Marina clowning about.
Passionate. Imaginative. Creative. Dynamic. Inspirational.
Marina Georgescu, the new chair of newcomer support group, Expats & Friends, has all of these qualities. And, yes, I know that’s how many people are described in profile pieces. But Marina really is all those things.
Indeed, she’s so driven and accomplished, has so many interests and enthusiasms, that I was stuck on where to start this article.
And, quite honestly, both I and the photographer were lucky that Marina was resting and recovering from a knee operation when we visited her Ursviken home. Usually, Marina is a blur of activity.
Marina, who's a trained journalist and professional clown, moved here in 2014 from Venezuela with her husband who was studying for a PhD at Campus Skellefteå. They later separated, and he’s gone, but Marina is still here.
Why?
– Because I’d already put a lot of energy into Skellefteå and I didn’t want that effort to be wasted. The city you live in is like your house, so you have to put as much good energy into it as possible, because you are going stay there and try to improve things and make things better for everybody. And I love Skellefteå!
What does she love about Skellefteå?
– It's a beautiful town. I love the Swedish way of life. If it’s something you're not accustomed to, it takes time to adjust. I think many of us newcomers have PTSD from living in big cities. When I came here, I remember leaving my key in the door and forgetting to lock it, and nothing happened, or dropping my gloves and returning four days later to find the gloves still where I'd dropped them.
Marina’s love for her city is evident in other ways. Even before she became chair of Expats & Friends, she was widely known around the region.
She works as a host at Sara kulturhus, runs Boliden’s and Tuböleskolan's Clowns without Borders programs, teaching children circus skills and making them laugh, and she recently managed The Secret Library project, an extraordinary virtual reality project, aimed at getting kids to read more.
However, Marina’s love of life in Skellefteå was sorely tested in 2022, when Clara Norman from Cirkus Cirkör, Scandinavia’s leading contemporary circus company, called Marina to offer her a job. And not just any job.
– It was my dream job. I was going to be in charge of educational programs in Stockholm and Gothenburg as well as international projects. I cried when I told them I couldn’t take the job. Really cried.
But why didn’t you take it?
– I’d met my partner, Roger, and it’s difficult to find a good relationship. I didn’t want a long-distance relationship - they don’t often work.
And then there were the Clowns without Borders projects with kids in Boliden and Tuböleskolan.
– What was going to happen to the projects if I left? It's like your baby; are you supposed to just leave it? It had been such a journey to make them happen, and I was so emotionally attached to them - I couldn’t abandon them.
Who better then to be the new chair of Expats & Friends, replacing Cristina Lindberg Ghimpu? Her commitment to her adopted city is unquestionable, and her drive to help people apparently inexhaustible.
What are your plans for Expats & Friends?
Marina Georgescu. "I love the Swedish way of life. If it’s something you're not accustomed to, it takes time to adjust. I think many of us have PTSD from living in big cities."
– I think my role is to help create spaces where people can meet. Raise the municipality’s awareness about the situation people are in when they arrive here. Give new people a voice. Facilitate integration.
Marina has already delivered on this promise, organizing a Q&A at Sara about the housing issue, at which concerned newcomers grilled the mayor, Lorents Burman, and others, about the lack of housing.
– Another reason I like Skellefteå so much is that, like with organizing the housing meeting, or the political cafés or stand-up comedy evenings, there are many possibilities to do things that matter, she says.
– People are open to trying stuff out. Life here can be like a blank canvas on which you do cool things.
Skellefteå's blank canvas better be vast: Marina has a kaleidoscope of ideas with which to fill it.