September Starts the School Year

Playing in the abandoned ruins. 

Can’t believe October is here already. This is my absolute favorite time of the year – fall.  Believe it or not, fall is arriving here too on our sunny island.  The weather has cooled some, and it has that brisk smell to it that always arrives with fall. I am so thankful for this cooler weather. It makes riding our bikes up Via Etnea, much more endurable.  For a while there we were averaging on three showers a day, because we had to shower as soon as we got home from riding our bikes back from the church. 

Via Etnea - we ride up that on our bikes every day. We should have legs of steel by the end of the year. 

 

September has been a fairly busy month.  I think I can say that our Italian is improving a lot for such a short amount of time.  It makes a big difference not being around other Americans and getting to speak in English for most of your day.  Now it’s quite the opposite.  We spend most of our days with either our students or members from the church, so we’ve been forced to use our Italian.  We also were given a tv by the Spinas, so now we occasionally watch the news or children’s shows, but often...yep, you guessed it...soccer in the evenings  to help with the language.

We now have 14 students.  It seems like we add a new one each week.  We have at least one class scheduled every day (even Saturday!). So we’re busy. We’re at the point where we’re starting to do things with our students outside of just classes now.  Alan met one of our student’s son, who plays soccer, and he played one of their games with them.  We’ve also gone out for a snack/coffee with some of our students.  We hope to keep building relationships and friendships with them as we get to know them better and spend more time with them.  

Last week, Alan and I started an English class at the church building for children.  The class takes place during the adult Bible study on Thursday night.  We have two classes – one with children under the age of seven and another class for the 8-12 year olds.  The first week, only one of the older children could come, but we had several in the younger kids class (around six).  We hope to keep this going each week, and we are encouraging the parents and kids to invite their friends.  Ultimately we’d love to get kids from outside of the church involved in the classes as well.  

Mt Etna! 

Almost every weekend we pass out fliers giving information about our classes.  Each time, I’ve had about four people come back to talk to me to get more information.  Also, thanks to Melissa (my graphic designer contact up at the Bible School in Florence), we now have new posters to place in the church windows offering our classes.  Really right now, we’ve been working a lot on advertising.

Singing praises at Pipo's country house

We’ve had time to have a lot of fun here too.  We’ve eaten with the Spinas several time, we’ve gone to Pipo’s country house with several other church members after church for a meal and sometimes singing praises afterwards.  This last time we went, we got to help press grapes from the grape harvest.  We’ve gotten to try so many different things straight off the tree at his house: pistachios (my personal favorite), fico d'india (cactus fruit), figs, grapes, and mulberries.

The Cammaratas on our day out together! We had so much fun with them!

I love ruins! 

We spent a day with the Cammaratas.  They were so kind and invited us to go with them on a day trip to the area around Ragusa.  We enjoyed it so much, and we love getting to spend time with that family.  They are so sweet and fun! We saw the coastline (beautiful!) most of the day, stumbled upon some abandoned ruins, and visited a town called Modica, which is famous for its Mayan chocolate (Sicily has been occupied by many many different nationalities).  After sampling several different types (spicy, pistachio, vanilla, mint, orange, and many many more), we walked around the city, saw a beautiful duomo, and crashed a wedding.  Well, we crashed the end of the wedding.  Although, Melissa and I did pose by the car that the bride was leaving in (unknowingly!).  

Another church; Another wedding

Girl's Day = manicures! 

This past  Saturday, I had the all the young ladies from the church over to my house for a “girls day.”  We had lunch, watched a movie, and did manicures.  I butchered the lunch (I am just not a confident or good cook), but they were all kind and ate it anyways.  We still had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed getting to know these girls better!

I had so much fun getting to hang out with these girls! 

 For once in my life, I am finally learning that it’s okay for me to not be the best at everything.  I have been put in countless situations where I have little to no experience or control.  I feel completely in over my head, confused, and inadequate most days.  But I’m getting more comfortable with feeling overwhelmed and confused.  I’m definitely learning to laugh at myself and just shrug it off.  

Alan celebrated his birthday with Cinzia (their birthdays are the same day).  They invited us up to their house and we had a fun evening just hanging out and eating pizza.

Alan and I feel so at home here in Catania now.  We can communicate, we have a great, loving church family, and we’re making friendships that we hope will last a lifetime.  We are so blessed to get to be here while we are serving God each day.  Thank you again for all you do for us! 

The Cammaratas and us on our day adventure!