While we wait

School is over and we are waiting for the time that the airplane will bring us back to the States to visit family and friends. But while we wait we are not bored, we are staying busy. We have so much to do that we just can't fit everything in.

Seriously, though, we are enjoying the time while we wait. We've been eating with our Italian friends, visiting wineries (the wine here is not at all like in the States........and after seeing the water here in the 21 century I see why Jesus drank wine), and seeing the sights. It's been a great and restful time which I needed after this stressful year.

Speaking of this school year, Bob and I decided that one more year would get us back on our feet financially (after the B&B) and so we are staying this one more year. I've already told my principal, our personnel secretary and everyone else (except our Italian friends) that we will be leaving after next school year whether or not I have a job to go to. I just can't stay away any longer from my family. I'm such a clinger-on-er.

Actually, when I had my birthday this year I realized that Bob and I are getting older (really fast) and don't have many more healthy years to spend with children and grandchildren. I just don't want to miss any more than I have to. These times are too precious.

Lastly, our itinerary in the States. We will be flying into St. Louis on July 1 where our good friends Billy and Bob DeMond will pick us up. After spending a day resting from the flight and picking up our rental car, we will drive to Joplin for a week. We'll sleep at the Holiday Inn but visit with Mike and his familly and with Bob's mom in the nursing home. (Mike's phone: 417-624-6059) Leaving there on the 11th of July we will go to Kansas City and visit with Ken, Lynette and Sophia until the 20th (phone 816-425-2623). After Ken's house we're driving to Michigan to see Jae (who is going to have a baby in September and can't travel to Missouri). On the 29th, we'll head back to St. Louis for a short visit again with the DeMonds then on August 1 we'll come back to Sicily. Please, do call if you would like to get together. I'm going to try to be at church in Cameron on the 12th or the 20th if I possibly can.

(and a few frustrations)

There are so many things good about Sicily that I hate to mention the frustrations. And......the frustrations are usually so minor they're not worth mentioning. But.....I thought I'd mention a few so you know even Paradise has some flaws.

The first is something I've mentioned several times before--no phone. I think we're the only Americans we know that don't have one (Come to think of it, we're the only people, American or Italian, we know that doesn't have one). The phone company has sent people out five times to hook it up and five times they've told us (as if we didn't know), "You don't have any phone wires." I guess we just didn't smile right when we asked for the phone.

Water has also been a continual frustration. We have a running bet on whether we will have hot water when we need to bathe or wash dishes. The odds are about 50/50. The hot water heater is a typical Italian one. It is a continual hot water type that sits outside on the wall of the back porch. Between the wind blowing the pilot out and birds using it as a nesting place we never know what to expect when we turn on the hot water. (Right after I wrote this I went to take a bath and wouldn't you know it...no hot water)

But, worse than that is the experience we had a couple of weeks ago with our water. Suddenly one day while Bob was watering the garden our water went out. When that happens he usually goes down the lane and flips a switch for the motor of the well pump but this time it didn't work. No one on our lane had water--- niether Giusseppe nor Tony. After fiddling with it for awhile (meaning days) and calling an "idrolico" to come see if he could fix it, Giusseppe decided it was a bad motor and had to order one to be put in. So, in the meanwhile he hooked up our water to the cistern. For almost two weeks our water in the house was green and smelled like pond scum.

We couldn't wash clothes at all and taking baths was simply washing off with bottled water. Washing the dishes was a trick, too. Use lots of soap and rinse with bottled water. The toilets were getting pretty scummy by the time we were able to get back to clean water.

Today we went for help to the Vodaphone store at the base because I've been getting about 6 video messages per day on my phone showing the same soccer tournament. I showed the guy the 20 I had gotten since Thursday afternoon and he said he would take care of it. Now, you have to understand that everything on our phones is in Italian.....the writing, messages, helps, everything. So the guy calls customer service and talked/listened for about ten minutes. They gave him another number to call. When he called that number he discovered it was for setting up those video messages not getting rid of them so he called customer service back. During this time I was tired of waiting (a little ADHD, there) so I wandered the store. After a bit I went back to be told that it was fixed (this is the second time they've "fixed" it). They told me it was against the law for them to start the service without my permission but they could have sent me a message (in Italian) that said if you don't want this service let us know (in Italian). Since I didn't contact them to not have the service (in Italian!) they started it, charging me weekly for the service. Yi-i-i. In order to get rid of it the guy had to go into my messages where, at the end of one of the videos (you had to watch the whole thing) it told how (In Italian!!) how to get rid of those messges.

Just another day in Paradise.

Another beautiful spot in Sicily

We found a little bit of Southwest Missouri right here in Sicily. Yesterday Bob and I took a trip to Alcantara Gorge (Gole della Alcantara). It's an area in the northeastern part of Sicily about a third of the way up the mountain (Mount Etna). It's a little tricky to get there and we took a couple of wrong turns, but just about the time I had given up hope of ever finding it, there were signs that pointed the way.

We walked a nice long (hot) trail overlooking the gorge and saw bluffs that reminded us of home. The river itself was a beautiful clear stream you could drink out of (well, that's not Missouri anymore but the one of my childhood). From the top of the bluff we looked down on crystalline waters running through the lava bed. The effect can't be put into a photo but here's a couple to show you a bit of the rocks and river.

After the walk we went to the little beach at the bottom of the gorge. We both said, almost simultaneously, "Roaring River". The water was cold, cold, cold and clear and beautiful. Signs warned to not stay in the water very long because of the cold. We took a few minutes to splash water on our faces and arms and after that long, hot walk it was very refreshing.

Living in Paradise

The other day I was helping one of our fourth graders get ideas for an extensive paper they have to write: My Utopia. She was having trouble coming up with what she would like her utopia to be like so I gave her some of my thoughts to get her thinking processes going.

I told her that if I could create any kind of world I wanted I would start with one where the people are gracious, caring and fun loving. The weather is beautiful and flowers bloom all year round but if you want snow you can get to snow easily. Then I stopped and said, "Wait, I have that here." Needless to say, my Utopia didn't give her much help. Yet, her Utopia came out probably better than mine. Here's a part.

"My utopia is where all the family lives and you don't have to miss seeing your grandma or uncles. There would be pajama parties every night and in school you would only do reading, art and science."

I think I would like her Utopia.