I am writing from very beautiful. very warm Rome. I was supposed to arrive here at 8 30am Wednesday. However, because my plane left late from Chicago, I missed my connecting flight in Zurich,Switzerland to Rome. The airline put me on a plane to Frankfurt, Germany. There I had to get on another plane and fly to Rome arriving at 1pm.
Later that day, I met Chelo Manero from Mexico . She and I work together with DCYIA. Deaf Catholic Youth Initiative for the Americas. We had dinner and I went to bed. I had been up for 36 hours. I slept for 10 hours.
Thursday morning: Rome is very sunny, very warm, and always beautiful. Thursday, Iwent for a long walk in the morning. Rome is very crowded these days with tourists from all over the world. By Noon, some of the interpreters from the US had arrived. We had a meeting to start planning for all the activities for the coming week.
By the evening, a group of young people from Mexico arrived. They were so excited to be in Rome. Fr. Shawn Carey, deaf priest from Bosto, also arrived.
Friday was a busy day. Other staff members were arriving. Pat Graybill, Mary Ann Barth , Lauren-Lynch Ryan , all deaf Board members, finally arrived. Friday evening, we had delicious Italian dinner, lots of pasta and excellent grilled vegetables. Then, a two hour staff meeting (26 staff members, presenters, priests, interpreters) with spoken Spanish, spoken English, ASL, LSM (Mexican sign language) , and start ed to learn some basic Italian signs from our Italian sign language interpreters. The young college students from Mexico went out to “explore” Rome on a Friday night. People like me went to bed!
I remember all of you in my prayers.