Tuesday morning was spent booking my train tickets to Rome (40 euros round trip!), then grabbing a croissant and piece of bread to eat on the way to our meeting with SCUDO, the Swiss Italian home health care organization. The director was the first guy to talk to us – he spoke in Italian the entire time with Earl (our academic director) translating for us. I was more interested in picking up Italian than learning about the organization. The next guy spoke in French, and it was kind of cool already knowing what he had said before Earl translated for everyone else. We had lunch all together afterwards, then went back for more presentations by other people who work for SCUDO. Had a little break, then the group was invited to an aperitivo or drink in the hotel to mix and mingle, I guess.
For dinner I wandered around with Sara and Beza… Sara of course got grapes at the grocery store but Beza and I had some real Italian food J We got back relatively early since we didn’t feel like going out (and since everything closes after 6), then hung out in the fort that Natasha and Jordan had built out of their bed and curtains. It was fun, Beza’s back was really sore so we made a little massage train then watched Sex and the City and ate the 2 tons of chocolate Tash and Jordan had bought for their dinner.
Today we had talks from FOSIT, the Federation of Swiss Italian NGO’s, and a couple of the NGO’s that are in FOSIT. It was just in the hotel, which wasn’t very exciting, but we had a lunch break so we got to wander around the city a bit. Like I said before, there isn’t much new to see after you’ve wandered around the city a couple of times, but it’s still really beautiful, and during the day much more alive than at night. I got a sandwich at a bakery with Erin, then we went to this chocolate store we found to buy ourselves dessert. Current chocolate in my purse: dark chocolate Toblerone, white chocolate with strawberry crisp, Lindt milk chocolate with hazelnut, and dark chocolate with raspberry. I love chocolate.
We walked to the lake front to eat and found Erin (there are two Erin’s), Ria, Nadia, and Ebun. They left so after I finished eating I searched for some gelato, and had some delicious coffee flavored gelato. When I go home I’m SO going to Santa Cruz to get more gelato… it’s so exciting how you can get it pretty much anywhere… as well as the 2 franc bars of Lindt J The weather this week has been absolutely beautiful, which I’m really grateful for. We have another break before more aperitivos tonight with the people from FOSIT and the NGO’s – one lady that started her own little foundation to help people in the Ivory Coast and Benin is just this amazing woman. She started it to help people who have mental health problems and are shunned by society – literally chained to trees to live (or die) by their families, or this one girl that she just adopted was kept in a dog cage for 10 years because she’s epileptic. Anyway, she said she’s really interested in microfinance, and it’s the first time I’ve encountered anyone even mentioning it here, so I’m interested in talking more to her about it. She also has really interesting perspectives on field versus non-field work, and how so much money goes towards research and number crunching when what really matters is how much of a difference you make on a human level. Anyway, tonight’s my last night here, then I leave on the overnight train to Rome tomorrow night with Orlando and Beza if she gets over her sickness! More to come, ciao!
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