Not long ago, a Chinese family of three visited Damanhur: Sunshine, Alayna and their almost one-year-old daughter were guests in the nucleo house ‘Tiglio’, where they integrated perfectly with the residents. Neither Sunshine nor Alayna spoke a word of Italian or English and conversations with them were complicated but amusing, mediated by automatic cell phone translators, but the sentiment towards Damanhur was stronger than any words.
They felt they had been called by fate to Damanhur to carry out a mission: to help bridge Damanhur and China in the coming years. Damanhur already has some very precious friends who live in China and are often visiting Italy, like Judi, or who have moved from China to the USA and from there they connect contacts with Damanhur and their country of origin, like Jacqueline and Wei Li, who are also authors of a guidebook to Damanhur in Chinese.
An act of courage
In order to deepen their connection with Damanhur, and with the intimate confidence of being able to realize a dream, linked not only to them but to something bigger, they sought a commercial initiative that could bind them to Damanhur and magically received an incredible offer, from a compatriot of Shanghai, to buy a small Bed & Breakfast in Sicily at a reasonable price.
With this opportunity, they would have been able to acquire the special status of “self-sufficiency” for the legal residence in Italy, provided they obtain a certain income from the B&B, as well as having a point of support and income for them.
Sicily is not very close to Damanhur, but several non-resident Damanhurians have lived in Palermo for many years, and the island was a very dear place to Falco Tarassaco, who had traveled there many times with the Game of Life.
Sunshine and Alayna were able to take over the B&B and renamed it “The Mandarin”, playing with the name that indicates both a citrus fruit present on the island and the ancient Asian feudal dignitary. Now they are taking the various steps to be able to definitively activate it later this year and, therefore, move to Italy. Meanwhile, they started studying Italian in Beijing.
Future project: a Damanhurian community in Sicily
Our Chinese friends are very determined and courageous; they have put their home up for sale and are ready for their new adventure. Their goal is to interpret the role of a significant bridge between Damanhur and China. The first step will be to settle in Sicily to manage the business but Alayna also wishes to be the Chinese translator of Damanhur’s books in the future, so that she can share Falco’s teaching with her people. Sunshine, after the B&B, expects to give life to other eco-businesses in order to reinforce the bond between the new country he calls home and its new reality.
Who knows, perhaps in the near future, the new ‘Mandarin’ B&B of Sunshine and Alayna, located in Furci Siculo, near the city of Messina, could become the base for a ‘nucleo’ of Damanhurians in Sicily? The house, in addition to the guest rooms, could accommodate 7/8 people, and they wish to give life to a community settlement to help develop their Damanhurian experience more fully.
We can’t wait to find out what will arise from the encounter between these different cultures!
