Another Christmas Party
STEVE IS AGAIN GUEST WRITING THE COLUMN WHILE I GET SOME STUFF DONE FOR CHRISTMAS. HAVE A GREAT ONE! Fran
My family, as small as it is, has its own holiday tradition. As my nieces and nephews slowly grew out of the belief in Santa Claus, leaving his existence to the even younger, we started exchanging a very different sort of Christmas gift from family to family. I think my sister started it, by sending, as my present, a contribution to a womens crisis and counselling center near where she lived. I started getting back at her by giving money to charities in my area that I thought were important, and who would use the funds wisely.
Since living in Sicily, I have been giving these family Christmas gifts to Agape, which is a non profit, parent run organization that takes care of adults with developmental and other disabilities (or is the word challenges, or different abilities, or special needs. Anyway, you get the idea). Paolos daughter Giusi attends the day program, and not only does she get a lot out of it, it also allows Paolo and Ignatzia to take care of a lot of things without having to worry about Giusi.
Paolo has done a lot for the organization. When they got new quarters near the newly constructed hospital, Paolo worked with his furniture stores suppliers to get good prices on the chairs and tables that were needed. He pressured merchants to buy special Agape calendars one year, so that Agape could buy a new wheelchair bus. He got Agape on the list to get surplus or welfare food from the government, so that the parents can come in and cook with their children and the staff at Agape, which helps the nutrition of some of the poorer families, gives good skills to the client population, and gets everyone involved in the program.
He is president of Agape this year. He took over from Mr. Gallo. Mr Gallo was married to a woman whose maiden name was Gallina, and it is common for women to keep their maiden name throughout their marriage here. Gallo means Rooster, and Gallina means Hen. So it was Mr. Rooster and his wife Mrs. Hen. It seemed like a fairy tale set up. But I am losing the thread here.
As I said, Paolo is president of Agape this year, and he is proud to be president. He is also concerned, because the government has not come through with some of the funding that they are supposed to. Agape has had to pay to license their new bus, and has had to pay for the weekly psychologist consult they get, as well as for some physical and occupational therapy. He has had to raise the money to pay for these things mainly from the parents, and as I said above, some of them are too poor to give much.
This year, they had planned their annual Christmas party, and Fran and I were invited. Before the party, I gave Paolo a check as my Christmas present to my brother and sister, and my Christmas present to him. It was, of course, made out to Agape. He was pleased to get it, and pleased at the amount.
When we went to the Christmas party, he handed it back to me, and told me to give it to another woman we knew, who is the treasurer. She was very happy to get it. She went into the back room, with a friend, and came out with a bunch of twenty euro bills. She gave one to each of the parents who were there. They had paid for the Christmas party, and they got a refund, because my brother and sister were willing to pay for the party. I had to explain this to everyone.
In the meantime, people kept going over to the huge boxes of tabisco (table size) pizzas that had been brought to the party. They kept trying to get Fran and I to eat one more slice of pizza. Because I had forgotten our cameras when we first got there, and had to go home and get them (we are considered their semi-official photographers), we missed out on the arancini that were served before the pizza. There were not enough arancini around for everyone to have two or three, but the clients did get theirs. Then there was too much pizza, so some of the parents were able to take some home. Then Santa arrived, and each client had a specially wrapped manger, as well as a Christ child, who, of course, could not be in the manger until Christmas day. Finally, as Fran and I were leaving to do a few other things before stores closed, we had to duck the panetone that they had for everyone. That is the holiday cake, and it is as common here and lasts as long as fruit cake does in the US.
Throughout the evening, everyone wanted to tell us how much they enjoyed the party that we sponsored, even though we did not know we would be sponsoring it. It certainly made us feel full of the Christmas spirit, and I think my brother and sister share in our pleasure.
May the spirits of peace and joy be with you, as the days slowly lengthen, and may our thoughts turn to love for all of humanity . . . May we all count our blessings, and appreciate the learning opportunities we have had in the years past. . . May calmness enter our hearts, and joyous expectations be our sustenance for the coming year . . .
Steve (and Fran)
My family, as small as it is, has its own holiday tradition. As my nieces and nephews slowly grew out of the belief in Santa Claus, leaving his existence to the even younger, we started exchanging a very different sort of Christmas gift from family to family. I think my sister started it, by sending, as my present, a contribution to a womens crisis and counselling center near where she lived. I started getting back at her by giving money to charities in my area that I thought were important, and who would use the funds wisely.
Since living in Sicily, I have been giving these family Christmas gifts to Agape, which is a non profit, parent run organization that takes care of adults with developmental and other disabilities (or is the word challenges, or different abilities, or special needs. Anyway, you get the idea). Paolos daughter Giusi attends the day program, and not only does she get a lot out of it, it also allows Paolo and Ignatzia to take care of a lot of things without having to worry about Giusi.
Paolo has done a lot for the organization. When they got new quarters near the newly constructed hospital, Paolo worked with his furniture stores suppliers to get good prices on the chairs and tables that were needed. He pressured merchants to buy special Agape calendars one year, so that Agape could buy a new wheelchair bus. He got Agape on the list to get surplus or welfare food from the government, so that the parents can come in and cook with their children and the staff at Agape, which helps the nutrition of some of the poorer families, gives good skills to the client population, and gets everyone involved in the program.
He is president of Agape this year. He took over from Mr. Gallo. Mr Gallo was married to a woman whose maiden name was Gallina, and it is common for women to keep their maiden name throughout their marriage here. Gallo means Rooster, and Gallina means Hen. So it was Mr. Rooster and his wife Mrs. Hen. It seemed like a fairy tale set up. But I am losing the thread here.
As I said, Paolo is president of Agape this year, and he is proud to be president. He is also concerned, because the government has not come through with some of the funding that they are supposed to. Agape has had to pay to license their new bus, and has had to pay for the weekly psychologist consult they get, as well as for some physical and occupational therapy. He has had to raise the money to pay for these things mainly from the parents, and as I said above, some of them are too poor to give much.
This year, they had planned their annual Christmas party, and Fran and I were invited. Before the party, I gave Paolo a check as my Christmas present to my brother and sister, and my Christmas present to him. It was, of course, made out to Agape. He was pleased to get it, and pleased at the amount.
When we went to the Christmas party, he handed it back to me, and told me to give it to another woman we knew, who is the treasurer. She was very happy to get it. She went into the back room, with a friend, and came out with a bunch of twenty euro bills. She gave one to each of the parents who were there. They had paid for the Christmas party, and they got a refund, because my brother and sister were willing to pay for the party. I had to explain this to everyone.
In the meantime, people kept going over to the huge boxes of tabisco (table size) pizzas that had been brought to the party. They kept trying to get Fran and I to eat one more slice of pizza. Because I had forgotten our cameras when we first got there, and had to go home and get them (we are considered their semi-official photographers), we missed out on the arancini that were served before the pizza. There were not enough arancini around for everyone to have two or three, but the clients did get theirs. Then there was too much pizza, so some of the parents were able to take some home. Then Santa arrived, and each client had a specially wrapped manger, as well as a Christ child, who, of course, could not be in the manger until Christmas day. Finally, as Fran and I were leaving to do a few other things before stores closed, we had to duck the panetone that they had for everyone. That is the holiday cake, and it is as common here and lasts as long as fruit cake does in the US.
Throughout the evening, everyone wanted to tell us how much they enjoyed the party that we sponsored, even though we did not know we would be sponsoring it. It certainly made us feel full of the Christmas spirit, and I think my brother and sister share in our pleasure.
May the spirits of peace and joy be with you, as the days slowly lengthen, and may our thoughts turn to love for all of humanity . . . May we all count our blessings, and appreciate the learning opportunities we have had in the years past. . . May calmness enter our hearts, and joyous expectations be our sustenance for the coming year . . .
Steve (and Fran)
posted by Sicilian Mama at 4:26 PM
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