Here I am, sitting in the living room, in my work place, drinking tea and thinking about my  blog entry... There are a few events that I could write about, but  it seems like the most interesting one happened this afternoon. I had the pleasure of taking our lovely new addition ‘Mrs. Katinka’  - who will be our trophy of tomorrow’s Gay Pride in Brussel – for some shoe shopping to complete her outfit.  We will of course keep you up to date on the events, but for now I want to explain the bizarre situation that occurred. After we finished the shopping, we headed towards the tram station and along the way Katinka asked: „It that the right tram station?“ I replied: „Yes, don’t worry“, so we sat and waited… Than the bus we needed, passed and without thinking we got on it. When the bus went another direction, I was confused but not for a second did I consider the fact that it was my fault, I mean: it was obvious the town got turned upside down.  I had  admit after a while though that it WAS the wrong direction and that I might have something to do with that. I guess it was the typical ‘shopping disorientation’. You know, when you walk in and out shops all afternoon , you kind of forget which direction you’re coming from. Anyway, that happened a lot today. But at the end we had a lot of fun and our mission was completed. I hope we see you tomorrow so you can enjoy a nice day at the Gay Pride with us!   

How can an organization like DAA work having an Internet blackout? Yesterday we experienced this problem and luckily we found a way to make our day productive as well. You couldn't have read our entries though, I know you all missed us so bad, and I really thank you for the affection. Wednesday is the cleaning day, it's the only day in the working week when we don't run to our laptops from the moment we wake up, looking for an entry's subject. Thus, we didn't notice anything until the early afternoon, when everything was finally clean and shiny, and we were ready for our hunt on the net: "Oh, Matteo, Internet is down today" "Are you sure? Maybe is just your computer, Brana..." - with my usual I-know-all attitude - "... Oh, no, you're right actually..." - surprised without any reason to be disproved. Consequently I immediately called Ayke as she would have been gifted with the power to revive the Wi-Fi connection but sadly I was disproved a second time. I had to admit we were cut out from the telematic world - also the normal phone connection was down! I started thinking if I could do something without the need of the Internet and I eventually came up with some assignments, which I dutifully reported to Ayke and I'm glad she was able to keep my panic under control. We had already planned to spend one afternoon watching "Rent" - a movie which is an adaption of a Broadway Musical about HIV - which is an adaption of the opera play "La Boheme" by Giacomo Puccini - . Therefore we decided that it was the perfect day for our movie-afternoon. I knew that this musical is one of the Ayke's favourite movies ever, and I was sincerely curious, on the other hand I'd lie if I said that I like musicals... In this occasion I was not refuted, after 10 minutes of film, during the refrain of the second song, I started annoying everyone with my: "Do they always sing during this film?" "Dah!? It's a musical..." "Yes, good point... And how long are the songs? I mean, the average length..." "Ok, if you want you can do your other stuff instead of watching the movie". "Ok, I will stay with you""In silence". I watched the whole musical, and it was one of the most difficult assignments I was ever given. By the way, it was worth it since I understand now that also a musical can teach you something - surprising, uh? Seriously, one line of "La Vie Boheme" - the song that in my opinion is the nicest of the musical - says the slogan "Actual reality: act up, fight AIDS". Easy to understand and clear in the proposal. Plus, it perfectly describes why and how DAA is fighting its battle and, with or without the support of the Internet, will always be.    

Last Friday I visited Geraldine, a wonderful woman and the landlady of my sister. She is American (I was even fantasizing that she is the one Lenny Kravitz wrote a song about), a musician, a singer, a rebel, always on the road, a tireless brave traveller and an explorer of the unknown, which of course means she has a very interesting life story. We were sitting and talking for hours. Woo, she told me so much... that Van Gogh apparently wanted to become a priest in order to send the message of LOVE to the people, then he was expelled from the monastery in a village in Belgium, because the clergy thought he was weird... He must have then figured out another way to tell the people, through his paintings. Maybe that is why he is so famous, for his passion and eternal motive to spread the good among humankind. Isn’t it great? He wasn’t some ambitious fame obsessed artist, he just had this incredible need to make the world a better place! Another interesting anecdote about Geraldine: her piano is completely broken, the wires were snapping even while we were talking, she was throwing pieces of it in the garbage. Being without an instrument, she started learning to play the ukulele. She played a little for me - the simple melody that she had learned - an archaic sound filled the dining room we were sitting in. She also told me about the guitarist Jose Feliciano and how his virtuosity touches her deeply every time. Thank you Geraldine for making my Friday! You rock the casbah!!Image - Van Gogh: Starry night  

First of all, I am really bad at remembering dates, birthdays and celebrations in general. For this, on Friday, I really appreciated my father who reminded me that in 2 days it was mother's day., I also loved Skype which, yesterday, allowed me to have a long session with my mom - it had been a while since we talked. And finally, I can never thank mom enough for being so patient. The "mother's day" moment lasted just a few minutes - with greetings and such - while the rest of the conversation was pretty much a me-talking-time, about my bad mood week, which is hopefully over now. She will always say: "It's ok, don't worry" and, also because of this reason, I just feel very lucky. This is not the case for many other people and what upsets me the most is that I realized this only on Mother's Day. What's up with that? Just like Father's Day or Saint Valentine's Day, we are talking about celebrations that especially ask us to spend money for a present to - in this case - our mothers. I'm feeling a bit stupid but it's never too late to understand how lucky we are and appreciate it. I don't want to celebrate Mother's Day on just one day, how about I'll be decent ‘child' always? For an over-26-year-old son, this doesn't include things like behaving well, being polite, doing home-work... -Since I hope I'm a bit too old for that now- . It, hopefully, does mean something more, like trying to think of mommy as much as she thinks of her sons or daughters -this is already a hard task, I know. Furthermore, once you've achieved this state of mind, maybe you should try to take care of this relationship in a proper manner. You will be helped for sure by the fact that any little thing you'll do for her - like a spontaneous text instead of just a reply like: ‘everything is fine! Have a nice day! - will be valued a thousand times more than you will ever expect. Something more? Just be happy for all the good things you have achieved since you surely are who you are also thanks to her.  

Yesterday, I went back to my childhood for an afternoon.. I went to the Zoo! - for the first time in my life, if I may add - I have to say that I am not a huge fan of animals in a cage since I find them pretty sad but I remember that when I was a child I always dreamt of visiting a zoo and my parents never gave me the opportunity to do so.     Moreover the Antwerp's Zoo is extremely special since it is one of the oldest in the world. It was established in 1843 and I was really curious to visit a zoological park in Art Deco style - pretty awesome I must say. The entrance is at the central station's square, and the oldest buildings there are huge and beautiful. The funny thing is that at the top of one of them you would expect to find the statue of a national hero, or an important figure or whatever. No, in Antwerp they chose to put an amazingly big and wonderful statue of a camel. A camel! So that got my curiosity going of course, and my expectations were not let down!     I took over 200 pictures - not kidding - and I was feeling like a 5 years old child meeting an architecture student meeting a Japanese tourist. I acted ridiculous and Ayke and Sander hadto be very patient since I was always the last leaving every place because I was taking pictures of something random. But it was such fun. The house of the elephant is like an Egyptian temple, the one for the antelopes is in Indian style and the old tropical greenhouse is just like the setting for a Jules Verne's novel. COME ON! It's marvellous :D     The three of us were an unusual group considering the average profile of the visitors - parents with children. All the same, it came quite natural for me to be the kid of the situation and, even if I am 5 years older than them, I left the part of the parents to Ayke and Sander.     We entered the zoo around 12.30 and we were out just at 5 in the afternoon, totally satisfied and extremely tired and hungry. It was just a beautiful afternoon, for me it was just like visiting a fantasy world.It'll be hard to forget such an experience. Thank you Ayke!                          

  Our lives are full of things that are so simple yet necessary for everyone, nonetheless we usually forget about them. This is bad and it’s even worse when we talk about people whose importance is generally underestimated. This is the reason why today I am writing about the International Nurses’ Week, which will culminate the 12th May, the day of birth of Florence Nightingale, who is widely considered as the founder of modern nursing. If you can spend a couple of minutes thinking about how different – I’d rather say impossible – healthcare would be without this professionals, you will understand for sure the meaningfulness of this celebration. One of the most active organizations this week is Partners In Health, an organization active worldwide to bring the benefits of modern medical science to the most in need countries, serving as “an antidote to despair”. The organization is now promoting throughout the Internet a series of posters that explain the importance that nurses have in their project, the benefits of their work as well as how the average opinion still poorly considers these health workers.  “Nurses shoulder more than their share of care for the sick in poverty-stricken communities around the world, but they're underpaid, under-supported and undervalued. We believe all nurses deserve the education, compensation, and empowerment that will enable them to provide the best care to their patients.” If we consider the work of nurses as well as the conditions they usually have to work in, we understand that these people chose this job mainly because they’d followed their own vocation than for the expectation of some particular repayments. Therefore, we should be deeply grateful to this army of health workers that daily take care of our and our loved ones’ health.   

  I am sometimes okay, sometimes I am not, but most of the times I just miss my artistic activities. I am a musician, a creator, I am cheerful, bright and an exceptional individual and I like to dress like a rebel. I am planning to climb a cliff that no one has ever climbed. And I am not just saying that! Sitting in the little shadow at a different table can help… I miss who I am while tightly holding the glow of my soul in its place and listening to George Gershwin’s playlist. It took some time for me to find this wonderful quote to finish with: “A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”  ― Francis Bacon, The EssaysListen to Rhapsody in blue performed by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSq_nwoG43s  

Well, I can't believe I'm saying this... I am finally enjoying the good weather in Belgium. I don't have to listen enviously to my family and friends in Italy talking about the amazing weather there and pray for some sun here. It arrived! Thank you, Mr. Weather! On Sunday I spent a couple of hours on the riverside of Schelde, looking at the sunset. I took some pictures too - the secret to taking nice pictures of the sunset with amazing colors is simply to put your sunglasses in front of the camera - look at this!     I was with a friend of mine, and we had a great time, drinking the cheapest thing we found: amaretto. Later on we both were tried because of our economically driven choice. Meanwhile drinking, taking pictures and enjoying the sun, we also had a short language lesson. Since the last days he gave me Dutch lessons, I provided him with some Italian pronunciation tips. We were reading an Italian course-book with many random sentences like "Sono pericolosi i serpenti?" "tu sei un cantante e io una pittrice" - "are the snakes dangerous?" "You're a singer, I'm a painter". In the middle of our session a big group of people arrived in the same spot along the river we'd also chosen. They were all Italian. Thus my friend felt immediately embarrassed since he didn't want them to hear him. Thanks to our low-priced drink, this lack of self-confidence lasted just a few seconds, we started again, with him being even more inspired than before.     How did this nice afternoon end? I was so excited by the nice weather that I boldly decide not to take a coat with me. In the evening I was sick. If you're not from this country the concept that your body has towards what is warm and cold is slightly different. For this, don't dare to go near the river without a proper jacket or coat or what else: in Belgium the wind is always blowing, and there is no sun that can save you from a super-annoying cold, the one I started to recovery from just this morning. End of the lesson n.2 by Mr. Weather.      

  Another beautiful day in Bali, another great day of workshops. You might have missed me over the last two weeks, I was busy with my colleagues at KISARA preparing for our 19th anniversary, but I am back with great news!!!!!!! First our Bali Against AIDS blog is now live. So you can visit us at: http://www.baliagainstaids.org/blog.html and keep up with all our news and activities, so make sure you visit us everyday. Second we are preparing an exciting event to launch the website and do our first campaign for young people here in Bali. To make sure we attract as many young people as we can, we are inviting a local pop star, who is very loved here. Yesterday I called his manager and organized a meeting for tonight. And yes, we are meeting him tonight, we are meeting Nanoe Biroe! A Balinese pop and rock star... I am excited!!!Check out our blog tomorrow to see how it went.  

  Yesterday the Serbian Orthodox Church was celebrating Easter. Easter celebrations last five days and are the most important festivity in our country. They started on Thursday when, according to belief, Jesus Christ (Isus Hrist) was convicted. It is followed by Good Friday, when we traditionally fast and colour the eggs (symbol of rebirth and procreation), Good Saturday and, finally, the celebration of Jesus resurrection on Sunday when we break the eggs.   As for colouring and decorating the eggs, the most common way to do it is with plantlets and shucks of red onion.   Do you like how I did it?   “May the joy of Easter holidays fill your homes and bring lasting joy to them, and above all to your hearts, for if joy is in your heart, it will also be in your homes, where we work and live, in every place.”- I found this peaceful message by Serbian Patriarch Irinej yesterday, I thought it was worth mentioning.   I will just say: Cрећан ускрс!!!  

Today was my first workshop for Bali Against AIDS, the main program for the day was brainstorming and developing the launch event for the website and campaign to reach out to the young Balinese. We already have a meeting tomorrow night with a local pop star to confirm his participation in our event as well as a truly fantastic venue. All the updates will be on the blog for Bali Against AIDS:http://www.baliagainstaids.org/blog.html watch this space for the announcement, but all I can say it is pretty exciting, we will be posting tomorrow about our meeting with the pop star, so visit our new blog...

Finally, after almost 4 months, I can say: " Oh God, I need lighter clothes!"Belgium, are you kidding me? Again? I had to use my winter clothes (sweaters, long trousers, and a heavy coat...) since last week, and I often thought that the sunny days of last month were a prelude of the spring. It's been a kind of long prelude, I have to say, and I had many ‘first days of spring', when I was absolutely sure that the warmth was about to come, eventually. I was always contradicted, until now.I'm still not completely used to Nordic countries and when there are, let's say, just two hours of sun during a windy and rainy day, it isn't normal for me to see people outside wearing just a t-shirts with shorts and flip-flops. Should I do the same?This complex relation between me and the climate here, made me think about Belgian weather as a person who'd need to spend some time talking with a specialist, preferably someone good in treating multiple personalities. Faithful to not being deceived, I am asking Mr. Weather: "Should I send my winter clothes to Italy now, and look for some spring ones?" - I'm not talking about the summer clothes because I KNOW it would be way too much for now. I will go step by step. I just need my wardrobe to be organized, it's for a practical reason, really!What's worse is that I AM the one that should have a conversation with a specialist, since I am the one who is having a pretty intense dialogue with the clouds in the sky, and it's becoming a bit worrying.So, let's make a deal: You, Mr. Weather, are going to be milder to me, and to everyone else who is waiting for more than half day of sun. I am going to send my winter coat home and to use light clothes - I don't have shorts and not so many t-shirts, but I can make and effort and buy some new things. Ok? ... OK!Ps: yes, all this is also a good excuse for me to do some shopping in Antwerp. I was looking forward to it already ;)