There are decisions in life that you do not think twice. Alberto, a potential pizzaiolo, felt it in 2003. After three years of silence, he decided to make a phone call that would change his whole life.
Born on the shores of the Mediterranean, in the small Varigotti, Alberto is currently living in Bolivia. He works for an Italian NGO called WeWorld-GVC, and he is the head of the regional office for Latin American and Caribbean. He assures that his job is a continuous research of beauty because cooperation wants to find justice, want to minimize the social and economic gaps around the world, a world that has a long way to go in terms of equality. Solidarity is a sample of daily beauty and, fortunately, Alberto finds it everywhere, especially in those who have nothing, but share that tiny nothing with the others.
He has been living across the pond for the last 17 years. Before this happened, Alberto was taking his first steps in the labour world. He had studied Nuclear Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, not so far away from where he would start working: CERN. He came there to do his thesis and then, he stayed two years more with a Fellowship.
CERN, where you can find beauty in all essences, is a dream itself. It may be the top, even the final goal. That is why it may also be too much for young people. Although Alberto was surrounded by brilliant minds, people from all over the world, and he was being part of one of the most ambitious scientific projects in history, which was the LHC, he did not feel adequate. He felt that he had not yet deserved that privilege, and he decided to leave.
The summer before arriving at CERN, Alberto had a solidarity trip in Bolivia. He met an Italian missionary who wanted to stay there and to build a hydroelectric power station in the Andes to sell energy for financing social and cultural projects. This opportunity kept going round and round Alberto’s mind. And, it was in 2003, after three years on mute, when he broke the silence and decided to call him, with the hope that he would remember him. The other guy was still waiting for him to join the plan.
“Look, Paolo, I have to go”, he said to his boss, Paolo Fessia, who fully supported him. After a few days to his arrival in Bolivia, Alberto realized that that was not a temporary plan.
He considers that he has experimented two lives. A first life, until 2003, which includes the CERN experience, in which he also worked as a tour guide. He still remembers the amazement in the students and professors eyes. And a second life, the current one, with his family, dedicated to international cooperation in Latin America.
Alberto’s dreams are linked to his children. He hopes that, when they grow up, they can live in a better world. Meanwhile, he will continue to experiment, to travel and to meet people. As the hydroelectric power plant, his readiness to help will continue to operate for many many years.
Hopefully, new things that do not need to be thought twice will come to Alberto.