Gotthard: Four days to go – waiting for an invitation
The week has most likely had an exciting beginning for Enrico too. Maybe there's a letter waiting for him from his former employer.
I met him this summer here in Faido during a visit to the tunnel. Small radio in one hand, and briefcase in the other, I mistook him for an engineer. A Spanish engineer, I thought from his accent. “I’m here to work for a couple of months. I’m from Argentina,” he corrected me at the time.
Like other “mercenaries” of the mountains, Enrico ended up at the AlpTransit work site by chance. He heard about it through a friend, decided to send off an application with little expectation and the next thing he knew, he was on his way here.
Enrico explained that all of the workers were to be invited back to Switzerland for October 15 in order to take part in the final tunnel breakthrough. “They have my address. And even if they forget me, I will still return to Faido.”
No one wants to miss being part of a world-breaking – or such an “earth-shattering” – event.
Luigi Jorio, Faido, October 11, 2010
Every miner has his own story to tell.
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