Ciao!
In this last week, we have visited 6 different cities! It has been a whirl wind!
Two Saturdays ago, Fabrizio, Eric, and I went to visit the city called Grottaglie. Grottaglie is known for its ceramics. As you can imagine, I was excited. I have never seen so many beautiful ceramic pieces. Like Taranto, the city itself is divided into the new and old city. The entire "old" city is dedicated to the ceramics. It was even more enjoyable because Antonietta and Vito came to join us as well!
This is only one of the 6 rooms filled with these beautifully hand made ceramics. Outstanding.
This is still the same shop. It was amazing to me because no matter how much we saw, there was still more. For example, when you walk into the store, obviously the main room is very big, but then you walk up the center steps and can discovered 3 more rooms filled with ceramics. Then, you can also hang a left from the center room and find the room in the picture above. THEN, you can take the steps from that room and find the small, but loaded with even more ceramics, room below! We took this picture for my sister because she loves elephants- can you find the blue elephant in the room??
More ceramics. . . .
This is the outside of this store.
What a great time together =)
The next day was Sunday. Every first Sunday of the month. Franco Verrardi comes from Latiano (about a 45 min drive) to preach here in Taranto. After worship, he had invited Eric and I to his house for lunch and time to visit with his family. First, I have to tell you what an amazing cook his wife Anna Maria is- marvelous. For lunch that Sunday we enjoyed a ham and cheese lasagne, layered of course with bechamel, bombette (they are sausage rolled up with bacon and cooked in the oven) and desert- homemade Tiramisu (which I cant remember if I've told you this already or not- but in English, Tiramisu translates literally to "pick me up"- isnt that funny?) . Yum. We very much enjoyed that Sunday together with their family. It was a special treat for me to be able to get to know their daughter better. She is my age, and so we have a lot of things in common. Anyways, we had a great Sunday together.
After lunch and after the boys took a quick nap, Franco and Anna Maria invited us to go to the beach with them! I cant remember the name of the town that they took us to, but it was very charming and seemed just like a story book Italian village. The sea was rural, but none the less beautiful. we enjoyed the scenery together and after a gelato, headed to the train station.
After waiting for over a half an hour, Franco informed us that the train was late due to all the fleeing Tusinian immigrants who are working their way up through Italy. He mentioned that there were crowds of them trying to get on the trains, that there was much confusion, but when we asked if it was safe, he assured us that we would be fine to go ahead and take the train because there was police to keep us safe.
I have never been so frightened in my life. As soon as we boarded the train, I felt uneasy. There were people roaming the train and yelling. Windows were being open and shut. The only security was the single police officer who kept walking up and down the aisle. There are 3 stops between Latiano and Taranto. The stops were scary because every time we would pull into the different citites, there were crowds and crowds of people trying to get on the train. (also in the midst of all this remember that is it past 10 at night) To try to avoid chaos, the police had closed all of the doors on the train except for one where people could enter and exit. However, at one point, I looked at my window and there was a group of men trying to climb in through the window next to ours. After three long stops, we finally made it to Taranto a little after 11 pm.
When we arrived there were masses of people everywhere. We made our way out of the station onto the curb to then wait for the bus. In the mean time, we watched a crowd of people be herded and pushed into the back left corner across the street from the bus stop where we were waiting. After 20 or so minutes, a man was carried out from the train station by his hands and feet. After we saw this, and realized that the bus probably wasn't coming, we decided to call Luca and ask him to come and pick us up. You are probably wondering why we didnt do this sooner. All of the people we know from the church are at least a 30 min drive from Taranto where we live. Luckily that night we knew that Luca was getting off work around this time. Finally around a quarter until midnight we were safely in the car with Luca. Right now, Taranto is one of the main cities affected only because we are so far south. Please pray for everyone who is being affected during this time of war.
"Almost 19,000 migrants have arrived since January, mostly in fishing boats and other small craft since the overthrow of former Tunisian President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali loosened tight frontier checks that blocked the way into Europe."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1371204/Lampedusa-MORE-migrants-fleeing-Tunisia-Libya-inhabitants.html
Go to this site to see and read more
On a lighter note, the next day we were both still a little shook up about the night before. It was the middle of the afternoon when I heard the door buzz. I thought it was Eric because he was out with Franco figuring out some of our legal details while living here in Italy as foreigners. When I asked who it was, I heard on the other end "I have a package for a mr smith." What a wonderful surprise! My parents had sent us a package!! We had mentioned to our parents that it would be nice to have some American cake mixes and supplies to make American desserts for when we have meetings with the youth, our students, the kids at Laura's school etc (for example: in Italy I cannot find: cake mixes, marshmallows, food coloring, coco powder, peanut butter, real vanilla....etc). It was such a blessing and it really lifted our spirits. Thanks Mom and Dad! =)
=)
the rest of the week went as normal. We had classes with our students, taught at the kids school, had lunch and visited with Anna Maria, and went to the market with my student in Talsano. Thursday after my skype class with my student in Scandicci, Eric and I went with Franco and Enza to Auchan (like a Walmart). Our apartment here doesn't have any mosquito screens. We have been warned that the summers here are very hot (95 degrees is the medium heat they say. . . ) and we do not have air- so we need to figure out some type of window screening to let the air in but not the mosquitos. Franco took us to a store and we purchased a type of screen/curtain that we hung in the living room to try out. We will see how this turns out. Anyways, its always fun to be with Franco and Enza- we really are enjoying getting to know them better.
We are becoming great friends with our students. They are very sweet to us and have helped us in many ways here in Taranto. Also, one of Eric's students referred his cousin to Eric as a teacher and their first class was last week. Friday, right after the kids class at the school, Eric and I met with our students for a day trip to Lecce! Everyone in Italy will tell you that Lecce is like the Florence of the South. Eric's student had to go there during the day for work and they invited us to tag along. It was such a beautiful city.
Downtown Lecce.
The old amphitheater.
Eric, a strange statue, and Antonella =)
I guess you would call this the town square. Antonella told me that the saying of the town is that if you stand in the middle of the rectangle and stare up at the statue directly, a curse will be upon you! ha.
It really is like a little Florence =)
The next day, Fabrizio was off of work and Luca was finished early a little after 1pm- so we planned to visit Alberobello and spend the day together. Alberobello is known for it's Trulli houses that you can see above. I went to this website to find the significance behind the Trulli for you! enjoy =)
" A trullo is a small dwelling built from the local limestone, with dry-stone walls and a characteristic conical roof. It is a traditional and simple type of structure which you'll see dotted around this part of Puglia, sometimes in its most basic form used as a kind of shed among the olive groves. The story behind Alberobello, once a town of trulli alone, is a typically Italian one: its design was to fiddle taxes and fool the authorities. The local feudal lord, Count Acquaviva, moved his peasant workers here to clear woodland and cultivate the land. To wriggle around laws and taxes, it was important that Alberobello didn't class as an inhabited settlement. So until 1797, when Alberobello was finally given 'town' status, the people had to live intrulli, which could be dismantled in a hurry when necessary.
The buildings are usually square and have very thick stone walls, constructed without mortar. The thickness strengthens the structure and also helps regulate the internal temperature. The roof is actually a dome, as you can see when you enter one of the buildings, but is almost invariably built up on top into a cone shape, topped with a spire. There is generally a central room, with additional living spaces in arched alcoves. Residential trulli are smartly whitewashed, and their roofs are often decorated with fanciful painted symbols supposed to have religious or superstitious significance. The fanciness of the spire decoration was something of a status symbol: it showed the builders' skill and thus the spending power of the owners. Frequently the houses consist of more than one trullo roof: they are more like trullo complexes crowned with several roof-cones."
http://www.italyheaven.co.uk/puglia/alberobello.html
Fabrizio and Luca met up with an old friend, who invited us ontop of his roof to enjoy the view of the city.
Boys will be boys =)
The next day, after worship we enjoyed lunch at Adele's house (the mom of Fabrizio and Luca). Afterwards, we changed our Sunday attire and headed to see the beach together! Above the boys were taking off their shoes to take a stroll through the ocean. Fabrizio is showing us the American flag on his socks ;)
The ocean was so beautiful!
It's funny, when they said they wanted to take us to the beach- automatically, I pictured the beach that my family and I go to every summer in South Carolina. However, this is nothing like what we imagine. This was pure natural beach and ocean- no condos or hotels lined up along the side of the road- simply the beach. What a treat =)
On the way back into Taranto, we passed the huge factory in Taranto called ILVA. It is the largest steel factory in all of Europe. It also is a very dangerous chemical pollution source here. In fact, "the direct consequence is that Taranto has one of the highest rate of death by cancer in Italy."http://unurth.com/58840/Blu-Smoking-Politicians-Italy
*go here to look at better photos of the factory
It is something that you can't help but think about while living here. When I have asked people what they think about this, they all know the facts, but they do not do anything about it because the factory employs so many people. IN 2009, "The production unit in Taranto in southern Italy employs around 14,000 employees, the majority of whom are men." http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/areas/qualityofwork/betterjobs/cases/it03ilva.htm
Anyways, all of that just to share bit of cultural information here in Taranto.
After enjoying the sun and the beach together, we headed over to Franco and Enza's house to pick up Andrea for pizza and a movie at our apartment. As always, it was a great time together =)
These next coming weeks are going to be busy ones! This weekend is the first youth retreat in Taranto, next weekend is the youth retreat in Bologna, the following weekend is Eric's 30th birthday, that will hopefully be accompanied by a visit from David and Jim Woodroof =) Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. We are always encouraged by the thought of all of you at home. Please pray that God will lead us while we are here and that we can continue to live in His service.
