Backup

Thursday morning was our district meeting. Everyone was on time, and it was short and sweet, with some awesome a cappella hymns sung together, including our mission anthem, which is really a fun song. We want to sing together in Sacrament meeting this weekend, because odds are at least one missionary will get transferred next week. Anziano Jensen gave us each a cool little necklace made with old 10 lira pieces, as a reminder to look for miracles and the spirit each day in our lives. At the end, we did the stacked chair thing again, with everyone sitting on one chair per transfer in their mission. Anziano Jensen goes home in one more transfer, so his position is pretty precarious!

From there we did our usual Lidl run on the way into town. There was enough stuff that I needed three trips up the elevator to get it all into the Institute, including Riccardo's desktop. In the afternoon I walked over to the post office to pay my parking ticket, which went very quickly. Our local post office here downtown is generally not very crowded, compared to the one near our home. I then worked on lessons and also posted on Facebook some photos and descriptions of the events of the prior two days. Dee and I decided that she would not come to Naples this Saturday for Institute class. It is just too far of a walk for us to be comfortable at this point, even though she is making great progress. We agreed that the following Saturday would be her initial voyage with me there.

Meanwhile, I ran a full backup of Riccardo's computer. He got my old 128GB SSD when I upgraded my Dell laptop to a 500GB SSD. I had asked him if his C: drive contents would fit, and he said "no problem". Well, there was a problem. Instead of less than 128GB, he had over 350GB of data, mostly video files. He and his wife (he is a former GANS) do YouTube videos together, and he obviously had no idea how much stuff they had already created on the new computer. So I contacted him to say that he would need to move / delete stuff to make room. He dropped by after work for a while and cleared up some space by deleting and moving things to his D: drive, but there was still too much stuff. Thus, in the evening we drove his computer back to his place on the way home for him to work on that. He may not be able to squeeze enough space to make this work, so we will see.

In the evening, nobody showed up for English class! This happens every so often, but on Tuesday there had been a great turnout, so it was rather surprising. It allowed us to leave a little bit early, which was a welcome turn of events.

Apartment inspections, Baobab

Wednesday we did our round of four apartment inspections, two in Ladispoli and two in Roma 1. Dee lost track of time in the morning, so we left a few minutes late, and then the elevator was being repaired --as I had feared, it was not completed the day before. So I walked down six floors to ask the workman if he could please let my crippled wife ride the elevator for a minute. He finished gluing on a piece in a couple of minutes, and she came down. We ended up departing half an hour later than planned, but traffic was good so we made up about ten minutes en route. The drive to Ladispoli is basically one hour. Dee called ahead to let them know, and it all worked out ok. 

We made all of the inspections pretty quick, since we and they know the drill fairly well. When we got to the Sorelle apartment in Ladispoli, we found that Sorella Wood from Roma 1 was there on exchange. They said they needed to leave soon for the train, and it turns out that they were going to Roma 1 to exchange back, so we offered them a ride, which saved them a bunch of time. We went to the Anziani's apartment and then came back to pick them up when we were done and headed back into town. The Sorelle were amazed at how quickly we arrived at Roma 1: about half an hour in the car versus 90 minutes on trains and subway. I did a lot of walking, even a steep hill. It's so nice to be moving again. But I'm out of shape and fell asleep in my chair at the Institute afterward.

There was nothing really major we found to worry about in the apartments, though there are always a few items to report on. By keeping things brief, we actually made up all the time we had lost and more, getting to the Institute by 1:30pm. By then we were hot and tired, but happy to have that assignment taken care of. The downside of the morning was that I had to go around the block in Ladispoli a couple of times to find a parking spot, after dropping off Dee in front of the Sorella apartment. I finally parked but couldn't see a place to pay for parking, but not to worry -- since we have a hybrid, it should be free, just like in Rome, right? Nope. I got a parking ticket. The rules are different in Ladispoli, which is in the province of Rome but not the city of Rome. So it is a 30€ lesson in looking harder for a parking meter.

Dee and I each worked some on our lessons for this weekend (my three, plus she is doing Primary and Relief Society). With the addition of my Naples class on Saturday, we have a lot less free time, but we are enjoying everything. Dee is supposed to rest her foot and keep it elevated, so she found a nice way to do that in the library while working on her lesson:

She is walking so well these days, using at most one crutch. She actually moves pretty fast, probably faster than before her injury (I always knew she was lagging on purpose! 😏)

David & Josh Perego came by for a while, since Josh was substituting for his mom teaching piano at the refugee Friendship Center; she has Girls' Camp this week. It was fun to visit with David, who is really into tech.

In the evening we had our monthly visit to the Baobab refugee camp. Nobody showed up to cook pasta to bring until pretty late, so Dee started water boiling and got out some of our stash of pasta from the cabinet. I'm glad we bought a third big pot recently. Fortunately then Alessio and Sheyla showed up, followed a bit later by Maria Jose. The former two whipped up some very nice sauce surprisingly quickly, and we had over 3 kg (6+ pounds) of pasta ready to go by 7pm. Vania showed up just as we were ready to leave, and Junior met us over there. We drove the pasta over in our car, while the others took the subway. Alessio really does not like having his photo taken, so you will note he usually manages to hide his face when the camera comes out. He is the pizza chef and is very skilled in the kitchen. He cut up tomatoes in an interesting (and dangerous-looking) way, and he also stuck his finger quickly into the pots of boiling water to make sure it was salty enough!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were at Baobab by 7:40pm, which is good because dinner usually starts at 8pm. I walked in, with my crutch. It was about a block or two in each direction. However, they told us it would be half an hour later this time; not sure why, as the website still says 8pm. Anyway, our kids got involved in helping cut up a bunch of veggies for the salad. I visited with a couple of the refugees. One of them seemed a bit aggressive and hard to understand. He is from Afghanistan, and kept telling us that he was doing all this work cleaning up around the camp, but nobody would give him any respect ("rispetto"). Dee finally figured out that he wanted somebody to pay him for what he did, and he even asked her for money, which she wisely and gently turned down. 

The kids all helped serve the food, which went fairly fast. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the serving, a fight almost broke out between two of the refugees, both from Africa. They went at it a few times, but fortunately were dragged apart by others before anything started. We have no idea what the issue was, but it was scary. There were about fifty guys involved at one point, and it was aggressive and physical. Even the (mostly female) Italian directors of the camp seemed a bit shook , but it was good to see other refugees taking control. We left about 9pm, and it was good to get out of there. I think we'll go back next month, but if that happens again we will perhaps have to re-think, as we can't be putting our kids into any dangerous situations. With hundreds of men there, in a difficult situation, it is perhaps inevitable that some problems would erupt, but violence will not help their cause. It is very sad to see how they live, and it always makes us grateful for our blessings. This poor situation is better than what they came from, which makes me even more grateful.

Maria Jose, Dee, Vania, Sheyla

After leaving Baobab, we went a bit out of our way to pick up Riccardo's new desktop computer. I had given him an old 128GB SSD to use as boot drive to speed things up a lot, but he had a friend who kept offering to come by and install it for him. Finally he realized that the friend wasn't going to come through, so I offered again to install it for him. We had a hard time finding his place and connecting, but finally he arrived at our car, winded from having run awhile to find us. He went upstairs and brought the desktop tower down to us.  So we got home later than usual, but it is nice to be able to help somebody. 

There was so much stuff in the car that we called the Sorelle (now just two of them) and had them help carry stuff up. The city is doing some tree work on one of our streets that cuts out a few dozen parking spots, so I assumed I was going to have to hike (in the light rain). As always, they were wonderful to come down and help carry stuff, but then I found a great parallel parking spot just around the corner, so I actually could have done it on my own. The Sorelle told me that my toilet fix in their apartment had improved the situation, but it still didn't flush well sometimes, so I guess I will have to go back and try to clear things out more.

It was a long day, leaving home just after 9am and arriving home 13 hours later. Thursday is another early day, but we think that next week will be lighter for us.

Late at night, we got a phone call from Sister Balzotti about the Ladispoli Sorelle. We had just seen them that afternoon, but after we left, their toilet started to overflow and they couldn't find the shutoff. They were bailing it out continually for hours. We didn't know where the shutoff was, either. The Balzottis were going to have to drive out there (an hour) unless someone could figure it out. Stay tuned.

I have to mention the driving. Doug is such a good driver, and that is what is keeping us alive. For example, the local drivers often will come up to pass on our right, then turn left across all lanes of traffic. Motorcycles pass us on the right, too, even when we're merging into traffic. Frightening.

I love the visual treat of the gorgeous buildings and sculptures all around us. You never know what delight will be around the next bend.

Fixing a toilet

Tuesday morning we inspected the apartment of the Sorelle living underneath us. Sorella Summerhays was already packed for her transfer, fitting everything into a single large suitcase -- we were impressed! There were no significant new issues with their place, but I was able to fix something that had been a problem for a while. Their toilet had been having troubles flushing well, and I was able to open up some of the holes for water to flow into the bowel, using a metal screw and a small hammer (wearing disposable gloves the whole time) to break through the calcium deposits blocking the water. The things you get to do as a missionary! 😕

Despite the notice posted (see below) about the elevator being serviced all day, we had no trouble using it. When we got home at night, some of the interior trim had been removed and obviously needed replacement, so perhaps something didn't get finished. In any case, it was good that Dee didn't need to descend six floors of stairs. She is moving a whole lot better, using just one crutch and sometimes none. In Italy, dates are written day/month/year. That's why it says 19/06/18 for June 19.

I sent out an updated tentative itinerary for Wes's visit next month and got a positive response, so now I need to start making a bunch of reservations.

We arrived at the Institute in plenty of time to prepare for Taco Tuesday. There were a bunch of kids this time around, including Claudia, who usually can't come on Tuesdays. It is not quite clear why the numbers vary so much from week to week, but apparently school is over now for most, so that it is probably why. Anyway, it was much larger than recent groups, and it is always fun to have that much youthful energy around.

Claudia helping out

 

 

At 4pm I walked the few blocks over to the LDS Charities Friendship Center to practice in the gospel choir with refugees and other missionaries. The group had a bunch of men but only one woman. We started learning a couple of new pieces, which were fun but will take a bunch of work.

Dee made several batches of chocolate-chip cookies, including some for our apartment inspections on Wednesday. There was a pretty big group in the evening for English class, at least by recent standards. At the end of the class, I asked for their help with the cookies and carrot cake, and wow did their faces light up! Food is powerful stuff, but we try to use it responsibly 😀

Lots of people came to talk with me today: Alessio, Maria Jose, and Marcus, an RM from Brazil. Also, Fabrizio came for the first time since the birth of his baby Matthias. He looked so tired. And TannerM came. He is here with LDS Charities. He and his wife both served in this mission. And Chris Campos brought a friend, Laura. Nineteen people signed in today!

I helped Martine with her math homework for Pathway. We did it by phone this time. The problems take some time, but I'm really enjoying it and it helps Martine.

The elders ended up giving a lesson and a Book of Mormon to Chris. He's been here a few times, but didn't know much about the Church yet. Later that night we had a fun talk with the elders and their English class student, Stefano. Elder Bardsley is from New Zealand and doesn't say his r's, so Italian is particularly hard for him to pronounce.

I'm walking around inside without a crutch and outside with just one, and no pain at the break. I'm eager to get into the brace and out of the boot, but the doctor has had some tech troubles and hasn't sent me the model info yet.

Windows closed

Monday morning we had to close the windows in our apartment, because there was a notice posted downstairs that they would be spraying insecticide outside during the day. With windows closed, it got warm quickly even with fans, so I moved my computer setup to the back bedroom again and turned on the AC. The weather has now hit the mid 80s, and we are so glad to have AC available most places we go.

In the afternoon, Dee made a carrot cake for the FHE and worked on her lesson. I printed out materials for two Institute lessons and one Sunday School lesson this coming weekend. I also installed a 64GB micro-SD card into my new Huawei tablet and copied over a bunch of data to it. The tablet is now ready to go. In the late afternoon there was a big thunderstorm with a whole lot of rain. It cooled things off a bit, and it also washed our car nicely 😀. I made up a tentative itinerary for Wes and Alyssa next month; after Dee reviewed it, I sent it off for their input.

Carrot cake, pre-frosting

We were hoping to have a Philippine food night on Wednesday, but our three kids from the Philippines -- Jayno, Jomar, and Joyce (I call them the J's) -- can't make it work this week, so we will try again next week. Thus we will switch weeks and try to take food to the Baobab refugee camp this week instead.

My wife gave a wonderful FHE lesson. It was supposed to be on reverence, but it quickly got off track in a nice way, and she just ran with it. All the kids lit up, smiling, and ended up sharing stories of how being members of the church has blessed them, and how friends have come to understand and even support them in their beliefs. It was quite powerful. I pointed out that we had 4.5 converts out of six people there at the time, smilingly calling Junior half a convert. He seemd to be touched by all the positive stories of the blessings of living the gospel and asked the elders to teach him after the lesson. 

 After class we had carrot cake, and then a rousing game of Cover Your Assets with eight players, while Dee sat with us and knitted.

When we got home, we learned that Sorella Summerhays, who has lived below us for many months, got an unexpected transfer back to Palermo 2. The sorelle had been in a threesome here for five weeks, and a sorella in Palermo encountered a health issue which required some time to recover, so the President moved Sorella Summerhays back there. She was excited about it, since she had really loved serving there. We will miss her. She has been very kind and helpful, particularly with my wife's recent foot challenges.

There was also another printed notice downstairs, letting us know that the elevator would be closed for maintenance on Tuesday from 9am to 4pm. That would not be easy for Dee, going down six flights of stairs in her air cast, so we will see how that goes. She is getting around so much better, but 127 steps might be a bit much.

I walked around the Institute without crutches all day. I was aware of my break, but mostly it hurt in other places due to the increased usage. Progress!

I want to eat more veggies, and today I cooked up a wonderful combo of red bell pepper, eggplant, chicken, garlic sprouted tops and lemon thyme. I asked the elders if they wanted some and they lit up. I made it into a frittata for them. They ate every bit. Then I decided to cook some more of it, but I lost control of the knife and cut my fingers pretty badly. One wouldn't stop bleeding for more than half an hour. Not good.

Time with the President

Sunday we had our usual church meetings, with no class for me to teach. I was asked to sub for the music leader in Primary, doing the singing time. As always, we really enjoyed being there with our fellow ward members. Cristiano from our bishopric asked me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting on July 7, which I will enjoy in all my spare time. Afterwards we stayed for a bit so that Dee could help Grazia with her family history. That of course included a bit of food, but they didn't get too much time together before we needed to leave and she needed to meet with the bishop. It was fun to see how many other members were hanging around for quite a while after the meetings -- we really do like being together.

I went to Primary for the first time in several weeks. Jasmine, who is about 5, gave me a hug. I'm up on crutches now. I just sat in the background during the class time. Silvia kindly got me an adult-sized chair. Then we all went to Sharing Time. As I said yesterday, I had printed eight pictures and put the names of the songs on the backs. I stuck these to the blackboard. The kids LOVED it. One child would come up and get to choose a picture. Then, they got to decide how to lead the song. For example, they could make us sing loud or soft, stand up or sit down, etc. They had a grand time and really got into it. I was touched that they asked if they could keep the pictures. That was fine with me! When singing time was over, I was surprised to see big tears rolling down Jasmine's face. She hadn't had a turn!

From church we headed straight downtown to the Institute for a 4pm student council meeting. It wasn't worth driving home (which is in a different direction) to be there for less than an hour. Dee baked some of her now-famous cookies for the group, and I spent most of the time configuring my new tablet and installing almost all the same apps as on the old one. Dee taught me a nicer way to do that, using the Google Play website on my laptop. The new tablet is almost ready to take over, but of course now the old one is behaving better.  I am still happy to have a much newer model. There are only a few left on the site at that amazing price, so we asked Chiara if she would like one. She has a pretty old tablet. She was more than happy to receive it, along with a purple case. Maybe we can send it home to her via Wes in July.

Our student council meeting was good, with three of the members present online via Zoom, and only us two, Ugo, the Ganziani, and Pres. Pickerd present in person. His wife was in Utah for their son's wedding, so he had more free time than usual. We talked a lot about missionary work and how to improve it. We have almost ten non-members who participate regularly in events at the Institute and at church. None of us have seen anything quite like it before, with activities sometimes having more non-members than members, but none of them seem to be progressing toward baptism at this point. So we discussed how we could encourage our GANS to bear testimony more frequently about the blessings of the gospel in their lives. We also planned activities for the new few weeks. 

After the meeting we discussed our Napoli Institute class with both Ugo and the President. Dee and I needed some direction on whether the mission wants us both to go there (and will pay for two train tickets); the answer was yes. Ugo explained that he is happy that we have students there willing to have class, but no other ward is having any classes during summer, other than our Institute campus of course. So it was good that we all understood the situation. Ugo would prefer to have a local teacher down there, for many obvious reasons, but I will finish this class in early August and then we will figure out what comes next in the fall semester.

From there we drove the President and the two Ganziani to their new apartment, which the President had never seen. We hung around outside while he went in, then gave him a ride home. It saved him time and allowed us to have some good discussions on various issues. He told us that he would easily be able to get us permission to go to Florence with Chiara over Christmas, which was great news. When we got to the mission home to drop him off (not far from our apartment), we sat outside in the car for another half an hour or so, talking about things going on in the mission and at the Institute. It was very kind of him to spend all that time with us, as he is so busy. I think that we all felt it very worthwhile.

We got home by 8pm, early for us, but it was still almost 12 hours since leaving home. Marilyn called to say that they finally got home ok, after being stranded overnight in Chicago without luggage; their flight was late and missed the connection. Our daughter Wendy talked with Dee for a while and also called me to wish me a happy Father's Day. Italy has a different day for that, but we Americans still celebrate it over here. We love our kids.

I am putting minimal weight on my crutches and doing very well, so I even tried on my brace. It is so uncomfortable. I asked the doctor if there was anything else and she is going to send me a picture of a different brace.

Claudia, an amazing young woman who is president of the student council, just got a job at the England MTC. She'll be leaving us for a year. She will be terrific. Her English is completely unaccented and sounds native. Amazing.

Airport and Naples

Saturday morning I left here with the girls at about 8:45am for the airport for their trip home. We loved having them here, but every good thing must end. Here is a photo of them and their luggage squeezed into our tiny elevator to go down to the ground floor. I took the stairs  down for the six floors.

There was no traffic on the freeway, so we got there in plenty of time. Dee didn't come because our car is too small for all of us with their luggage. After hugs all around at the airport, I headed home, again hitting no traffic. 

There was a package for me -- my new Huawei Mediapad M2 8" tablet -- but no time to play with my toy, other than to plug it in and charge it. It got decent reviews and was available for a great price on Amazon: about 130€ for the LTE version, compared to about 300€ for the WiFi version. So I jumped at it, and hopefully I will like it. The cover for it that I ordered had already arrived. This is his Fathers Day gift from me, even if he does know the price. It was very convenient for him to need new tech near Fathers Day.

After being home less than an hour, I headed out on foot for the subway to go downtown to catch my train to Naples. Everything went very smoothly, arriving in Naples in plenty of time. The train ride down is only 70 minutes. The weather was gorgeous, warm but not very hot or humid. I checked out the taxi line outside the Naples train station in case Dee needs it next week. It looked to be only about 10-15 minutes, so that might work. The problem is that the train itself is so long, and it would take her over 10 minutes just to walk off the train platform. Fortunately, her speed and stamina on crutches are improving quickly, and maybe she won't even need crutches soon.

My institute lesson was on Luke chapters 6-9. There were three students, all Nigerian, including ex-Anziano Adepoju from our mission. He first name is Bolaji and he is living in Pompeii, working at a hotel there. It was good to see him. The other two were Sunday (last week I thought he was saying "Sonde", so the African accent and cadence in English is still tough for me) and Peter. These guys all know and love the Bible, and we had some really good discussions about the stories and miracles in those chapters.

Bolaji, Sunday, and Peter

At one point, where Jesus said "Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you", Bolaji shared a parable his mother used to tell him. The other two agreed that it was a well-known wisdom story from Nigeria. It goes as follows:

If two brothers go into a room and talk about life and both come out laughing, there isn't truth in it. But if two brothers go into a room and come out with serious faces, hating each other, definitely there is truth in there.

I really enjoyed teaching and learning from these guys. We were talking about Jesus hanging with poor people, which often at home is rather an abstract concept, but here these guys are poor, so it is a different discussion. Peter and Sunday are looking for work, but it is extra difficult for immigrants who do not speak Italian.

After the lesson, I walked the seven blocks back to the train station and got a bite to eat while waiting about an hour for my train. It departed on time and hit almost 300km/hour (180 mph) for much of the trip back. I then went to the subway and took it up to Jonio, then walked the 15 minutes home. I stopped at the Conad market on the way to get some fresh produce and arrived at home about 7pm. It had been a long day with lots of walking, and I was hot and exhausted. I went out for a walk around our piazza and surprised him. It's so nice to be moving at least a little. It felt good to get out of missionary clothes and relax for a while.

We spoke on the phone with our daughter Chiara, who is planning to visit us over Christmas, discussing the timing for her trip. She wants us to go to Florence, Pisa, and maybe Venice with her. We will have to get permission from the mission president to leave our mission boundaries for a few days, but hopefully that will work because the Institute will be closed. Later we spoke via WhatsApp video with Wes and Alyssa about their trip coming up shortly. Alyssa will try to get us some contact info for her grandfather's relatives so that we could visit them next month. If their trips are as fun as Marilyn and Lu's, then we will be very blessed.

My big thing of the day was walking to the Chinese store with my crutches for the first time. I left Gino at home and just walked. I was very careful on the uneven blacktop and steep ramps, and did fine. My foot didn't hurt afterward, either! I also did a ton of laundry, which is still a thrill in the new machine. A load done in an hour! Huzzah! Then I started to work on my Primary singing time. After a bunch of quick messages back and forth, I decided to review eight songs they know well. I wanted to make a game, so I printed out some clipart (kitten, dog, star, race car, soccer ball, etc.) and put the name of a song on the back of each one. I'll stick them to the wall and let them choose. This is a simple thing we do all the time in California, but it will be new to these children.

In the morning, I went to our little farmers' market downstairs and got pizza bianca (pizza with only oil and salt) and some excellent cherries. The girls had it for breakfast and left with smiles and flour on their faces. The cherries are also a Fathers Day treat for Doug.

Marilyn is a wonder woman who travels light. Her suitcase only weighed 36 pounds, with 50 pounds allowed. So, she took some stuff home for me. She also left me her very nice footlet socks. I gave her some new ones I had, which are really good but too thick for my wide feet.

The Friendship Center for Refugees had their open house, but with Doug in Naples, I didn't go. I heard they had a great choir as well as drummers--I guess that means African drummers. Sounds like fun!

Good Samaritan

Friday morning we went to Metro for some bulk food purchases, because it was the only time in the next week or so we could easily figure out how to go there. Dee navigated the huge store (think Costco) on crutches, and afterward it took me three trips upstairs from the car to carry everything in at the Institute. They had almost everything in stock that we needed, except for sour cream, so we may need to run by again sometime.

During the afternoon I finished preparing for both my Luke lessons. Dee spent the whole time preparing a marvelous dinner, with her ham and chicken pasta casserole with ranch and cheddar. In addition, she made a carrot cake. I forgot to bring the cream cheese, but they liked it just fine without frosting.  The pasta dish was particularly great this time, kinda crunchy on top, and everyone raved about it. I was able to streamline the prep, which made cleanup easier as well. Elder Papritz doesn't eat dairy, and he was delighted to have a chicken salad sandwich in a tortilla, toasted in our panino press. He is easy to please. 

Elder Wijesundera's birthday is coming, so I asked him if he had a request. It was....salad! So, we'll have salad next Friday.

I had ordered a new small/tall table from Amazon to use for teaching. In the US, the ward buildings have a nice rolling tall table that I like to use to hold my notes when I teach. Here we only had a big folding table, which was both too large for the classroom and too short for me. So we found this nice table online, not very expensive, 43" tall (at first it seemed too tall, but it worked great), and doesn't take up too much room in the class. The night before, we got a great parking spot right in front of Paolo's office, so when he messaged me that the package was here, I just carried it about 30 feet and put it in the trunk. Very nice! The table went together easily enough, and it is a winner for me.

The girls returned from France, taking the train in from the airport and then doing some shopping in the neighborhood before returning to the Institute. They had a great time in Paris. They decided to do one last bit of sightseeing in the afternoon: visiting the Church of the Bones in Rome. It is a weird thing, but strangely compelling: a nearby monastery for centuries took the bones from skeletons of deceased monks and decorated a bunch of rooms with them. There is a room for skulls, a room for femurs, a room for shoulder blades, etc. It is only one subway stop away from the Institute, so I ran them over and dropped them off. Later they came back, printed out boarding passes, then headed to our apartment on the subway to start packing to fly back home on Saturday.

My lesson on Luke 10-11 went really well. We had four English-only speakers, including Christina and Noelle, so the two Ganziani translated for them in pairs. Everyone ended up participating in a good discussion, in whatever language, mostly about the parable of the Good Samaritan, finding different ways of applying the parable to us. At times in our lives, each of us can be found in various roles in the parable. I shared one interpretation used by the early church fathers, which interested them quite a bit. It was fun to have the interplay of languages going back and forth, and there was a wonderful spirit there. Next week I get to do that lesson in English in Naples.

Ready to go into the ovven

 

 

 

 

We got home earlier than usual on Friday, mostly because we had each done a bunch of dishes ahead of time. I can do dishes now that I can stand up more. The Sorelle came home in our car. We enjoyed some good visiting with Marilyn and Lu while they packed. Everyone agreed that their visit had been a smashing success, and we will miss them.

Noelle asked us what to do with the beggars. There are so many here in Rome. She didn't want to turn her back on them, but was overwhelmed by their numbers. Doug said he gives them his loose change, and reminded her that she is also helping the needy with her fast offerings.

Martine came early and we got to talk. She is trying to hard to get a job and was discouraged. She has no family support, and really needs to find a job soon. Life is tough for so many of our young people.

My foot is doing well, and I can walk with a more normal gait with the crutches. I'm getting faster and Doug is so happy about it.

It was so much fun to visit with Marilyn and Lu. They are amazing guests. They did dishes, brought us goodies from America and bought gifts for us here. They never ceased to tell us that they were having a good time. They also brought me some earrings from Paris, which I like very much.