Farewell dinner

In the middle of the night, I woke up, unable to get back to sleep for a couple of hours. During that time, I sent emails to Jeremiah, the guy in Utah who is working on the proposal for our new Institute campus, clarifying some questions he had. It also occurred to me that we had received some documents from the owner months before, with a layout and dimensions, so I found them in my email and forwarded them to Jeremiah, translating some of the key parts of the documents for him.

Finally I got back to sleep, so when I woke up Monday morning I was feeling better than I deserved to. It would be our first day in the mission office, and we headed out about 10:30am. Right before that, I walked to the Chinese store to buy the shower rods and curtains to construct another of my (now mission-famous) shower surrounds in a new apartment nearby here on Tuesday. The first one, in Rome 1, is still holding up great after six months.

When we got to the office, which is only about 10 minutes from our apartment, it was happily chaotic. Eleven missionaries are heading home this week after completing their mission, and this P-day is when they show up in Rome to finish paperwork and have a final dinner at the mission home before flying out on Tuesday morning. So there were a bunch of long-time missionaries around, doing paperwork and enjoying being together. They would head out together for a final day of sightseeing around Rome; their group started two years ago in the Provo MTC, so they are good friends. I was able to help Anziano Wright, our first district leader here in Rome 3, convert a video he had made from .mov format to . mp4 so he could post it on Facebook before going home.

It turned out that somebody in the church travel department had booked some of them on Alitalia flights to the US, codeshared with Delta, probably to save a few dollars on airfare. Unfortunately, Alitalia has an 8kg (18 pound) limit on carry-on luggage, with a several hundred dollar penalty for going overweight! The problem is that these missionaries have two years' worth of stuff, so they would all have been overweight, which would have been very expensive, offsetting any small airfare savings. Fortunately the church has a 24-hour emergency travel department phone number, so Sorella Knies got busy and had them re-book everyone in such a way as to not incur those overages. Dee got to print everyone's boarding pass, which meant that she had to log onto Delta and enter all the passport details, so that took a while.

Meanwhile, there were several tech issues that I helped out with. In addition, the electrical system in the office can barely handle the AC units they have, so it kept tripping off. Apparently they are used to it, so they all know where the circuit breaker is. However, the power to the entire office then went out, which was not a circuit breaker issue, as it came back on after a few minutes. The computers that were all running Outlook had a problem reconnecting, which required calling global tech support. I recommended that they buy UPS (uninterruptible power supplies, basically a big battery) for each computer to give them a chance to do an ordered shutdown when a power outage occurs.

In the afternoon, I went home to meet with Claudio to build his new computer. They don't have AC at home, and this was closer for both of us. Unfortunately, his CPU cooler part didn't arrive from Amazon until after 3pm, which was too late for me. We needed to get to the mission home by 4:30pm to help prepare for the big evening dinner, which starts at 5pm (very early by Italian standards) because of everything going on in the evening. It turns out that the cooler that Claudio bought was not compatible with his CPU. He had showed me one, which I said was good, but then he bought another one at the last minute. So it's a good thing it didn't arrive, or we would have wasted a bunch of time. He ordered a different model, which hopefully will arrive Tuesday.

The dinner for departing missionaries was nice. We got to see a bunch of them whom we have come to know and admire, including several who are not departing but came to say goodbye: our two Roma 3 Sorelle, Nelson and Harmon were among those. Sorella Nelson has been with us for six months and thus will likely be transferred.

Whitings with Sorelle Nelson and Harmon

We were the kitchen help, along with the Balzottis and the APs (Assistants to the President, two young missionaries who work closely with the President). The APs did all the serving, with the two senior couples in the kitchen filling the plates and doing the dishes. They had salad, bread, lasagna (from Metro), and gelato with cookies. Metro's strawberry gelato is so good! It was fun to be a part of the festivities. Here is a photo of the kitchen at the mission home, where they even have a dishwasher, almost unknown in Italy.

After dinner, we got to listen in from just outside the living room at the mission home, where the President and his wife and the eleven missionaries had a wonderful testimony meeting. The transition in coming home from a mission can be very difficult, going from a highly disciplined, busy life to having complete freedom with no assignments. The President gave them good counsel, including finding something to keep themselves busy right away. It was a very enjoyable event, which we normally never get to attend because we are stationed at the Institute. 

After the testimonies, the departing missionaries headed out to the temple site to get a final group photo. They also took a photo on the steps, and recreated their arrangement from their arrival picture, which was clever. We finished cleaning up the kitchen and then headed home. At that point the President and the APs sprang into action, calling all the Zone Leaders throughout the mission to let them know what the transfers would be for this week. The ZLs would then spread the word to the district leaders. Everyone learns about their new assignments on Monday night, and then they all transfer on Thursday. It is an emotional and exciting time for them, as they love the people they have worked with but they get to go see and love someplace new. Tuesday morning the mission vans head to the airport to drop off the departing missionaries and pick up a newly-arrived group from the US, who get two days of training before leaving on Thursday for their new cities.

Our Ganziano Papritz, whom we all expected to get transferred after the typical tenure of two transfers at the Institute, will stay another transfer! He is a wonderful, very hard-working missionary, so we are delighted. His companion, Ganziano Lewis, is also terrific, and is staying! Our daughter had asked about the unit of time "the transfer", which is how everything is measured on a mission. There is a new transfer every six weeks, so missionaries talk about how long they have been out in transfers, not in months. When we do our chair stacking event at district meeting (like last Thursday), the number we hold up is not the number of times we have been transferred, but how long we have been our our missions in transfer units.

I took my other African takeout meal to the mission office for lunch. It was called Egusi soup and is NOT a favorite. I will never eat it again. The taste and smell did not sit well with me. But the "swallow", which is a big ball of cooked flour, was good...

In a rare quiet moment, Anziano Balzotti asked me to help him find his Italian records on FamilySearch. When I showed him, he started writing notes so he would be able to replicate it. Instead, I began making him a document with screenshots and arrows. I'm a big fan of Snagit and highly recommend it. Anyway, he was surprised at what I was doing, and happy to have the document.

For some reason, I'm having trouble with my allergies. I think I may be allergic to peaches, which I have been eating a couple of times a day. That's sad.

Breaking mission rules

It was fast Sunday, and I really hadn't had much to eat on Saturday except an apple for lunch and a sandwich at the train station for dinner. Surprisingly for me, I felt pretty good, though by the end of church I was feeling weak. It was good to get home and have something to eat, but I wasn't completely wiped out as often happens to me. Ugo's parents, Raffa and Alberto, came to church after having spent the week here tending their five grandchildren, plus two other grandkids from their children up north. One of the grandsons, Ivan, has bright red hair, like his grandpa Alberto. Others are blond, and several have dark hair and complexion. There is some interesting DNA going on in that family! It was great to see them, and I probably broke mission rules by giving Raffa a big hug. After knowing them over 40 years, I think that was fine. I gave them both a big hug, too. 😉😀

On the way to church, we got a call from Anziano Jensen. We offered to pick them up at the subway stop and drive them the final mile or so to church, which they were happy to do. Parked there waiting for them, we laughed at the arrows painted on the street at the entrance to the parking lot: both sides had arrows coming in, but no arrow going out. Actually there was a very faint one, but for a minute it appeared to be a dead-end parking lot!

Dee and I each taught a Sunday School class. Hers was on the son of Solomon and leadership. It was okay, but I should have planned better questions. The fun part was teaching them tricks for remembering which Article of Faith is which. They loved it. We sat in a semicircle, which was new to them. We had a fun visiting couple who participated a lot, too. It was wonderful what she did for me, and she really enjoyed preparing the lesson. Mine was on practical preparation for your first trip to the temple, and I got a lot of good comments and thoughts. I shared the story of 1977, when I took a young couple from my branch, the Giustos, to the Swiss temple at the end of my mission to be sealed. I was their branch president in Pavia, and it took some doing to get them there, because they didn't have a lot of funds. Anyway, it was a wonderful experience which helped them launch a lifetime of service in the church and some wonderful children. It was also one of the highlights of my mission. Angela actually gave me a kiss in the sealing room of the temple as I was leaving for the airport. As you can tell, sometimes the letter of the law takes a back seat to the spirit of the law!

The GANS who was supposed to bring a used replacement phone for Chris couldn't make it to church. I will try to arrange a time this week to get the phone from him and give it to Chris. I also spoke with Bishop Magnanti about the upcoming temple bus trip. Having never done this before, there are a lot of logistical questions, some of which we got answered. For example, the patron housing at the temple provides bedding but not towels. So we will be taking big suitcases, not our carry-ons.

On our way home from church, we gave Sorelle Nelson and Harmon a ride home, giving them their new Ikea ironing board cover as well. After getting home and eating, I spent the afternoon working on a CAD drawing (using Visio) of the layout of the new potential Institute apartment. It was sorta to scale, and hopefully good enough. I sent it off to the S&I planning folks in Utah, along with a link to the video I took of the walk through. Dee made a peach dessert for our evening get together at the Balzottis with the Knieses. When she turned on the oven, we had to turn off the AC for a while, which got rather uncomfortable, but a fan helped. It was only off for 15 minutes!

At 7pm, we walked over to the Balzottis for a couple of hours of visiting and dessert. A nice article on them recently appeared in the church news; you can read it here. It was a lot of fun to visit with them and the Knieses, as always. They filled us in on some of the things we would be doing this week while helping out in the mission office. We got home by 9pm, which is early for us. It was a nice day, and we are looking forward to a different kind of week.

Our ward is very international. For example, in Relief Society this week, there were16 women--and only one was Italian. There were women from Central and South America, Africa, the Philippines and the USA.

The Canfields, serving with LDS Charities, have started to attend our ward. Sister Canfield doesn't ask for translation. The two of them are doing amazing things for and with the refugees.

We said goodbye to our district leader, Anziano Jensen. He has done a great job with the training part of our district meetings. He's a very interesting guy who knows how to use a sword and rode a unicycle at home, too.

I experimented with my regular shoes and no compression hose for the hours of Church. By the time I got home, my foot was a little swollen, so I put the hose on, but it wasn't too bad. Progress!

 I had a nice talk with Wendy. She is finishing another double-load semester! Last week, she taught me about Illustrator with Teamviewer. She's so good with the graphics programs! The funny thing is that Teamviewer is starting to warn me, thinking I'm a business user. 

Cheap tape measure

Saturday was a very humid day, hot but even more sticky. It actually rained a little in the afternoon, both in Rome and Napoli, but only enough to increase the humidity, not to lower the temperature. In the morning I walked down to Conad and the Chinese store to buy a few items for us, mostly produce. I also bought an inexpensive 10m tape measure to use that evening in mapping out the rooms in the potential new Institute location. 

About 10:45am we drove downtown to the Institute, arriving in plenty of time for our noon train to Napoli. After doing a couple of  quick things at the Institute, instead of walking right over to the station, we opted to wait in the air-conditioned Institute entryway, which was nice. Our train ran only a few minutes late, and we made it to the Napoli chapel about 20 minutes before class was to start. Along the way, we got stopped on the street by a friendly guy named Mario, who knew the Hydes and other missionaries. He spoke with us in English and knew things about the church; apparently he has been a regular at the English lessons there for some time. I asked if he was a member. When he hesitated, I asked if he was a friend to the Church. He liked the appellation. We had to cut the conversation a little short to get to class on time, as we needed time to set up and, more importantly, cool the room down. I had brought down a new ATM card from the US for Anziano Lambert, who dropped by to get it right as class was starting.

The lesson on Luke 24 went really well. There were only four students this time. We basically read almost the entire chapter, stopping every verse or two for me to make observations and invite comments. Everyone was really engaged! One thing I stressed is that Christ appeared first to women, but the men didn't believe them, because they were women. We talked a while about how many times Christ taught and healed women, including those who were not well regarded in their society, and that perhaps part of the message here was to humble the apostles and teach them to treat women better. I asked how women were treated in Nigeria, and they admitted that women were not treated as equals at all, compared to Italy where they thought with distaste that women had control over the men. It was a very interesting cultural exchange. Anyway, they liked my insights and comments, alternating between laughter and deep thought.  We sang "Abide With Me, 'Tis Eventide" and "Thy Spirit Lord Has Stirred Our Souls", which are both based in part on Luke 24. The latter hymn is not available in the Italian hymnal at all, so that was a benefit of having this particular class in English. They were quite hopeful to know who would be their Institute teacher in the fall, but unfortunately we don't know yet. For a few minutes they spoke among themselves in Nigerian English (or so we believe), but we two understood basically nothing!

Class went a little short, which was nice in that we had time to go to the Nigerian (hole-in-the-wall) restaurant again. It didn't take much convincing -- they were delighted! We treated them to dinner, and Dee got two meals to go to enjoy for a few days at home, since our train was leaving in not too long. Actually, there was probably time for us to eat there, but we were starting our fast and I didn't want to do that with spicy food, so takeout was an easy way for me to finesse the issue. The two ladies who run the restaurant remembered me and this time, they had business cards. They gave me two. I ordered the stew with rice, beans and fried plantains, like I had last week and also something called Egusi melon soup with semola. This soup is made with dried, ground melon seeds to thicken it and give it protein and fat. It has habanero peppers and other spices. It is served with a big ball of cooked semola flour, bigger than a softball. You pinch off a piece of the semola and use it to scoop up the thick soup. I want to make these things in the future, or at least find an African restaurant at home. I also want to work with the refugees in California. At the train station we bought a fruit cup for Dee, plus a sandwich and Fanta orange soda for me, which we ate there. At one point, a security guard of sorts came by to tell Dee rather huffily that she was not allowed to eat food she brought in (i.e., Nigerian, which she was enjoying). So she put that away and ate her fruit cup. 

Our train got back only about ten minutes late. We walked through the rain-enhanced humidity back to the Institute. Armed with our new tape measure and a piece of paper on which to draw the floor plan, we headed down to the cafe to see Signora Chirra. She wasn't there, but her husband called her, and she told him to give us the keys. So we took them and headed up one floor to go measure things. There were four keys and two locks, so it took us a while to figure out how to get in. Fortunately the power was on in the apartment, giving us enough light to work almost everywhere, although our phone flashlights came in handy in a few places. There was no AC, so it was hot, humid, and very stuffy. It took us over half an hour to map everything out, not terribly precisely but good enough for our purposes (we hope). The cheap tape measure broke near the end of our efforts, literally with a chunk of the metal tape splitting off. Dee wasn't hurt, but could have been. The moral is to buy a better quality tape measure, but fortunately this one got us through. Afterwards we just threw it away. I also walked around the whole place and took video, which might help give some of the church facilities folks an idea of what things look like. We were done there by a little after 7pm, dropping off the key and bringing home some food from the Institute fridge. It had already been a hot and really sweaty day, but we were excited to do something that might help us get the new location.

We arrived home about 8pm. It was stunning to round the corner and see a very long row of open parking spaces. That never happens, but then this is Italy in August. It is a good thing we didn't arrive here in August last year, or we would have thought that this was the normal situation. It will be painful in September to have to start driving around the block several times again, hoping for someone to leave to open up a parking spot.

After just a few minutes at home, I walked over to the Knies apartment across the piazza with two WiFi routers in tow. Their WiFi had worked ok for a couple of days, but it was on the fritz again. I installed the cheaper of the two routers, "in front" of their existing modem/router, and it seemed to work for them. I told them to try it for a few days and see what happens.  If it works, they will reimburse me the 40€ I paid for the router. If not, I will keep the router as an extra, and they will then have to go to the Apple store to get some WiFi technical support. None of the articles I read online about Mac laptop WiFi problems seemed to match the symptoms here, so they would need some more competent help. It is unfortunate that the problem is intermittent, because by Murphy's law it will work fine if/when they go to the store.

Soon after I got back home, I took a brief shower just to wash off all the sweat, which felt really good. Dee was exhausted, having worn regular shoes almost the whole day with lots of walking, leaving her feet tired and with a possible blister. We each spent some time working on our Sunday School lessons for the next day, and then we were out cold not long after 10pm, which is early for us these days.

Since it's so hot, we like to use both air conditioners, but we can't do that if the washing machine is on, or the hair dryer, microwave or oven. So, we have to juggle everything. If we lived here permanently, we'd see if we could get a bigger electrical service, but for now, this is the way it is. And I'm really enjoying have my desk in the air-conditioned back bedroom. Every time I walk into the coolness, I automatically give out a happy "Aaah."

Last lesson and supper of August

Friday morning was mostly at home. When I took the trash out, our neighbor across the hall was going down on the elevator at the same time. We chatted about how hot it was, and she said they were really suffering, particularly in the morning when the sun beats on their main outside wall (our apartment is on the other side and gets more afternoon sun). I asked if they had AC, and she said no. She then asked if we had it, and I said "yes, in two rooms, which is where we live now most of the time". She chuckled and said that they, as Italians (and especially her husband), don't think it is good for your health, especially your sinuses, throat, and neck. I said, "we Americans may die first, but we will die happy", which really made her laugh. Then she kinda whispered to me that "my daughter and I will ultimately win my husband over to air conditioning."

In the morning I finished my lesson prep on Luke 24, which was good because Claudio and I had planned for him to come to the Institute in the afternoon and assemble his new high-end desktop. I helped him with the parts selection, which was fun. Anyway, I assumed I would have little time for my lesson during the afternoon. Turns out that the final piece wasn't delivered on time by Amazon, so we had to postpone. 

Dee had a dentist appointment at 12:30, and we left early so that I could drop her off. She could have taken the bus, but with this heat and many buses without AC, I wasn't going to let that happen. It turns out that, after sitting in the dentist office waiting room for 30 minutes, the dental assistant came out to say that since it was their last day before the August holiday,they would like me to reschedule. Then she looked at my teeth and said, "oh, you take good care of them, we can definitely wait until September." The dentist was there when I arrived, but left without even talking to me.

Meanwhile, I drove on my own to the Ganziani apartment, which is near the Institute. Google Maps took me on a strange route from the dentist that had me crossing two bridges across the Tiber, over and back. I went there to drop off two of our wooden chairs, which we rarely use, because they only have two kitchen chairs for the four of them. We will probably buy replacement ones for us at some point, because they are useful sometimes. While there, I did our first apartment inspection. It is a nice place, new to the missionaries, so it was in great shape.  I then drove to the Institute, arriving right at about at our normal opening time,1pm. 

Josh and Ivan, two of my Seminary students, dropped by to cool off for a while, and we had a nice visit. The Ganziani also came by with an investigator, Jude, for a missionary lesson. Our location is so wonderful, with WiFi, AC, and food sealing the deal. On the way back from the dentist (on the bus and Metro), Dee ran into Signora Chirra, the owner of the big apartment one floor down from us that we had hoped to rent. She told Dee that the other offer she has on the table was kinda on hold until September, because Italy is on vacation for August. She made the same offer to Dee, so we immediately talked to Ugo. He was in Paris all week for a meeting with other Institute folks, including the heads from the US. Ugo called them and seemed to finally get the ball rolling there. They are now asking for dimensions to make an estimate of the build-out and maintenance costs, so that they can make an offer. This might work! We would appreciate your prayers. The new facility would be so great for the young people.

In the afternoon, I spent some time on the phone with Vodafone, cancelling some new feature they had enabled on my phone which costs money and drove my balance negative. No matter how many times we tell them not to do that, a few weeks later it happens again. Dee spent all afternoon cutting up chicken and preparing for the curry chicken over coconut rice dinner.  You can see the twenty boxes of coconut milk on the counter.

 

My lesson, on Luke 24, went really well. I particularly love the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and how they figured out that they should have recognized Christ by the spirit they felt, not by his face or voice or mannerisms. It is a good illustration that spiritual things can be more real and more convincing than physical things. I also emphasized how everyone tried to ignore the women's testimony, because of the culture, but that Christ repeatedly dealt with women in an ennobling way. There was a lot of participation, with good comments and laughter. The classroom was so full they had to put up some extra chairs! At the end of the lesson, I had Anziano Papritz bear a brief testimony. He will almost certainly be transferred next week (the Ganziani almost always have only two transfers at the Institute), and he has been wonderful.

Dee's dinner was really popular. It got completely finished in short  order, partly because there were so many kids, but also because they liked it so much. Anziano Papritz couldn't stop smiling. It was his mom's recipe and his favorite. A few people took pictures of the written recipe, too. I am totally going to make Papritz chicken with coconut rice again! Dario cooked the last batch, because he wanted to learn how. He is very good in the kitchen. He and Grace got engaged last month and hope to be one of the first couples to be married in the new Rome Temple in March. The place was full, with about 24 kids signed in, of whom at least 7 were nonmembers. Several were kids we had not seen before or for a while. We left late after my marvelous Dee did all the cleanup (I was tired after not much sleep the night before), and the party was still going on. Ivan especially said he would miss us, and Franz asked if he could give me a hug because he liked the dinner so much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm trying to get some nicer-looking shoes that I can put my new orthotics in. There's a comfort shoe store near our house and I thought I might try to zip over there before we go to Naples tomorrow. So, I phoned them to verify their hours. They assured me they would be CLOSED on Saturday and that on Tuesday they'll decide whether they're going to be closed all of August. So, I found a pair on Amazon that I hope will work.

I usually take a tram and then the Metro from the dentist. But someone told me that the tram is broken for several weeks. I'm sure glad he stopped to tell me. They have instead added a bus with the same number as the tram. The bus ends near the Piazza del Popolo, which I just love, so I took a few minutes to stand there and enjoy its beauty. I think this monument says something like "happy is he who enters here".

Margie is about to write her Master's thesis. I asked her if I could help type or something, and she lit up. I'm so happy I asked! I think she wants editing, because she is not a native English speaker.

Mexican dinner

Thursday was a nonstop day. It started early with a fun District meeting, the last for Anziano Jensen, who finishes his mission next week. Our ZLs were also there, on exchanges with our Anziani, making it more lively. Dee and I were asked to do some brief tech training, focusing on backup of photos and emails. I was able to make a copy of the SD card from Anziano Jensen's tablet on to my laptop, with all his photos and videos. I will copy everything onto a flash drive to give him as a going-away present Sunday. Anziano Jensen gave some great motivational training. He read us a great story that you can find here. He will be missed. At the end of the meeting, we did the traditional chair stacking event, with each missionary on a stack with one chair per transfer completed, holding the number in our hands. It is very precarious for the elders who have been out the longest! So far, I just take the picture, but someday I want to be on the stack, too.

Here is a video of the "dismount". No one was harmed during the event, fortunately!

On our way to the Institute, we stopped at Lidl for a few last items to prepare for the big Mexican feast that evening. Unfortunately, they were out of the essential tortilla chips, so we found yet another Lidl on the way into town, where Dee bought ten bags! All the driving to new locations during rather heavy traffic can be stressful, but Dee is a lot of help as my co-pilot. I never knit while he drives anymore. It takes two sets of eyes to survive here.

During the drive to the Institute, we got a call from Noelle. She and Ashley were supposed to have been on vacation with the families they work for here, never to be seen again at the Institute. Fortunately for us, the plans of their families changed and they were in town again for a few days. They needed to print some stuff out and asked if they could come by the campus. Of course we said yes! Also, Chris, our newly baptized Nigerian immigrant, called to ask if he could come by to use the computer. His cell connection was horrible, and it would turn out that he had partially broken his cell phone. Phones are a lifeline for almost everyone these days, but especially for poor refugees, so we felt bad for him. Anyway, we had thought we would have some down time in the afternoon to prepare (lessons, meals), but not so much. It was a happy problem. Dee made sandwiches for all three of them, and we enjoyed visiting. 

Ashley and Noelle were working on travel plans, in particular how to get to the airport for their flights home in a couple of weeks. They leave the same day, after some traveling throughout Europe. The problem is that they each have an early flight, making it impossible to get there on public transit in time. I suggested that they get a hotel near the airport with a shuttle, which they liked.  They are trying to do this without spending much, but sharing the cost made it reasonable. Ashley also let her monthly cell phone bill here lapse, so she was about to go to Switzerland, Germany, and Spain without any connectivity outside of WiFi. I explained that, if she paid for one more month (20€), she would have data everywhere but Switzerland, which is not an EU member and thus not covered by the new cell plan roaming laws. She really liked that, as it was stressful for her to think of being abroad without connectivity. So the three of us walked over to the TIM store at the train station, asked some questions to verify my assertions, and then she forked over the money. I also put some money onto Dee's new account while I was there. We then hit a couple of supermarkets, looking for the final pieces of the food puzzle for the evening, finding everything but cilantro, which is not well known here. Fortunately it would turn out that Dee already had enough of that.

 It was fun spending time with these two very nice girls. At one point, after Dee and I had talked for a minute, with me calling her "sweetie", Ashley commented that she hoped to have a relationship like ours with her (future, TBD) husband. I took it as a compliment, but I did take the chance to explain that we do not always see eye to eye, and that it takes years to build a really good relationship, so to not give up when there are bumps in the road. Dee and I are getting along better and better the longer we are married, and I figure another 40 years should make us almost perfect together. 😉😀

By around 4pm, a number of kids showed up to help Chris (the Mexican Chris, not the Nigerian one) start cooking. There were people chopping and preparing for a quite a while, with Dee being an important support to the effort. We wouldn't eat until after 8pm (the event was announced as starting at 6pm -- Italian time!), so they worked for hours! Chris, Dee, and Margie in particular were indefatigable. 

Chris directing traffic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At one point, the power went out. Yikes! Because it had been flaky for the whole building earlier in the week, I assumed it was a large scale problem and just waited for it to come back on. Fortunately, from past experience, Jomar knew where our main circuit breaker was located downstairs in the courtyard, so he just ran down and flipped it on. Problem solved! It is good to know where the breaker is. We had had the oven, two burners, and several air conditioners running all at once, so that must have been the issue.

Our friend Pam also showed up during all this lovely chaos. Her MBA school is done for a while, and I had offered to help her do a backup of the laptop I had helped her configure months ago. We got the backup done and had the chance to chat for a while.

People kept arriving for the dinner, many after 7:30pm for a 6pm event. Everyone was getting really hungry by the time food was served. Amazingly, we got all the quantities almost exactly right, except for the black beans -- a lot of those left, but the Ganziani are willing to help us finish them off.

Playing games while waiting for dinner

Chris, Margie, and Dee never got flustered, juggling half a dozen balls all the time, but just kept working hard, with various folks stepping in to help all the time. Chris's last name is Campos, so we called the evening "Institute Campos" (instead of campus). He was born in Mexico and raised in San Francisco, speaking Italian now fairly well, so there were several languages flying around the kitchen. What a nice guy! He made chicken fajita quesadillas (fajitas in between two tortillas with cheese) as well as chilaquiles (kinda like lasagna, with chips instead of pasta). We also had horchata (watermelon juice), plus watermelon with lime and chili powder, guacamole, pico de gallo and salsa, all hand made. There was a ton of wonderful food. When everyone finally sat down and started eating, there was complete silence for several minutes, "a good sign" as one of the kids said. I took almost 100 photos during the day, so I can't include them all here, but here is a link to all of them.

Silence reigns

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a big group for this season, about seventeen kids, of whom at least six were non-members (including Chris and Margie). After dinner, kids stayed late to play games in the library, which was completely full!

Our trash cans were also full, so I carried a big bag downstairs to the bin, which we almost never have to do between visits from our cleaning service. With another large dinner coming Friday, it was necessary to make some space. These ethnic food nights are probably our most popular events. We got home after 10pm, tired but delighted with the activity. Dee's feet were hurting after too much standing up all day. I brought her Advil and ice for her feet, while she collapsed onto the bed. A while later she got up and dressed for bed. When she finally came to bed, exhausted, she told me "there is nothing you can do or say now that I will like!" We both laughed really hard, but I knew not to talk, and we both then went to sleep.

Dee's brilliant ideas

Wednesday we had a full morning at home for the first time in a while. It was heavenly to have some down time! Dee finally decided that she had had of enough the heat (high 90s) at her desk in the living room. We flipped one of the single beds upside down on  top of the other in the back bedroom to make room. She had the brilliant idea to extract the "extra" Ikea desk which I use as a return/printer stand in the living room, since my desk there is basically empty these days. It was easy to move it to the back room on our marble floors (carpet is much harder for moving furniture!), and now she has a small desk across the back bedroom from me, where it is cool. My computer table and the fridge got rearranged there so that I can lean down from my chair, open the fridge, and get myself a cold drink. Nice.

I configured the new TP-Link router (Archer C900) which I had just purchased for the Knieses. It is a very nice router, not the highest performance or best features, but quite awesome for almost all applications at the low price of 41€ here or $40 in the US. When I talked to them, their Macbook Airs seem to be connecting again, so I just redeployed this one as our "guest" router for the Sorelle below, which gets turned on via timer during P-day on Mondays. We have a smart switch on that router, which can be voice controlled from Alexa or Google Home. Before this, I had an old cheap router there, which is now a spare for me. If you know me, this is common practice: have an extra for inexpensive tech items. My wife puts up with me, because it tends to come in handy for her needs occasionally!

Before leaving home, I braved the heat and walked down to the Chinese store to buy a few things: distilled water, fluoride rinse, and dish soap. Just the five minutes down and back were enough to have me sweating pretty good. As I was about to enter the store, a woman about my age stopped me and asked if I was a Mormon. We started chatting in Italian, though she is originally from Peru and so there was some Spanish mixed in. Apparently she had met some of the young Anziani here some time ago and enjoyed visiting with them. She talked at me for several minutes (after I moved us into the shade), not really letting me get any words in edgewise. I thought that she was asking me how get in contact with the missionaries, because she couldn't find their phone number in her phone. However, when I asked her if she would like some nice young Sorelle to contact her, she said, "no, I'm good." Then we both went our own way. When I got back to the apartment building, the elevator was stuck on the third floor, where the door hadn't quite closed. So I got to climb three floors carrying a cart that was rather heavy.


We left early to do some shopping for two big meals, Thursday and Friday. First was a stop at a different Todis market, but they had no tortillas either. Then we went on to Metro, buying beef, chicken (boneless -- to save Dee time!), cheese, tortillas, and produce. We arrived late at the Institute, as planned; since there were no formal activities on the calendar at all, we expected a light day. Dee spent the afternoon cooking, preparing things for Thursday's Mexican dinner. I did some lesson prep. Four Anziani came around on exchanges, so we got to visit with them a bit. 

Samuel came back to work on his Pathway application again. This time I knew what to do to get him started, thanks to Ugo. First he was hungry and had two chicken sandwiches prepared by Dee. Then he spent several hours writing things. He is obviously not accustomed to working on a computer, so it was very slow going. Unfortunately, the website apparently timed out on him on one page where had to write a bit, and everything got lost. Very frustrating! I did a chat with their support folks, but they couldn't help. So he will have to start over. Sigh.

Two kids showed up in the evening, thinking it was the Mexican dinner night. Usually we have had the very popular ethnic food evenings on Wednesday, but we had carefully announced this one was on Thursday because Chris couldn't do it Wednesday. Oh well. We had only three kids show up briefly all day, which was about all we had expected. There was one very brief power outage flicker, so the grid seems to be struggling with the load from heat and AC.

We had to stay later than expected because the black beans Dee was cooking took longer than anticipated and had to cool down enough to go into the fridge. We have a system now where we put the warm pot in a bowl of cold water and add ice, helping to drain the heat, but it still takes a while.

 

FamilySearch has tentatively approved our application to put an official family history library site at the Institute. This will be nice because many of the Italian records our church has are only available within an official library, due to license terms under which the church obtained the records. So Dee cannot help many of the kids without going to a FH library, which have limited hours that don't really work with our assignment. FamilySearch will require us to have a dedicated computer with special management software, which is not something I particularly want to have installed on our main shared desktop there. I had started looking at cheap PCs, but on the way home in the car Dee happened to ask whether it could be done with a virtual machine (VM). Duh -- she is a genius! I have taught her a little bit about VMs, and she thought to ask before it occurred to me. I love being married to a brilliant technopile. She said that my jaw dropped when she first mentioned the idea.

When we got home, Dee spoke with her cousin Lynn, who is doing great things with Dee's parents, coming by three days a week. This is truly the answer to our prayers, at least so far, and Lynn is very ingenious at getting things done there. That was another one of Dee's brilliant ideas.

Power outage threatens Taco Tuesday

Tuesday morning we left home early to go to Auchan, buying ingredients for upcoming dinners, plus some things for us and a few of the apartments that we inspect, such as a kitchen trash can for the Ganziani apartment. I had woken up in the middle of the night and not been able to get back to sleep, so I was pretty tired. We drove straight from the mall to Institute, arriving plenty early to prepare for Taco Tuesday. Veronica, newly returned from serving a mission in England, showed up early as well and offered to help, so we put her to work grating cheddar cheese. 

Things were looking good until the power went out to the whole building. It wasn't clear how widespread the outage is (the Italian word for blackout apparently is blackout), but it went off and on three times over the next half hour. We realized that, without our electric cooktop (where I was cooking the taco meat and Dee was making Spanish rice), Taco Tuesday was not going to happen, not to mention the fact that it would get hot inside very fast without AC. Finally the power came back on for good, and we were able to finish preparations just about on time. The group was slightly smaller than average with August approaching, but we had fun and good food. 

 

After the meal, I helped Almendra fix her LDS login so that she could sign up for  the Pathway online college program. Somehow her account had been locked, and the recovery phone number was for her phone in Peru that got stolen before she moved here. We just called the toll-free US support number, and the support agent spoke decent English, but Spanish was his native tongue, so he and Almendra were off and running in Spanish. Sammy was there translating between me and her, since her Italian and English are still pretty weak. Fortunately, within just a few minutes and several different languages, the agent was able to unlock her account and she logged on successfully.

I tried online again to put money onto Dee's phone SIM card, but no luck. I guess I will to go into the store.

Even though the group wasn't all that large, most of the kids hung around all afternoon, so it was full of energy around here. 

Clockwise from left front: Sheyla, Sammy, Veronica, Chris

Chris came a bit late to Taco Tuesday. We always enjoy visiting with him. He is a non-member, born in Mexico but raised in San Francisco, living in Rome teaching English and playing guitar in a Mariachi band on nights and weekends (for fun and some money). He has become good friends with several of the kids here and seems to feel very comfortable with the group. We asked him a couple of weeks ago if he would be willing to put on a Mexican food night here, and he was very happy to do it. The event will be this Thursday evening, and the ethnic food nights have been among our most popular events.  He and Dee spent a good while going over the menu for Thursday, making a list of ingredients for Dee to buy in preparation. We announced it via WhatsApp and quickly got three of the kids to volunteer to come early and help chop and prepare the food.

Chris finally told us the funny details of a story we had heard vaguely about from over the weekend. He, along with four other kids from here, went down to Napoli and the Amalfi coast for the weekend. Noelle wanted to climb Mt. Vesuvius, so she put the whole thing together. They did it on a shoestring, renting a car for under 40€ and sleeping at a hostel. Anyway, they got there too late to climb Vesuvius but really enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Napoli, Sorrento, Positano, and Amalfi. The story is that, when they went to rent the car, the agency asked if they had insurance, and the answer was no. Their first inclination was to take the risk and not pay for it. However, when the agent heard that they were going to Napoli, he insisted that they take the insurance! Wise move, but not for what you expect. The car was a manual transmission, and Chris was the only one with a license who knew how to drive a stick shift. That was all good, as he likes to drive. As he was finishing the paperwork, Noelle and Ashley got into the car. Because it was so hot, they wanted to turn the engine on and get the AC going, so they just turned the key, not realizing that, with a manual transmission, you have to put it into neutral first. The car jumped ahead a couple of feet and the door got messed up, right as Chris was coming out of the rental office. So they hadn't gone ten feet before needing the insurance package!

After cleaning up the lunch, Dee went out again for some shoe shopping at nearby stores, with no real success. She has been wearing running shoes for the last few weeks, which are not exactly missionary standard, but it has been wonderful as her foot heals and strengthens. Now she hopes to get something that can accommodate her orthotics and look more dressy. No luck yet.

While she was out, I contacted Ugo's parents, Alberto and Raffaela, who are here staying with the five grandkids while Ugo and Jenna are in Paris for an annual Institute director conference. We had hoped to go see them Wednesday before opening the Institute. The time we had in mind didn't work, because they have no AC at their place and so planned to take the kids to the neighborhood pool to cool off. While we really wanted to see them, this opened up a morning at home for us, so we were happy. They will be at church on Sunday, and we will get to see them then.

In the late afternoon, Samuel came by. He is a Nigerian immigrant who joined the church a few years ago here and comes to church every so often. He wanted to sign up for Pathway online classes, so Ugo told him to come see us. Anziano Lewis, who worked with lots of Nigerians in Sicily and learned a lot of their English dialect/accent, had a good time trying to convince Samuel that he (Anz. Lewis) was actually Nigerian. It was hilarious hearing their conversation, even if I couldn't understand much of it.  From the photo below, you can see why Samuel was dubious. Everyone got a good chuckle out of it.

I was able to contact Bishop Magnanti to get Samuel's membership number and help him set up an LDS account. Then I had him create a Pathway account and try to make progress in seeking admission, but I had never done it before so I was bit confused. Ugo later sent me a bunch of screen shots showing what to do, after I had asked Samuel to come back Wednesday when I would have learned how to do it. Samuel also said he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast (I assume he lives in one of the refugee camps), so I made him a sandwich with cheese and salami, which he gratefully ate. We have a bunch of sandwich fixings which don't get used much, so I told him that they would go bad over our August break and sent him home with a backpack full of meat and cheese. He tried to say no, but we insisted.

We left a bit early, after English class ended. On the way home we stopped at Todis to look for more tortillas for Thursday's culinary event, but they were out of stock. I took photos of our car mileage log and odometer, and the gas meters outside our apartment, all of which I emailed to Anziano Knies for our monthly report. The Knieses also gave us several Amazon packages which we had delivered to the office while our doorman Paolo is on vacation. We were both exhausted and got to bed earlier than usual.