bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao ciao ciao.

So I missed the USA vs. England game in the World Cup… but instead I had the most fun night of the entire trip! My friend Ben and I went to see our friend Giovanni play in a brass band at a culture festival, and it was so good! At first we got lost because our only directions were go to Piazza dei Longobardi and when we got off at the Garbatella stop (which was the right stop, but I was second-guessing myself at the time) several people told us Piazza dei Longobardi didn’t exist. So that was exciting. A nice lady at a pharmacy finally knew where it was and once we got close, we just followed the sound of music until we found the festival. We really had no idea what to expect, but the best way I can describe it is a very intense block party or a parade without the parade. It was in a residential area, but there were bands playing all sorts of music all over the place. A lot of it was sort of folksy music, but there was one drum group that I loved – they were playing loud strong beats that made you feel like you had to go dance around a fire or something. There were tons of stands set up along the sides of the road with food or games for kids or for organizations like Amnesty International or Greenpeace, and women in costumes were walking and dancing around on stilts. However even after we walked around all the main areas we could not find Giovanni. We knew from talking to him before that his band was pretty big – 50 people when everyone was there – so we just kept wandering listening for saxophones and that sort of thing. Finally, we heard music from behind a wall and wandered into what looked like someone’s backyard to discover Titubando playing underneath a bunch of what I’m assuming was a grid of wire to hang laundry out to dry. So that was a little funny, but they were so so good! I took a video from when they played again later and I’ll post it on facebook because I can’t really think of how to describe the type of music. It was just very fun and free sounding. (Besides the videos though, I sort of failed at taking pictures all night, and I’m kicking myself over it now…) When he saw us, Giovanni eventually ran over and we got to learn like two lines of a song that goes “ciao bella, ciao bella, ciao ciao ciao” that was really catchy. Also Giovanni tried to teach me how to play a saxophone – and by play a saxophone, I mean at least make some semblance of a noise with a saxophone. I did make it work once or twice, but it was very hard and I think I’ll stick with piano.

Something I forgot to mention: I bought my first two energy drinks in Italy for this night. I bought two because Redbull is the only thing they sell and it does nothing for me, but Giovanni was concerned for me. It was very sweet. After they finished playing, we hung out at a restaurant for awhile and then went back and listened to more music. It was such a fun festival; I wish all of my friends who love dancing could have transported to Italy for the night because all night I just wanted to dance so badly and most of the songs could have been sort of cha-cha or waltz or whatever. After the festival was over, we walked back with Giovanni to his neighborhood and got to see his apartment for a few seconds before we got pizza and he drove us home to San Lorenzo… where we got gelato. So all in all, a really amazing night filled with great music and good conversation.

God has really blessed me with some awesome friends here in Italy. Giovanni, for example, is just a really fun, down to earth guy who we’ve all decided is kind of a hippy. :] He reminds me a little of my brother because Luke stopped cutting his hair for awhile and it went into an afro and that’s how Giovanni looks. He likes talking about politics and told me it would be okay for someone to kill the Italian president because he has destroyed their economy and is so passionate about music and the power of music and the power of the individual. When we told him we had gotten lost, he said that was great because being lost can sometimes be the best way to enjoy a place. In all seriousness though, God has been challenging me through Giovanni because he has this huge heart for people in the world who are suffering. When we’re talking about politics, his questions, which are almost always something to the effect of “but how does that affect such and such group of people,” have made me think more deeply about how I can love people even in my political beliefs. God has been teaching me sooo much about loving people through the power of the Holy Spirit on this trip because on my own loving people is not something I’m good at. Naturally I tend to be apathetic rather than caring for people. So hopefully God is moving me to have a heart for people more like Giovanni (although ultimately more like Jesus) and even more hopefully Giovanni will be able to meet Jesus, because I think he’d really like him. I feel like he would connect with what Jesus talked about in so many ways because Jesus was essentially a radical revolutionary humanitarian.

Now we only have about a week left in Rome, and I am not ready to leave. This is such a beautiful city with a beautiful culture and I can’t wait to come back. I have loved all the people on project with me, but I’m not going to lie: the highlight of this trip has been Italy, meeting Italians, and talking about Jesus.