Friday, April 6, 2018

Airport run

Thursday was quite a busy day. We left at 6:40am to take Sorella Ricks to the airport for her transfer to Cagliari. She was ready ahead of time, and we wheeled her big suitcases out to the car in the rain. This is the first time we have been asked to help with transfers, and we are glad to do our part. Traffic was pretty good, with a few minutes of slowdown on the freeway, but we got there in about an hour and dropped her off at the curb. 

A few minutes after we left the airport heading home, expecting some rush hour traffic, we got a call from the Balzottis. They were bringing a brand-new ("greenie") sister to the airport as well, but traffic was horrible: they were completely stopped for 20 minutes, on the same route that we had used half an hour earlier. The problem is that Sorella Palmer was landing from Palermo on an early flight, en route to Pescara on the train later in the morning, and they wouldn't be there in time to meet her. These young missionaries travel without cell phones, but they asked us to find her and drive her downtown to the train station. All they knew was that she was on RyanAir. So we first reprogrammed Google Maps on my phone to return to the airport, which involved an effective U-turn by exiting the freeway and coming back. Meanwhile Dee looked up flights from Palermo on RyanAir and we figured out which terminal she would be at. 

We got to the airport and parked in the temporary spots, called "Kiss and Ride" (yes, in English!) Then we walked into the terminal and checked the monitors, which showed that her flight had landed. So I waited at the arriving passenger exit, while Dee scanned the curb outside. After about ten minutes she showed up, rolling all three suitcases (two big, one carryon), which barely fit in our little car. We know her from inspecting her apartment at Roma 1 for a few transfers: a very wonderful young woman. She was exhausted from having gotten up at 3:30am without time for breakfast, so we got her something to eat and headed into town. She fell asleep on the way, which was good. As expected, traffic was bad going downtown at rush hour. It took us an hour to get to the Termini train station, where we dropped her off in the care of the Zone Leaders who were coordinating all the transfers coming and going. We then headed home, without much traffic because it was a bit later by then and we were headed out of town instead of into town.

We got back home a bit after 10:30am, at which point we finally had some breakfast. We hadn't eaten before leaving, assuming that we would be back much sooner. I still had to shower and get ready for the day. Dee actually took a brief nap, while I had one later during the afternoon at the Institute. We got to the Institute at the regular time, and I spent much of the afternoon working on my Friday lessons. I also went to the Post Office around the corner to return an item from Amazon that had arrived in a "not exactly as advertised" state, waiting less than 15 minutes there. Dee cooked a bunch of chicken in the crock pots, to be shredded and frozen for future use. Our freezer is pretty full at the Institute; we are well stocked. Ugo just found out that our food budget has gone up a fair amount, and there was much rejoicing. It has been challenging to feed all these kids for only 150 euros/month.

Thursday is a light day at the Institute, so we only had a few kids show up. One was Daniele, who is in my "computer club". He was downtown waiting to see his girlfriend from Milano, here on a school trip, and we got to visit for a good while and bond a bit. He is very sharp and really likes technology. David Perego, also in the computer club, just posted his desktop design for about $11K. He said that he knew he wouldn't actually have the money to build anything anyway, so he choose top-of-the-line everything and maxed everything out. I asked him to write up a brief description of what he chose and why. By contrast, my design costs just over $500. Daniele says that he has started working on his design, so the project seems to be going well.

There were missionaries coming in and out all day as the transfers proceeded. We have such a great location, only a few blocks from the main train station. Turns out that our district in Roma 3 ward just doubled in size, from four young missionaries to eight. We are not sure how or why, but it will be fun and good for the ward. 

Surprisingly, nobody showed up for English classes in the evening, which has only ever happened one other time. With all that was going on, maybe it was for the best. Actually, one young man showed up more than an hour late, when the class would already have finished, so he just headed home.

Trevor also showed up in the late afternoon to help my wife make some apple pies. He has quite a talent for cooking and baking, and Dario (whose mom just went into hospice) had asked my wife for apple pie. So it was a great opportunity to do something for Dario and to visit with Trevor. My wife spent several hours with him in the kitchen and enjoyed getting to know him better. He will go home to Utah in June because his permesso to continue teaching school here was denied. My wife had cancelled her Family History class for this week because this was the only time Trevor could fit into his busy schedule. It was a worthwhile tradeoff for her.
 
 
 
We home a bit late after waiting for some things in the kitchen to cool down enough to leave in the fridge. Both of us were exhausted after a long and enjoyable day. There is something delightfully refreshing about being around all these wonderful young folks all the time.