Kirbys in Catania

I can’t even begin to tell you what an amazing experience Albania was.   First, I want to say thank you for the prayers and the support that you sent! It’s amazing to get to meet the family of God all around the world, and I wish I could share this experience with each of you that read this.   But I don’t think words will be enough. Disclaimer: I am not a singer, and I am not a drummer. So, yes, I know I can't keep beat with this song. :) We're just having fun.  So, Thursday, August 1 st, the Spinas (Stephano, Rina, and Giulia) picked us up, we crammed all of our luggage in their car, crammed ourselves into their car, and headed off to Albania.   It was hot, long, but fun! We took a ferry from Sicily to mainland Italy, drove across the bottom of the boot, and stopped in Taranto for a Bible study at the church.   This church in Taranto was the church the Spina’s used to worship with when they lived there.   Then, some members from the church ...

Sitting here in my living room in Catania Sicily, I can’t help but wonder how life can change so drastically in so short a time.   My husband has collapsed from exhaustion rather early this evening, and I’m sitting here waiting until my parents get off work so I can skype with them tonight.   As I was sitting here, I glanced over at my husband’s computer, which he left open on some photos he was working on.   Naturally, I started skimming through all the photos that we have on this computer.   I guess I was in a sentimental mood, because I went to see if we saved any photos from our wedding on here, but we didn’t.   They are all on a hardrive in Maryland with our other pre-Italy photos.   Then, I had a thought.   I wondered if we’d remembered to delete our home videos too or if they were still taking up storage space on this computer.   I was in luck.   All of our videos are still stored here.   I started looking through ones that w...

The week after we moved to Catania (so the 2nd week in July), we started meeting some of our students.  Andrea has about 7 or 8 students now that we will be taking over in September.  This is her last month of teaching, and we'll be going to the classes with her.  In August, most Italians go on vacation, shops are closed, and everything just kind of stops for that month as far as we've heard.  So there aren't going to be any classes in August. Wednesday evening, everyone from the Bible School in Florence came down to help with the VBS here.  We've been planning on doing this "traveling VBS" for several months now, and the Catania church of Christ was the one church that asked us to come.  It had only been a little over a week since we'd seen everyone from Florence, but it was good to see them again. Thursday was a "fun day."  Francesco took us on a tour to Siracusa.  It's a city about an hour south of Catania.  It's one of the pl...

Alan and I are on the move again! We're going to Albania....but just for a week.  We've been invited to go with Stephano and Rina to a camp in Albania.  This is a Christian camp for families in Albania.  There will be people there from all over Albania, and we're told that we will be meeting some other Americans who are doing mission work in Albania.  Stephano and Rina are both teaching classes at this camp for families.  Alan and I will be going along to meet with the Christians and missionaries there.  We'll be helping out in any way possible, and just getting to fellowship with others. I'm writing this blog in advance, because this was an unexpected expense that we do not have budgeted.  However, since we have no classes or obligations during this time in August (1st-13th), we felt that going with Stephano and his family to help and to meet others would be a good experience. The expenses for this trip in total are $600.  If you are interest...

Megan crammed into the back of our little fiat panda. Here starts the tale of how Alan, Rachel, and Megan made their way to Catania Sicily from Florence. We rented a little Fiat Panda and we fit all of our belongings minus one suitcase into it.  Megan came along with us for our ride to Sicily as mini vacation/helped us a lot with the move (Thanks Meg!).  We made it into a bit of an adventure.  Alan planned the trip, so it should come as no surprise that the first stop was Naples just so we could eat at Da Michele for pizza (it's famous for it's pizza and they only make margherita and marinara pizzas).  It was pretty good.  Actually it was amazing!  Service...ummm yeah not so great, but pizza was worth it.  Normally people wait a couple of hours to get into this place.  We went really early for dinner (5:30ish) so we only waited for maybe 20 minutes. No matter how many times we've had pizza, we still get this excited about good pizza ...

Before VBS we had a girls day on June 8th.  We invited our students and the Harding students to spend a day getting massages, haircuts, or pedicures.  We also played a bunch of "girly" movies that people watched while they waited for their haircut or whatever it was they were waiting for.  We cooked a breakfast of eggs, french toast sticks, and fruit.  A few of the Harding students came and After VBS the rest of the month flew by. Alan and Rosa cooking for the Harding group We visited Catania yet again from June 17th - 19th in order to try to find an apartment.  We were successful!  It's a nice apartment with a little garden(patio), and it's not to far from the church.  We can easily bike to the church from it.  It has a guest bedroom, so if you're thinking about visiting us, there's a place for you to stay! When we came back we had only a few more days with the Athletic group from Harding left.  They are the second group of stud...