Late Tuesday morning I made a big trip to Conad, packing our little wheeled cart with a bunch of heavy stuff for the Institute. I had to walk way up the hill to bring the car back down closer first. As we were leaving to go downtown, our doorman Paolo said that three packages had just arrived. Two of them fit in the bags that I was carrying, but the box with Dee's new backpack, though light, was far too large for me to handle with everything else I was carrying. Paolo was awesome and walked it up to the car with me. Dee needs a backpack to carry stuff because her hands need to hold the crutches; she had borrowed one from Sorella Muce , one of the sisters who lives below us, but now she has her own.
We arrived a little early to prepare for Taco Tuesday, but things go slower with Dee seated. Fortunately, several kids showed up and pitched right in, grating cheese and slicing lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Everything was ready right on time. We had a medium-sized crowd, with enough food for all.
While we were there, Dee got a call from the Amazon courier who had come to deliver her new shower stool, which should allow her to sit comfortably while showering instead of trying to balance and possibly hurting her foot. The problem is that Paolo had closed up shop for lunch, so there was nowhere to leave it. Thinking quickly, she called Sorella Knies, who does most of her nurse work from home over the phone, and she was able to run down and pick it up. Thus, Dee will be able to try it Wednesday morning.
Dee also had a frustrating call with a rep from the Aetna health insurance the church provides. We have good coverage, but the woman kept telling her that she needed to do what the mission nurse (Sorella Knies) said. Dee writes: She kept telling me it would save time if I went to Salvator Mundi hospital instead of to the medical group at Aventino. But since the x-ray and cast are already done, it will not save time to go to Salvator Mundi. Sister Knies recommends Aventino, which is why I went there. I think it was a cultural thing to present the information in a rather brusque way, and English was not her native language. Perhaps she was concerned that we had had to pay some money out of pocket and get reimbursed, while apparently it might have been possible to not be out any cash. Frankly, we were just happy to have gotten the tests and appointments Dee needed; waiting for reimbursement is not a problem for us, and the numbers are not large anyway.
A rather funny thing happened with two of the packages we received. I had ordered a little plastic container with ten compartments for one euro from China on eBay, shipping included; it is handy for holding screws when disassembling computers. It arrived after about six weeks -- free shipping obviously does not mean quick shipping! Meanwhile, Dee had ordered some little plastic knitting markers, which arrived the same day, packaged in the identical plastic container! Small world, or something.
We also worked on some posters for Sami, who is returning from his two-year mission in England on Wednesday. A number of his friends will gather to greet him, with food and "welcome home" posters. Junior, our nonmember from Cameroon, was the only one of us who professed any artistic ability, so he volunteered to do the drawing and lettering. It came out pretty well, with big wording in English but small writing in all the languages represented in our group Tuesday: French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, and Tagalog.
Lorenzo came by for choir practice, with only four of us, but we enjoyed it. In the evening, a former Italy Milan missionary named Colton showed up for a while, soaked from the very heavy rain outside. He is in Italy for a couple of weeks, visiting his old cities and friends. Francesco, also from the Milan mission, happened to come by, and the two of them exchanged names of missionaries whom they knew in common, with some fun stories. We got a photo of all three of us IMM alumni together.
When we came home after English class, it was still raining really hard, and as usual we had a bunch of bags to carry home. Fortunately, Sorelle Summerhays and Helgesen were there, so we gave them a ride home in exchange for them carrying things and holding a big umbrella over my wife as she hobbled to our apartment building on crutches. Win-win. The sisters below us have been really wonderful in offering to help, and I am happy to let them get some blessings, as otherwise I have to make a bunch of extra trips to our car.
My ankle bone hurts by the end of the day and it's hard to get comfortable in bed. Tomorrow I will get a different night cast, and I hope for an improvement.
