CentroAnidra staff

Some of the people at CentroAnidra.

Last night Paolo favours us with a 2 hour presentation on personal development covering some basic science, psychology and philosophy lavishly illustrated with personal and somewhat risque anecdotes. He outlines 3 primal fears that stop us developing which I interpreted as separation anxiety, fear of failure and fear of losing one's identity.

The guru tells us that since conquering these fears he attracts many women without effort; but has no attachment to them as he has reached the stage of personal spiritual development beyond such petty cravings, (but he does maintain extremely cordial relations with Antonella.)

Similarly, he tells us that though he created CentroAnidra through his vision and high level personal contacts, he is detached from the success or failure of the organisation. Having no skin in the game does make it easier to be aloof I suppose.

Teresa is the Managing Director of the centre cannot afford the luxury of detachment as she does have skin in the game, dealing on a daily basis with the legal and financial responsibilities of an organisation that still, after 7 years existence, is barely breaking even. The centre has benefited and she has suffered from managing the centre like an accountant: hands-on and in-detail. Now she has stepped back to preserve her sanity, but no operations director has materialised to assist her and they can't afford to hire someone. The centre would benefit if her two deputies reported regularly to one overall chief, and they assigned jobs and resources together.

Antonella, another vital and essential member of the centre, originates near Sienna and, having spent 14 formative years growing up in Oxford, speaks better English than I do. She has the capacity to run the whole operation efficiently but chooses to restrain her capabilities to Public Relations in the interests of community decision making. Were it not for a demonstrated affection for the guru someone would have whisked her away long ago IMHO.

Valentina, (known as Vale which appropriately means worth,) runs the well organised food store and various other things. She is an accomplished TaiChi practitioner, with none of the limpid arm waving seen customarily in the West. Being a quiet, Sardinian girl, she is probably not interested in being an instructor but nevertheless she is the best role model for how people should behave in CentroAnidra. Instead she is taken for granted.

Julia is a teacher and studied psychology at university. She works mainly with the Erasmus programme but I meet her in the kitchen cooking up goodies.

Christina the pastry chef does not actually live at the centre but turns up to make the most delicious cakes and pastries when required.

Chris is the mother of Val and spends time here but does not quite fit in. She runs a guest house higher up the valley and comes down at various times to help and for meals. As it is, as soon as she starts to project herself she is quickly talked down, retiring to a seat one up from the end of the table so she won't be left out completely and so limiting the group of volunteers ability to sit together. She could be more help to the centre if she was given a sphere of responsability and held to account for it: I feel there is a history here to which I am not privy.Læs mere