Olive Italy

O-live Italy <3

As October comes to a close, I can't believe how fast it went by and how slow it felt at the same time. I'm thankful for both as our time to return home draws closer. October started out as normal as a month can be living here at the Bible School! We've continued to meet with all of our students. Some of the material we've been using includes Mark, Luke, Acts, an overview of the Bible, grammar and children's Bible stories, the Bible Project videos, and more. We are greatly saddened that we only have five full weeks left with our students. They know that our commitment was only for two years, but they are still really sad when the topic gets brought up. I pray that they will continue to come here to study the Bible with a great new teacher that is to come!

We've continued our Monday night Bible study in English as well. Some weeks we have more people than other weeks, but either way, we are studying through the book of Matthew as it relates to the Old Testament. I was so pleased to hear that Zak chose this topic, because it was something I had been studying on my own, but also what we studied at the Come Before Winter Renewal. I was happy to continue!

Band, Fair, Band, Friends

Nathan has continued to play in the Scandicci community band and the community jazz band. He loves it so much! I try to make it to every concert, but sometimes it's not possible! The people of Scandicci looooooove their music and have them at almost every town event. The one pictured below is Nathan playing in the band at the Scandicci Fair. They say that the fair is the biggest fair in the region of Tuscany, and I believe it! We were fortunate in that we weren't traveling this year and got to experience it many times whether going for band or going with friends. To put it in perspective, we walked almost 40 miles while the fair was here! Just walking to and from and around! Crazy! So fun though! Nathan's band opened up the fair with a parade and then a concert that night. The jazz band closed down the fair a week later. I don't know what Nathan's favorite set is, but mine is Mary Poppins in concert band and any Frank Sinatra song in jazz band. It's always a joy to listen to and the city of Scandicci agrees, rain or shine! (It mostly rained at each concert...)

Olive Pickin'

Nathan and I also got to participate in an Avanti Italia yearly tradition! Rosa, the Bible School's cook, and her husband, Felice, have family land in the southern region of Puglia. Every year they take some Bible School helpers to assist in harvesting their olives to make olive oil. Luckily for us, we were able to make the trip along with our good friends Meredith and James. We decided that we were going to stay as long as they needed us to finish picking olives. They are both in their 70s and we really didn't want to leave it to just the two of them. So a packed rental car, four people, and eight hours later, we made it to their adorable house where a hot dinner was waiting for us (at 10:30pm I might add!) They are just the sweetest couple and I'm glad we got to know them more. They live up to the meanings of their names in English: pink and happy. I couldn't have chosen better names to suit them. Monday through Thursday we were out in their fields picking olives off of their approximately 100 trees. It was work, don't get me wrong, but it was very relaxing getting to be among the trees under the sun. Rosa and Felice were disappointed because their trees didn't produce as many olives as in years past. For example, last year, they say, was their best year ever with 325 liters of oil from their trees. This year, they only produced about 90 liters. I think it's sad, but we tried to be encouraging and still helpful!

After finishing picking olives, we (and by we I mean mostly not me) loaded the heavy bags of olives into three different car loads to take to the olive-oil-making place. Rosa and Felice were kind enough to let us tag along to see all the equipment, new and old, that makes the precious olives into liquid gold! They gave us a quick tour and we headed of to eat lunch. A few hours later, Felice returned and the oil was ready, for the new process it only takes about an hour. Just like that, our job was done! Throughout our trip, Felice and Rosa took us to new places they wanted to show us. One day, Rosa took us to the house her family grew up in, and we also got the chance to meet her older sister, Livia. They were so cute together speaking in dialect that we COULD NOT understand. Rosa also took us to buy fresh mozzarella (yummmm) and to the flour mill to buy fresh flour. Another day, Felice took us to a town called Alberobello (meaning "beautiful tree") that is made up of houses called trulli (plural, or trullo-singular). They are only found in a few cities in Puglia, it being one and also the town they grew up in. They are the cutest little huts made of dry stone with a conical roof. I'll post a picture below! My favorite theory on why there were built this way comes from the trullipuglia.com.

"One of the most common theories for the origin of the Trullo involves the tax laws of 17th Century Italy. It is known that the nobility of the time imposed heavy taxes on any permanent structure. Thus, the theory goes that the peasant families, not able to bear the burden of this tax, built their dwellings so that they could be literally demolished at a moments notice!"

Anyways, they are beautiful, and I'm so glad Felice took us to visit. We also went to see the beach with Rosa, and then another town called Locorotondo in the evening. To say the least, we were so blessed to have been able to help them but also see where they grew up and learn more about their lives. It was a great experience to close out our time here in Italy.

I believe that is all for this month. Please be praying for our team, our church, and our community.

Peace and Blessings friends,

Ashley