Life with Peppe

Ok so here in Napoli we do things differently than in America. Except it takes me a while to figure that out and to learn how to live like they do. Peppe doesn't like that. Peppe has expressed to me more than once that in Napoli we hang the clothes outside to dry, not inside. But I keep hanging them inside because I don't want them out all night. Well I tried hiding the clothes from him last night. But he is not stupid and he barged in our room because he knew I hid the clothes in there. And he found them. and it was really funny. I tried explaining, but remember he doesn't speak English and my Italian is limited, so it didn't work. We laughed really hard though. And then decided that we would finally surrender. So from now on I'm leaving my clothes outside!

Sloppy's Video

Sloppy Joe

So I have some bad news.... Sloppy Joe is in bad shape and quite possibly will no longer be with us soon. Sloppy is our team van. We like her because she gets us places. But not only us...she gets volunteer teams from America who come here places too. But sadly, on Sunday Sloppy began having some health problems. Here are some pictures for you mourn with us. There is also video footage. We hope and are praying that Sloppy will get through this rough time. :)

here's the picture that didn't post....

Legal stuff and lines......

So today Grace and I had to go to the Questura di Napoli, to request permission to stay here in Napoli. Sort of like getting a green card. It's an experience to go down there. The doors open at 8:30 but the line forms much earlier. We got down there at 6 in the morning. There was already a line starting. But here in Napoli lines work a little different. It's not really a line, just a secret line. Whoever gets there first starts a list, and as you show up you sign the list. That's if you know the list exists. Luckily, thanks to everyone else on the team doing this before us, we knew the list existed. Well, Jason brought us and he knew the list existed. So we got our names on the list, number 13 and 14. Then we just waited until the doors open and the "line" is a huge crowd pushed up against the doors. The guards chose to take the list and follow it so we got the numbers 13 and 14 and we got inside. We waited a couple more hours but eventually everything went great and we got all of our stuff done. THANK YOU JESUS. this process was not easy for everyone so we are grateful for such an easy process.

and here's a picture for you!

Team Retreatment and Italian Cooking!

well the mountains in Italy sure are nice! We had a great time at our team retreat in the mountains this past weekend. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast. The house was great and had hot water. So I was happy! Every meal we had was made there and from scratch. It was so good, except I almost died from eating too much. That part was almost miserable. It was good to be together with the team though. I took a ton of pictures.

Language school is going good. I'm picking up some of the language; I just need to practice more. I'm getting some good practice in though. Yesterday I went to buy a sim card for my cell phone and today I went to the Apple store to buy a new charger for my computer. Mine blew up. Good stuff....NOT. But at least I managed to do those two things on my own and in Italian and got what I needed. I'm pleased with that.

Yesterday was a good day for cooking. Maria and Ana (Peppe's sisters) showed us how to make pizza at home. Or at least Maria did the cooking and Ana just talked about it. Those pizzas are amazing. I love them and need to cook them at my house everyday. We did that for lunch. I ate way too many!!!! but then last night we went to Peppe's so Antonio could give a lesson on cooking gnocchi. And again I ate entirely too much. It tastes so good but it makes me miserable. I have issues with eating this much food. Today I took the stairs everywhere. :)

I love living in Napoli. I get excited walking around the University "area". I'm ready to start meeting people and building relationships.

We have a team from a church in Louisiana coming here tomorrow to work with us for a week. We'll be busy with that next week, but I'm excited.

Come back next week for more!!!!

so I don't have internet....but I'm in Italy!

ok so maybe it has been forever since I have blogged. sorry. I guess that last three weeks have been a little busy.....

well let's see, I made it to Italy! It was a long trip here, we had a delay in Munich and spent the day in the Munich airport. But we made it Naples and started off with some pizza of course. We got all moved in to our temporary apartment. It's temporary, but we love it and it's home. We share a family "courtyard" with an amazing family. They cook us food all the time and it's amazing. Last night I ate the best pizza I have ever tasted and it came from them. One night soon they are gonna teach us how to make it. What else.... they don't speak English, but they do speak a lot of fast Italian and occasionally some Napoletana. When we hang our clothes out to dry, they fix them because we do it the wrong way. :) We must be family! I'm so grateful for them and everything that they do for us. But like I said, this place won't be the whole two years.

When I got here almost our whole team came down with swine flu. Luckily I already had my dealings with swine flu in Brazil and didn't go through it again here. But it really knocked our team out. So the first week here was a little slow because of the sicknesses... but now things are moving along. I started language school last Thursday. I like language school, but I need more time to study. Or maybe I just need to study more.

The team is great! and they're gonna read this so I'll say it again... the team is great! haha. They let us bum their internet all the time. But obviously I am not always productive on the internet since this is the first blog I have written in Naples. :) Anyway there are a few pictures.... the courtyard and the city. It's big by the way. I love Naples. I don't like walking in the rain, and I have gotten over my issues with my shower yet. I'm praying about it. It's a little cold, sometimes. ok that's enough for now.

Pray for language learning, I need it.

Pray for our team retreat this weekend.

Pray for Peppe and Assunta, that we can continue to have good time with them.

bye for now!!!