St. Brigid Roman Catholic Church
Journal Entry - September 29, 2002
Well, I've made it to Rome! I had a really good time getting here, visiting family in St. Louis, New York, Ireland, England, and Barcelona. I also made a few new friends in Paris and Taize. I've done a ton of stuff, so the time has really flown by, but it seems like such a long time ago since I left my sweet home San Diego. The goodbye parties from my family, friends, and at work were very nice. I've gotten so much encouragement to do this and I really appreciate it.
I'm staying in a house on the grounds of the Cannossian Daughters of Charity. The place is beautiful! It was selectively given to them at a good price in 1975. It is about 1 km from the Vatican and about a 30 minute walk through town. There are about 15 nuns living here, preparing to finish their formations of becoming nuns, getting advanced degrees in theology, or preparing for their own missions.
There are 11 volunteers preparing to go to Albania, Malawi, or Tanzania. Mary Dawn, Jenny, George, Mary Margaret, Erin, Katie, Lisa, and Myrtle are from the States, while Justyna is from Poland and Dagmar is from Slavakia. (Dagmar said that in Slavakia they would say that I am as long as the week before payday.) We are living in a 4 bedroom house, with the boys in the penthouse. I can see St. Peter's Bascillica from my pillow at night and there are great views from the balconies. There is a big park on the other side of the property in which I've gone running and recently started playing "ultimate frisbee." The park is quite big with lots of paths through forests, around lakes, through gardens with fountains and statues, and even a 4th century church!
Rome is a beautiful city and I've had a few days in the beginning to go out and see the town, but for the most part I'm kept quite busy here on the grounds. I have language classes 3 times a week for 2 hours and lots of studying and homework between the classes. It's been tough for me to pick up. There are 6 classes of nouns with each one having their own concordial prefixes, some words have different meanings depending on the tone used, and a lot of other tricky stuff. I spend a lot of time just trying to build the vocabulary, but the words and sounds are just completely different. I guess English is still harder to learn, but I've got my work cut out for me. They say to keep studying and it eventually just clicks.
We have group meetings every day in which we've been discussing our motivations for being here and how to grow together as a community. We've also done some work in a local soup kitchen for homeless and refugees and we went and visited a convalescent home. It sure feels good to help people out and just to be available for them. It is also a great reminder of how lucky I am.
It is also a lot of work to go shopping, cook, and clean for 11 people! We trade off, but it is amazing how much food we have to get and then how quickly it is gone, and the mess of dishes after every meal. I've got a whole new appreciation for the amount of work my Mom and Dad did for 8 kids.
If I'm every going to get pick-pocketed in Rome, it's going to be while I'm eating gelato. That stuff is awesome and it gets my full attention every time!
The other day I was thinking about what a tough decision this was to make back in February and March, but now I'm so glad to be here and to be a part of this. This is sure to be the "honeymoon" part of this commitment, but I'm really enjoying my time hear and looking forward to being in Malawi. I've also come to appreciate the job and communtiy that I had back in San Diego. It was definitely tough to leave town, but I'm feeling really good about what I'm doing and what lies ahead.
Computer time is scarce with everything that's going on as well as having 11 people trying to keep up to speed on e-mail. I'll do the best I can to keep in touch. Take care and may God bless you!
Over and out! -Giovanni Roma
