replied.

"Really?"

"Really" she confirmed smiling. Looking at me like I was just plain silly, but not really minding.

"Wow, how exciting." i said. I grabbed my water and marched upstairs.

"Dinner will be very simple tonight. My mother made for us some couscous, some salad, there is cheese, mortadelle and panino. we have of course some olive oil for the panino if you would like. My brother will be along shortly.   We will wait for him." The wait was a little ackward but not unbareable. It was the ackwardness of not knowing one another. There was a willingness to know though so we asked lots of questions and he asked many of us. Fabio was on his way to work at a school on a very small Italian island closer to Africa than Sicily. The number of people there may not be much greater than 300. Fabio joked saying " now there will be 301 because I will arrive." He was not sure when he would leave because the trip was very weather dependant.   Travel was an 8 hour ferry trip over the open ocean. With the slightest chance of rain the ferries were cancelled. fortunately for all of us rain will prohibit Fabio from leaving for the duration of our stay.

Alessandro arrived, like his brother, cheerful, grateful and charming. He introduced himself to all of us and made entertaining small talk as we all readied the table for dinner. The "simple" things were magnificent.    The couscous container was brimming with bright colored vegatables chopped with great attention, uniform and perfect mixture of all the ingredients were represented on your spoon. "my grandmother chopped like this" I thought. "It is because she was Italian." The salad crunchy and fresh, tossed lightly with olive oil made from their harvest last year. We were allowed to eat as much mortadelle as we wanted and the cheese, the gorgeous not so soft not so hard creamy mild cheese. "Couscous is very typical here in Sicily." we were informed by Alessandro.

We all chatted politely. It was the newness of everything. This was the first time that Alessandro and Fabio had so many WWOOFers in their house at once. This year was the first year for them to participate in the program. We did not want to overwhelm them. They were out numbered by strangers in their home. Like Fabio, Alessandro asked each of us where we came from. We spoke on at a time around the table. When it was Eleanor's turn. "I live in Friuli. I went their in college to work on farm for an internship a few years ago and now I live there with my boyfriend." she said.

"I remember meeting a girl in Rome that was going to Friuli. I thought she must be the only American there. Maybe you know. . . nO nO YOU ARE HER. I remember now. You were reading a book. . " he leaped from his chair like something hot plopped in his lap, causing it to topple over and hit the ground.

"Oh my god that was me." she interrupted.

"and i started to talk to you." Alessandro continued. "Oh my god you are in my house. I have to call my friend. Now you are here. You are picking olives on my farm in S I CI L Y." delightfully frantic and pacing.

"This is so crazy." she replied. I was silent just shaking my head.

"You met us for a beer that night. Nothing more just a beer and you left. Nothing happened." he looked at her playfully.

"oh MY GOD you are her and now you are here in my house." he said.

Eleanor, rosy cheeked. All of us laughing.

Well this was the mother of all ice breakers. From that moment on all the tension, ackwardness and low grade suspicion had evaporated. there would be absolutely no concern about us drinking the absenthe or being lazy. The next morning the house was left unlocked and we were free to come and go as we pleased.

It would be a day or two before we could collect the olives. We did lots of cleaning and planting of trees. At breakfast, Alessandro informed us, "I had a mind storm this morning, I will bring little things for messages on the trees you planted. Two each."

I just don't think people get much sweeter than this.

Instantly I announced. "I would like to dedicated mine to my parents. One for my dad who died this January and one form my mom."

"Oh that would be lovely. Take two in the garden. I will give them special care knowing they are for them." I believed this to be true. I think that Alessandro will be an old man and he will remember when the trees are tall that they were planted by four Americans. I don't think he will remember our names but he will remember the time and look at them with kindness.

For a week we ate incredibly well. Alessandro happily accepted help and company as he cooked. He prepared traditional Sicilian dishes like Pasta alla Norma, risotto, meat balls. What was wonderful about cooking with Alessandro was he did not throw anything away. With every meal there was some delicious concoction that would probably never be possible to duplicated completely. He cooked lunch and dinner for us each day that we were there. There was always plenty and it was always good.