Repairs help us learn words

Thursday morning I got a haircut, my penultimate one here as a missionary. Francesco, my barber, still hadn't gotten a ticket to the temple open house, so I left him a little card with the website address. One the way into town we stopped at Lidl, getting a few things for the Institute but a bunch of stuff for home, with four missionaries staying two nights with us this weekend. We were able to sort it at the checkout stand into two separate purchases, and most of the stuff for home stayed in the trunk all day.

The afternoon and evening were very light at the Institute, as usual for Thursdays. It was transfer day, with young missionaries traveling all over the mission. Often we get a bunch of missionaries dropping in while waiting for trains, but no one showed up all afternoon. That was great, in that I was able to finish most of my lesson prep, and Dee prepared a bunch of ingredients for Friday night's enchilada dinner, as well as baking an apple pie for dessert after Seminary. She also did an inventory of all the stuff in the freezers and reorganized them. We have a bunch of frozen taco meat, cooked chicken, and Sloppy Joes, which she will go through before we leave. We are not sure how we every survived with only one fridge.

Apple pie ready for Friday

I have been trying to get the photos off of Anziano Castro's tablet. The screen has died, and he didn't have an SD card for his photos, so they are stuck inside.  He goes home in a few weeks. There are several things I have tried so far, and it is nice to have Dee's tablet as a working guinea pig, since it is basically the same model. Unfortunately, nothing has worked so far. It would be a shame to lose all his mission photos, so I am not giving up yet.

The church FM folks sent a handyman by to do an annual check on our hot water heater. While here, he also fixed a few things: reattaching some baseboards which had come off, adjusting the lock on the bathroom door, patching some paint, and reattaching the two coat racks which had fallen off the wall. Part of the problem is that I don't understand how things work here, especially since there is only mortar and no wood in the walls. For example, I had tried to reattach the baseboards with nails, but that lasted only a few days. He was very fun to talk with, teaching us the names for things that we didn't know: a toilet seat is either "copriwater" (lid for the WC) or "tavoletta" (little table, a Romano phrase), while a freestanding coat stand is a "uomo morto" (dead man, also a Romano phrase). The screws holding our new toilet seat had come out after only a couple of months, so I put in some slightly bigger ones; hopefully they will last better. If not, he said that we would need to buy a high-quality seat for 50€ or more; everything here is very expensive.

Handyman checking the hot water heater

With our new Ganziani arriving late (one from Palermo on the train), I prepared to teach the English class, but nobody showed up. They probably knew about the transfers, but I would have enjoyed teaching. The Benincosas showed up to teach their new self-reliance class on finding a better job, with Jomar, Riccardo, and Junior attending. 

We left early because Dee had a 9pm call (noon California time) with the social worker and staff at my father-in-law's convalescent facility. On the way home, we were held up for a while by a bus which tried to turn a tight corner and basically couldn't make it, blocking traffic from both directions. It was entertaining and frustrating to watch him try to maneuver; finally he just backed up and let everyone pass. Dee took the call at home. They basically gave her a report on his status and progress. He is putting on a little weight and can walk around, though his balance is not good. He is also participating in activities and making people smile, which sounds just like him. It seems too early to know when he could go home, but the level of care and attention there seems good.

I was really tired from having woken up too early, so I crashed by soon after 10pm.

I cooked all.day.long. Making dinner for 30 takes more than one day. I enjoy it, but I also need time for other things, like Primary prep and paperwork. I haven't submitted reimbursement receipts for months, haha. It's not going to calm down anytime soon. Next week the Motts are coming! And so are a bunch of other people, due to a Seminary and Institute convention.