Hanna. Somalia. Hampton's maid.
Mihret. Somalia. Hampton Maid's
Joseph. Somali. Hampton's waiter and handyman.
Asif. Sinhalese. Head to the gym and swimming pool in the penthouse on the roof of the Hilton. By day. Pastry chef by night.
Ismail. Sinhalese. Waiter Hampton's.
Saddam. Iraq. Security officer.
Mustafa. Egyptian. A janitor.
Noemi. Filipino. Cashier of a currency exchange.
Helena. Siberia. Flight attendant stewardess or better. We Italians are the only ones who call Hostess. Without knowing the meaning that is often given to the term refers to a profession as old as ignoble. Chao
Nin. China. Hostess. To use a term refined. Prostitute brothel. To be precise.
these people have in common? Some share a common profession. Almost all have to do with the Hilton Corniche Hotel.
are all simple people. I
all people with an open smile and sincere.
Smiling and being friendly is also part of their work.
come from different cultures who taught him to be happy for what they have. Cultures that taught him to be unhappy about what they can not have.
All I have been friends.
would be a great honor that they also consider me a true friend.
of each tell you something. Something
. Something we in the West
escapes easily.
The passage of time, for example, percutaneous
run like crazy. Rallentarlo.Il illusion of time.
To slow it down really need to travel at speeds not possible, close to the speed of light. Our
civilization is based on the fact that time is a constant. t = K. But time is a variable.
But for the scale of the rate at which we move seems a constant. It 's all relative.
E 'relativity of Einstein.
To exploit the time, we try to make a sea of \u200b\u200bthings. Thus seem to have had more, at the end of life.
because we think we measure time according to the density of the things we have done inside. And so give it a value.
According to the scheme by which value is attributed to material things. The lack of availability of time makes it invaluable.
The availability of time takes away so much value. It is the Keynesian theories of the twentieth century. Political Economy.
The value of a bottle of cold water in the equatorial wilderness. And the value of the same bottle in the Lakes in Canada.
Westerners to have more of contract time.
Elsewhere, however, the swell. With appropriate pauses and gaps.
serving at least as much as full. How
breaks on a staff. They give meaning to the rhythm and music. Outside the West
time has a different value.
They are nice to stop and let it flow.
It 'nice to do things. Or make them all many do not improve. Improves their life. Asif
So bear with suffering, yes, but also with a smile, the distance by his wife, who remained in India.
and living peaceful lives waiting to be able to call home every two weeks.
And you can go and see her once a year.
During the last visit, the year before, have conceived a child.
E 'born a girl. Asif but now has a bit of a hurry west too.
wants to see and embrace this child who has already almost three months. And
'his first child. The
has seen only in photographs.
When the anticipated end of the game had already expired, I, Daniel and others there reporting on the daily news.
Asif smiled, spread his arms and said "not yet, not yet." Not yet.
was excited, in those days, and very nervous. Not stood still for a moment.
Asif is young. Small of stature, muscular and with olive skin and hair blacks, dense and curly.
Asif has the smile of a child.
Asif is a cannon.
During the day it occupies the twenty-fourth floor of the pool. Line up the chairs, towels ready, bring drinks on the rocks lying to customers like rags in boiling water and shade merciless sun. Lava
baths and sauna. Yes, the sauna is also some crazy here. Takes bookings for Thai massage. The gym is separate from the pool by a large tinted windows. Arab children in the pool go there with his dad.
Some boys in bathing costume. Others and girls, they do clothes, light cotton clothes and wide enough to allow the movement.
Dads take a bath with the little ones in costume.
Mothers, with their black robes and head covered, remain seated on a chair under an umbrella.
Some young Arab women come here to soak up the sun, because this is a place for Westerners. They put on a bikini and like to chat with the Europeans. Do everything to prove their emancipation.
are rich. Very rich. They studied college in Switzerland. They speak different languages \u200b\u200band excellent English.
I graduate, beautiful, cared for, he likes to provoke people to death with their innate sensuality. They talk casually about sex, alternatively use the verb to fuck or to screw, without so many metaphors and allusions.
come here in secret. Their families do not know.
At the restaurant, sitting in groups, make beautiful smiles from under the veil of silk elegant. The restaurant is friendly place. Gladly dine here. They order a la carte and they never go to the buffet.
But if you meet them in the city will pretend not to see you. Why do not you have ever known. And the cell phone number to which they send messages delicious and not your ambiguous.
Asif has its work cut even with the well-equipped gym overlooking the ocean. In the morning there are not many willing people in the evening but there's quite a hustle and bustle.
Asif had tears in her eyes and cried with joy, she hugged me and shook his head slightly, from shoulder to shoulder, pivoting on his neck. The Sinhalese are just saying yes. We do well to say no.
But yes, yes, nodding her head, her daughter was born.
We were all happy with Asif.
Asif, when the gym closes at nine o'clock in the evening, takes a shower and change. She dresses in white.
descends about twenty floors.
It starts another job. It is a skilled pastry chef, prepares fantastic cakes decorated with layers of chocolate, fruit, caramelized almonds and lightweight balls of yarn to sugar and honey crisp.
The cakes will be served the day after Hampton's. The
Travel Asif to return to his family three months' salary costs. With all the attention and the savings, since he sent his wife all he could, he could not ragranellare enough money for four or five months of last belt hole.
Daniel who is so mature as intelligent, despite his young age, brought up a collection among colleagues.
Offer Asif journey back home has made everyone happy.
The joy of Asif and his disbelief when we gave him the envelope has aroused in us a feeling hard to hold. To be able to leave had to wait for his boss gave him the long-awaited vacation. But more was done. It was just
expand the time patiently as the Orientals do know.
When it came my time to leave and return to Europe, Asif wanted at all costs to prepare a cake to take with me. "Asif does not work! The cake gets since i have gone Such a long journey." "Do not worry Mr. G.! I know."
And so I prepared one of his umpteenth night in a beautiful plum cake, filled with wonderful pieces of candied fruit and chocolate and hazelnuts. Has been packaged for me pretty well, well protected. Asif
The plum cake I've eaten in the garden I had in Styria. Carinthia where the hills slope gently towards the vast plains leading to the Danube.
I ate plum cake in a sunny morning, in Europe, in a garden of a house that had a place and a reason to stay. So it was for six years.
I did not know what would be my last morning in the garden.
that morning I remember, above all, the cake of my friend Asif.
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