Meet Noussim, The Homeless Who Gave Me Shelter
Noussim is Italian, I mean he lives in Italy. He is not really Italian because he came from Algeria twenty-six years ago. He never received Italian citizenship, only Visit VISA’s.
When Noussim arrived in Rome, he had nothing. Walking around, looking for different jobs, he finally found a stable but illegal job. It’s illegal, but it’s ok, it’s not drug or weapon trafficking. After all Noussim is a nice guy.
My Algerian friend found a parking lot. A parking lot surrounded by restaurants, clubs and bars. This parking lot is just an unused field, there are no lines to define individual spots. People are messy and park wherever they want, wasting space and not giving a fuck. Noussim decided to stay at this parking lot.
Every night of the week, except Monday when all businesses are closed, he comes there and helps people park. He organizes the cars and shows the people where and how to park. It’s pretty impressive to see all these cars staggered together. I even wondered how drivers get their car back.
This job is illegal because Noussim didn’t declare it to the government, he has neither contract, nor stable income. He is only paid by the goodwill of his customers tips. Some weeks, Noussim can earn one or two hundred euros. It’s little, but it’s enough for him to live.
One evening, a group of ladies arrived and went to a restaurant. One of the ladies stayed behind to give a tip to Noussim. She was so afraid of him and worried about being left behind alone.
She shouted to her friends, “Don’t go. Wait for me!”
Noussim is tall, has North African traits and wears a dark jacket. I was smiling, watching this scene. It’s fun how people are afraid of others and how they don’t understand each other.
Noussim lives in a slum he built for himself. A house made of scraps of wood and metal. Inside his small house, it’s a bit wet, a bit dirty, but comfortable and cozy. He has a small kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom-living room with a TV. In total I guess it’s about three hundred square feet. It’s pretty large for a single man.
In the evening while he was waiting for cars to come, we talked a bit. He told me he used to have a wife in Italy, but she left him years ago. From this relationship, he has a son who is now eighteen years old. He sometimes visits him on the weekend.
I don’t know how but in the last few years he started a relationship with another lady in Algeria and now he has two children there. Noussim would like to go back to Algeria to take care of his two year old boy and two month old baby. But he also still has to take care of his son here in Italy. He told me he will wait few years more for his oldest son to find a stable life and then he will “retire” in Algeria.
Noussim sometimes complains about his condition. He doesn’t like to live in a slum and to work an unofficial job with no retirement plan or health insurance. He is pissed off. I lived one week with Noussim, in his broken car he never uses. It was a cool shelter in the cold Italian winter. In the evenings, after sightseeing in Rome, I used to come back to exchange some words with Noussim before going to sleep in his car.
Before I left Rome, he added me on Facebook. His name on facebook is Dara Ladan. A very strange name I thought. He told me the story of this name.
Before coming to Italy, he went to Denmark. He was homeless during two years in Copenhagen. Harsh life but the conditions were better than in Italy he said. As a homeless person, he was living on a street. The name of the street was Dara Ladan. He took the name for his facebook profile.
Noussim is really a good guy. I guess it’s unfair that he has to live like this for so long without any assistance from anybody. I hope one day I’ll be able to come back, help him, and help all those struggling to have a decent life. After all, that’s why I am studying, right?
