Romina Pugliese is a beautiful 22-year-old girl living in Ginosa, in the province of Taranto, is a four-month-old mother of a beautiful little girl and in love with her companion who runs the busy bar in the center of town.
From the features and the beautiful color of coffee, it is noteworthy that Romina is not entirely western, of origin.
In fact, the woman who put it to the world is of Kenyan nationality, but the father is presumed to be Italian.
The fact is that Romina has never known either her mother or her father.
"I was abandoned after a few months of life in Malindi," said Romina, "my mother was still underage and she was pregnant with a bigger man than her, a" mzungu "who after her birth left her to return from her family to Italy She did not even send her money to keep her. So that young girl thought of abandoning me, leaving me in front of the gate of a villa behind the new court. "
The mother knew that there was someone in the villa who would take care of her.
Vincenzo Pugliese was a gentleman of a certain age, a resident well-seen by the Italian community, coming from Gioia del Colle, a land of the south known for his mozzarella and moving to Malindi even before finally retiring.
Vincenzo had also taught the Kenyans to make the spun pasta and if Malindi's mugs are so good we must also have him.
That gentle Italian and his companion Christine decide to adopt the little creature, which they call Romina.
Romina lives adored and cuddled at Malindi with that new, old dad who does not miss anything until the age of ten but this is where the misadventures begin.
In 2005 Vincenzo dies and his partner, in agreement with his Italian relatives, decides to send Romina to live in Gioia del Colle, with the family of the brother-in-law, Vincenzo's Italian son.
Without a true mother and a true father, with the loss of the adorable father-in-law and the forced detachment from his "Malindi." For the baby it is a tremendous psychological rebound.
"It was a big trauma - the Italian-Kenyan girl lives up there - in that family I have been mistreated for ten years and I have experienced my adolescence very badly. At one point I was able to call for help from social workers and luckily they listened to me and understood: I have been rehabilitating for one year in a specialized center and, slowly, with the help of two psychologists, I came out and I have re-created a new life. "
Romina has never forgotten her native country, she feels miserable and now she is happy and accomplished, she has resumed her research to find her true mother.
Among the photos he keeps in memory, along with those that portray him with "daddy Vincenzo" and small and smiling at Malindi, there is one where a young girl of color holds in her a much brighter baby than her.
It's her mother, Romina sure.
Research begins, among friends in Kenya and on social networks, and also on Malindikenya.net.
A few days ago, Romina received a message: "We found your mom, she is called Rachel, lives in Malindi and is fine."
A heart attack, the desire to know, to see her today.
"I do not bring any grudge against anyone," Romina says with motherly wisdom and a woman's strength who has known the pain of so many separations-I just want to know what my true roots are. "
So she can talk to Rachel, who is now a lady on her forties with her troubled life, starting with the problems with justice for that deliberate act but also in her desperate way in adolescence.
"We chatted, she spent so much time and did not remember everything well," explains Romina. "I would also like to know who my father was, although I think it is much harder to find it. But she says she does not remember where she lives in Italy. "
Romina is not to be won and we will continue to help her in her quest, with the strength of great optimism and the desire to do her as she has been as a girl and who is giving it right, in the form of joys of a new life.
And one day she will return to Malindi with her daughter, and they will find her grandmother who could never be her mom, and the places where the happy little girl Romina spent her childhood.
That Africa that has remained in her blood and today more than ever in her beautiful smile.