Dec. 30

We met this morning at 9:30 a.m. to make sandwiches to take to the park. Again, too many people to fit in the kitchens to make sandwiches. I went with Rudy to get a Coke, and along the way, he had me take a picture of him with some random Italian woman. Again. He likes to do this. Rudy is our youth minister. He’s never been to Rome before and is very excited about everything. He’s also very excited because he is always hyped up on caffeine.

Scott and I then went to see if the free WiFi place was open, but it wasn’t. I walked around for a bit on my own, and then the place opened. So we went back and posted two days of blogs, but didn’t have time to do photos.

Halfway to the bus stop for the park, I realized I forgot my camera. We weren’t planning to come back today before going to Hard Rock Cafe and Trevi Fountain, so I handed off my backpack full of sandwiches, grabbed another woman and went back to the apartment. Then we caught the next bus No. 3 to Colosseo (the Colosseum). At the park, Scott was talking to some guys from Guinea and Mali (in French, of course), and lots of people were talking to other refugees and playing soccer, Frisbee and hackeysack with them.





I walked down to the other area where our people were because that’s where my backpack was. Once there, I began talking to some guys from Nigeria who would like eventually to go to the United States because they said they could get jobs and become somebody there if they worked hard. They do not like Italy because they said Italians are not friendly at all and won’t even look at them or touch their hands or anything. They said Italians don’t like them because their skin color is different. I told them it was once that way in the United States until people stood up and said, “No. This is wrong. We are not going to do this any more,” so people can change. So Lisa and Richard and I gathered around with them and Richard prayed that Italy will change and that these guys will be able to make their way somewhere. They told us they are Catholic, and one asked for an English Bible. I did not have mine with me, but will try to remember to take it with me tomorrow in case they are there.

We also went to Basilica di San Clemente, the three-layer church. On top is the newest church. A level down is a fourth century (I think) church, and below that is part of ancient Rome where it is said Christians first met together in someone’s house.

Then we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, where we did not have to wait an hour and a half this year, but we sat in smaller groups, and then to Trevi Fountain. I did not throw any coins in it and don’t know if anyone else did. Then we shopped a bit around the area and came back in smaller groups. We took bus 63 back to Largo Argentina and tram 8 back to our area, where we stopped for pastries to have for breakfast.

And now we are in our apartment, snacking and talking. I hope I will be able to post this tomorrow, along with some photos.