I was both pleased and relieved yesterday to discover a new side to some of the Catanese people. My fellow teachers and I agree on the general traits of Sicilian people we have met and the students we have spoken to, regarding things such as their knowledge of other countries, their hopes and ambitions. Many people seem to think and do similar things.
However yesterday was a real revelation. A student of mine, the one who helped me with my Italian, kindly agreed to help me set up a post office account, so that I can transfer money without losing it in commission and the exchange rate next time I have some saved up. She came round to help me register for the account on line. She knew that all things Italian are less than straightforward so I was very grateful that she had taken me along to a friend of hers who works in the Post Office, earlier in the week, and he explained how it all worked. He was very nice and she asked me afterwards if I'd noticed his rather striking blue eyes. Yes, I did happen to notice them and had to concentrate hard on what he was saying rather than let them distract me. I also noticed his a) wedding ring and b) religious figure under his computer screen, so that helped me focus. But he was very helpful and we have to return next week to set up the account.
So after we had registered online yesterday, Giovanna took me along to a talk that was connected to her course at university, on gender studies. There was a woman writer who had been an active feminist throughout the last 40 years, attending demos in Catania. Catania, of all places! I never knew that such things existed here: the general feeling is that most men are in the dark ages and that they've never heard of feminism. So to hear that women were actively standing up against this was wonderful to know. We went along to a small room in a centre that seemed to be an alternative sort of meeting place - I am very keen to see what other events they have there. The women there weren't the usual type who look you up and down if you are wearing inferior outfits or haven't brushed your hair. No they seemed to be normal women in alternative clothing and after the talk (if we'd been able to stay) there was a VEGAN dinner! VEGAN! I haven't even heard the word in Catania, and had earlier had to pick bits of ham out of a supposedly vegetarian arancino - it was amazing! Giovanna's lecturer was there and she was a delight to meet - she has lived in the UK for 8 years so spoke English fluently. We gabbled away together and I discovered she'd worked at Warwick University and so of course knew of the internationally important Cultural Studies Centre which had been at Birmingham University until the stupid place closed it down. So that was fabulous. And she asked if I liked Catania - Giovanna said no, I hated it - and she totally understood why and said she'd had to return and had now got stuck there. So it was marvellous to see liked-minded intelligent people who up to this point have been nowhere on the radius.
Afterwards things just improved. We went to a talk - I had no idea what it was about as Giovanna and I take a while to communicate anything! - and it turned out to be on an international group called Sea Shepherd, who patrol the seas and oceans and actively fight against people like the Japanese who are still whaling, often illegally. We had missed some of the talk and it's probably a good thing because there were clips of poor dolphins being killed. I can do without seeing that. But there was a wonderfully inspiring clip of a Sea Shepherd patrol stopping a huge Japanese whaling ship which was trying to refuel. There were two tiny Sea Shepherd boats against this huge bully of a ship. The Japanese ship started to ram the tiny boat and the captain told them he was not moving and that if they continued to ram, they would turn the boat over. Eventually, the Japanese vessel had to give up, because they presumably could not justify killing anyone in their bullying tactics. This lad said about standing up to bullies - and he was right. It was great to see people defending the lives of our intelligent sea creatures with such dedication and passion.
There is a Sea Shepherd group in Siracusa, down the coast, which is patrolling the waters and protecting the sea urchins and other creatures, who are protected in that area. You can read more about it on this blog and also here. I missed them explaining this so I asked Giovanna's friend afterwards, who gives up his time to volunteer. He grabbed his English-speaking friend and pushed him towards me so the poor chap got the job of explaining everything to me. However, his English was excellent (his mother is an English teacher) so he and I had a good natter about things - turned out he'd spent some time in Bath of all places! He and his friends are Environmental Science students! So afterwards Giovanna and her friends and I hung out for a bit and it was so, so nice to have met some interesting and intelligent people who care about the same things as I do - I really hope we can all meet up again and that I can continue to find new things to interest me.
Oh, and many Sea Shepherd members don't eat meat either!!! :-))))) You don't know how happy this makes me feel.
http://www.seashepherd.org/
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