Defrosted Sloppy Joes

Thursday morning I got a call from Anziano Balzotti. His MiFi device had stopped working yet again, after he had to remove the SIM card to loan it to someone for a day. I went across the piazza in the cold and rain to help figure out the issue. Apparently somehow a default configuration had kicked back in, and I think we got it set up right. But it did give me a chance to rib him a bit about messing with something that works, and he laughed right along with me.

Wednesday was cousin Jim's birthday back home, and Lynn surprised him with some balloons and a gift. He seemed pleased. We look forward to seeing everyone there in a few months, though we will sure miss our work and the people here.

Otherwise we were home for the morning, leaving early because Dee met with Mariela at the big downtown international market at 12:30. Dee had never been there before, but many people had told us about all the wonderful food items you could buy there. Turns out we drive right by it most days, not far from the Institute. I dropped her off and went on early to the Institute. I worked on my lessons some throughout the day. I also printed some small labels to put on the back of temple cards, giving details about the open house and pointing to a website to get a free ticket. We bought the labels for Sorella Thacker, but she hadn't been able to print the labels properly formatted yet, so Dee and I figured that out.

Front and back of temple card, with our label attached to the back

At 2pm, Simone arrived from Milano at the Termini train station, having just finished his mission. Ugo and Junior and I went over, meeting Daniele, Fabrizio, and Simone's dad to welcome him. The train was only a few minutes late. Here is a short video of him hugging his dad.

Fresh off the train

Coming through security exit

Hugging his dad

Simone with his welcoming party

Simone hadn't had anything to eat yet all day, so we all walked over to the Institute. On the way I called Dee, who had just returned from the market, asking her to defrost some Sloppy Joes left over from a Friday night a few weeks ago. Soon after we arrived, the food was ready, and we had a nice meal together, with sandwiches, chips, soft drinks, and cookies. It was fun to visit with them all in this rather impromptu lunch.

The guys hung around for a while, with Junior staying all afternoon. I put him to work, removing the old labels (which had a typo) from a stack of temple cards and putting on the new ones. Since he was there, I also asked him to put up the Christmas tree in the entryway and decorate it, which he did willingly and capably.

 

As part of this, we had to rearrange the entryway, moving our Christus statue into the library. That necessitated moving the old HP all-in-one printer/scanner, and Ugo had the bright idea to put it on the desk with our new family history computer. We use it almost exclusively for scanning, since our color laser is such a nice printer. It will be helpful as a scanner there, and there is plenty of room on the desk for it.

Dee baked some sweet potatoes in the kitchen, which sent a wonderful aroma throughout the place. She and several of us had some, with lemon juice on it adding a nice flavor. She held court in her kitchen, talking with kids while feeding them. She also made enchilada sauce for Friday night's dinner.

Anziano Benincosa dropped by to put up a flyer for a self-reliance class starting next month on Thursday nights for the Institute kids. I sent out a copy of the flyer on the WhatsApp group to encourage the kids, since it is aimed at helping them get a job or a better job, which is always a big problem here.

Ugo and I worked in the library for much of the evening. Dee came and helped Ugo with his genealogy. He finally submitted his own DNA and found a third cousin in the US, whom he is trying to connect by finding documents. That is Dee's specialty. Ugo was complimentary about me being able to read the old documents. At one point, Ugo called his grandmother up north on speakerphone to ask her some questions about the family. She is in her early nineties and is really sharp, making us all laugh with clever quips several times.

Public transit in Rome was messed up during the day, in part because there was a small riot of sorts after the Rome soccer team lost a big match the night before. There was a good turnout for the English class, but two of the girls arrived an hour late (for an hour-long class) due to bus problems. It was still cold and raining when we drove home through bad traffic, perhaps due to weather and the transit issues. Fortunately the Institute is well heated, so we were comfortable there all day.

The international market, called Nuovo Mercato Esquilino, is a huge indoor space with probably 100 stalls. There are tropical fruits and produce that are sought by South Americans as well as a lot of Chinese produce. There are so many kinds of rice, beans, grains and spices, too. One item was Physialis, which is a cute little fruit about the size of a cherry. I treated Mariela to some and got to taste it, too. I can't wait to go back. Next to the market is another section with gorgeous beaded fancy fabrics from India, and the prices were so affordable! Since I broke my foot, I just never got to go before. It's about a 20 minute walk from the Institute and I couldn't do it. But I will certainly be enjoying the exotic fare and low prices from now on. They also had items Grandma Martorano used to fix, like tripe, tongue, pig feet and sheep heads. I think Grandma cooked cow heads, but this market had sheep heads.  I will have to ask my Mom and her sisters.