A different kind of Turkey Day

No turkey was in the oven at our house today. Instead, we cut up some leftover chicken breast, mixed in some grapes, celery, red onion and mayonnaise and called it chicken salad. Then, we threw in a bag with some crackers, potato chips, carrots and apples and headed for the mountains for a picnic. We decided to check out Lecco (near the foothills of the Alps in the lake region) and see if we could find a hiking trail in the Alps. We weren't successful at finding a hiking trail but we did have one superb picnic on a bench overlooking the lake with the mountains surrounding us on all sides. The drive was worth the trip and we were grateful for the change in pace.

We'll have a traditional Turkey Day next week with Mom, Polly and Paul and Jesse in Houston. We return to the States on Monday for a month as we hope to process some paperwork at the Italian consulate in order for Wayne to be able to practice chiropractic here. Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good feast!

Monday = Mercato

It's a good day in Gorgonzola when Monday rolls around because the market comes to town. All the fresh fruits and veggies you could ever want are for sale all year long. This is the only place that I've been able to find cilantro...the vendor who sells this never fails to try to make me buy 3 or 4 bunches but I don't need THAT much!

Believe it or not, you can even buy household goods, clothes, plants...you name it. Everyone from the town turns out on the streets for this and its a merry, social occasion.

The streets get cleared from the parked cars that normally occupy this area and traffic is prohibited from passing through. Commerce ranks high on the priority list around here. One euro here, one euro there and soon the money runs out and its time to go home and look forward to the next Monday...

A Funny...

There is a story that we heard that has comforted us time and time again when we've struggled with the language here. One of the older ministers that was here in Italy and learning the language found himself one day on one of the super-packed underground metro cars. Without knowing, he stepped on a woman's foot and she spewed out a long monologue of expletives to voice her discomfort. The minister looked at her and said, in his broken Italian: "Excuse ma'am, could you please repeat that more slowly, please?"

Ricardo

We must tell you about our new friend, Ricardo. Ricardo lives in Pescara, about 5 hours southeast of here near the Adriatic coast. He is in his 40s but is quite delayed in his mental development by some standards, but extremely developed in significant areas. For example, Ricardo speaks extremely good English. In fact, he said more than once when we were with him "I speak perfect English!" He made his choice to serve God a few years ago in the best way he knows how...he can't comprehend much of what is going on around him but he is able to read and understand the Bible and he shares something that has made an impression on him during the Sunday morning meeting.

Before we met him, he had heard there were an American couple coming and he could hardly contain himself. He couldn't wait to speak English with us. Once we were together, he expressed his excitement by breaking out in one of our patriotic songs during the evening meal "God Bless America", only it sounded more like "gode blezz amereekaaa" with his Italian accent!

We had to go to Pescara this week to have the little car we are using serviced by a mechanic that promised to fix anything that went wrong with it for no charge. While in the area, we were with David Butterworth and Pasquale di Pentima and met many of the Friends around there, saw the Petticiato (sp?) convention grounds, and were given fresh olive oil that had been harvested the day before. The road to the southeast part of Italy is literally where the mountains meet the sea...so many beautiful, fertile farmland full of vineyards, olive groves and plentiful crops too numerous to name here. We understand now why Italy has another name: 'Bella Italia'.