So many Blog ideas, so little time

Blog Idea #1:
Ok, so we all know about the sterotypical accordian player that sings "traditional" italian songs... Well, it's not as much fun when you awake to it 3 mornings a week as he strolls down the small alley next to your window. There are many such musicians around Italy - some with small African drums, some with guitars, and some with saxaphones. Awaiting the bus to go back home after church, a saxaphone player (complete with microphone hook up and speaker on wheels) was strolling down the street in Battipaglia. Now, this is not the interesting part: the interesting part is the little old lady with a cane that got up from her bench, began walking, but periodically took a couple seconds to shake her groove thing as best she could to the bachatta that the musician was playing. (We couldn't help but smile and giggle. I love little old Italian ladies!!)

Had enough of musician stories? too bad, because here's another.
That same day, during church, Pastor Antonio is talking about trumpet calls used in the Bible - always used to summon the coming of God or his presence/power. While he's speaking, we begin to hear some music. I immediately thought it was a cell phone, but it grew louder. Then a pause in the sermon, we realize the song that we hear is from a passing accordian player. And the song is... Drum roll please... Ave Maria! (It was beautiful, but it did disrupt the sermon as everyone got a short chuckle.)

Blog Idea #2:
In the last couple days, I've developed a cold. This is bearable, but I tend to be tired at the end of our time on campus. Today, we boarded a very crowded bus (pretty typical on the way to campus). Unfortunately, this bus had very few windows and I was in the aisle surrounded by people. Then we hit traffic. It got very warm on the bus. I believe the bus driver turned on something like air conditioning - but it smelled wierd and didn't help at all. So I started to feel a little light-headed. A couple of the guys got off the bus and walked to the next bus stop (since the traffic wasn't moving.) The bus moved eventually, but I was still feeling off. I was hopeful that wind circulating would help. Unfortunately, we only turned the corner and stopped again. At this point, I tell Katherine that I will have to get off at the next stop. My vision was starting to blur a bit and my hands were shaking. A few feet later, I tell Katherine I may have to get off before the next stop. At this point, people are starting to see that I am not feeling well and am looking pale. Thankfully the stop was only another half block away. The bus stopped, I climbed off as quickly as my blurry vision would allow me, and sat against the storefront on the sidewalk.
Good news: I'm ok. I was probably about to faint, but now I know my limits (I'm not as tough as I think I am.)
We learned that Italians believe taking a caffe can fix anything. That was the first piece of advise we received from a passing lady. Then another told me to drink fruit juices. My teammate brought me a glass of water with a sugar packet in it (it's what the barista gave him when he heard I was feeling sick). I personally believe sitting and drinking water helped a lot. 5 minutes later we were back on a bus - a much less crowded one - and on the way to campus!! Forza!

My STINT curse

Ok, they told us it would be difficult living overseas, adjusting to a new culture, and learning a different language - but they didn't tell me that I would be unable to control emotions.

My STINT curse - I cry at least once every two weeks. Now, please know that this is not because I don't want to be in Italy, or because I'm extremely homesick. It happens more during discussions at team meetings, typically when discussing how we relate. This bothered me at first - feeling unable to control tears that in the States I could deal with. But now I've decided it's ok to be emotional and it's just how I deal with STINT. Some people withdraw, some jump right in, and I have less control over my waterworks. Gratefully, my team is ok with this aspect of my processing, and are very supportive. (I think it's because they weren't the first to crack - but their time will come.)

On a different note - we gave out over 2000 flyers on campus the last 3 days publicizing Ognistudente.com (check out everystudent.com for the english equivalent). It's amazing how exhausting passing out flyers can be. We put a sodoku puzzle on each flyer - which helped keep people from throwing them away. When we showed our friends at MLK, they all gathered around to teach Luca how to do the puzzle... it's was so funny! They would spend 3 minutes explaining, then ask if he understood... he would respond with a simple "no" and the explanation continued. This happened for about 10-15 minutes.

Pray that students would check out the website and be challenged in their ideas on spirituality and accept Jesus as their savior!

Adventures of Tiffany & Lacey Mai continue...

Ok you thought the pudding story was interesting? Here's another:

We are in the process of moving the guys from the apartment next door to their new place about 10 minutes away. The large part of this move took place Friday. A friend, Leonardo, helped us by loading up his car with the guys' stuff while two of our STINTers carried their couch down the streets of Salerno.

Lacey Mai and I stayed behind to clean the apartment (because being a guys apartment, it was disgusting). We're cleaning and listening to music and then we hear it "slam!"...

**background info: There is one door that allows us into both the guys and our apartment, then individual doors for each apartment. Wind tends to come through open windows and blow our apartment door shut. This is not a problem, as long as you have keys to get back into the apartment. We've often said "one day that door will close and we will not have keys" **back to the story

Lacey Mai and I stare at eachother.. both of us asking the other if she has keys... fear shows it's face. Ok, no big deal... we'll call the other STINTers... problem: our phones are in the apartment. Ok, so we'll just walk over there... problem: both of us are barefoot.

If that wasn't enough, we were hungry and we had just cleaned out the guys' fridge.

Having finished cleaning, and our teammates still not returned, we decide to try to watch First Knight in Italian with English subtitles - aka language learning. About an hour into the movie, the computer dies... no cord to charge it.

So we get resourceful. We still had internet access and about 6 minutes worth of battery on my computer. We facebooked (similiar to Myspace but less creepy) everyone that we knew in Italy, asking them to call our teammates and tell them the situation.

9:45pm (3 hours after they left) Our teammates return - with pizza - but not for us.

They had tried calling us - too bad we couldn't answer.

After a fast "THANK GOD" and explanation as to why they were shortly going to be receiving numerous phone calls from other STINTers in Italia, we headed off to the closest restaurant to feed our growling stomaches.

First Couple Days on Campus

We started on campus on Tuesday - time to actually take action. We each had a list of contacts from the summer project to start with. We took most of Tuesday to call people (and some of Wednesday). I connected with a few. We used the letters summer projecters has written to them as our connection. No real conversations were initiated the first day - it was difficult just to call everyone. Wednesday was a little different. We kept calling people that we had on our list (there were about 300 names), and just when we thought we were done, we weren't.

Mario and I were feeling a bit overwhelmed by 3:00pm Wednesday. We have a schedule to stay on campus until 4, but we weren't feeling up to initiating conversations. So we sat on the grass in a popular part of campus. I felt a bit guilty not initiating, so I told God -"If you want me to initiate a conversation, I will, but you have to put the person right here because I'm not moving." Then Luigi decided to sit next to us on the grass. What can I say, God works fast. I asked Mario if we should talk to him, and he agreed. So we got talking and asked Him what he believed. We were able to talk through the Gospel and have a great conversation. Some areas are still fuzzy, but he seemed excited to see us again soon.

God provides even when we're pooped and don't want to do anymore. It was an amazing way to end a day and be reminded of why we're here.

Pudding Part II

Later that evening - we found out that our "pudding" was actually Italian hot chocolate....