To understand who Boris Behncke is, what his relationship is with Etna and that of the Sicilians with him, just peek into his Facebook profile. Boris posted the video of the night just spent on the volcano (“I would have liked to put my own music but there was no time”) and hundreds of them comment, send photos, ask. Grace, for example: “wow … better than a commentary of the Olympics!”. Annalisa: «beddu our Boris … always punctual ». Or again, Maria Rosaria: «I’m from Salerno but now Catania by adoption, it is useless to add that I love the mountain, and when there are these shows my friends and even my sister get worried and always ask me “but what does Boris say about it?”. You belong to the family now! ».
–
The German who explains Etna to the people of Catania is a 58-year-old scientist who works at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania and who says of himself: “I’m a neo Sicilian.” A love that comes from afar: «I was a child, my father and mother were journalists: how many newspapers in the house and there was Etna which two or three times a year made people talk about itself even in Germany. I was fascinated by volcanoes, but this one was different from the others: never equal to itself ». Boris arrives in Catania as a student in geology. «He welcomed me with an eruption like the one of these days: short, intense, spectacular phenomena. And there was also a second casting. It was as if he said to me: here I am, I was waiting for you. That first time was not easy, too exciting. Up there I saw people cry for happiness, others say: “I have to go down, it’s too much”. For me it was like a dream had ended, the volcano had become reality. It took me some time to accept it. ‘ A long time passed, therefore … «Six months and I was here again, but this time Etna was back a mountain like any other. The next I arrived that the eruption had just ended. And then I decided: I stay ».
–
25 years have passed. Before being hired by Ingv in 2005, Behncke first supported himself by taking hikers around and that’s how he met his French wife. “We fell in love, she followed me. When we started a family and chose a house, we said to ourselves: the important thing is that you can see Mount Etna from the balcony. Today there are clouds, too bad ». Boris speaks and writes in perfect Italian, but the accent is Sicilian-Teutonic. If Etna erupts, he announces: “The mountain fell“. He can be self-deprecating: «Say bullshit I say about it ». And not everything suits him to this Sicily: «It’s a complicated relationship. When I recommend the importance of prevention it seems to speak in vain: it takes patience, I put it there. And then a munnizza (garbage) is everywhere ».
–
Boris calls Etna the “Great Mom”. «It is – he says -. She is a Sicilian country woman, she spends a lot of time in the kitchen preparing. She misses an ingredient: she goes out to buy it, sometimes she forgets the lit fire and runs to put it out. Others become a seductive and mysterious young woman. Etna has different levels of reality ». So, when she woke up on February 16 and the people of Catania were afraid, Boris reassured: “So, girls and boys: NO, this type of activity has no relationship with earthquakes”. «The activity of these days – he explains now – is very normal: it has happened 250 times in the last 45 years. Today, however, we live connected and have a short memory ». And this is also the reason for its popularity: «I’m not alone, many young and good colleagues are learning to communicate. I try to give answers in a simple way, to reassure, but also to explain how we can protect ourselves from phenomena that remain unpredictable: to be actors, not just victims. Then there’s the fact that I’m German, who knows ». Here, Germany, what is left of it? “I think I ran away from it then. I wanted to become as Sicilian as possible. I got closer: I like to come back, to bring the family. But my house is here ».
–
–
February 22, 2021 (change February 22, 2021 | 23:12)
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
–
