What is a recent graduate doing for days on end in the heart of Kenya, in contact with the Maasai people?
His name is Gianluca Di Rosario and he is an athletic trainer with a degree in exercise science with a master's degree in health and wellness from the University of Brescia. He had already had an approach to the highlands of the Rift Valley in 2016, participating in the "Discovery Kenya" event of Gabriele Rosa, who for more than 30 years has linked his name to the preparation and management of many Kenyan middle distance runners.

But it was the year he spent in New York City that combined his studies, sports, and wellness with his passion for international cooperation. Thanks to relationships with Mathew Komen, a Kenyan "on loan" to the city of New York, and Alfred Saigero, a Maasai doctor from Nanyuki, an Italian-Kenyan project was born of which Di Rosario is the coordinator. So for his research, which aims to establish new methods of preserving one's psychophysical well-being, based on those who do not do it for "sport," but for survival instincts, he has chosen a direct approach, interacting with those who, by necessity and tradition, do not waste resources (they never kill more animals than necessary, they do not plow more land than they need), they live by human relationships, taking care of every co-inhabitant of the village (leaving no one behind), they preserve biodiversity, that is, for them, the care of creation.
It is the young man from Brescia himself who talks about this passional-professional adventure to malindikenya.net.

"It's a project on lifestyles, the awareness and care of which are fundamental for the maintenance of health and the prevention of risk factors of diseases, to reduce the cost on the health system and nonetheless our environmental impact," the scholar explains, "so in a perspective of individual and collective sustainability, in our conception, it could only start from those populations that still in some respects represent the original way of life, the history of humanity, the ancestral man, repositories of that natural ability, that primitiveness of the human essence-threatened by globalization-or civilization, and nonetheless by climate change. Human essence, one of those eroded and now almost lost characteristics, to which to try to reach, to imagine new models of development. It is a project that was created to observe and understand how that set of daily behaviors related to movement, eating and social habits are functional to psychophysical well-being and quality of life, it also intends to focus on the continent with the youngest and growing population, which really could chart the future paths of humanity." 

The athletic trainer also immersed himself in the Maasai reality through an enchanting approach to Africa and its nature.
"I immersed myself in the heart of Kenya, in an atmosphere of enchanted peace and splendor of nature, of the harshness of the most extreme and distant savannah, and nostalgia, far from those ties, stakes and parameters that characterize the (Western) places we come from. The foreign method had to unfold, to open up, to mold itself to a reality that could not be decoded, that remained (almost) as it was, that still resists outside influences," Gianluca recounts.

Thus was born a special relationship with the Maasai whom he met and whose everyday life he studied, noting what is healthy about spontaneous behavior and repeated life urgencies.
"The most surprising thing was witnessing the formation of a harmony, of spirits and intent: when we did not see each other, during the week (the time of the research and follow-up fell every weekend) I missed them, and perhaps, more an illusion or a wish, they missed me too," the researcher explains. Over the course of the weeks he spent between Nairobi and Nanyuki, Di Rosario, before returning to Italy after his study period in Kenya, was also able to contribute in a practical sense, with donations of medical equipment and other aid.
He hopes to bring in others through involvement of private individuals or third sector entities.

He is now ready to return to Kenya to continue his research and continue to "learn, learn, know, and push towards a series of questions, questions: is there still time, we Westerners first, to figure out how to preserve our health, which depends on the health of the planet (the pollution in our seas, of the soil in which the food we eat grows, the animals that populate it, the air we breathe) , for whose strenuous defense the native peoples (from the Masai to the Indians to the Aborigines) are fighting for."

His goal, after studying the habits of these peoples who still follow the dictates of ancestral traditions, is "to create a portal for cross-cultural communication between peoples through lifestyles, to bring a message of humanity that connects science and community, that focuses us on the talents, aspirations, and potential of the African people, that transcends the emergency approach, that can at least try to touch on a fundamental and forgotten truth, namely that we can all share in the joys and that we can help each other overcome the sufferings, that we are all part, together, of this wonderful planet, all linked to the same destiny, and that with mutual help, we can convince ourselves that there is still time to save the earth. Recognize this interconnectedness and commit ourselves to preserving the fortune and beauty that surrounds us. Bringing back to the center of dialogue and action the excluded, those who are on the margins, to imagine a different, more prosperous, more inclusive future, not crushed by environmental degradation and the degeneration of our time, including that given by disease (and as we observe in Africa, chronic diseases are a decidedly increasing problem, with the nefarious consequences on family and state budgets)."

To do this he will need connections, to bring other realities together, always on this axis that seems unlikely, but thanks to his young and pure will and vision, can become his strength: Brescia-New York-Nanyuki.