Travel notes: Sierra Leone narrated by Serena Caimano. Part 1

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"People don’t travel, people travel." (Steinbeck)


Serena Caimano, CEO of Elgon, in this postblog and in the next two gives testimony of her experience in Sierra Leone, the country where Elgon and COOPI carry out "Plant Rebirth", a project in existence since 2010, which is aimed at women employed in agriculture, focusing on the cultivation of cashew. Whereas words like 'emancipation', 'independence' and 'entrepreneurship' are concepts far from everyday reality, where civil rights are crushed by misery and war, where people live with little and die for much less, Elgon has decided to get involved in strengthening this production chain. And the tool with which it does so is training, a subject very dear to the company.

In fact, precisely by training women on the processing, storage and sale of the product you can make them more autonomous. A long journey that requires commitment and perseverance. A path that, however, does not bring and will benefit only Sierra Leone, but which represents and will represent an unforgettable moment of growth and comparison between the two realities.

Read the diary of Serena Caimano and you will understand its meaning.

"You decide to leave for a trip for many reasons. To find ourselves, to find answers to our questions, to know what we don’t know.

When I decided to go to Sierra Leone, I was looking for this. I tried to make my fears small and small, putting them on the bottom of my luggage, to leave room for my high expectations and to take me home as much as possible from this trip. On the other hand: "the only rule of the journey is: do not return as you left. Come back different". (Anne Carson)

I was looking for myself in Sierra Leone. After years of collaboration with COOPI, it seemed the right time to see with my own eyes what, in our small, we were doing concretely with awareness, seriousness and passion.

I was looking for answers to my questions. I was trying to understand what up to that moment was just a distant idea, learned through the stories of others and very far from my daily life, from my life.

I was trying to know what I didn’t know about Africa, Sierra Leone in particular, its culture, its people. I was trying to know what was 4,000 kilometers from my home, my company, my existence.

So, in this whirlwind of emotions, I was about to leave. And there is nothing more beautiful than the moment that precedes the journey, the moment when the horizon of tomorrow comes to visit us and to tell us about its promises (Milan Kundera).

And as often happens, in the frenzy of life, between meetings, appointments, commitments and work, the time to leave had come. I was not yet ready that I was already on that airliner, departing for one of the most significant trips of my life. I didn’t know it yet, but in a few days I would be back with much more than I could ever imagine".