Now: I must be careful, not only is she Italian but a hot blooded Sicilian girl with brown hair and green eyes… To be honest she is one of the least Italian behaving people from this old and beautiful country I have ever met. I married her because she is incredible, beautiful, full of joy and life, loves Jesus with all of her heart, and loves people.
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| Enjoying a brat and beer. |
It was quite a change for me to go from the solo life of a bachelor to the very intimate life of a married man.. We are very seldom apart though I know this will undoubtedly change as life’s circumstances also change. For now we are in a good place and we are constantly encountering and working together to get through challenging differences and situations in our relationship. We have not yet been married for 1 year, so I am doing my best to soak up the bliss in the beginning before the rigors of life catch up to the cloud we have been riding.
With my little wife comes all these perks, excluding her accent, which never even crossed my mind. A great perk is her family. I knew I would inherit a new family, but didn't know it would be a Sicilian family… It’s really not hard at all to get on a plane because we need to visit family. In fact I think it is harder not to get on the plane - they live in Sicily.
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| La Grotta - Wonderful Italian Restaurant in Oberhausen. |
This is our first time back into the old country since we were married last year in September 2015. We made a quick stop in Germany on our way. We stayed with her German family for some days in Oberhausen where they operate an Italian restaurant. We also made our way north to Hamburg to see the city and stay with some friends. I never got used to eating at a restaurant every night for dinner. I would just open the menu and point at something, their cooks would then cook me up a tasty Italian dish; quite good ones. I recommend it to anyone who finds themselves in Oberhausen. A nice thing about Germany is the Italian church. I like to think that I have experienced some pretty incredible things. Who wants an Italian church potluck? I do. Who wants beer and brats (on church grounds) after church? I do. Who wants to watch the Italy/Germany Europe cup game in Germany with Italians? I do.
From there we flew down to Catania to meet with Stella’s family and begin our vacation; relaxing and catching up (in Italian). I spend most of my time listening, with a slight struggle to contribute to conversation now and again. When I speak in Italian it is more often a form of entertainment at this point than any real communication but I have fun doing it.
In my conversations abroad the hot topics have been Hillary vs. Trump and guns. Trump scares everyone to death and the idea of everyone having a gun is crazy to Europeans. The funny thing is, of the two families we have visited so far, both are gun collecting enthusiasts and are very excited to bring me into their secret places where they keep their firearms hidden and locked away; their collections surprisingly large.
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| The Peugeot 207 |
While we have been here, we have been sharing a car with her parents. It has been difficult to get out and have fun in the city when her parents have needs for the car. We have been staying in their other apartment that is down the road, and have been taking the car to get home at night. We then have to come back in the morning when we really would rather sleep in and wake up at our own lazy pace. We have been thinking about purchasing a car here in Italy we could use instead of renting. It would be nice for her parents to use once in a while and would free us from taking their car constantly. Looking at the price of a rental car during the month of august, it makes sense to purchase a used car we can keep. We spent a few days calling people and looking at used car lots. We eventually found a car that fits our needs; a 2007 Peugeot 207. Now we are free to roam as we please.
Now that we have a car options open for us to travel around Sicily, one idea Stella had was to go south on the eastern coast toward Syracuse. This is of course an ancient and beautiful city, but also an area where we can potentially work with refugees that are fleeing from various areas of northern Africa. It has been an ongoing problem for Italy and Europe to take on the number of people fleeing and crossing borders. This course across the Sea being the only option of escape for many. This trip sometimes takes up to 10 days on a little boat; most boats capsizing due to overcrowding and many people drowning. For those who survive, once reaching “freedom” in Italy, most are then turned around and sent back to Africa while others are locked into compounds because they are illegal immigrants, all the while not knowing why they are locked up or what is going on. Pray for them as they are there, and for us as we go down to get an idea of what is happening and how we can serve.
