Less Than A Month?! Where Has the Time Gone??

God shows himself through so many different situations. I have been learning so much here in Italy, and I know these experiences would not be the same if I were in the U.S. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it’s going to be like when I get back … I’m going to miss Italy so much! I’m going to miss the family. I’m going to miss the culture and all of its quirks. I can’t express enough how thankful I am for this experience. Everyone needs to have such an experience where they are away from their comfort zone and completely immerse themselves in another culture. It’s good for the heart =)

Last week on Monday, God showed me something so amazing!! I felt like I was coming down with something and really didn’t want to get out of the house, but God was insistent. I’m really glad He is! I went for a walk. I found myself wandering through the old part of San Benedetto … the cobblestone streets, the old, ivy-overtaken buildings, and the houses with the small doors and cool old shutters. There is a bakery I’ve passed by numerous times, so today I decided to go in and take a peak. The old woman working there didn’t speak English, but I made the motions to tell her I was just looking. She asked (in Italian) if I was studying. I told her I was a teacher here. She said, “Oh, so young!” I told her how old I was and she said again, “Oh, so young!” The best part was she reached out with her old, Italian hand and touched my face. Then she rushed behind the counter and started gathering different breads in a bag. She insisted on giving me four different kinds of bread (technically pizza). I walked out of that bakery amazed at the workings of our Lord. I was expecting a look and then continuing on my way, but the Lord chose to bless me with meeting a wonderful Italian woman who I couldn’t communicate with, but knew she was also blessed by the encounter. God wasn’t done with showing me how amazing He is … I found a spot not too far away from the bakery to sit along the road and work on English lessons for the girls. I sat and watched people walk by, families driving home for lunch, and students riding their bikes after getting out of school. A young black couple were about to walk by me and I asked them if they knew what time it was. The man responded in English! So unexpected! He said, “You speak English?” I said, “You speak English?!” Haha, we were both amazed! I asked where they were from and he said Nigeria. His wife, Tessy, has been here for 10 years, and he, Chris is his name, has been here for about a year and a half. I noticed that Tessy was quite pregnant. I asked if they knew what they were having and if they had any names picked out. Chris said it’s a boy due in February and they had a few names they liked. The first name was Lloyd. The second name … brace yourself for this one … was Tristan. I said, “What?!” Haha! I told them that is my fiancé’s name! I said, that’s the name you have to go with =) I’m pretty partial to it. I asked if they were believers and they said yes. They gave me the name of their church in a town outside of San Benedetto that is a Pentecostal church and the services are in English because in Nigeria English is their second language (the first is a dialect). Chris and Tessy invited me to their apartment where we had lunch … Nigerian food =D A few different rice dishes and meat pie. I have their contact information and hope to meet Tessy during the week for a walk. I had lunch with Nigerians in Italy! How cool!

The rest of the week was slow. I had my annual sinus infection and didn’t feel like going out, so I spent a lot of time listening to sermons and reading. On Tuesday, I made myself lunch … didn’t feel like much but Tristan had been sick and talked about making soup. That sounded good to me! I found a recipe online for curry carrot soup and off I went. Monica has this great kitchen gadget called a Bimby. It’s amazing!! It does everything!! I didn’t use it exactly like I should, but it pureed my carrots for me =) … A few days later, Monica showed me more of the settings.

Wednesday I went to Rosita’s for a lesson with the boys. I so enjoy the time with their family. Leonardo and Francesco are absolutely crazy, but we have a lot of fun together. I had made a game on PowerPoint for them. They’re learning =) Sometimes it takes pointing to every single body part before they find “chin” or “shoulders,” but they’ll have it down soon enough!

Greta and I are having so much fun together! She always says, “Jodi, come.” Of course I follow her =) She’s got me wrapped around her little finger at the words, “Pretty please!” But I’m being stricter with her now … She’s got to use complete sentences for me before I do what she asks. For example, “Jodi, come upstairs with me.” I’m sure going to miss that little girl! She gave me a hug goodnight the other evening and it about melted my heart. In the mornings we leave each other notes. She uses her chalkboard to write, “Gudnaith Jodi” with hearts around it. Monica had asked her one day if she loved Jodi and she said yes <3 On Monday when I didn’t come back to the house for lunch, Monica made hamburgers (the exact same kind I had made a few weeks ago for the girls when Monica was away for lunch), but Greta would not eat them … Monica said, “But you ate the exact same thing with Jodi.” Greta replied, “Did Jodi make these?” Haha! Oh, that girl is something else!

This week Sergio came home on Thursday and he is staying through Monday. It’s really good for the family to be all together like this =) I like having everyone here.

Trying new foods, soaking up every experience, excited about being back in less than a month, but truly loving this rich experience. I couldn’t imagine life without knowing the people I have met here. They will always be remembered by me. I was standing in the movie theater last night, looked around at the building and the people I saw, and just thought, “The people here will still be here when I leave. Life will still go on for them. How I would love to have the opportunity to see everyone again!” Sergio, Monica, Nicole, Greta, Paula, Massimo, Elaria, Alessandro, Angelica, Paola, Marco, Lorella, Tatina, Vittoria, Francesco, Giuseppe, Fabio, Giovanna, Matteo, Chiara, Georgia, Joya, Danilo, Rosita, Leonardo, Francesco … These people and so many more have found a special place in my heart and although we aren’t able to communicate fully with words, I am blessed by simply having them in my life! I’m watching. I’m learning.

Pray for Italy. God loves these people so much!

Grace and peace,

Jodi

There is always food ... and wine!

I suppose it has been quite a while since my last post. Yes, it has been busy and great on this end! The weeks go by fast and the weekends are always full of food and fellowship =)
One evening two weeks ago, Monica took the girls and me to a cute little shop in the square and we drank hot chocolate. The girls chose regular milk chocolate, but Monica and I opted for something more exotic ... hot chocolate with mint and rum! It was think and creamy and really, really good! That week, Monica cooked cow stomach ... I had seen (and smelled) it in the sink earlier =P I tried it. I couldn't eat too much of it. Just a horrible smell, not a terrible taste, but the feel of it being chewed in my mouth was difficult. On Friday of that week, I made black bean burgers with broccoli play day salad and mixed steamed vegetables. Marco (Monica's boss) and his two sons, Fabio and Giuseppe, came over to try this American cuisine. I thought it turned out good, considering I couldn't find all of the spices I needed ... so the burgers were a little bland, but the rest was great =) Fabio is a senior in the scientific school. (they call the high schools different things, like scientific, classic, language, ...) He told me he would ask his teacher the next day if I could come to his class.


That Sunday, Monica and I talked about the family coming to Texas for a visit! Marco has already said they are all coming to the wedding in April =D Monica hopes to come one August with the family for maybe two weeks. I told her I would get a list together of places in TX and Mexico that she must visit ... any advice would be great =) For lunch we went to Sergio's parent's home. His mom makes the best lasagna in the entire world!! Wow!! I'm going to pester her until I get that recipe lol. 

During this last week, there have been many things happening! On Monday, Monica told Greta she wasn't able to watch T.V. or play on the computer because she hadn't finished her homework like she said she did ... Well, Ms. Greta had a good plan. She told her mom she was sick, so she spent the evening on the couch, but when Monica left, she was healed! Haha! Tuesday night, I made breakfast for dinner for Monica and the girls. A few weeks ago, I had seen maple syrup at the store, but it wasn't there when we looked today =P That's okay because we found honey that was good and runny. I got to pick up the girls from the swimming pool ... I enjoy driving. Even though the Italian drivers are impatient and scare me, I really like the time I get to spend behind the wheel. Everyone loved the pancakes!! Immediately after Greta finished eating, she grabbed two pancakes to take with her to school for a snack the next day. She also brought me the T.V. remotes ... This made Monica and me crack up laughing, because whoever has the remotes has the power, and Greta handed it over to me =) Monica thought this was hillarious because Greta never does that to her; it's always a fight for T.V. control.  Wednesday morning, I had a meeting with the director of the classic high school ... but she wasn't even there. Bummer! I had an appointment and everything =( But God had a different plan for me ... I walked around the rest of the morning, looking in different shops, and then felt led to sit on a bench in from of one of the catholic churches. Not two minutes after I sit down, two women walk up. I said, "Ciao," and they began speaking to me in Italian. When I told them I didn't speak Italian, they told me they were Jehovah's Witnesses. They didn't speak English well, but we were able to communicate to some degree. We spent a lot of time in the Scriptures, showing each other what we believe ... I had no idea they didn't believe in the Trinity! When I got back to the house, I looked up their beliefs. Next time I see them, I have some good Scriptures to give them. God used that meeting to tell me that I am not fully prepared to give an account of my faith as Paul urges us to do in his letters. I'm thankful for those women God sent to spur me on in growing in my faith and knowing more of the Word of God. Thursday, Monica had a meeting in Tuscany, and I got to go with her =) Never thought I would go back so soon! Long drive for maybe an hour and a half of a meeting, but the sun was out and it was such a great opportunity to share with Monica about God's love ... I had colored a picture that said "Love never fails" from 1 Corinthians 13. When we were in the car I prayed God would open up a door to talk about Him. Monica said, "I don't agree with what you said, 'Love never fails'." I told her that I didn't say it, God did. Wow, were the doors opened!! I shared my heart about God romancing us in such a way that we can not be satisfied by anything in this world and that people can try to love, but if they are not followers of Christ, they have no idea what love is. God's love never fails. I read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 to her.

Friday, Sergio helped me look up some information on my trip to Venice I hope to take at the end of the month, God-willing. Here's a really cool story: Rosita had told me about a nice, and cheap, hotel her family stayed at when they were in Venice, but she couldn't remember the name. When I went over Friday night, she gave me the information ... it was the hotel Sergio and I thought was the best option for me!! That was such a confirmation from the Lord =)

Saturday, Monica went to a concert with Tatina in Rome. Sergio, the girls, and I went to Rosita's dinner party in Cupra on her father's farm where he has olive trees, a vineyard, and farm animals. I wish I could have seen the property in the daylight. There were over 30 people there. It was a late celebration of one of the saints that was related to the Day of the Dead. Rosita hired a man who owns a restaraunt in San Benedetto that is opened during the summer season. There was so much food ... and wine!! Here is the menu: salsiccie di cinghiale - sausage of wild boar (one kind was liver sausage ... one man told me that as I took a bite, and I almost didn't get it down. It honestly wasn't very good, and I didn't eat the rest), fried mortadella with vegetables and mozarella, ceci soup with chestnuts, vegetable lasagna, salad with pears, apples, walnuts, almonds, and fennel (finicchi), pork from Sardegna (the second island of Italy), beef with mushrooms and red wine, croccantino al cioccoato - almond bark crushed up and mixed into gelato and drizzled with chocolate on top, and chestnuts. There were maybe 6 different wines that I wrote down ... One is very famous and expensive, called Kurni and it is from the Marche region (where San Benedetto is). Everything was delicious!! And I really enjoyed the company =)

Sunday morning we were all worn out from our Saturday. We went to the cemetary so the family could pay respects to their deceased relatives (which usually occurs on Halloween, their celebration of the Day of the Dead, but we were in Tuscany). We went to Paula's, Monica's mom, home for lunch. The whole family was there! It was great =) Lunch was very tasty ... spaghetti, salad, baked french fries, artichoke, chicken, rabbit, a wonderful bread, tiramisu, and chocolate chip cake. I wouldn't have been able to tell the rabbit from any other meat ... It was surprisingly good. I just had one small piece though =P It's like the stomach, mind over matter kind of thing. One thing that is hard to get used to is the serving of spaghetti or lasgagna as an starting dish ... I would usually eat spaghetti as my main dish. Always lots of food. I don't know how they can eat so much in one sitting! We drank new wine from the recent harvest. It is sweet and good =) Monica's family is great ... I enjoy watching them interact with each other. They are kind people. Sunday evening we went to the cinema. No time to watch a whole movie, but Sergio and I watched the last bit of the Facebook movie. Then Monica and Sergio went to see part of a scary movie that I had no interest in seeing, so I sat in the lobby and read. I also got to visit with a few of the workers. Everyone knows Sergio and Monica (and now me because I am always with them);it's really nice to go somewhere and see familiar faces =)

It is almost impossible to get into the schools here in Italy ... I haven't given up!! But Fabio's teacher said I couldn't come. I'm going to keep going back to the classic high school and hopefully go at a time when the director is in.

Woke up feeling really under the weather today. I've been getting good sleep, but I think the changing weather is messing with me.

Thank you all for your continued prayers! I'm excited that I can almost say I just have a month left, but I'm truly enjoying my time here =) Not that I'm going to stay, but I don't want to let any moment pass by and forget that I'm in Italy.

Grace and peace,
Jodi 

Someone pinch me!!

The trip to Tuscany was absolutely amazing! Long journey and lots of car time with the family, but well worth seeing some of the most beautiful structures in all of Italy! We started our journey early on Saturday morning. The girls skipped school :o) We made it to Siena, which is a very nice smaller town. Our first stop was an Irish pub for lunch … Our waitress was a young black woman. She spoke Italian, but I knew she was not Italian. I asked where she was from … Nigeria, and she was here to study and was working to support her way through school. In Siena, I saw the Cathedral of Siena which was magnificent with all its details. Then we went to Piaza del Campo where many people go to sit or lay down in the square. Currently, they have tables and such set up outside of the restaurants, but around the plaza there is a stone pathway which will be covered with sand for the horse races. People stand in the middle of the plaza which slants downward as it gets closer to the middle. That is where people stand during the races, and because of the slanting, everyone is able to see the race. Greta was not happy about the walking that day haha, but it was not more than any of the other days to come. My camera had fairly new batteries it in, but for some reason it was showing that I had low batteries. I figured I had better get some new batteries just in case … There was sooo much to see in the days to come, and I didn’t want to not have a camera. I bought good batteries, fairly expensive, but ones I knew would last for the trip … My camera never ran out of batteries. In fact, it died as the sun was setting on Monday evening when we were driving home. The batteries lasted the perfect amount of time … God showed me through that experience that I don’t show to have much faith. He knows what I need and will always provide for me … I should never doubt. That evening, we drove through the hills to get to the house we were staying in for the night. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel that the area was just beautiful because we were far out in the country :o) At the house, Sergio grilled some steaks, Monica prepared the home by getting dished ready and beds arranged, and I played Connect 4 with the girls. Just in case you’re wondering, I win 99% of the time lol. Dinner was absolutely wonderful!! Then it was time for sleep. The family slept on the ground floor in the bedroom and then on the pull-out couch. I got the bedroom downstairs which had two twin beds. The girls wanted to sleep with me on the pull-out couch, but Monica said it was too small for all three of us :o)

            Sunday morning proved my thoughts correct … The view was BEAUTIFUL!! You could turn around and around, looking all around the house and just see the rolling hills of Tuscany. I could see Voltera on a hill in the distance and the rest of the scenery was hills with villas spotted throughout. There was a little rain in the morning, but not too bad. Off to Florence we went! Our first stop was Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, which is not a Catholic church, but one of the first Protestant churches in Italy. It was huge! There’s a baptistery to the right that is an octagonal shape. I walked up to the church to get a better view (honestly, just to touch the church lol) and was amazed at the details … in the door, the edges, and when you look up while standing at the door, there are people around the top looking down upon you. After the church, we went to see Michelangelo’s David. It was in a plaza where they also had the Uffizi gallery of statues and Neptune’s fountain. Lots of naked men in that plaza. After the statues, we went to Ponte Vecchio. This is the oldest bridge in Florence. If you are walking up to it along the river, it looks like the buildings across the bridge are small houses, but they are all jewelry stores. When you see the shops, they are beautiful and very old. When people close their shops there are wooden doors. Monica told me this showed how old they were because these days people use metal bars when closing their shops. The rain wasn’t too bad in Florence, but we didn’t have enough umbrellas to shield all of us from the rain, so Sergio bought the girls and me umbrellas :oD They have four different pictures of the most famous places in Tuscany … What a great souvenir!!  So for lunch we went to Leonardo and Sylvia’s house in Florence … They are friends of Monica and Sergio’s that they met 2 years ago when they were in Egypt. It was a great meal … Started off with bread and some cream cheese or liver that you could put on your bread. Then lots of meat, a salad, fruit, and roasted chestnuts :o) Long meal, and then a longer time to visit, but I got to watch Alice in Wonderland with the kids lol. In Italian, Alice is pronounced Aliche. Saturday was Halloween, but since we were in Florence there was no trick-or-treating for us; although, Halloween is less than 10 years old in Italy. Later on in the evening we went out for a pizza. Each person gets their own pizza … I had a pizza bianca (white pizza, no tomato sauce) with mozzarella cheese, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and eggplant. Really good!!

            Monday morning was raining more than Sunday, but it started letting up enough for us to get packed up in the car and take off to Pisa. It really started pouring when we reached Pisa, so we stayed in the car for some time until it let up. When it finally did, we walked to the tower. It was so unreal!! The Tower of Pisa is in Miracle Square, which is truly the only beautiful part of Pisa. It is nothing like Florence or Siena. We took lots of pictures of the tower, and had some good laughs when Sergio asked these 3 Asian women to take our picture after he took theirs. They didn’t understand. They wanted Nicole and Greta in their pictures haha! It was so funny because they motioned for Nicole and Greta to get in their picture and then one lady wanted a picture with just her and Nicole :o) Monica and I were cracking up! Then when it was our turn to take a picture, the Asian woman kept putting the camera down too soon. Haha, they tried :o) In Pisa, I heard more people talking in English than I have throughout the entire trip. There were many British and American tourists in the Miracle Square that day. Sergio got Greta and me a ticket to go up the tower, but it was later in the day so we walked to the pedestrian square for some lunch. Sergio wanted to go to this one restaurant where they serve some kind of chick-pea omelet, but they were closed … But we found a great alternative! It was a nice little shop that had a sandwich bar and lots and lots of sweets :o) We had our lunch and then everyone got to choose something sweet. After lunch we walked back to the tower, and Greta and I were the first in line for our group. It was such a good time with her! Monica told her to hold my hand the whole time, so as we climbed the winding steps of the tower, we were hand-in-hand. I made her stop multiple times for pictures, and she stopped at every window or ledge to look out and see if she could see Monica, Sergio, and Nicole. They did see us from the middle and the top! We waved to them and that made Greta happy :o) At the top, it was very windy and the rain came down cold. We walked around the top for a little bit and then made our way back down. What a cool experience!! I was still in shock coming down that I had actually walked up the Tower of Pisa!! What a blessing <3

            In each city we stopped at a coffee bar to have a small coffee :o) It is a very Italian thing to swing into a coffee bar multiple times a day to have a small coffee lol. And they are small indeed!

            I’m so thankful to the family for giving me such an opportunity as this! It was a dream come true to see the things that I have seen on this holiday. For me, these things are only what I thought I would see in pictures and movies … but thanks to the Grannó family, I have seen with my own two eyes. It was also a great time to build my relationship with the girls! We have played many games of Connect 4, taken tons of silly pictures, and made great videos that I hope I can share with everyone when I figure out how to do that on the computer :oP I have taught Greta how to say, “Pretty please.” She says it so pitifully that you just can’t help to give her what she wants … That’s dangerous haha!!

            I’m thankful for your thoughts and prayers! It has been such an amazing experience here, and it is halfway finished! Now I’m counting down the days until I come home, but still enjoying the time I’m given.

            Grace and peace,

Jodi