If you haven't been following my blog, I'll recap. Unbeknownst to me, I signed up for the "Service Learning" component of Beginner Italian, which includes a requirement of 15 service hours at a local organization or charity in Italy.
Naturally, the sound of this freaked me out as I thought I would be unable to travel on the weekend due to my service hours.
Naturally, that didn't happen, as my service began after spring break and was only once a week on Wednesdays.
Spring break came and went and I had my first day of service on Wednesday, March 28, 2012. After taking the city bus to the outskirts of Florence, we* finally made it to our correct stop and began the short walk to San Michele, a women's shelter, which is part of a larger organization called Caritas.
There, we met Tita, who was in charge of the shelter and spoke no English. Even with our basic conversational Italian vocabulary and my phrase book, we literally hung on her every word and used hand motions. A lot.
The first day went by quickly as we spent most of the day "learning the ropes." We played with a few of the kids but had even trouble communicating with them.
I mean, you can only say, "Come ti chiami" (what is your name) and "Mi piace" (I like that) so many times before they start to get bored...
However, both Talia and I quickly formed a relationship with a cute little girl name Sian, who was from Africa. She quickly clung to us and showed us outside to the play area, where we pushed her on the swing, caught her on the slide and helped her ride her bike around the yard.
No sooner had we started playing that it was time for dinner. Not hungry, I politely declined dinner only to receive several stares from the women at the shelter. It was not that I didn't want to eat, I just wasn't terribly hungry and wanted to make sure every woman at the shelter was served first--the next several weeks I came to the shelter hungry.
As I sat there, I noticed a Van Gogh poster on the wall in the dining room. It was a picture I recognized. A picture I had seen only week before. It was Van Gogh's "Sunflowers."
Tears began to well up in my eyes. Just months earlier when I heard about the service learning component, I was dreading it, concerned even, fearing it might affect my travel plans.
And here I was, staring at this poster of the painting I had seen in person. A painting, some of these women have probably never even heard of. A painting, most of these women will probably never see in their lifetime.
I then began to think back to my own childhood, remembering my Barbie birthday parties, Christmas with my family....and, the infinite amount of toys I thought "I couldn't live without."
To say it was a humbling experience, would be an understatement.
......................
At 8 o'clock, we signed out, doing our best to use military time, and headed towards the bus stop, unsure of the correct one to take or what stop to wait at...
FYI, we made it home, only after we made a quick stop to change drivers even further outside the city center of Florence. My heart sank a little bit as I thought I would never make it home. The fact that I could barely communicate with the women at the shelter was proof enough that had we actually been lost, we probably would have never made it home. We later found out that the correct/fastest bus stop back to Florence was down the street a ways and came only a few minutes after our original/slower bus. Problem solved.
As the weeks passed, I began to feel more comfortable at the shelter, despite my terrible Italian, and even enjoyed eating with them during dinner. It was if Talia and I fit right in because every week, we sat in the same seats directly across from Sian and her mom, just like we had the first day.
A ball full of energy, Sian never slowed down. She would constantly want to run around outside, play with the blocks and leggos and, one of the more challenging activities for us, read storybooks. Thankfully, Sian enjoyed looking at the pictures more so we were usually off the hook!
This past Wednesday (May 2) was my last trip to the shelter. I never in a million years thought I would be sad to leave. Sure, I had my fair share of complaints at the beginning but, I actually felt like me just being there helped show these women that someone cared about them.
(Me and Sian)
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Mahatma Gandhi
XOXO,
Meggie
*I attended the shelter with a girl named Talia, who also attended Florence University of the Arts.
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