Double loot

Friday morning I dropped Wes and Alyssa off at the Jonio metro stop so they could ride downtown to the train station to leave for Florence. Unlike last month with Marilyn and Lu, there was no transit strike, so they made it uneventfully onto the train and to Florence on time. I had given them each a printed paper and a tutorial on how to find their way around the station and to the train, which seemed to work well. Their hotel checked them in early, which was very nice, and they said the rooms were quite large. They grabbed some lunch and then took a three-hour guided tour, including Michelangelo's David statue (my favorite tourist attraction in all of Italy -- amazing!). They told us that the tour was wonderful. It is nice for them (and us) to have some time alone for a couple of days.

Before leaving, Wes brought out all the loot that they had carried to us from home. As always, it is kinda like Christmas! I got a few things, and Dee got even more (naturally). Later in the day we got a call from the Hubers, saying that they were heading to the commissary in Naples and offering to buy stuff for us, so we will get some more loot this weekend. Yes!

Dee walked up to Todis in the morning, looking for buns for sloppy joes for the evening dinner. They had none, so she changed plans to make a tuna pasta casserole. When we got to the Institute, the AC in the entryway/office worked fine, no water drops any more, which is great since that is where I do most of my lesson prep. The AC seems to struggle for a while with this heat, until the sun finally passes over to the point where it is not hitting the kitchen window anymore.

We had given Dee's key to the Institute door to the Ganziani, since their keys got stolen. On Tuesday we first had them try to get a copy made, but after three tries it didn't work. These types of keys are expensive (15€) and seem to be difficult to copy, as I found a few months ago. So Friday I headed out to find a different hardware store a few blocks away. They said that they do not copy that kind of key, but sent me to a combo shoe repair and key shop around the corner. He was out of blanks but said he will have some next week. At least I got a little sun and exercise out of the effort. Dee spent the whole time in the kitchen, as is her wont.

Banana bread batter, with nuts and chocolate

 

 

I finished my lesson prep mid-afternoon, not having had much time all week to get ready. All afternoon there were some kids around, with the numbers slowly growing toward class time. There was a new girl from Peru, Almendra, recently returned from a mission in Ecuador, who spoke mostly Spanish with a bit of English. They had a good game of Uno going up until class.

The group was still somewhat small for class, but we had a nice discussion of Luke 19-21, with a few good laughs and lots of nice comments. There was translation going into English for Ashley and Spanish for Almendra, which makes it rather noisy, but in a very nice way. Afterwards, Dee's tuna casserole and banana bread cake were delicious. The kids put Nutella on their cake.

 

 

 

 

We left the kids still playing there, staying late, as is typical on Friday nights.

Alyssa's cousin from Agrigento, Daniela, who lives and works in Rome, agreed to meet with us Sunday evening for dinner. We are excited to make another family connection.

It was nice to be back at the Institute. It took all day to do the cooking, but I like doing it. I listen to a book or a talk or a podcast while I cook, and also get to talk with the young people. Since I didn't think to bring loaf pans, I made the banana bread as a cake. I used oil instead of butter for Anziano Papritz, and it looked like it was done. The toothpick came out clean, but it was underdone. So, I called it pudding cake and they ate it all up! The tuna was not as popular as chicken, oh well, but it was a whole lot easier. I guess I'll never do that again.

Jhamil came in, so happy to have found a job. It's very heavy manual labor, and he is glad to have it.