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VI T A PI U ` VI T A PI U ` CANOSSIAN FOUNDATION CANOSSIAN FOUNDATION Soap bubbles … the courage of taking the initiative where the last will be first “D eveloping projects”, “exchanging skills”, “supporting formative itineraries” … these are the brilliant ideas that whirl through the mind of Sr. Sally while she gives each child a straw and a glass of soapy water so that they can play with soap bubbles. Simple resources, we immediately think, scanty amusement in a game for the poor. An unreasonable way of thinking, denied by Sr. Sally who, with the help of her Sisters and lay collaborators, shows us how an “old fashioned” amusement, as opposed to the sophistication of video games, may be transformed into a source of formative discovery. Sr. Sally, by now we feel quite at home in Kupang; there is a great desire to socialize, to belong to your community, not with modern virtual means but ready to risk your very own innovative experience. I hope it is precisely like this for all you, dear friends, replies Sr. Sally with her usual smiling sweetness, so determined in recounting the progress made in the project of a “new nursery school” and collecting stories of real life experiences on which to base the real meaning of the enterprise under way. We are in the Canossian compound of the village of Tofa encircled by the tranquillity of daily life, interrupted only by the noise of a tractor and the heavy fall of pick axes on the rocky red ground. Stealthily, whole families draw near looking around curiously, satisfied with progress in this busy building site: the school of their little ones. If we were not up-dated on the origins of the “Tofa event” watching the simple organisation of the work, nothing would make us foresee that this place may soon be transformed for many people into one of the most desired places in this world: the showcase of possible dreams, a perfect union among promotion, enhancement of the person and happiness. Sr. Sally, is it not a little exaggerated to talk of happiness? The reply is immediate and disarming in its naturalness. Happiness … do you not see and hear how the soap bubbles sing, reflecting the colours of the rainbow and risking to heighten even more the thoughtless serenity of the children, the desires they carry in their hearts, even if everything seems to dissolve in that “poof” which bursts the bubble. Are you still dreaming here? As in a three-dimensional photographic exhibition, we can already see how the classrooms will be, each one should not take more than fifty children; each child needs much care and special attention. The classrooms will be decorated with wood and pictures fit for small children, but all of this will be the exclusive work of teachers, parents and pupils who, without possessing an “honorary degree”, will be recognised as extraordinary artists. Will there be only school classrooms or will a school like this need much more? I can see already the kitchen behind the entrance; it must be very special in its equipment and in the daily menu we offer our customers. Knowing the situations from which they come, every day they will need not only to be well fed but find a relaxed atmosphere that makes them feel our constant presence and interest in each one of them, without scoldings, without forced obedience ... real Canossian etiquette. You are talking to me of a special school, Sr. Sally, a sort of family place of education in which you wish to create the conditions for healthy future generations, that develop a sense of becoming, realistic and hospitable. Yes, we are preparing and organising, with much difficulty but with as much enthusiasm and great expectation, this new enterprise. I would like to call this time a “sabbatical”, a pause for study, small educational and methodological experimentations to be lived in an open spirit of comparison with other schools of ours around the world. What urges us most is that, with the help of the Canossian Foundation and the world wide web, we Blowing soap bubbles. Beginning to build the nursery school. Live from KUPANG with Sr. Sally may make ourselves known and know other situations in real time, so that this lost corner of the earth may be included in the process of formative innovation. It is two in the afternoon meanwhile the children do not tire of blowing bubbles and enclose in those big or small soap bubbles, which mingle with the surrounding multi-coloured nature, emotions for something new which is growing: a unique, unrepeatable experience that catches us
