1

I took this photo because this is a beautiful place, a touristic place where the river Po flows. I like the Po a lot. This is Valentino Park.


2


This is the same place, Valentino Park. I took this to show that this is a place where all the nationalities meet each other, mostly on Sundays. They do some exercise, they ride on these, what do you call them, bicycles. A kind of carriege that takes four persons. They are always with their children. There are also Italians and all the nationalities, really, Ecuadorians, Romanians, Peruvians, even Italians.


3

Look, these people here are Ecuadorians. You can always find them here, playing volleyball. They are very good at it. I know them personally. There are also some Peruvians. This game is very popular in my home. Football's also very popular in Ecuador, but if men and women hang around together it's important to choose a game they can play together.
Do you go to play there?
I don't like this sport, it hurts me. I've tried but my hands hurt a lot. I just go there, chat a bit with them then I go away.

4


This is a well known street, Via Garibaldi. Here, the foreigners, extra-community make up their stalls to sell their stuff, to earn some money.
Do you know these people?
I don't. They are Africans. But here are also Ecuadorians, Peruvians.
Why didn't you take their photo?
Why? I wanted to show foreigners, not only Ecuadorians. They all are foreigners. I know there are also Ecuadorians who sell folkloristic products. In my home folklore is very beautiful. Folk music also. They also sell music.

5

Here's another place where you can find many people. This is a very common thing also in my country. On Saturdays there's the market everywhere and everybody goes there. Like in my country, the people come here to buy nice things, fruit. So this thing reminds me of my country a lot. They even have it on the same day as in my home. Porta Palazzo. I wanted to take a photo where you could see the whole of it but it wasn’t possible. This is the clothes market.


6

Here's where the fruit market begins. Sometimes there are some Ecuadorian guys who work here for someone, I saw them once. So that you could buy fruit for a cheaper price. I didn't go there to buy fruit, only walked there with a friend.
Don't you buy things from the market?
No. I don't really need it. Sometimes I buy something at the supermarket, that's all. I used to come shopping here a year ago, now I don't. My employer's daughter that shops here. I normally help her at home. Beyond the time I spend at the school, I only have two hours in the afternoon to go out and phone home.


7


This is the garden at Porta Nuova. Every afternoon when I go out, I see the foreigners, the old Italians sitting on the benches in this garden. There are lots of men there and guys also that drink a lot of beer. I don't know, I don't like this thing a lot.


8

This is the Porta Nuova train station. It's the first place I saw when I first arrived, coming from the airport by bus, to the hotel near the Porta Nuova. I went there because the mother of that friend I travelled with, lived in this area, Via Berthollet. I only stayed there one week while I was looking for a place to live.
Did you find a job that quickly?
Uhh, to find a job! It took me two months. I was searching for a job and also learning italian for two months. Nobody employs you if you don't know the language.
Where did you go to learn the language?
I went to Alma Mater, an institute where all the foreign women go, only women. There are courses in Italian, there's also a nursery for the children of those who go to work, they also make food. For example I also did a course of cooking, so I learnt to cook while I was learning Italian, too. This way I felt a bit calmer.
Did they help you to find this job?
No. I got my present job later. First I only had a job filling in for someone, then later my own fixed job.
Did you try to find another kind of job?
Without the permit of stay, you can't do anything. After that, to find a job, you have to speak Italian well. I can understand most things but I'm not totally sure of my Italian. I'm learning the grammar rules at the school I go to now. I have photocopies of the exercises. I read a lot, and as I read, I understand everything.

9

This is Via Nizza. Under the arcades here there are public phone boxes where everyone goes to phone to their home countries. I took the photo from far away because I don't really like this place, it's a bit dangerous, because you find all kinds - women that work... prostitutes, then there are men that gather to drink.

10


This is Giardino Reale and the Mole Antonelliana. I like this place because I took the first photograph that I sent home here. I stood here, in the middle.
Do you know what the monument in the middle is?
No. But I bought a book yesterday to learn about all these touristic places. I know them but I don't know what they're called. Just like that, I like these things. I did a tourist guide course in my country.


11


Here's Palazzo Reale. I always see Italians here. Old people hanging around - it's different in my country. There only young people hang out to walk like that. Here, in the churches you can see a lot of old people, and you don't see so many young people. It's alright if an old person can feel fine. In my home, if a woman gets married, she never leaves the house. Only men feel fine.
Have you ever been in the palazzo?
No.
Why?
I haven't had the opportunity. I entered the garden but I haven't seen the Queen's room, or things like that.


12


This is that church where I went to when I first arrived. I always used to come here to cry. At the beginning, when I couldn't find a job, when I felt bad.
Did the church help?
Yes, spiritually.


13


I like this one very much, too, but it's really difficult to learn all these names. I found it in the tourist guide but I forgot it. When I lived in Corso Regina I always went past here, I saw it every day. It showed me the way to the church nearby. I got lost once, on one of the first times, when I was looking for this church. It was very early in the morning, six o'clock. I went out with the lady I lived with, she showed me the way to the church but I couldn't find it.


14


This is the Chiesa della Maria Ausiliatrice in Via Cottolengo. This is the church I come most often, I always come to mass here. I'm very much devoted to the Virgin, to the Madonna.
Do you know other places in Via Cottolengo?
Yes. Once I had a bad experience there. We went there with the lady, my flatmate. This lady is 58 years old. She's a friend from Peru. She told me that they give you some bed sheets there. When we arrived it was about 11 am. We didn't know how to proceed, how to tell the man that we wanted bed sheets. And there were a lot of people, mostly men. We are small, the lady's even smaller then I am. They opened the door and the crowd jumped all over us. I could resist but the lady, Madonna mia. Because all these people wanted to eat there and they wanted to get a seat. In my opinion, they should make a different place for the bedsheets and another one for giving food to people, but it wasn't like that. That lady was very scared, I had to help her to get home.