Archive for April, 2016

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Val Codera, Italy © Jim Korpi

As I walk past their stone wall, the husband and wife look up from their labor of moving a large granite boulder into the place they made for it. They have a weekend house in the remote mountain village of Cola in Val Codera, Italy.
“Where are you from? Germany, France?”
“No. The United States.”
“Wow,” the husband says, “I have a great grandfather who moved to California in the 1920’s, and another who moved to Argentina. They were looking for a better life.” There is a pause and then they both shrug their shoulders. “Now the Africans are coming here.”
The wife rubs her index finger and her thumb together to signal money as a motive.

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Bottles & Beach, Chiavari, Italy © Jim Korpi

Interviewer filming a child picking bread crumbs from the ground: “What message would you send the world that has abandoned you?”
Child:”Nothing. They all left us, no one stayed by our side. Al Khatib family used to be so big, but they all departed and left us here. The only thing I say to the people is may you be happy and blessed with what you have.”

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Pothole, Lodi, Italy © Jim Korpi

The early bird is getting the worm. He is the only one I hear this early.
When I wake early I rise to the quiet, waking world, a thawing river just beginning to flow.
When I wake late, I rise to a world already in the throes of human movement, struggle, longing and tension. Traffic is buzzing, machines are cutting, neighbors are running.

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Post Office, White River Junction, Vermont © Jim Korpi

Inside the box were eight bars of scented hand-made soap, two stuffed mice cat toys, a ziplock bag of Hersey’s chocolate kisses sealed to prevent contamination from the scented soap, a fountain pen, an extra nib for a fountain pen, and two books; “Book Binding: A Step-By-Step Guide” and “Living the Good Life.”
The nondescript cardboard box, smelling of lavender and lemon grass, left the post office in Sequim, WA, on January 7th and was then sent to the USPS processing center in Takoma, WA, and then to the USPS Customs processing facility in Federal Way, WA, two days later.
After crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the cargo hold of a jet, it was registered in the Central Milan Gateway of Italian Post International Processing facility on January 13th. The box arrived in Piacenza, Italy, on January 14th and was in transit for delivery by the 15th.
For a month and two weeks, the private third-party delivery company, hired by the Italian government to deliver the package, registered the box as in transit, then back to the facility for an inability to deliver. According to the third party company, no one was home.
The box was sent back to the Linate Airport in Milan. Return to sender. For two weeks it was sorted and shipped on a cargo jet back to the United States where it arrived in New York City on March 9th, processed and sent to Federal Way, WA, USPS facility where it arrived on March 11th. The box was then sent to Bremerton, WA, to Takoma, WA, for Federal Customs handling, back to Federal Way, WA, facility on March 25th, and set on the doorstep of the sender in Sequim, WA, on March 25th, 78 days after having sent it to Italy as a Christmas gift.